AP

Activities This Month

Lord’s Day 1st AM: Communion
PM: Student Welcome Tea (After Evening Service) @ AP
Thursday 5th Officers’ Meeting
Friday 6th  [NEW] 7pm: Youth Club @ AP
Lord’s Day 8th 9.30am: Bible-Craft-Club @ AP
Thursday 12th 7.30pm: Members’ Meeting @ AP
Saturday 14th  8.30am: Men’s Breakfast @ AP
Lord’s Day 15th PM: Communion
Thursday 19th Women’s Evening @ The Manse
Friday 20th [NEW] 7pm: Youth Club @ AP
Friday 27th 6pm: Bible Club @ The Manse

 

Other Notes

  • Note that we are continuing to celebrate the Lord’s Supper twice this month, this is in line with the sermon-series Rhodri is preaching about Communion.
  • Whole-Church Prayer-Meetings: 10th & 24th | Small-Group Prayer-Meetings: 3rd & 17th
    • Speak to Rhodri, Ian, or Eric if you are interested in joining one of the three small-groups.
  • The weekly Women’s Fellowship meets on Wednesday mornings, in AP basement at 10:30am.
  • The monthly Bible-Reading-Groups’ are currently on Micah. All church-members have been encouraged to read it and consider Christ as you do. Those attending the groups (Women’s Evening / Men’s Breakfast / Bible Club) do keep a note of observations and questions to share with/ask your group. The next book will be Lamentations.
  • When able to, those manning the Book-Table go out every Saturday (weather & personnel-permitting) 11am-12:30pm, members, speak to Eric if you are interested in joining the work.
  • Note the new Youth Club, a group for secondary-school-aged young people starting this month. Sarah Chalmers is leading this project (with the oversight of the elders). As you can see it takes place on the first and third Friday of every month in term-time, running from 7pm – 8:30pm. There will be games, snacks & Bible-teaching.
  • Rhodri and the family plan to be away from October the 30th to November the 3rd.
  • Remember, the opportunity to fill a shoebox with items for a needy child or adult in Eastern Europe has October 17th as a deadline. There are leaflets in the porch with all the information you need. If you have any questions, please see Betty or Margaret.

Book News

Any book-orders or enquiries related to the bookshop should be emailed to info@apbookshop.co.uk

Visit the Bookshop Facebook Page for all the latest information, including opening hours (note: a Facebook account is not required to access that page).

Book of the Month

ONE: Being United to Jesus Changes Everything – Clive Bowsher (Union, 2023)

As I said last month, I am really appreciating the material that Union are putting out at the moment. Clive tells us that this book is all about ‘me-in-you-and-you-in-me life with Jesus in the vine.’ The idea is that heaven is not just something we are waiting for, but that it is not an exaggeration to say that heaven breaks in now. Because every Christian is united to the Lord Jesus. Which leads Clive to say stuff like ‘I dare you to believe that God loves you so much that he actually wants to spend time with you.’ I like how much Clive has thought about this subject, and I like the implications that he draws from those thoughts. He asks us to think how we might feel if, for some bizarre or unimaginable reason, we could no longer pray. What’s the thing we’d miss most? Well, if union with Christ really is real, then ‘The thing I couldn’t get by without is communing with God in prayer. The thing I want to ask for more than anything else is more of him.’ It’s conclusions like that which make this a book well worth reading.

Bible-Reading Groups Commentary Tie-In

LAMENTATIONS: Great Is Your Faithfulness – Richard Brooks (EP, 1989)

Once you’ve read Lamentations and drawn your own Spirit-led conclusions from it, then you may well want to know how the church at other times have read this book. One place you can go to do do that is this book. Lamentations is about the church, now, the church is meant to be glorious, and yet Lamentations is all about weeping over losing that glory,  the author aims to bring that out very clearly. Richard has noticed how confused so much of our Christianity is nowadays. Which is why he believes that Lamentations is such an important book for us to read today. We need to examine ourselves, yes, but also we need to take encouragement from the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ’s great love means that we are not consumed; his faithfulness is great; his compassions never fail; his mercies are new every morning. Chew over these realities as you read this helpful commentary.