Author: Bellshill Central

As the Church of Scotland in Bellshill we extend a warm welcome to any of our activities. People have been coming to this building to worship God for over a hundred years. While our town has journeyed through many changes over those years, the constancy of the witness of the “Church at 346 Main Street” has remained uninterrupted. The mission of any Church is to reflect through its presence, its music, its fellowship and its beauty the greatness of God, and we seek to do that here in all that we share. We hope that everyone who enters these doors will find an encouraging, friendly group of people. While we are far from perfect, we are regularly discovering truths that are changing us individually and enriching our lives as a church community. As we worship together, learn from the Bible, and pray for one another, we are strengthened in our commitment to Jesus Christ as well as to each other. If this is your first time here, we welcome you, and invite you to share the joy that we have found.

Weekly Church News – Central Church

by Bellshill Central, posted in #wpcu2020, Weekly Church News

Sunday worship continues at 11am each Sunday morning at 346 Main Street – Bellshill Central Parish Church. Our church is Central to Christ, Central to Bellshill and Central to YOU! For 147 years we have shouted out the Good News of Jesus Christ and of His love for one and all. We offer a warm and generous welcome to all, on Sundays or throughout the week at any of our week day activities and groups. Our minister, Rev’d Kevin de Beer, loves being in our Faith Family and reaching outwards into the communities of Bellshill Town Centre, Mossend and Orbiston. As the Church of Scotland Parish for Central Bellshill, including the Town Centre, we want to you be part of what is a wonderful community of fellowship and faith. Please simply #comeasyouare!

This Sunday morning at 11am our minister continues his 7 week series of Jesus in Samaria – this week ‘The Friend’  – Just come along and join us at 11.00am at the church at 346 Main Street right at the Centre of our town. The readings are Genesis 12:1-9 and Luke 11:1-13.  Our hymns include: Our father who is in heaven, One more Step, Will you come and follow me and What a friend we have in Jesus.  We finish with a South African song – Amen we praise your name O God.

Our Sunday services are live streams via our Church Website and YouTube Channel and are uploaded for viewing later at your leisure.  Services are able to be reproduced on Tape, CD and DVD.   Portable DVD players are also available.  Please just get in touch with Drew Aitken at the Church.

After the service this week we have our Annual Burns Lunch.   Tickets priced £5.00 are still available.   The lunch in the hall is always a popular event.  We will sing some Scottish Songs, enjoy Haggis Neeps and Tatties and there may also be some of the other national drink – IRN BRU!!!!

Our Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Services continue today and for the rest of the week, culminating on Sunday evening (26th January) at 7pm when we host an Ecumenical Service for all.   The service on Sunday evening is organised by Lanarkshire Organists and Bellshill Central. There will be an offering for St Andrews Hospice uplifted. Our guest speaker is Jim Bruden (retired Salvation Army officer) from the Bellshill Salvation Corps.   Tea/Coffee served afterwards. If you would like to join the augmented choir, please come along on 24th January at 7.15pm.

Town Services for Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place here in Bellshill Central Parish Church as follows throughout the week of prayer. Please join us and share the info as widely as possible to ensure our Christian Brothers and Sisters can take part in community corporate prayer.  

THESE SERVICES WILL LAST AROUND 30 MINUTES AND WILL BE LED BY DIFFERENT FOLKS FROM BELLSHILL.

  • Wednesday 22 January at 1PM (Led by Rev Kevin de Beer)
  • Thursday 23 January at 7.30PM (Led by Addie Girvan)
  • Friday 24 January at 3.00PM (Led by Rev Kevin de Beer)
  • Saturday 25 January at 12.00 NOON (Led by Alan Mathew)
  • Please enter the church via the main front doors or the side door access down the path where disabled access is available.

Other activities taking place in Bellshill Central Parish Church this week are:

  • Wednesday – Music Makers and Shakers (all morning); Prayer Service 1pm; Bowls Club 7pm
  • Thursday – Brownies 6pm; Prayer Service 7.30pm; Guides 7.45pm
  • Friday – Prayer Service 3pm; Choir 7.15pm
  • Saturday – Prayer Service 12noon
  • Sunday – Morning Service 11am, Young Church and Creche 11am; Burns Lunch 12.15pm; Ecumenical Service 7pm
  • Monday – Guild 1.30pm Burns Celebration
  • Tuesday – Rainbows 6pm

The Church, Hall and rooms/kitchens are available to hire to the community.  They are ideal for group activities, parties, lectures, coffee mornings, meetings etc.  The Church has multi media facilities.  The Hall has portable Audio and Visual equipment available.   Competitive rates available.  Please just get in touch.   We are open to the community.  

Check out our Social Media and Website to keep up to date with our Church News and Church life.   www.facebook.com/bellshillcentralchurch; www.twitter.com/bellshillchurch; www.bellshillcentral.church; email bellshillcentral@gmail.com 

CENTRAL TO YOU; CENTRAL TO BELLSHILL; CENTRAL TO CHRIST! 

No other church can do all of this!  

#wpcu2020 – DAY 4 TRUST: DO NOT BE AFRAID, BELIEVE

by Bellshill Central, posted in #wpcu2020

Day 4 Trust: Do not be afraid, believe

  • Acts 27:23-26

“For last night there stood by me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before the emperor; and indeed, God has granted safety to all those who are sailing with you.’ So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. But we will have to run aground on some island.”

  • Psalm 56
  • Luke 12.22-34

Reflection

Assailed on every side, I long for a more sustaining image of You God. I need You closer than ever, to be with me through these current horrors. Our dialogue has become coarse and aggressive and I find it difficult to listen to any news and current affairs. Bad news seems everywhere, abuse, cruelty of unspeakable proportions, political divisions and a vortex of hate that creeps into so much of what we do. Are You alone in listening?

Where am I to find hope? Where should I look? How can I find a route towards healing when I have no sense of what a hopeful future looks like? And yet You speak into this space from below. I am carried even without knowing it, and I can only just sense Your hold on me. Lifting me, stroking my doubt into a soft glow of warmth that might eventually become something more.

‘Don’t be afraid’ is easily said. So I need to trust You again and again, and hold on to what little I see. For I sense You near me, and I long for Your word from long ago, which is still alive in me in Your Saints and incarnate Son.

Adrift

I am floating and at sea

Without direction and fearful of what lies ahead

I come to You, known and yet unknowing

Unfathomable God

Rising and falling

Without bearings

bring me to a safe haven

a place where I can begin

to hope again

to trust again

in You and others.

Prayer

Almighty God, our personal suffering leads us to cry out in pain and we shrink in fear when we experience sickness, anxiety or the death of loved ones. Teach us to trust You. May the churches we belong to be signs of Your providential care. Make us true disciples of Your Son who taught us to listen to Your word and to serve one another. In confidence we ask this in the name of Your Son,  and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Questions

  • What are the images of God that sustain you through times of questioning?
  • Where are the places and who are the people who give you hope for      the future?

Go and Do

(see www.ctbi.org.uk/goanddo)

Global: Be inspired by those who show much resilience in the face of the storm.

Local: Set up a local group from your churches and community who commit to a deeper listening to one another.

Personal: Spend time with the people or in the place that give you most hope.

#wpcu2020 – DAY 3 KEEP UP YOUR COURAGE

by Bellshill Central, posted in #wpcu2020

Day 3 Keep up your courage

  • Acts 27. 22, 34

“I urge you now to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship … none of you will lose a hair from your heads …”

  • Psalm 27
  • Mathew 11:28-30

Reflection

Keep up your courage when the storms of life wash you up on an unexpected shore. Keep up your courage take barricades down welcome the stranger become the guest. Keep up your courage listen to the other seek to understand disagree agreeably. Keep up your courage when the ship runs aground  prepare a new vessel chart another course. Keep up your courage stowaways, castaways whatever our crew it’s all hands on deck creation made new.

Prayer

God of mercy, lost and disheartened, we turn to You. Instil in us Your hope and courage. May our churches strive for the unity for which Your Son prayed on the eve of His passion. We ask this through Him who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

Questions

  • What are the practices that you can use to keep up your courage?
  • What are your hopes and fears for the churches in your area?
  • How might you keep up your courage together to chart a course into the future?

Go and Do

(see www.ctbi.org.uk/goanddo)

Global: Read and respond to the stories of perilous journeys by sea.

Local: Provide welcome and hospitality for those recently arrived into the UK and Ireland.

Personal: Reflecting on your own journey, how might you assist others on journeying today?

Invitation to Worship Sunday 26th January 11am and 7pm

by Bellshill Central, posted in #wpcu2020, Sunday Worship

Morning Worship 11am

Welcome and Intimations

Introit CH4 771 If you believe and I believe

Call to worship

HYMN 268 O God of Bethel by whose hand

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

All age address

HYMN (JP) Our Father who is in heaven

Offering

Readings: Genesis 12:1-9 and Luke 11:1-13

HYMN 530 One more step along the world I go

SERMON

HYMN 533 Will you come and follow me

Prayers

HYMN 547 What a friend we have in Jesus

Benediction, 3-fold Amen, Sung Blessing CH4 842 Amen we praise your name O Lord

________

Ecumenical Songs of Praise 7pm

Choir Introit CH4 758 Come, Holy Spirit

Gathering Hymn CH4 706 For the Healing of the Nations (Unannounced) (t. Cwm Rhondda)

Words of Welcome

SCRIPTURE – Acts 27: 18-26

INVOCATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

(Taize Sung Response) Holy Spirit, Come to us

SCRIPTURE – Acts 27: 27-32

Prayers of Pardon and Reconciliation

HYMN CH3 381 I will sing the wondrous story

SCRIPTURE – Acts 27:33-38

THE APOSTLES’ CREED

CHOIR – Dona Nobis Pacem

SCRIPTURE – Acts 27: 39-44

HYMN CH4 71 Give thanks unto the Lord (t. Dunfermline)

SCRIPTURE – Acts 28: 1-10

BIBLICAL REFLECTION – Jim Bryden (Bellshill Salvation Army)

Prayers including Lord’s Prayer

CHOIR – We are many parts

SENDING OUT

BLESSINGS

SUNG AMEN CH4 824 Amen, we praise your name O Lord

HYMN CH4 532 Lord you have come to the seashore

REFRESHMENTS IN THE HALL