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Dear
Friends
Our
warmest greetings to you as we begin another year of service for God.
This month we made it into the Methodist Newsletter with the following
article and a photo. Hopefully it will give you a taster of the way in which our
thinking is going at present…………
The
Lay Witness Movement
new
ideas and new challenges
for
a new generation
Recently
Lay Witness has been doing a little bit of timely reflection and planning.
Twenty five
years is an important milestone in the life of any movement or organisation.
Back in 1975 the Irish Lay Witness Movement was launched in the wake of a
visit here by some American Methodist lay people.
Following on from this experience local churches were courageous enough
to invite teams of witnesses to conduct weekend faith sharing missions.
It became clear from the start that the simple formula of ordinary
Christians sharing their story with other lay people was one that God was using
in a remarkable way to bring blessing and renewal to Methodist congregations.
Since then scores of weekend missions have been held; rallies, training
events and conferences have been organised and teams sent to England, USA and
recently to Sri Lanka.
Twenty-five
years on many of our original witnesses are as enthusiastic as ever.
They feel uniquely privileged to have been part of such a special move of
God’s Spirit but they think it only right to ask direct questions about the
future. It is clear as
invitations from churches continue to line up that the ministry of the Lay
Witness Movement is still needed and wanted in the Connexion.
It is clear too that we still have lay people with remarkable stories to
tell of the saving and life changing power of Jesus Christ.
Moreover in all our congregations there are people who will not be
reached by sermons but who can be touched in the depths of their being by
hearing a personal story told in sincerity and honesty.
All
of this means that Lay Witness must remain in business staying true to its
original mandate of Acts 1 v8 “You shall
be my witnesses”. But our
methods may need to change. We
certainly need to see a new generation of young people come into our ranks.
We need to think more widely about how we help and enable lay people to
be witnesses in their everyday lives and not just on special missions.
We need to harness the energy of the young and make use of the experience
of the old. Can we as a Movement
develop new programmes helping churches connect with their local community? Can we mobilise mature lay folk as prayer teams helping
congregations get a vision for what prayer can accomplish in their midst?
These
are some of the ideas and visions before us at the moment.
We would ask all our friends and well wishers to support us in their
prayers.
·
Why
not consider whether God is calling you to be part of this new phase of Lay
Witness? A simple letter or
e-mail as a result of reading this article could be the start of something new
that God has in store for you.
·
Why
not consider coming to our weekend conference in Castle Erin, Portrush 22-24
March? This will be an opportunity
to meet and make new friends and have input into some of our new plans.
We want it to be a time of discovery when we look at the gifts and
ministries that God gives to ordinary lay people to enable them to be His
witnesses.
·
Ministers,
why not think and pray about whether your church might benefit from a weekend
mission experience?
For
further information or for details of the March conference at Castle Erin
contact Heather Boland 8 Oaklands Rise, Newtownabbey BT37 0XB or e mail heather
Fellowship House Meetings
We are presently organising some 13 Lay Witness House
meetings on an area basis to enable us to renew friendships, pray for the
movement and for the March conference. These
will be held on Saturday 2 February
from 2.30 – 4.30pm. You should be
receiving an invitation to one in your area shortly.
Please keep the date free and plan to attend.
Castle Erin Weekend
22nd to 24th March 2002
We
want this year’s March conference to be a really special one.
You will have seen from the Newsletter article that Lay Witness is
having a serious look at how it operates and what its mission should be twenty
five years on from its first beginnings in Ireland. With this in mind we are planning what we call a “Weekend
of Discovery”. We will take
a good look at Irish Methodism and then seek to discover how we are being
gifted and called by God as individuals and as a Movement to serve in exciting
and challenging times. To help us
in our time of discovery we hope to have input from Rev
Des Bain of Home Missions and from Rev
Colin Meneely.
We
believe that this could be a life-changing weekend for those who attend.
Please do your best to come to Castle Erin from 22nd to 24th
March. Your help to spread the
word about the weekend to others would be very much appreciated.
Perhaps you know of someone who is interested in Lay Witness but has
never been to a conference.
Farewell
to Harold
In
the summer Harold announced his decision to step down from the Lay Witness
Steering Group after some twenty years involvement with the leadership of the
Movement. Apart from leading
several weekend missions many of you will be aware that Harold did more than
anyone else to organise and coordinate the work of Lay Witness especially with
regard to the annual weekend conference at Castle Erin.
He was, however, much more than an organiser providing vision and
spiritual direction on countless occasions.
Teams members will remember how he never failed to ring them up on the
eve of a mission to give encouragement and offer prayer.
He will be sadly missed for his energy, administrative ability and
Godly wisdom. We thank God for
his friendship, fellowship and faithfulness and wish him well in fresh avenues
of service especially in Dundonald.
News of Wilson
Many
of our members will know that Wilson was diagnosed as having prostate cancer
some months ago. He is now coming to the end of a course of 6 weeks
radiotherapy treatment at Belvoir. This has involved daily travel from
Portstewart that has been wonderfully assisted by folk in the local church
providing drivers! The last few months have not been easy but he is making
excellent progress now and is deeply grateful to God for this.
He and Shirley would like to thank the many friends who have prayed for
and supported them during this time. Please
continue to remember him in your prayers.
Wishing
you God’s richest blessings in 2002,
contact.us AT laywitnessireland.org
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