SUNDAY, 14TH SEPTEMBER 2008

Emma and Mark led this morning's worship on the theme of "The Parable of the Sower".

Four members of Flame led the All Age Presentation, in order for us to get to know them a little better, they interviewed each other and one Kingdom Kid about school and college. The young people shared the courses & A levels they are studying and for the younger ones their favourite subjects.

During This Time Tomorrow (3T's) Elsie Willis (District Pastor, South Ashford and Prayer Officer) shared how at 10.50am tomorrow she would be preparing lunch for GLOW, our Monday pop in.
Mark led the sermon on Mark 8: 1-15 "The Parable of the Sower".

"The Seed is the Word of God"

Discipleship College continued the theme of "The Parable of the Sower"
A time of prayer preceded the service and we were able to pray for members of our church who are unwell and give thanks for those recovering.

Our time of worship started with reading the parable, then we sang 2 songs; I am not a Stranger to Mercy and I Worship you, Almighty God. Following the singing of these songs of worship we listened to a CD and looked at the words. "All that I have Sown" by Bebo Norman; as we listened to this track we had to pick out words that stood out for us. For the majority it was the last line, ...the joy that I have found is living in my family.....it's all I have sown. We see ourselves in our children, good and bad traits, what we teach our children and others will remain after we are gone. We need to sow the good seeds to leave a legacy. 'Children can inherit faithfulness'. God does not let go of his children.

We discussed what we felt were the attributes of Jesus as a sower; He put himself where the people were and spent time with them. He led by example. We need to be the seed.

Fear of what others may think of us and fear of rejection can prevent us from from showing the attribute that Jesus showed, along with impatience (we may need to pray for years for something to happen) and our insecurities.

Jesus gave us kindness, love, humbleness, not judging, HOPE, healing, freedom and peace, The Fruit of the Spirit. Jesus cared for the poor and marginalised, he loved the unloveable.

J John said that we are not all sowers, we may be pruners weeders or reapers. We are like the seasons, we may be sowers and reapers at different times.
In order to be a good sower or reaper we need to be Christ-like in the way we live our lives, we need to be real. We should put ourselves in a position to be a witness and not surround ourselves with just Christians.

As we are not all sowers we need to support those that are either through prayer or practical help.