Minister's Message

Dear All,

What is Wootton Bassett Methodist Church here for?

First we are here to Worship God – to learn to enjoy being in his presence. Worship is something we can all be involved with Our Sunday Services are a culmination of all the worship we have offered God during the week. Jesus said “Love the Lord Your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength.

Second we are here for Learning and caring. There are home groups, prayer groups, pastoral groups, Junior Church, Cluster and Youth Club, like the friendship group and the Women’s Fellowship which act as focal points for learning more about our faith, and centres in which we can offer practical care and support. If you’d like to know more about getting involved in those things please do let me know.

Thirdly, that spills out into Service. Not just within the church, but into our wider community. Our high street stall bore the words “A heart for the town”. It also goes beyond that. We support Smile International giving 10% of all church income into that charity, which works in Eastern Europe and beyond. Throughout the year we regularly offer chances to support our pieces of work, such as RYICO most recently. During our harvest service we can also support the work of the Filling Station, working with homeless people in Swindon.

Jesus said “Love your neighbour as yourself”.

Service takes us into Evangelism. A recent poll suggested that 70% of people believed that our country was in moral decline, 63% believed that the religious institutions – most particuarly the Christian church – held the answers to that decline, but less than 10% attended any church regularly. What we have in church is wonderful: to feel the closeness of God, and the love of a surrounding Christian community. Evangelism is simply trying to share that around. A good starting point is things like inviting friends to the Harvest Quiz – just to let them dip a toe into the water.

It’s good to share church with you. You are aware of the challenge that Ward brought us regarding circuit boundaries. the circuit will keep you in touch and communicate with the churches as we explore that. Please pray that in all this, we may continue to be Church - Jesus's body on earth.

With love to you all,

Steve Cullis

Every month our Minister, Rev. Stephen Cullis, prepares a short message which is published in our monthly magazine, "Crosstalk". We feel that it is appropriate to share this message with you.