Good accomodation in the Lewisham area?

We have someone visiting from the country for a number of days, and they are wondering about good accommodation in the Lewisham area.

Does anyone know anything that may be suitable for an older lady to stay (something in the lower price range is prefered)?

Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated.

New Growth Group

The new Wednesday night Growth Group is getting going. If you are not part of one of our Growth Groups then come along to this one. We meet at 8pm in Ashfield. Email me if you want more details.

Where are all the volunteers?

What I found really shocked me. I was going through the statistics from the last census for Summer Hill to find out how many dwellings there were and came across the statistics for volunteers in our area. I understand that the last census was the first time this question was asked so there is no trend information for it. This is the shock: 83% of people in our area do no voluntary work for an organisation or group. In Summer Hill alone that means there are 3893 people aged 15 years and above who might be very nice individuals but who do nothing in community groups or for community groups. This might be normal, but I had a bit of a hunt around and found that in the Shire and North Shore there is almost double the number of people who do voluntary work. Is this just how life works now in the urban world? Are we just more selfish? Is there less need (I totally doubt it)? Are our acts of kindness just done as individuals to individuals? Are there any implications for our church culture?

Serving

One of the key things our church is on about is serving God and others in love. Check out Servolution which is devoted to ideas on how to serve others.

When is a joke no longer funny?

I think there are two types of humour: the humour that is at the expense of others and the humour that includes others. When you don't mind picking on people then you will find the humour which is at the expense of others funny. Jesus often made fun of religious people because he thought that what they stood for was a joke. But what happens when you pick on 'the little guy.' Over the last two weeks we have seen The Chaster pick on dying kids and Gordon Ramsay pick on Tracy Grimshaw. I love having a good laugh but when you pick on the 'little guy' it ends up just not being funny.

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50 Years at church

We celebrated Betty being at the church for 50 years last Sunday. She became a Christian at the Billy Graham Crusade in 1959 and served incredibly over that time.

I know that some of the information out there shows that pastors often move churches after about five or six years but the best years are more likely to be the ones just past this in the 7-8 year zone. Often pastors are encouraged to stay with congregations longer. I imagine the same is true for everyone at church. The longer you are part of a church the more effective you are in helping build up the body of Christ. I suppose that one experience that is hard to get in life is the experience of belonging. I hope that people in our church are able to experience a real sense of belonging because of the long-term commitment of people to each other.