150th ANNIVERSARY
What does 2012 mean to you?... The occasion of the London Olympics, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, or maybe even the end of the world, if the Hollywood blockbuster is to be believed? ;)
For us here at Lancaster Baptist Church, it marks something even more important then winning a gold medal or breaking a world record... It's our third jubilee year: 150 years since a group of believers known as Baptists met together in Lancaster to worship God and to move out into all that He was calling them to.
It's a chance to stop and reflect on all that God has done in and through us. To CELEBRATE the PAST, and to see and give thanks for His constant faithfulness.
But it's so much more than that.
It's also an opportunity to observe where we are up to in the race God has
called us to - as individuals, as a church, and as part of His Kingdom breaking in, both in our city and the nations. It's a chance to do something very biblical - to not only see what God's been up to, celebrate it, but then seek and pray into where and how He is taking us on... To SHARE the FUTURE together.
It's an opportunity to revisit previous visions, to crawl up on God's lap and hear again his heartbeat for this place in this time, and then do it! It's going to be more exciting than a 100m sprint final, and more glittering than the Queen's crown! It's going to be of eternal significance!
We've got some events and thoughts in place to celebrate and share together, and we'd love you to catch this vision and run with it:
Our celebrations of God’s faithfulness and goodness will begin in JANUARY when we'll mark the first meeting of the church on Moor Lane... Plans so far include a weekend of celebrating the founding of LBC through parties and services, 28-29th January.
Throughout JANUARY to APRIL, we'll be looking at social action projects in the city to show God’s love to Lancaster. Our vision is to encourage and equip the work that's already happening within the various church groups, and to push in for more!
Then, springboarding into all that God has for us in 2012 and beyond, we're looking at a weekend of mission in APRIL, 13-15th... Being celebrated with a special baptismal service on April 22nd, re-calling the first ever baptisms recorded in the church.
If you’d like to be involved in any way in the celebrations, and especially if you have a story to tell of God’s love and care shown to you through LBC, we’d love to hear from you!
So, let's celebrate the past, but also share the future; running this race together.
As LBC were encouraged at their first Jubilee Celebrations in 1912, the clarion call remains the same: "Go Forward!"...
150th Anniversary Team
(Pastor Emilian, Denise Egglestone, James and Lu Ellershaw, Ali Lamb, Richard and Daniella Flint)
