This week's Sunday Vineyard started with a time of worship led by Laura Smith (Senior Pastor) and her set was as follows (click on the hyperlinks to download tracks through iTunes): 

Invitacion Fountain - Michael J. Pritzl

One Thing Remains - Brian Johnson, Christa Black, Jeremy Riddle

How He Loves - John Mark McMillan

Prayers of the Saints - Matt Redman

Jesus' Name - Ryan Delmore

My Jesus, My Lifeline - Tim Hughes

Senior Pastor Dave Smith continued our current series of talks on "What It Means to Be A Christian" with a look at Acts 7, where Stephen gives his life in the defence of his faith in Jesus. Dave also launched the Amnesty Bin - an opportunity to put any aspect of your life to rest in order to pursue God's plan for your life. People were given the opportunity to do this, and to receive prayer during the ministry time at the close of the service.

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Got any old unhealthy books or mags, any bad thoughts or deeds you can write down and then throw away?

Or maybe something traumatic has happened in your life that you want to move on from?

You can get rid of the power these things have over you by putting them in the amnesty bin (a bit like Room 101)

No one will look in the bin or have access to it afterwards and the contents will be destroyed and out of your life...forever!

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This week's worship was led by Tim Raggett - and his worship set was as follows (click the hyperlinks for links to tracks on iTunes) :

Arms of Grace - Beth Croft (Soul Survivor)

Blessed Be Your Name - Matt Redman

This is Our God - Reuben Morgan (Hillsong)

At Your Name - Tim Hughes, Phil Wickham

How He Loves - John Mark McMillan

One Thing Remains - Brian Johnson, Christa Black, Jeremy Riddle (Bethel Music)

Senior Pastor Dave Smith gave a talk on confession, using Acts 5 as the illustration behind it. This talk was one in our current series of "What Does it Mean to be a Christian". We closed with a time of ministry - an opportunity to pray for one another.

If you missed the video advertising the upcoming "Dreaming the Impossible" Youth Event - you can view it here.

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No. 41 - A Letter to Granny
Boys at boarding school are, more often than not, short of pocket money. One particular boy wrote to his rich grandmother asking for some financial help. Her reply was eagerly awaited but but when it arrived there was no money in it. Instead, the boy was scolded by his granny as a spendthrift and exhorted to be more careful with his pocket money. But the boy was not disappointed; on the contrary, he was delighted. Why?

The rich grandmother was Queen Victoria.Her grandson promptly sold her letter for £25.

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February's CD of the month is Bethel Music's recent Loft Sessions CD/DVD combination. For a preview of the album, take a look at this great video! The album is available for £10 on our CD stand!

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Due to the bad weather conditions we have cancelled church for today. We plan to return to Sweyne Park School next Sunday morning (Feb 12^th) at 10.30am. If there is any doubt of it going ahead with regard to the weather, a message will appear on this website at 8am on that morning.

Have a great week!

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Strangers on a train

A man boarded a train and sat opposite the only other occupant in his carraige, a woman whom he had never met before. As the train started moving, the woman, who did ont recognise the man, took a pen and a sheet of paper from her bag and handed them to him. He wrote something on the paper and returned it to her. The woman left the train at the next stop and threw the note away. At no time had they spoken to each other, nor had the meeting been prearranged. Why?

The answer:

The man was a TV celebrity; the woman a deaf mute. Because the man was chewing gum, she assumed he was saying something to her and gave him the paper to write her a note. He assumed she was asking for his autograph and signed the paper. As his signature meant nothing to her, she threw the paper away when she got off the train.

Did you work it out?

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March's book club will be looking at Sarah Jio's "Violets of March". We'll be meeting on the 11th of March, and if you want to buy the book, the link is here.

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This month's featured album on our CD stand is Jesus Culture's Awakening album. Recorded live in Chicago at the 2011 Awakening Conference, this album is a must-have for any worshipper. Uplifting, inspirational and evocative, this is already one of our firm favourites. 

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Happy New Year to you all from all of us at Rayleigh Vineyard! 

We will not be having our usual Sunday Vineyard meeting tomorrow at Sweyne as it is New Year's Day, although we will be meeting this Thursday, the 5th of January in the Drama Block at Sweyne from 7.30pm. This meeting will be used to outline our vision for 2012, so come along to find out what's in store this coming year!

Our normal Sunday Vineyard services will resume on Sunday the 8th of January from 10.30 (in the Main Hall at Sweyne) and House Groups will resume in the week commencing the 9th of January.

Hope to see you all on Thursday!

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12 Dec. Wow! How much more exciting can Christmas get than this? This year's kids Christmas party was a thrill once again this year, as the festive season starts to gather pace. We had bouncy castles, party games, prizes, party food, (very) loud music and a wonderful visit from Santa who stopped by just for us, two weeks early. He spent the party in his Grotto having pictures taking with each child and then he gave out some presents just before heading off back to Lapland (with a warning to each child to be good for the next fortnight...will we be able to?!?)

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