It was slightly strange to be back preaching in Childs Hill. I am not used to being away for two Sundays at this time of the year. Straight after my return from South Africa I was at the Affinity Conference on worship, which involved chiefly thinking about our Sunday worship. I came to the conclusion that more preparation would be a good thing and that there ought to be an order to the service. In practice it was good to be a little better prepared than perhaps in the past but some things simply do not "follow on" from one another (eg a reading from Psalm 1 followed by the collection and a prayer of thanks and then a children's talk on Elijah on Carmel). Anyway, we had a good number present morning and evening. One oddity in the morning was that a new couple who had phoned while I was away turned up only to leave by the second hymn (I presume we were not what they were looking for).
Nearly everyone was there (I can only think of two missing) but people have come while I was away but not returned. Everyone present was glad to see me and I was glad to see them. I preached from the first bit of Acts 19 in the morning on ignorance of the Spirit and the need to go on being filled (though not for a so-called second blessing) and in the evening on the last bit of Matthew 24 about the Second Coming. We also had communion before the evening service.
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