Lunchtime Christmas Event, 1-1:45pm, Thursday 19th December 2019

Christmas Event

An informal gathering over mulled wine, festive food and live acoustic music from Maria Nickolay. Featuring an interview and a short talk with Dave Jensen (All Saints Church of Ireland, University Avenue) addressing the question, “Christmas is fine, but why do they need to spoil it with Jesus?

Time for a change: Haggai

This autumn, we’re going back in time to the year 520BC, as we look at four sermons preached by the prophet Haggai. In a world where God’s people have lots on their plates, and God doesn’t seem to be doing very much, Haggai helps us to get our priorities straight.

Title

Consider your ways

The desire of the nations

The pathway to blessing

How to be on the right side of history

Passage

Haggai 1

Haggai 2.1-9

Haggai 2.10-19

Haggai 2.20-23

Date

4th September

11th September

18th September

25th September

Our speakers for this series are Sam Bostock (Gospel in the City) and Steve Auld (Great Victoria Street Baptist Church).

We meet each Wednesday lunchtime, 1.00-1.30pm. Our venue is the restaurant of the Clayton hotel, just a few minutes walk south of City Hall. Turn left immediately after you enter the hotel and our area is usually at the far end of the restaurant.

Sandwiches and hot drinks are available (suggested donation £3/£1).

We look forward to seeing you!

Faithfulness on the frontline

At Gospel in the City one of our aims is to equip Christians to be faithful followers of Jesus in their workplaces – we can think of them as one of our ‘frontlines’ – places where we interact with people who don’t share our faith. The Scriptures have a number of examples that show how the people of God can faithfully live for him in their work environments. One great example is the work life of Joseph.

Joseph is a character well known to many of us, but we’ve probably never thought much about Joseph as a worker. The interesting thing about Joseph is we see almost nothing of Joseph’s relationship with God: all we and those who interact with Joseph see are the results of his clear faithfulness. Those who interact with us on a daily basis may never see our prayer and devotional lives. They may never see us in church. But do people notice the difference faith makes in our lives as we face difficult and dead end jobs, and as we react to promotion and success?

Come along over the next four weeks as we explore how Joseph was faithful in his work and see what God might be calling you to in your work.

20/03     Faithfulness in a dead-end job    Gen 39: 1-6

27/03     Faithfulness in promotion           Gen 41: 1-40

03/04     Faithfulness in success                Gen 41: 41-57

10/04     Faithfulness used by God            Gen 50: 15-26

A New Start

The New Year is about new beginnings. At least, we often hope so!

At Gospel in the City we are going to be spending the opening weeks of this new year looking at the genuinely new beginning that Jesus’ coming brings.

We’ll start off with the water becoming wine at Cana and the cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem, before turning to Jesus’ conversations about the new birth and the living water. In all these episodes we’ll see that the one who is the Word of God in the flesh offers us a radically life-changing new start. Good news for our workplaces. Good news for our working lives. Good news for us.

We meet on Wednesday lunchtimes, 1.10-1.45pm. Each meeting features a change to get a sandwich or a hot drink and to listen to a short talk on the Bible passage for the week. Our venue is the restaurant of the Clayton hotel, just a few minutes walk south of City Hall. Turn right immediately after you enter the hotel and our area is usually at the far end of the restaurant.


Sandwiches and hot drinks are available. Suggested donation £3.

Workplace Christmas Carol Service

 

Our annual workplace Christmas carol service is a traditional service of lessons and carols.

This year we will have music from the Salvation Army and we are delighted that our speaker is Steve Auld, pastor of Great Victoria Street Baptist Church.

All are very warmly welcome to join us on Weds 19th December, 1:10-1:50pm in Assembly Buildings Conference Centre, entrance opposite Jury’s Inn Hotel.

 


This photo of Spires Mall and Conference Centre is courtesy of TripAdvisor

 

 

The Word became Flesh

Next week we start our Advent series. We will be going slowly through one of the most beautiful and rich passages in the Scriptures – the opening to John’s Gospel. Many of us may well be familiar with this passage from Christmases past. For example: John 1 is the final lesson every year at Carols from Kings.

 

21 Nov           In the beginning                           John 1:1-5                 Sam Bostock

28 Nov           The true light                              John 1:6-14               Frank Sellar

5 Dec             The Word became flesh                 John 1:15-18              Steve Auld

12 Dec           God made known                          John 1:19-20             Steve Auld

Each week will feature a Bible reading and a 20 minute talk over lunch or a hot drink.

Everyone working in the city centre is very welcome to join us on Wednesday lunchtimes from 1:10-1:45pm, in the restaurant of the Clayton Hotel Belfast 22-26 Ormeau Avenue, Belfast, BT2 8HS.

(On entering the building turn left, you’ll find us at the far end of the restaurant.)

Sandwiches and hot drinks are available (suggested donation £3).

 

Please feel free to share this with anyone you know who may be interested in coming along.

Becoming Like Jesus- Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit

 

God wants to fill the world with people who look like Jesus, “little Christs” as CS Lewis liked to call them. He does this by giving us his Spirit and helping us to grow the Jesus–like qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self–control. Over the next four Wednesday afternoons, we’re going to be thinking about some of these “fruit of the Spirit” and how cultivating them means we’ll become more like Jesus.

Christoph Ebbinghaus and Stephen Kerr will be sharing with us over the next few weeks as we consider this fruit the Spirit of God wants to grow in our everyday lives.

 

Weds lunchtime        Series Topic/Title                                 Passage

24-Oct                                Love                                           1 John 4 7-21

31-Oct                                Joy                                              1 Peter 1 3-9

07-Nov                               Kindness                                     Titus 3 3-8

14-Nov                               Self control                                  Titus 2 1-8

 

Everyone who is in the city centre is very welcome to join us on Wednesday lunchtimes from 1:10-1:45pm, in the restaurant of the Clayton Hotel Belfast 22-26 Ormeau Avenue, Belfast, BT2 8HS. (On entering the building turn left, you’ll find us at the far end of the restaurant.) Sandwiches and hot drinks are available (suggested donation £3).

Please feel free to share this with anyone you know who may be interested in coming along.

Good News For The Just About Managing

In her first speech outside Downing Street, Theresa May announced her intention to govern on behalf of the ‘just about managing’ – the people who maybe aren’t desperately poor, but they don’t feel very well off either. It may feel like a long time ago, but Theresa May’s government promised to bring radical change on behalf of those people.
Spiritually, many of us might be tempted to describe ourselves as ‘just about managing’. That’s interesting, because Jesus said he came to bring ‘good news to the poor’.
Over the next few weeks we’re going to be looking at the climax to a section in Luke’s gospel that is all about how we get eternal life. We’ll see that there is good news for the ‘just about managing’, but it involves some honest evaluations about where our spiritual lives are really at. Join as we discover how bad news for Mr Big can be good news for the little people.

Andy Hambleton, Christoph Ebbinghaus and Sam Bostock will be joining us over the coming weeks to help us think through the truth and challenge of these Gospel stories for us today.

 

Weds lunchtime        Series Topic/Title                                 Passage

30-May                      Good News for the Failing                        Luke 18:9-17

06-June                      Bad News for Mr Big                                Luke 18:18-30

13-June                       Seeing and Believing                                Luke 18:31-43

20-June                      A Big Change in a Little Man                    Luke 19:1-10

27-June                       Escape to the Country                              Luke 19:11-27

 

Everyone who is in the city centre is very welcome to join us on Wednesday lunchtimes from 1:10-1:45pm, in the restaurant of the Clayton Hotel Belfast 22-26 Ormeau Avenue, Belfast, BT2 8HS. (On entering the building turn left, you’ll find us at the far end of the restaurant.) Sandwiches and hot drinks are available (suggested donation £3).

Please feel free to share this with anyone you know who may be interested in coming along.

Gospel in the city…of Ninevah?

 

As we begin a new season at Gospel in the city we are going to take a look back at the story of Jonah a reluctant Prophet, and the incredible grace God showed to him and to those he sent him to.

Jonah was called to serve God in the city of Nineveh, but he’d have rather gone anywhere else. Steve Ould, pastor of Great Victoria Street Baptist Church, will be joining us to help us consider how Jonah might challenge us to serve God in the city of Belfast.

 

Weds lunchtime        Series Topic/Title                                 Passage

18-April                      There’s Grace In That Storm                       Jonah 1

25-April                      Grace That Goes Deeper                            Jonah 2

02-May                       A Great Challenge, A Greater God             Jonah 3

09-May                       Sharing God’s Heart For The City              Jonah 4

 

Everyone who is in the city centre is very welcome to join us on Wednesday lunchtimes from 1:10-1:45pm, in the restaurant of the Clayton Hotel Belfast 22-26 Ormeau Avenue, Belfast, BT2 8HS. (On entering the building turn left, you’ll find us at the far end of the restaurant.) Sandwiches and hot drinks are available (suggested donation £3).

Please feel free to share this with anyone you know who may be interested in coming along.