Here’s the Good News! If you have been attending worship at one of the congregations of St Mary’s and St John’s church for five months, we regard you as a member. Together, we are part of the wonderfully diverse family of God’s people. The local church is God’s chosen instrument to bring his love to the world. We are proud of the pastoral care, school ministry, Toddlers and Seniors ministry we offer in Walton on Thames and we would like to do so much more. (More in primary schools, sports ministry for older children, more Messy church… ) As our Vision says, we are “Taking our next steps towards deeper faith in Christ, welcome and belonging and shining God’s light.” Pray Serve Give is our annual reminder to Get Involved!
Pray The new devotional booklet is helping us to pray through our Vision. There is a special Vision prayer at the back too. If you missed starting yours in October, Fear Not! It is not dated so you can start yours in November and do it again as often as you like.
Serve As members of a family, we depend on everyone playing their part, so please would you
choose which of the following four areas you will help with on a Sunday (monthly). Children’s work, Coffee, Steward, Sound (AV) team. Those already on the teams will show you how and not throw you in the deep end. In addition, you can also volunteer to serve in line with your gifts and skills doing something behind the scenes or during the week – church isn’t just on Sundays! See the attached sheet. The Servant Course has a 100% satisfaction rate for people interested in finding out more about the gifts God has given them enabling them to live and serve joyfully.
Give The church is entirely dependent on our donations, a bit like the family all contributing to the housekeeping costs. So, we invite you to increase your regular giving by standing order or to start it if you haven’t got around to it yet. To find out more about and details of Outward Giving (the charities we support), please see this leaflet. Giving generously to God’s work should be the first place we give our money as a response to God’s immense, free and unfathomable love for us. We suggest a guideline of 5% of our monthly income as a monthly standing order or better still, by the Parish Giving scheme. If you are a tax payer, Gift Aiding your donation gives an extra 25% to the church. You can also give specifically to the Under Fives and Families Outreach minister.
Please fill in the two attached forms, or on-line, and return to the church office by Sunday 18th November and join us to celebrate “Get Involved”.
Thank you so much for being part of this great church.
