Bradford North Circuit

Service Sheet (pdf) Welcome: Come just as you are to worship God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the God whose love is unconditional for you Intro:  Isaiah 62 v 3: “You will be a crown of splendour in the Lord’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.” Let that just warm your heart! ‭‬‬Hymn StF 83: Praise my soul: Through Jesus we are ransomed, healed, restored and forgiven Prayers: Father God, we praise you for being our Creator God. As we see you doing away with all that has turned to rubbish or needing a rest we see your season of winter but the signs of hope, the aconites and snowdrops already out. How we marvel Father at the fragility of a snowdrop yet it’s able to push through cold, hard ground! We thank you for creating Jesus, your own beloved Son, our Saviour. Thank you Jesus as we see you both sitting on your throne, with angels, archangels and the whole company of heaven saying how worthy you are of our praise. How you stoically went to the cross, stretched your lov...

Fruits of the Spirit – Patience   Service Sheet (pdf) Call to Worship We wait for you, Spirit of God   (From ‘The Weaver, the Word and Wisdom’ by Michaela Youngson) Spirit of God, Breathing, blazing, blessing, Inspire our worship, Ignite our passion, Inform our action We wait for you, Spirit of God. Spirit of God, Dancing, delighting, descending, Move through our lives, Melt our hearts, Motivate our loving. We wait for you, Spirit of God. Spirit of God, Opening, offering, outpouring, Reveal truth to us, Renew our faith, Refine our discipleship. We wait for you, Spirit of God. Song The Spirit lives to set us free StF397 This service is week 4 in the ‘Fruits of the Spirit’ series of services at Baildon Methodist Church. When I asked colleagues at work what came to mind when I said today’s theme, without exception they all came up with this: play first 11 seconds of (Take That – Patience).  The image that comes immediately to my mind is the card game and memories of spendin...

The Methodist Covenant Service Service Sheet (pdf) The Covenant Service is one of the traditional parts of the Methodist calendar. As a feature of Methodist life, the Covenant service goes back to the time of John Wesley. Wesley inherited his understanding of covenanting from the Puritans, who from the seventeenth century onwards used a covenant agreement as the foundation of congregational life. Wesley’s mother, Susannah, had been brought up amongst Puritans and it maybe that she gave Wesley his background knowledge about making such covenants. But in the wording of the Covenant service, Wesley was influenced by Puritan minister, Joseph Alleine. Alleine felt that each new convert ought to make his own personal covenant with Christ. His own recent marriage coloured his choice of words. He called upon these new converts to take Christ for better, for worse. The format of the covenant service has changed over the years, but that sense of ‘for better, for worse’ has remained at the heart...