The Salvation Army Chatham

After a week of pretty unattractive weather the week-end dawned bright and fair on Saturday. It was nice to see some sunshine (not a plentiful feature in an English winter)

The old naval dockyard on a sunny day

Major Kathy was responsible for both our meetings on Sunday dealing, in the morning, with the familiar ‘Parable of the Sower’. This story can be read in Luke 8:4-15 but Kathy also used Matthew 11:25-30 during the meeting to include reference to Homelessness Sunday. She spoke about Alan, a local homeless man whom we meet quite regularly. He lives in a tent, is not an alcoholic nor does he use drugs but somehow manages to fall through every net provided by our support agencies. We need to pray for Alan and the many like him who have so little to call their own.

The reading from Matthew portrayed for the children by a group of ‘actors’.

Songs used included 711, 730, 727 and 734 from The Salvation Army Song Book (734 is featured in the music added to the website this week and played by our band - see Audio Features). Songs of Fellowship 480 was also included. Musical sections contributing were the Singing Company (One Life to Live), the Songsters (Come to Me) and the YP Band who played during the offering. We shall be adding a music feature by our Songsters to the site shortly. In her message Major Kathy spoke about how we must learn to trust God so that we may be effective in the mission we have been given.

Major Kathy

The meeting also featured the ‘commissioning’ of a new Singing Company member and also Rachel as a Songster.

The commissions being presented

Our evening meeting continued the theme of ‘New Year Resolutions for the Church’ and recommended ‘no more going solo’. Romans 12:1-8 was our scripture reference and songs included 10, 206, 527 and 522 from the SA song book augmented by 381, 299 and 895 from Songs of Fellowship. The Band contributed ‘Abba Father’ (see Song No 1 in Songs of Fellowship) and the Songsters ‘In His Presence’. Major Kathy said ‘If we are one, we need to know each other better in order to serve each other with humility’

The gist of her message was that ‘we must first of all, evaluate ourselves against Christ, realising that in Him we are valued and of worth. Then we must realise that the body, although made up of individuals, is a community where we are required to love each other in the way that Jesus loved. The reference to the washing of the disciples’ feet by Jesus is to illustrate the need to both love and serve each other’.

We’ve had a good day. You have a good week!