The Salvation Army Chatham

This week-end has been a celebration of Pentecost. The programme has been different from our regular worship and it began on Saturday with a Gospel School led by Annika Scutt and the Divisional Youth Gospel Choir.

Preparing for school

Annika Scutt, School Leader

The school took place in the afternoon and contained an open invitation to anyone to join in and learn a gospel song to be performed at the evening concert which was shared with the Band.

An audience of around 200 people heard the choir sing a number of gospel songs in differing styles and about 40 ‘students’ of the school joined them to perform their song.

Choir

School

The Band performed as we have never heard it before. Given the name ‘Bando’ for the evening, it swung to the rythms of ‘Swingtime Religion’ and ‘Greater Things’, looking and sounding like a traditional ‘big band’ ensemble.

The ‘Holy Spirit’ pictures adorning the music stand banners were the work of the KAOS children.

An interesting, different and much appreciated evening!

Pentecost Sunday meetings were led by our Divisional Leaders, Majors Anthony and Gill Cotterill.

Majors Anthony & Gill Cotterill

In the morning meeting we used song 575 from The Salvation Army Song Book and 188, 1013 and 738 from Songs of Fellowship. A humerous drama sketch (Capernaum Street – skit on British TV’s Coronation Street soap) involving Tracy Wood and Mark Scoulding portrayed the coming of the Holy Spirit and the musical contributions were ‘Holy Ground’ from the Songsters and ‘Ev’ry time I feel the Spirit’ from the Singing Company.

Mark & Tracy

Using Acts 2:1-21 as her scripture, Major Gill spoke in her address about how, when the spirit came, ordinary men, followers of Jesus, were taken well out of their comfort zone. They carried out miracles of healing and preached so that all could hear the message in their own language. Peter explained that these things were done through Jesus and that the disciples had been lifted into a new experience. The Holy Spirit brings Life, Liberty and Likeness. It enables us to do all sorts of things if we are open to receiving it.

KAOS goes large was the title given to our kids activity in the afternoon. The guest was Captain Denise Cooper (Divisional Children’s Officer) who is seen in the pictures with the children.

Our second meeting of the day was a real celebration of Pentecost. We began with the question ‘How can we be filled with the Holy Spirit’ and used songs 955, 475, 755 and 1184 all from Songs of Fellowship. The Songsters sang ‘Church on Fire’ and, later, Ev’ry time I feel the Spirit’ whilst the Band gave us ‘The Road to Emmaus’. Major Anthony gave us his own testimony, speaking about how God taught him that there is more to being a Christian than being a Salvationist. He said I asked God to be real to me and he showed me through my own ministry to another student at University. He described the coming of the Spirit as being like a pilot light in a boiler which ignites a burner with a roar so that the power is released in us and we can become ‘on fire’ for Him. He asked has the age of the Spirit begun for you? If not, pray that it will!

After a searching prayer session in which many accepted the Spirit into their lives we concluded with the children from KAOS releasing many balloons over the congregation in celebration of the release of the Spirit.

Once again its been a good day and we can say with confidence, as the Songsters sang:

THIS IS A CHURCH ON FIRE!