The Salvation Army Chatham

We are now well into the holiday season with a significant number of people away on vacation. This includes Majors Drew and Beverley McCombe who will not be leading meetings again until 24 August.

Majors Drew & Beverley McCombe

So, once again, we are grateful to lay leaders for seeing us through yesterday’s meetings; Bev Hudson in the morning and Jean Jones in the evening.

Bev & Jean

Bev’s theme for the morning was ‘the potter and the clay’ and he chose songs 64 and 479 from The Salvation Army Song Book together with 1184, 58 and 197 from Songs of Fellowship.

Despite the effects of school holidays the Singing Company brought us ‘Power and Love’ and the Songsters ‘The Potter’s Hand’. Both groups were depleted but, in the case of the Songsters, some former and retired members joined to support. This has been common practice in recent summers and helps to maintain the musical ministry throught these holiday weeks.

Kate Boughton brought an illustration for the children in which she had them modelling in clay even, in one case, with only one hand.

single handed

Bev used Jeremiah 18:1-6 as the basis for his message in which he spoke about God being the potter and Israel the clay. This is a message of hope as the clay is reshaped until it comes up to the potter’s expectations. God can, and does, restore us if we allow him to and we can become as new. Bev referred to James 1:2-3 where it says that the testing of faith leads to perseverence. Many things bring out the worst in us. Not things which are bad enough to be called a crisis but things which cause a bad reaction in us. When these things happen do we “sing” or do we “thud”. We bring good or bad things out of what we store in our hearts (see Luke 6:45). What happens in life is not as important as how we respond to the situation. The clay will not turn into a beautiful pot unless moulded by the well lubricated hands of Jesus. He will start again with us and restore, removing the faults.

In the evening Jean used 1 Peter 2:1-9 as her scripture and chose songs 310, 438, 730, 613 and 824 from The Salvation Army Song Book. The usual musical ministry was provide by the Band and Songsters who brought ‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus’ and ‘Grace Alone’ respectively.

Other features in the meeting included a period of testimony in which a number of people spoke of God’s actions in their lives. This was followed by a break for refreshments, very welcome on a hot evening.

Jean spoke about ‘living stones’ and said we see stones every day. Some have no value, others are priceless. Stones are mentioned many times in the Bible and were used for many purposes, for example, building or execution by stoning. Who were the stone throwers? Trouble makers who looked for opportunities to cause problems. We all ‘throw stones’ (we are judgemental, inpatient, critical, lacking in love, etc.). People get hurt by what we say and do. There is no room in the Christian community for stone throwing. We must accept people in love and our community will be transformed. Then we can be seen as ‘living stones’ being built into a spiritual temple.

Yesterday we said goodbye to Cameron and Janelle Ivers together with children Brandon and Cadence. The family have been with us for a few years whilst Cameron has been a member of the Royal Engineers Band and they are now returning home to Australia to continue life in Queensland. A time of fellowship was enjoyed following the morning meeting allowing goodbyes to be said in a relaxed atmosphere. We wish the family all the best and God’s blessing in future days.

Going home

Next Sunday our morning meeting will be led by the Songsters under the leadership of Ruth Hardy and the evening by Nigel Day. We look forward to another interesting day and again express our gratitude to those prepared to accept responsinbility for leadership in the absence of our officers.

Ruth & Nigel

If you live near enough why not join us for worship at 10am or 6pm in our building in Church Street.

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