Beckenham Baptist Church

Dear Friends,  Jesus Christ is risen from the dead! Alleluia!  Happy Easter!  The apostle Paul writing to the believers in Corinth had received from the church there questions sent to him on various topics including on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. There were some who denied that Jesus had rose from the dead whilst others were unsure of what a physical resurrection might look like. Responding, Paul writes, ‘For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and then to the Twelve (1 Corinthians 15:3-5). That in a nutshell is the gospel message, and as Paul says, the most important message we can ever hear. It is this message that we celebrate at Eastertime. But just like in Paul’s day there are those who deny the resurrection story and don’t believe in the resurrection of...

Dear Friends, In Luke’s account of the Feeding of the 5000, the event is prefaced by Jesus wanting to withdraw with the apostles to Bethsaida, but the crowds find him and continue following him. In the gospel we read, ‘Jesus welcomed them and spoke to them about the Kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing’ (Luke 9:11). The word translated ‘welcomed’ means to receive someone heartily and gladly, we might say to embrace someone with open arms, and during his earthly ministry, Jesus welcomed all sorts of people in all kinds of settings, seemingly always making time for those in need of his help. To know a warm welcome is such a precious thing, and if we are a stranger in some situation – be it visiting another country, starting a new job or school, or looking for a new church – we would hope that we would be welcomed and not feel like a stranger or an outsider for very long. I’ve recently discovered an ancient Celtic welcome which apparently is found over the door of an old ...

Dear Friends, April 4 th marks the 50 th anniversary of the children’s television news programme, Newsround , which burst onto our screens in 1972 hosted by John Craven who is perhaps today known to us more for presenting the farming programme Countryfile . Those of us of a certain generation grew up with Craven telling the stories of the day, always introduced by his familiar welcome, ‘Hello again’, and his natty collection of jumpers. Initially commissioned as a six-week experiment by the BBC it was the brainchild of TV executive Edward Barnes who was concerned that children were not hearing about stories that were important to them and relevant to their lives. He is quoted as saying, ‘I wanted children to feel that our news was very much their news’, and the presentation of the programme was focused on bringing the news in a way that children could understand and relate to. I for one will never forget that it was Newsround that broke the story of the Challenger Shuttle disaster...