Selsdon Baptist Church - Archived Headlines

On 4th March, Chrissie Nichols and a YWAM Discipleship team visited Selsdon on their way home from Zambia. The young people gave us a moving account of their work in Zambia, particularly of the effect of HIV Aids, but also encouraged us by explaining the faith of the people they worked with. We also enjoyed an excellent puppet show!

Click here for a David and Goliath animation. David gets Goliath and knocks himself out celebrating!
Click here for an animation of the fall of Jericho. The Israelites should have looked out for those falling stones before celebrating!
(thanks to Andrew Bedford, one of our young people, for these)

We have just completed a three week series called "Hooked on Mission" in association with International Needs. The series focussed on the biblical basis of mission, from God's mission to the people of Israel in the Old Testament, through Jesus as the God acting in person in Mission, to the work of the early church and the missionaries of the past. The culmination focussed on mission today, with the Sunday worship on 11th February replaced by a mission fair. The chairs were taken out of the sanctuary, and it was changed into something like a market place. Stalls were provided by various mission societies, refreshments in the form of Indian sweets and Chai were provided, and worship took place amidst the hubub! Hopefully everyone was challenged to play their part in mission.

Our second Sunday morning service has been running at Greenvale school since the beginning of January. Services have been on the themes of:

Who is God?
Who is Jesus?
Family of Jesus
Friends of Jesus

Everyone is starting to settle in to the new environment and looking forward to the challenges ahead. More details here

At the morning service on 3rd December the 35 people who will form the nucleus of the new Greenvale congregation were commissioned for their service. The remainder of the congregation remaining at Addington Road were challenged to fill up the spaces so that they can't come back!

SBC are launching worship at two locations - From the main site at Addington Road Selsdon, and from January 2007 also at Greenvale Primary School in Selsdon Vale. More details on the Addington Road page and the Greenvale page! -->

It was great to have Derek Hills with us for our weekend. Derek led 5 sessions over the three days, and challenged us to be true disciples; swinging into worship, and then out into mission. We also had two sessions in small groups looking at what God could be saying to SBC in relation to what Derek was talking about

Over the weekend we had 4 different worship leaders; just one example of how we were able to use many of the gifts and skills from within our SBC family to help us in all sorts of ways.

We also had plenty of time to laugh together and enjoy each other’s company. This included lots of different activities like wrapping Alex Jacob (and others!) in loo roll and playing the infamous ‘Chocolate Game’. It’s amazing how competitive some very laid-back people get once they realise there’s a prize involved

Youngsters on the sofa in the youth room

Ro & Mel led our children and young people in some sessions looking at our community and how we can get involved and make a difference. There may also have been a little bit of time allocated for some Simpsons too ...

Please do pray for those who will be pouring over the notes made and Derek’s teaching to seek some practical and tangible ways forward in some of the areas covered over the weekend.

Go to the separate page for pictures of the baptisms, and all the rest of this year's baptisms. Click here.

We had a busy summer holiday period - here are a few pictures of the events taking place

Holiday @ Home made the church a seaside setting with fun, friendship and games for older people.

Holiday @ Home montage

Umbrellas at Holiday @ Home Around the table at Holiday @ Home

Scrabble at Holiday @ Home Giant Sudoku at Holiday @ Home

Summer Fun Days was a holiday club for children aged 5-10, with lots of crafts and games.

Rainbow Colours at Summer Fun Days Games at Summer Fun Days in the church

Craft at Summer Fun Days

"Astonishing because you can worship God and have lots of fun at the same time."

And Dedications - Lily, Jamie, Joshua and Sienna

and weddings too.

Kathy and Mark Quirico

Farewell Lunch for Simon Russell

One of our members, Simon Russell, has accepted the call to ministerial training, and starts his course in September. On 23rd July we enjoyed a farewell 'bring-and-share" lunch to wish Simon God's blessing. Whilst training he will be pastor of Costessey (pronounced 'Cossey') Baptist Church in Norfolk.

Simon was preaching at Boston Road Baptist Church on the Sunday morning, and hastened back to Selsdon on his bike.

Arts and Craft Exhibition

On 24th June the church was delighted to share in the happiness of Madeleine and Ali, who are both members of the congregation at Selsdon Baptist Church, on the occasion of their wedding at the church. Congratulations to the happy couple.

On 18th June we were delighted to welcome Rev Dr Pieter Lalleman of Spurgeon's college, to give us a learned response to the book and film "the Da Vinci Code". He emphasised for us that the books of the bible are the most reliable and oldest texts of the church, and thus closest to the 'real' Jesus. He highlighted some of the many errors in the book, for instance that the 'Gospel of Phillip', which Dan Brown quotes, was written in Coptic, not Aramaic, and that the emperor Constantine did not select the books of the Bible. You can hear Pieter's whole lecture by clicking here (19Mb).

Our 7-11 football team took part in an exciting cup final on Saturday 13th May (much more interesting than West Ham - Liverpool!). Unfortunately we lost 3-0 to Crystal Palace Community Church, but there players did seem to be larger! Our keeper commented "All our players gave it their all, and worked together well as a team." The game included two penalties to Crystal Palace. Click on this link to see a video clip of the Crystal Palace penalty that was saved.

On Maundy Thursday we remembered Jesus' last supper with his disciples in an evening communion service. Bryan Rogers brought together a service of music, readings and prayers entitled 'Imagine if you will' which helped us to see the story of Easter in new and moving ways. The Ministry Team - Mike, David, Roland and Melanie - served us with bread and wine in an 'Anglican-style' communion where we came to the front of the church to receive the elements. All those who attended appreciated the special atmosphere of this service.

On Good Friday we united with the other churches in Selsdon and Addington with worship led by the Jubilee Church, using various items associated with the crucifixion - a robe, the crown of thorns, the nails, a spear - to highlight parts of the Easter story. Following the service, we processed in the rain along Addington Road behind a large wooden cross to St John's Church in Upper Selsdon Road, as we remembered Jesus' giving of himself in the crucifixion.

On Easter Sunday morning, as the sun was rising, a few intrepid souls joined the dawn service at the viewpoint, remembering the women coming to the tomb early on the Sunday morning, and finding it empty of Jesus' body. A little later we shared breakfast and informal communion, and then at our main morning worship we declared together "Hallelujah - He is risen".
Easter is a celebration - Jesus Christ is risen today!

Believer's Baptism on Palm Sunday

We were honoured to share in the celebration of the baptism of two members of our fellowship, Rob and Sally-Ann

Rob told us that as a child he had attended church with his family (in his bow tie!), but that he had never understood the reasons behind the worship. When his family later split up, it had seemed that it was all a pretence and he became an atheist. But then he went to a Christian Union weekend with his school, and saw people calling to God, and praying, and opening their hearts to him. This challenged him, and he prayed with all his soul to ask God to come into his life. God took hold of his life, and showed him how many blessing we have received. He gave Rob a purpose to his life, which Rob summed up in Jeremiah 29:13 "You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart."

Sally had never been in a church before a year ago. I can't easily summarise her testimony, so listen to the audio clips. Click on the following links (about 5Mb so better with broadband) which include Rob's and Sally Ann's testimony.

Sally Ann finished with this passage from the Psalms "You have changed my sadness into a joyful dance; you have taken away my sorrow and surrounded me with joy. So I will not be silent; I will sing praise to you. Lord, you are my God; I will give you thanks forever. " (Ps 30:11-12)

Audio Links - Sally Ann's testimony follows Rob's on the first track and then continues on the remainder - 1,2,3,4,5,6,7

Following a fantastic 3-0 win over their closest contenders, Selsdon Baptist FC finished their last league game of the season today (01-04-06) by becoming League Champions.

As only a win would do, a great team performance sealed their victory. Thank you to all those that came to support.

The Clubs next match is the League Cup Final on 22nd April when they play Eltham Green FC. With 2 trophies already in the bag this season, the treble is on!!

The next believer's baptism service is on Sunday 9th April (Palm Sunday), when Sally-Ann & Rob will be baptised.

We joined together with two friends today to share in the joy and celebration at their baptism at SBC.

Mike Lamb from SBC movingly told us how the Lord Jesus rescued him from the power of alcohol and this baptism was his choice of committment to the Lord.

George Hosking from Croydon Society of Friends told how God spoke to him as a boy, but over the years until he was thirty he drifted away from God. He found faith again over a number of years with the Quakers, and whilst believer's baptism is not common amongst Quakers, for him it is his statement of his trust in God.

Our new 7-11 Football team had a stunning inaugural game against Penge Family Church. On an extremely windy Saturday afternoon - the goalposts had to pegged down to stop them blowing away - the team had a very respectable 2-0 win, with both goals scored in the first half. Contact Roland if you want to join the team.

The first Ignite service of 2006 was a tremendous experience. Our worship started with the drums and guitars leading us in worship songs. We then split into three zones - an acoustic music zone, a creative zone, and a prayer zone. Each zone engaged us in a approaching God through a variety of senses and actions, worshipping him through creating pictures and origami, through thoughtful consideration of prayer subjects, and through gentle music. We then gathered together again for a short message on the importance of considering others first, based on David Mayne's experience with buses! And finally we closed with the band leading us in song.

Archived Headlines

2006 - 2007

Farewell Lunch for Simon Russell

Arts and Craft Exhibition

Believer's Baptism on Palm Sunday

Archived Headlines