Well, this is very exciting to be writing my first Spotlight article as the new Community Pastor for Sutton Vineyard!
I’m so excited to be starting my new role and for all that God has for us as a church as we journey into this next chapter together. In the Vineyard we often use the word compassion to illustrate the kind of Christians we want to be. In the Vineyard Values book it describes compassion as ‘a motivation of the heart that gets your hands dirty’. I love this!
When we serve the poor and marginalised, we are indeed serving Christ himself. In this next season I’ll be looking for lots of opportunities for us as a Church to dive deeper into our compassion ministries and get our hands dirty!
As we head into the colder months, we know our support in, to and for our local community is needed more than ever. Providing warm and welcoming spaces for those who live locally to chat and connect is an absolute privilege and as a Church we delight in extending the table and building relationships in our mid week ministries. With Warm Welcome on Monday, Wendy House toddler group on a Wednesday, Lighthouse on a Thursday and soon to be launching Grace Advocacy on a Tuesday, we have so many opportunities for us as a church to connect and go deeper in serving our community.
Whether you are praying for these ministries or serving in one of the teams, the chance to welcome individuals and families from our community into our wider church family is a privilege for us all.
Let’s be a Church who seeks to welcome and serve the least, the lost, the near and the far off in all that we do!
A small way in which we can show God’s love in this season is by donating food items as we partner with Sutton Community Works and the Food Bank. Our food bank trolley remains available each Sunday for you to donate items. Please see the up to date list here. We are soon to be launching a new initiative with our Mini and Big Kids so look out for this too and at the beginning of October we’ll be collecting for their Harvest appeal. Could you and your family be extra mindful of others when you shop for food in the coming weeks?
Interested in extending the table in our local community?
If you would like to know more about our community ministries or even thinking that you could spare some hours in the week to join one of the team get in touch with me at community@suttonvineyard.org
