A Time to Laugh

                                   earnest-nig

                                   Rev. E. Anderson

MISINTREPRETATIONS OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS

When my twin daughters were young, I taught them to say this prayer before going to bed. As I listened outside their door, I could hear them say, “Give us this steak and daily bread, and forgive us our mattresses.”

When I was a child, I learned this prayer as “Our Father, who are in Heaven, Howard be thy name.” I always thought that was God’s real name.

My son, who is in nursery school, said, “Our Father, who art in Heaven, how didja know my name?”

When my husband was 6 years old, he thought a certain prayer was “He suffered under a bunch of violets.” The real words were “under Pontius Pilate,” but at that age, he didn’t know better. To this day, we still snicker in church whenever that prayer is read.

I was a little girl when we sang a song in Sunday school about Noah. Part of the chorus was “And the rains came down, and the floods came up.” We lived next door to a couple of charming little girls who always sang this song while playing in their garden. Their words were, “And the rains came down, and the spuds came up.”

When my older brother was very young, he always walked up to the church altar with my mother when she took communion. On one occasion, he tugged at her arm and asked, “What does the priest say when he gives you the bread?”

Mom whispered something in his ear. Imagine his shock years later when he learned that the priest doesn’t say, “Be quiet until you get to your seat.”

Young husband: “Why can’t you make bread like my mother does?”

Young bride: “Why can’t you make dough like my father does?”

today’sTHOT==

I used to watch golf on TV but my doctor told me that I need more exercise, so now I watch tennis.

                                Rose2

Leadership Factors

                                     ernes1

                                     Rev. E. Anderson

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD LEADERS

Success Magazine

John W. Gardner, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, & Welfare, who is now directing a leadership study project in Washington, D.C., has pinpointed 5 characteristics that set `leader’ managers apart from run-of-the-mill managers:

  • They are long-term thinkers who see beyond the day’s crisis & the quarterly report.
  • Their interest in the company does not stop with the unit they are heading. They want to know how all of the company’s departments affect one another, & they are constantly reaching beyond their specific area of influence.
  • They put heavy emphasis on vision, values, & motivation.
  • They have strong people skills.
  • They don’t accept the status quo.   

                               parc hall 5

 

 

Christian Testimony

                               pete cox and son

                             Rev. Peter Cox and son

NEW ROLE THAT’S A FAIR COP FOR PETE 

Pastor Pete Cox , a former police officer, has found his way  back into the Force, but this time to offer pastoral care to the bobbies 

WHEN PASTOR PETER COX AND HIS wife Angie returned to England they had no idea what God had in  store for them.

Returning to ’an old stamping ground’ in Bexhill-on-Sea, the couple were reunited with their son, Adam, and his family. ‘We  had been pasturing a church in Cyprus for six years,’ explains Pete. ‘ We  planned to spend six months getting to know our two granddaughters and then see what happened’.

On their first Sunday morning back, however, the couple attended a local Pentecostal church which, unknown to them, had recently applied to join AoG. The church was also looking for a pastor.

Today Pete is the pastor and, after ten months, the church more than doubled in size.

‘The culture of the church has changed dramatically,’ Pete explains. ‘We are gearing up for the future as a contemporary church where the message remains the same, but the methods keep up with the culture we live in’.

Pete and Angie know this part of the world quite well, as Pete was a police officer in Eastbourne in the 70s and 80s, before he started full-time ministry. His son has followed in his footsteps an d is one of the local police officers – including the local inspector – in the congregation at Living Word Church.

At the beginning of this year Pete was asked by the Sussex Police Chaplaincy if he would become the police chaplain for Bexhill, Battle and Hastings. ‘I consider it an honour to serve police officers and their families in this way,’ he enthuses. ‘They have my full support and I am available to them24/7’.

‘I’m available to all ranks and I enjoy serving them and their families, providing pastoral care. The police do a very difficult job and sometimes it is dangerous and extremely un pleasant which can have an effect upon them. Many incidents can  leave them distressed an d traumatised and it is my job to be there for them and to see them through. Often I am just there to listen and other times I try to give helpful advice’.

In a throwback to Pete’s earlier profession, he even goes out on patrol on occasion. ‘I go out with them at all times of day or night, so that I can support them and keep abreast of what they are up against,’ he says.

Pete’s involvement in the local community doesn’t stop there, however, ‘I’m also chaplain to the Air Cadets in Bexhill-on-Sea. This gives me pastoral care of 40 young people and their families,’ he reports.

For Pete, these roles are not a distraction from his pastoral role in the church. He sees them as an integral part of his work as a pastor.

‘Police chaplaincy is a very necessary job in the police service,’ he explains, ‘and I would urge Pentecostal ministers to take on responsibility’.

                               PICT0001

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