Hope you'll join us for some of these family-friendly events at Christchurch North Methodist.
We'd love to see you there!
We kick off this Friday morning with our Christmas Party at Musikool Kids, for pre-schoolers and their caregivers.
Sunday 15 December is our Family Christmas Service led by our young people, including a nativity play and some awesome Christmas music - traditional and modern. We also have the screening of our 2019 Christmas movie!
Tuesday 24 December we have our Christmas Eve Carol Service, starting at 5.30pm. This includes the Christmas story and some favourite Christmas carols.
Our film shoot out at Bottle Lake Forest yesterday was a great success! The weather was fine, the location was beautiful and the children were amazing! Thank you to you all for being such superstars. We have had a little look through some of the raw footage this morning, and there are some awesome shots. The editing process has begun, and we look forward to sharing the finished product with you on 15 December at our special Christmas Service, led by the Youth and Children from our Parish and Community.
Pictured above is Angel Amelia with Rev Anne Preston's dog, Ben.
This morning in Awesome Time and in Hot Chocolate Club, we learnt about Jesus the King... but not a normal king... Jesus the Servant King. Jesus came to serve the lowly, the poor, the lonely, the sick, the frightened, the sad. He is a kind, caring and loving king. He didn't have lots of money, a flash castle or wear a shiny crown.
Our Awesome Kids planted petunias in little pots, to gift to the king... and gave them to people in the church.
Our Hot Chocolate Club talked about what it means to be a good leader... here are some of the qualities they look for in a good leader:
Someone who is fair
Someone who does not discriminate
Someone who shows kindness and is caring
Someone who leads by example, not by bullying
Someone who recognises the gifts and strengths of others and gives them opportunity to use them
Someone who gives clear instructions, without being bossy or trying to take over
Someone who is supportive and encouraging
We then offered someone the chance to step up and be a leader, to create a game or challenge for us all and lead us in that. It was proven that it is not easy to be a leader and uphold all of those characteristics we listed!
We are grateful to have Jesus as our Leader, who is all of those things and more.
Build My Life, sung and played by Smith & Co. on Sunday. A wonderful way to begin our worship service. Thank you for sharing your musical gifts with our congregation!
This morning we read Psalm 145 from the Bible, which was all about giving thanks to God for all the amazing, wonderful, splendiferous things in the world!
Last Saturday night, we had our final FISH night for 2019. It was our pre-Christmas edition, with a Christmas Quiz, Backwards Charades, Human Christmas Tree and a candy cane hunt.
Last Sunday we started Hot Chocolate Club. This is a group for those in years 6 and up. We meet out in the Reese Room, during Awesome Time and have a chat about the bible, school, family, friends, stuff to cheer about and stuff that bugs us. Oh, and of course, there's hot chocolate. Or, cold chocolate milk when the weather's hot!
We had a game where we had to eat or drink the contents of a cup, to reveal a letter or number at the bottom. When we unscrambled all the letters/numbers, we worked out what the bible verse was.
We chatted about people who were difficult to get along with, times we've been picked on or bullied, and brainstormed ways to deal with problems like that.
Last Sunday we heard the story of Enemy Pie, by Derek Munson. It was going to be the perfect summer... until Jeremy, the bully from school moved into the neighbourhood. Luckily, Dad had the solution: Enemy Pie. We all wondered what would be in the enemy pie... worms, bugs, beetles? But the recipe was secret. The only catch to the Enemy Pie Plan, was that the boy had to spend the whole day with his enemy, before giving him the enemy pie.
After spending some time playing on the trampoline at the enemy's house, then back at his own, up in the treehouse and racing around in the back garden... the boy in the story had got to know Jeremy, the bully, and realised he wasn't actually that bad after all. He wasn't being a very good enemy!
The story reminded us of the story in the bible about the tax collector, Zacchaeus. He climbed a tree to see Jesus. He was a bit of a bully, not well liked by the crowd. Imagine their surprise when Jesus called out to Zacchaeus and invited himself over to his place for a meal.
We talked about not judging people too harshly, giving lots of second chances, and remembering that everyone is capable of change. Above all, that Jesus loves everyone, even the bullies among us.
In Awesome Time we made 'enemy pies' (chocolate crackle cakes with worm and snake lollies - yum!) with Rev Anne.
If you'd like to hear the story of Enemy Pie, you can watch it on the Storyline video here:
Join us this Saturday 9 November at the Chapel Street Centre for FISH!
Our Family Fun Night kicks off at 5pm with tea in the lounge. Bring your own picnic or takeaway tea for your family.
We then move through to the hall for an evening of fun challenges, games and competitions for all ages - this time with a little bit of a Christmas theme!
The evening ends at 7pm with ice-cream and chocolate fish. See you there!
This Sunday we are offering The Hot Chocolate Club, for youth in years 7 and up. Although, if you are in year 6 and you'd like to check it out you are most welcome. We will chat about the bible story, share our views, ask questions, discuss stuff that's important to you, play a game and of course, drink hot chocolate.
In Awesome Time, we will be making some enemy pies! I wonder what disgusting ingredients might be in an enemy pie? Come along and find out with Rev Anne and Monica!
The first Cafe Church in some years was held by Christchurch North Methodist Parish this morning at the Chapel Street Centre.
It was a fabulous inter-generational service of praise, where people of all ages mixed and created music, art and prayer together in thanks to our awesome God. We all sat at tables, cafe style, and had our cup of tea or coffee along with cake or cookies, during the service. The tables were covered with newsprint paper, on which we wrote, drew or painted things we were thankful to God for. It was wonderful to see everyone getting involved, mixing, and getting to know one another better, all the while giving thanks and praise to God.
Smith & Co. led our worship at the beginning, with a beautiful rendition of Yet Not I, But Through Christ in Me, and the Chapel Street Band led the congregation in singing One, Two, Three, Alleluia; Psalm 148- Praise the Lord from the Heavens, and How Much am I Worth?
Thanks to Rev Anne for planning such an inspirational and creative worship service, to Merilyn, Dorothy & Noel and co. who worked hard in the kitchen, and to Dave & Richard and all your helpers for moving furniture!
Our CHYPS team enjoyed a Selfie Scavenger Hunt tonight, where they had to create certain photos and videos - everything from 'Your team in water', to 'Something that will look awesome in slow motion', to 'Kidnap a member from another team and take a photo with them'. The results are compiled in the video above. Enjoy!
Oh, and as for the winning team...
Congratulations to Izak's team, who took it out with 3900 points! (Although we have to give Monica's team special mention for the cool slow motion video using the water balloon and scissors! Great production, team!)
Last week our Awesome Kids heard the story of the ten lepers. In our video below, our intrepid roving reporter, Roslind, interviews some of our Awesome Kids & Youth.
Brought to you by MaTCH (Media and Tech at Chapel Street).
Here are a few photos from our last FISH night - the LEGO EDITION.
It was so good to see all the amazing teamwork going on, and everyone working together on challenges - all ages getting involved. There were some pretty crazy creations by the end of the night - definitely worthy of Grand Designs!