Hockley Pentecostal Church

Different churches have different names for it – Communion, The Lord’s Supper, The Lord’s Table, The Eucharist, Breaking Bread etc.  Whatever you want to call it, the symbolic act of taking bread and wine (or other suitable drink) together in church is very important. Here at Hockley Pentecostal Church, Birmingham we have spent the last three weeks looking in detail at this vital subject. Ian Brayshaw has been teaching about it and a copy of his sermon notes is available here - Breaking Bread sermon notes

Today is a big day for this site because we have finally gone live!  Our address is now www.hockleypentecostal.com  If you’re reading this on the old www.hockleypentecostal.com address then you might want to add the new one to favourites. At the moment the two sites are identical but eventually the older one will disappear. 

It is now possible to make comments on any of the posts in the blog, but you’ll have to register first.  This may seem to be a bit difficult if you’re new to this sort of thing so I’ll talk you through it step by step.

First you click on the ‘comments’ label at the top of any post. This takes you to a new screen which shows the post and any comments that other people have already made.  The last line says you must be logged in to post a comment. Click on the words “logged in”

This takes you to the login screen. The top box is for your username and the second box is for your password.  However, this is your first time so you don’t have a username or a password! Underneath the boxes is the word “register”. Click on it.

You now arrive at the registration screen which looks almost the same as the last one.  In the top box type in whatever username you’d like to use. (If you pick one that’s not valid then the server will let you know.) In the second box you type your email adress. When you click on the “register” button the server will send you an email giving you a randomly generated password.

Now you can login using the password you’ve just been given.  When you login you come to a page called “Your Profile and Personal Options”. You can fill in as much or as little as you want.  It may be a good idea to change your password to something you’ll find easier to remember. Don’t forget that the username and password are case sensitive (so HOCKLEY is a different password to hocKLEY). When you have finished editing your information click on “update profile”.

To get back to the website click the words “view site” on the title bar. You’re now free to post as many comments as you like.  Keep a note of your username and password for future use.

Just one more thing.  All comments will be moderated before being displayed on the site so don’t be disappointed if they don’t appear immediately.

If you are interested in the background of Hockley Pentecostal Church you have probably already noticed the history tab at the top of the page. Just in case you weren’t aware there is a book called “Still it flows” which charts the progress of our fellowship through the various stages of its life here in Birmingham.  This book is available as  a large pdf file. At some point I need to put it through an OCR (optical character recognition) program to turn it into text and reduce the file size.  Until then it’s only suitable to be downloaded by those with broadband.  For instructions on how to get the file look at the botom of the history page.

On Saturday 6th October some nationally recognised children’s workers will be in Birmingham at Hockley Pentecostal Church to share their wealth of experience.  The day starts at 9.30am and runs through until 4pm.  For a look at the programme click on this link training.pdf. Booking is essential and should be done by Tuesday 2nd October at the latest. Cost £15.

On Friday 5th October Hockley Pentecostal Church is hosting this special event.  It is being run by the National Treasure Kids team who will be coming with a full programme of fun, exciting and uplifting activities.  It has been advertised in churches throughout the central region and we’re expecting everyone to have a great time.  The evening is aimed at children aged 4-12 and is from 7-8.30pm. The cost is £2 per child with accompanying adults free.

I’ve just discovered a very useful website.  It gives the Christian viewpoint on just about anything and includes Bible verses to explain all of the answers.  You can search by category or keywords and it has answers to the big questions like “How do I get to heaven?” and “Who is Jesus?”.  It also has special sections on things like archaeology and evolution that I found particularly interesting. The site is mostly in simple language and although I wouldn’t use it to study theology it’s a great resource.  To see it just click the icon on the links page.

All our ladies’ events come under the umbrella title of Esther Generation.  The book of Esther is in the Old Testament of the Bible.  It tells of the wisdom and bravery of a woman who overcame difficulties and had a huge impact on her nation.

The latest Esther Generation meeting was last Saturday.  The meeting was from 10am to 1pm and gave the opportunity to enjoy food, friendship, and discussion about practical issues that affect women today.

Towards the end of August N:r-gize went to Ultimate Youth Camp.  This was a week long extravanganza of worship, team building, sports, adventure activities, teaching and most of all fun.  16 of our youth group went and you can see what they got up to on YouTube.  They all enjoyed it immensely and can’t wait to go again next year.  Once again our thanks go to Birmingham City Council who gave us a grant to help finance the project.

Here’s the latest news in our quest to take advantage of technological opportunities! Hockley Pentecostal Church has a YouTube channel as of today.  So far I’ve only uploaded two videos - the Christmas 2006 edition of HPC News and the newly edited “N:r-gize goes to Youth Camp”.  I hope to upload more material shortly. To see the videos click the YouTube icon on the links page.