Church of Promise News

Newark Baptist Church and Church of Promise become one new Baptist Church

We are delighted to announce Newark Baptist Church and Church of Promise have agreed that God has directed both these church families to join together as one new local Baptist Church.

Already many of the local Christians have recognised what God is doing and we are thankful for their support in our joint outreach projects across the town.

We welcome anyone who is visiting or new to Newark to join us on Sunday mornings at our Winthorpe Road site at 10:30am for our Sunday service, or on Thursday mornings from 10:00 am till noon at our Warm Welcome Space for drinks and snacks and good company.

Come and join us on Saturday 16th March for the Polytunnel Opening!

We are delighted to announce that the Mayor of Newark, Cllr. Pamela Ball will be cutting a ribbon to celebrate the opening of the Polytunnel which has been supported by Veolia.

Come along from 10:00am and enjoy games, activities, children's seed planting, plant sales, refreshments.

Our Annual Family Carol Service is on Sunday 17th at 3pm!

Come and join us for this special celebration with some visitors from 2000 years ago who met Jesus who want to tell us all about him!

Afterwards we will enjoy some free refreshments so please put this in your diary and we look forward to meeting you on 17th!

Add this to your diary now! 17th December 3pm
at Winthorpe Road

Winthorpe Road Community Garden has become a Community Champion with the Lincolnshire Co-op!

We are delighted to announce that the Lincolnshire Co-op has selected our community garden project as a Community Champion.

We have a number of projects that need funding including laying new access paths, building a patio and finishing off our poly tunnel. This is a great way to support us - shop at The Bridge Food Store, Lincoln Road and support us!

FIRE SAFETY POLICY UPDATED - AUGUST 2023

Since we now have a number of regular users of our building we have reviewed and updated our Fire Safety Policy. If you are renting the building, please also check the Fire Plan diagram on the notice board as this will inform you where the Fire Extinguishers and type of Extinguisher are located

We welcome enquires regarding hire the building for parties or local community events. Please contact us if you have an enquiry on the church phone 075 211 70728 or by email : bookings "at" churchofpromise.org.uk. Generally there is availability during the week daytime and some evenings.

WEIGHTWATCHERS NOW MEETING HERE - SEPT 2023

We are delighted to welcome Coach Kate P and the local WeightWatchers to our building every Wednesday teatime (5pm to 7pm) where there is also lots of parking available and access for wheelchair users.

If you are interested to join them, please see the details above. Coach Kate P has a number of workshops across the town so if Wednesday does not suit you, please contact her for more details. htpps://www.weightwatchers.com

A LICK OF PAINT AND SOME NEW CARPETS - JUNE 2022

Our rather worn out carpet has at long last been changed and we have also had the inside of the church building re-painted. At the same time we changed the old and very cold single glazed metal windows for some nice shiny white double glazed ones (thanks to Sunrise Windows)

Our regular users have commented on how cosy our church building is now and the new windows have also now been fitted with new blackout blinds which help when using our projector (thanks to Matthew and his team at Curtain and Blind Newark).

We welcome enquires regarding hire the building for parties or local community events. Please contact us if you have an enquiry on the church phone 075 211 70728 or by email : bookings "at" churchofpromise.org.uk. Generally there is a lot of availability during the week daytime and some evenings.

We are Open on Thursday Mornings - November 2022

In response to the problems with rising food and energy costs in the UK, we have joined the Warm Welcome Space action team

The huge problem facing UK residents has been reported:

Despite the Government's energy announcement, millions of households will still be in fuel poverty this winter, with people with disabilities, elderly people, children, people from ethnic minorities, and low-income households amongst the most affected groups.

There is an estimated £800 gap between the overall cost-of-living and package for families on means-tested benefits, meaning many will have to look to their local community and churches for support.

Our church family decided the best way we could help was to open our nice warm building and offer free drinks and breakfast, initalkly on Thursday mornings from 9am to 12 noon. So far the temperature has not dropped to normal levels (5 degrees C) but we are ready for our community and if you are feeling the cold and pressures, pop in and have a drink and we can also chat to you and see if there are other ways we can help.

PASTOR ROBIN STEEDMAN RETIRES AFTER 35 YEARS

July 2021

Dr Pastor Robin Steedman (seen here with his wife, Mags) who is well known across Newark and beyond has retired from his role as Pastor of Church of Promise. As part of our marking of his retirement, a special book cake by Sarah was made for him (see photo) celebrating his love of books and cakes!

Our church family will miss his Bible teaching, leadership, friendship and pastoral care greatly, but recognise he and Mags have worked dilligently over the years serving the church and the local community and it is time for them to take a break and decide what God wants them to do next in their retirement. They will continue to live in Newark close to their family.

Church of Promise will continue to be led by the Leadership Team and contact details can be found here.

2021 Community Carol Service - 19th December 2021

An invitation from the Church of Promise Leadership Team

You are welcome to join us at 3pm for our annual Comminuty Carol service but this year it will be held outside in the church garden. Look for the lights and find us there!

Afterwards we will serve free mince pies and cakes plus a nice warm drink.

Come and join us ... a warm welcome awaits you and please do come dressed up in Christmas decorations / sweaters etc!

NEW CHURCH LEADERS APPOINTED

February 2021

In preparation for our pastor's retirement and the associated reduction in our Leadership Team, we have sought God to lead us to appoint two more leaders to work with our church family and the local community.

We are pleased to announce that Jo Stokes and Mandy Smith have agreed to join the Leadership Team. We recognise they love God and our church family. You can also see they love dogs! We are praying that God blesses them as they work for him in these new roles.

NEW HOME GROUP LEADERS

March 2021

by Robin Steedman, a leader of the Church of Promise

We are delighted to introduce our two home group leader teams, Jonny and Sarah who lead home group I, and Mandy and Pete who lead home group II. The home groups provide a way to build and enjoy closer relationships within our church family and learn more about living out our faith from day to day.

These currently meet on Zoom but we hope they will meet in homes or our church buildings soon.

To find out more about joining a home group, please contact us here

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR... December 2020

Fom the Leaders of the Church of Promise

As we look forward to our Christmas celebrations with some concerns under the Covid-19 cloud, we remember that Jesus came to give us hope and a new life - what He called "life in all it's fullness (John 10:10)" So what did he mean by "in all it's fullness"?

Jesus calls us to a full life in mind, body, heart and spirit but he doesn't leave us to work that out on our own. Jesus told his disciples (you and me that is) that we are also his friends if we love him and each other. If we seek and follow him as a friend rather than as a servant, we can know His Joy and Peace (John 15:15). As one of Jesus' closest friends, the writer John really knew all about Jesus love which he records for us in these chapters of his gospel.

Maybe you have struggled with the Christian church as it has appeared to be far from this ideal. At Church of Promise, we want to introduce you to Jesus personally and help you find out more about our God, who loves you and wants to draw you into a relationship with him through Jesus, His Son.

At this unusual Christmas time, come and join us on FaceBook at 10.30am every Sunday (Facebook Link) and please contact us if you want us to pray for you by messaging us there. We would love to get to know, help and bless you as our church noticeboard says "Come with us and we will do you good"

Merry Christmas and may you know God's Peace as we welcome Jesus, the Prince of Peace, again this Christmas.

We love this Christmas Lights idea and wanted to share with you one of the Newburgh town's Christmas lights designed by the local children.

NEW CHURCH CONTACT PHONE NUMBER AND EMAIL... October 2020

by Lewis Lack, a leader of the Church of Promise

In preparation for our pastor's retirement we have now setup a new phone line on a mobile so everyone can contact him using that instead of his personal landline.

We have also added some new email addresses so you can contact us in 3 different ways depending on why you are contacting us. : Pastoral, General or Room Hire.

So please take a look at the contact details for all the new numbers and email addresses.

BUILDING REPAIRS AND NEW ??????...

by Peter Smith, a leader of the Church of Promise

We might not be meeting in our building but that does not mean we are ignoring it.

As well as grass cutting (Thanks Jo), we have also been painting some of the outside and repairing windows (Thanks Pete) which were needing our attention!

Hopefully, you can see the difference but maybe we ought to ask you to spot the differences and let us know on our FaceBook page!

If you see us outside working in the grounds during our lockdown, come and say hello - we'd love to meet you and speak to you.

You can see a photo to illustrate what we have been doing at the top of this news item.

Hobby Club launched ...

October 2019

by Lewis Lack, a leader of the Church of Promise

We realised that many people in our local community and in our wider church family links have hobbies. So how could we provide for them? One of our members suggested that we could start a monthly Hobby Club meeting and it was agreed that the best time and day would be in the afternoon after our monthly Lunch Club. So this has now become a regular activity. So what hobbies are available in the Hobby Club? ...

The simple answer is anything that the people who want to join in enjoy. You can bring your own hobbies and share them with others. You could also join in with some of the activities that are on going such as modeling, knitting, crafts, crocheting, etc. If non of these are your hobbies, don't let that stop you coming along. We would love to meet you and find out more about your hobbies. Come along and join us at
1.30pm on the 1st Thursday of the month.

You could also sign up for our Lunch Club as well which runs on the same day!

OVERFLOWING WITH ... CORNFLAKES!!!

March 2015

by Margaret Steedman, a leader of the Church of Promise

Usually 9 am phone calls to our house involve some amount of stress as it is most likely to be someone in a panic needing something now. This morning the phone went at 8.30 am, and yes, it was someone needing something we can't do within 2 hours, but then the phone rang again at 9 and it was Sarah, from a Lincolnshire church, working with Kelloggs on a 'give every child a breakfast' initiative. She had found us on the web and realised we might be able to help.

We love to help our community and one of the ways we do this is with the local Foodbank. Our church family is strongly connected to Newark Churches Together and the FoodBank is a practical way to help. Sarah said she had some boxes of cereal that are to be given away free to families... but how many could we take?!!

She explained she was coming through Newark that same day, and could we help? I obviously said yes, and then asked if she realised Newark had a foodbank. She did, and had phoned the Newark Foodbank hotline a few minutes previously but had no reply. I assured her we could pass some on to the foodbank as the co-ordinator was a member of our church. Then I asked could I clarify the criteria because I actually work for a children's charity and could they be given away to any family? There was a moment's silence, then Sarah burst out, 'oh wow, yes, I knew you were going to be the right people. This is brilliant, just give them away to families, oh wow, how many can you take?

The End result is there are 64 crates of rice crispies and cornflakes at our house and some are already on their way to families in Newark with love from the Church of Promise!

To find out more about this God of love, why not come and join us at 10.30am on Sunday mornings - be assured a warm friendly welcome awaits you!