PART 3 CURRENT ACTIVITIES + ISSUES- [November 2008]

It’s going well at the moment as we have a constant increase in the numbers at our Brigades here at KURC as two years ago we only had 10 children across the entire company and now it stands at around 40 in total. This in itself has lead to myself taking over the commanding officers role within the Junior section (7-11 year olds) and numerous other members of staff having to be recruited to lead other age groups. But despite this we still are continually gaining new members on a regular basis and growing faster than we can cope with. (Praise God!) As it stands with the current rate of growth the company will stand at a predicted number of around 55-60 children strong come the end of the school year.

Musically I have been very privileged in brigade as I now am currently the “Deputy Bandmaster” for the battalion (joint) Boys and Girls Brigade band. Within this position I am constantly tested week in week out due to the fact our bandmaster is an ex military musician and is the creator of the current BB bandsman book. (So you can never get anything past him in the way of trying to cover mistakes.)

On Sundays our 11:30 service (contemporary worship service) continues to be a blessing and encouragement as it grows in number. This has also proved a great success musically. The reasons for this been that we now have a functioning worship band which grows every week getting better and better in sound and number giving it the ability to lead in worship and teach new material to the congregation. This in turn makes the service constantly fresh with never a dull moment.

I’m currently enjoying my studies at university. This term my two modules have been “Ministry and Mission” and “Theology and Practice”. In “Ministry and Mission” I have been studying how the ministry is about all aspects of life and not just the Bible and God. That ministry is studying and understanding how current affairs, culture and history come into play when sharing in ministry. The second module “Theology and Practice” is based on Christian ethics and apologetics. This has been highly interesting and controversial as there are no straight black and white answers only shades of grey in accordance with each individual topic or situation.  

Chris' Blog Homepage

PART 1 OXYGEN: [Sept 06 – July 07]

PART 2 KINGSTON URC/ROEHAMPTON: [August 07 – Nov 08]

PART 4 POINTS FOR PRAYER

UPDATE - Christmas 2008 - March 2009 (.pdf document format)