The Tuesday night house group started in September and its theme for the first three months was clothes. We looked, amongst other things, at God sewing clothes for Adam and Eve, The Prodigal son being given a robe by is father, Dorcas and her clothes dyes and linen 'stories'.
All involved wanted the group to continue. We broke for the Christmas Period but started again on Tuesday January 24th, currently meeting at Gill Mayes' house, 67 Grays Lane, while we are away. We are looking at eight people who had encounters with Jesus based on a Scripture Union booklet. This should take us up to Lent. The discussion lasts for about an hour followed by a time of prayer. All are welcome and in our absence more details can be obtained from Gill.
If you're interested in coming to a house group, come along and try it for yourselves. Don't worry if you can't make every Tuesday you will always be very welcome.
Joyce and Peter Bleasby.
Because the Editor got a little muddled - (not unusual!) I managed to get two articles on this subject, one from Joyce and Peter and one from John Maguire. In order to help me feel a little better about prevailing upon John to write one, I am including some of his thoughts on the matter as well!
"We meet every Tuesday during term time at 8pm for between 1 and 1½ hours, except when church meetings are held. I have never attended a house group before and I've found it really useful. Hearing historical context to well known verses gives greater insight and we all hear different messages as well! We then have prayer points to focus on and then a time for open prayer.
We recommenced the group on the 24th January and we would welcome you joining us, quite a friendly group really. Anybody reading this who does not know my sense of humour, let me interpret what 'quite a friendly group really' means! The group is open, inclusive and very friendly, and no matter your depth of Christian knowledge, you would be warmly welcomed as we all have a different, Spirit led perspective.
RULES YOU MUST OBEY! - okay that title was just to make sure you keep reading! Come when you can, bring a bible if you can, be ready to listen, talk if you wish and learn more about Christ Jesus and the Bible.
John Maguire
(This article, sent to Outlook by Brian Tucker, was taken from 'Society Now' - Magazine of the Economic and Social Research Council - Autumn 2011, Issue 11, P.8.)
In the study, researchers undertook the first systematic assessment of a growing body of research on this topic, using meta-analysis, a technique that measures the strength of the link between materialism and wellbeing across all the studies that contain quantifiable measures.
"Our findings show that a strongly materialistic orientation is linked to lower wellbeing." says researcher Dr. Helga Dittmar. "Crucially, materialism is linked significantly with negative effects on all dimensions of personal wellbeing including poorer life quality, a less positive sense of self, poorer mental and physical health, and dysfunctional consumer behaviour. Hence we found, for example, that strong materialistic values were linked with feeling less satisfied with life, experiencing more negative emotions, as well as feeling greater anxiety and depression. This link held across different age groups."
Many people are unaware of the psychological and social costs that a strongly materialistic outlook may entail. "As a society we should be wary of inculcating excessively materialistic values - particularly through advertising which implies that the pursuit of materialistic goals is the way to become successful, attractive and happy", says Dr. Dittmar.
"Given our findings, the influence of these materialistic messages on young people is particularly worrisome," she adds. "Advertising for under 12s is banned in Sweden and the possibility of adopting this type of measure in the UK, combined with greater educational input on the potential dangers of materialism for both adults and children, should now be explored."
