Wilson Street Baptist Church

Location: Wilson Street, Timaru
Denomination: Baptist
Website: www.wilsonstreet.org.nz
Church Services: Sunday 9.00 am; 10.30 am; 7.00 pm
Groups: Youth Group, Children’s Group, lots of small groups

My own visit

Date: 28/11/04

Service: Sunday, 9.00 am

The building: This is an A-frame church with high roof. Red brick walls from the base of the building. A stained glass window lightens the entrance lounge, while a huge glass frontage forms the back of the wall of the auditorium.

The décor: Along the central section of the high roof green windows allow the light to enter. Otherwise the roof is wood-panelled. The walls are white with red brick columns at regular intervals. Three crosses hang on the recessed, white front wall. Banners to the side of those say “Welcome to Wilson Street” and “Jesus”. The screen for the projector is adjacent to the “Jesus” banner. All these focus the centre of attention to the front of the church with its elevated platform. The music group is also at the front but towards the side, with a wooden railing there preventing anybody from falling off the podium. The wooden pews are all covered by long cushions. The floor is also wooden.

Smiling face at the door: Yes, and even a handshake before the newsletter was thrust into my hand.

Start of service: The band started to sing a song and gradually the people got up and joined in. At this stage more and more people entered the church.

Congregation (approx) 0-12: 5; 13-20: 20; 20-40: 18; 40-60: 25; 60+: 10

Liturgy: none

Music: mainly modern worship songs. Some of them were quite rhythmic and demanding heavy work from the drummer. At one stage a few young girls started hopping around, as is apparently usual for this particular song. Towards the end a hymn was sung.

The worship leader really got into the swing of things and hammered away on his keyboard. It was a pity that in his enthusiasm he sometimes seemed to have left the congregation behind.

Instruments: keyboard, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums. Some of the musicians were also singing into their microphones, plus there were 3 extra singers.

Children’s Talk: None. Did children go to second service or straight away to Kidz Club?

Sermon:
-Length: 19 min
-Method: Very animated preacher, trying to bring the excitement across. He used power-point slides and drawings on the board to bring his message across. It felt however as if he sometimes was searching for words, after he exhausted what he really wanted to say. The preacher used the text to answer some questions for the church today.
-Bible reading: Acts 1:14; 2:1-13; 2:41-42.

-Content: Do you relish to be in a place where you can see the destiny of those who have rejected Jesus? It is not a nice knowledge.

Church has been given the command by Jesus to go into the community (Matthew 28:18-20). The mission is to communicate the message of Jesus (the gospel) in such a way that people will understand. God has given us an exciting, liberating message.

The world in which we live is in constant change and the language changes, too. There are some biblical principles to help us communicate the message:

1. They prayed – there is a spiritual dimension. If the churches of Timaru prayed together there would be a huge change.
2. Holy Spirit Empowered – the believers were given the filling of the Holy Spirit. They were given a new language.
3. People understood them – they heard them in their own language. Imagine somebody from Mesopotamia back then. Jerusalem and its customs and language were quite foreign to him. And suddenly he heard somebody talk his own language. He would have been drawn to that.
4. People saw the Message. Example: Peter healing the lame beggar. There were clear signs of the message.
5. People saw the Message in other lives (Mt 514-16). Let the things you do shine for all people to see.

We are in a generation that sees rather than listens. In church we seem to be saying: “Listen, listen, listen!”, but we should say “watch, watch, watch!”.

The preacher then told a few stories. There was once a supervisor in an abortion clinic, who was quite a bitter woman. A few Christians thought about how they could help her. They found out that she was a solo mum, and so they brought her a back-seat full of groceries. She just wept at the kindness and asked them to pray for her. The gift softened her heart.

We need to live out the power of the gospel. People see the power of God in our lives.

Other Highlights: A young woman was about to go on a trip to India. The congregation was informed what she’d do. She asked for prayer and support in fundraising efforts.

The congregation is looking at building alterations so that it can serve the community better. A plan of proposed new complex was in the newsletter and the pastor explained it briefly. They also asked for prayer here, as they did not want to start anything which God did not want them to do.

Wrap-up: A hymn after the sermon, then a prayer and a blessing. People were told to go out joyfully.

After the service: I spoke with a few people who were sitting beside me and then moved out to the foyer for morning tea. Meanwhile the first people for the second service arrived.

Quality of morning tea: They not only had hot drinks, but also a choice of cordials available.

Reflection: The church seems to feel that to have a greater impact in the community, new facilities are required. It certainly is an expanding church, and therefore has introduced the two services on Sunday morning. But rather than a larger auditorium, the new plans bring especially a more co-ordinated approach to the whole complex with more space for other activities. It also includes a Café.

The sermon focused especially on living out the gospel and thereby showing Christ to others. This is one of the biggest challenges in the life of a Christian. So often we find ourselves short of what Christ calls us to be. So often the actions of Christians are not very inviting at all. Of course, the message of Christ will cause offence, but more often it is that Christians do not fully live out the grace that God has shown to them. In a world in which there is a lot of prejudice against Christians and their message, our life-witness is the more important.

Today is the 1st Sunday of Advent. Except to one reference to Christmas carols nothing in the service pointed to this time of expectation of the Messiah, the time of preparation for Christmas. Have we lost the value of the church’s seasons, so that one day just flows into the next, without times to remember particular aspects of our life and the Christian message? How can we celebrate Christmas without knowing something of the expectation?