- Westcliff Baptist Church
- 560 London Road
- Westcliff on Sea
- Essex
- SS0 9HS
01702 340532
News & Views
Week of Prayer
Our first week of prayer of 2012 has just come to and end; thanks to everyone who has been involved in leading, organising or just coming along each evening. Every few months in our church we set aside a week where we put an extra focus on prayer. We try to provide an opportunity for people to come together once a day from Sunday to the following Friday. Prayer is our way of communicating with God, when we take time to acknowledge his presence, open our thoughts, minds and spirits to him, talk to him and listen for what he has to say to us. It is a two way conversation not just a monologue! 
Ideas
It would be good to have some ideas for 2012. What have you enjoyed back in 2011? What would you like to do again or to do more of? What have we not tried as a fellowship that you think would be something good to do together? If you have any helpful suggestions or plans then please speak to one of the deacons and let them know.
And who are these deacons? Because we are a church in "Pastoral Vacancy" (that means without a minister at the moment) the responsibilities of leadership fall on the deacons, elected by the church to take on this role, and the moderator (Peter Alexander a member of Fryerns Baptist Church in Shoebury) who is a retired Baptist Minister who oversees things. The deacons are Tracy, Gordon, Gareth, Sobantu, Andy and Linda plus they are helped and supported by our treasurer Carol. You will usually see one of them stand up and give the notices on a Sunday morning. They are friendly and approachable and do not bite!
If you want to speak to them about church, faith, concerns, needs, prayer requests and so on, they are there to serve, support and build up the church in these ways. They meet at least once a month to discuss and plan for the future of the church. At the moment they are also having extra meetings to discuss and meet possible new ministers for the church. Please keep them in your prayers for their own personal relationships with God to be close and strengthened, for wisdom, understanding, energy and patience.
Baptism & Church Membership
It's always good to see people join us at WBC. Some choose to just come along and enjoy what goes on, some choose to take an active part, some choose to seriously pursue their faith and follow the example of Jesus from the Bible by being baptised. After that, some also choose to become church members. What do baptism and membership entail? Why bother? What difference does it make? If you are wondering about any of this then we are planning to use our Thursday evening meetings in February to talk through what baptism and membership of a Baptist Church is all about. Please watch out for the Sunday morning notices to give you specific dates and times or ask a deacon or the person shaking hands at the door on your way in or out.
And if you smell Pizza...
The Youth Group spent the evening cooking (and no doubt eating) pizzas on Saturday 14th Jan... Did they save any for us? They did however share their wonderful mince pies at Christmas and they led our worship so well on Sunday 4th December with their ‘Biscuit Service; naturally we are looking to book them up again soon!