Today is the final Sunday of our church leaders Majors Richard and Caroline Mingay. Richard brings the Bible message and speaks about the lasting imperative and deep meaning of this Cross for us, for our church and for our Community. The cross must always be central.

The theme of our worship is ‘Choosing Joy’. We make so many conscious choices daily and I wonder how many of those choices are to do with our spiritual attitude and well-being?

I have preached before about the importance of being a life-giver. There is nothing more attractive than a person who is positive and generous, who sees the best in others and in their own situation. Choosing Joy is an intensely spiritual act. It has past, present and future dynamics:

We choose joy because we consciously remember what God has done for us;

we choose joy because as a consequence such joy is a present reality;

we choose joy because the Hope of Christ is everlasting – there is a future dimension.

This is no ordinary joy. This is the JOY of the Lord Jesus Christ, the JOY He promised us. As we delve deeper into these thoughts, my prayer is that you will each choose and experience the joy of the Lord now and forever.

Major Richard Mingay

Today is the first of our two Vision Sundays per year when our worship, prayer and teaching focusses on different aspects of Regent Hall's theology of welcome:

"We will be a visible, vibrant church bringing God’s transforming welcome to life in the world, in the heart of London and in to people’s lives"

Because today, sadly, is the last Regent Hall Vision Sunday for Richard and I, we're going to go full circle and return to the first Vision Sunday teaching focus back in May 2019 when this particular season in the life of the corps first began. And this will hopefully provide opportunity to think and pray about how far we've come so far!

Major Caroline Mingay

Trinity Sunday is the annual Christian festival celebrating the doctrine of the Trinity or ‘God who is three-in-one and one-in-three’. Introduced in the ninth century, at a time when faith and belief was under threat, Trinity Sunday reminds us to be good guardians of the non-negotiables of Christian faith.

Today our Bible message is given by the Regent Hall Community Engagement leader, Emma Neil.

Pentecost – the birthday of the Church! It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and other followers of Jesus while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks as described in the book of Acts.

God knew that when Jesus went up to heaven, his followers would need access to the same power that Jesus had and so he sent the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2: 4 says,

‘When the day of Pentecost came, the believers were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like a mighty rushing wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where thy were sitting. They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.’

Those people present at the first Pentecost had encountered Jesus and were empowered by the Holy Spirit to go and out and win others for Christ, that same power is ours today so let’s celebrate the birthday of the church and then go out there and make a difference for Jesus!

Major Alison Stone

This week I conclude our series considering worshipping God with our senses by speaking about the sense of taste. What does the Bible teach about taste and how we worship God?

Certainly, you might think of the stories of the children of Israel and how they ate manna in the desert – the manna that came directly from God. Here was divine provision of sustenance. Then we remember how Jesus changed water into wine. Here was a Kingdom story, again of provision, that reminds his followers of the new spirit and life that would be available through his eventual death and resurrection. Note the symbolism of the manna / bread and the wine here.

But what about you and me today? How consciously do we go deeper in our understanding and appreciation of Christ’s work for us, when we physically participate in tasting food? We look forward to exploring this question further together in worship and truth.

Psalm 119 says: “How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! From Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.”

May God bless and inform our understanding by His Word today!

Major Richard Mingay

Today we continue our series ‘Worshipping God with our senses’ , focussing on the sense of smell; smell, so often mysterious and intimate with the power to attract or repel us. I’m sure that even sitting here reading this, you can bring to mind sweet (and not-so-sweet) smells which evoke memories and experiences of people and places you love, or even find difficult.

Sadly, the bible is meagre in its references to smell and our hymnology is not great either – but digging deeper, it becomes clear that God has a sense of smell! And, as importantly, as human beings we are gifted an amazing olfactory system meant to be a sacred pathway through which we can worship God and communicate God’s welcome to the world.

So let’s pay loving attention to this gift of smell which we so often undervalue (until, of course, it’s taken away by illness), and let it teach and train us again to appreciate who God is for us. And let us be, as Paul says, a ‘Christ-like fragrance rising up to God ...’ (2 Corinthians 2:15).

Major Caroline Mingay

One of the things people have missed during the lock downs and even still now, is physical touch. To be able to hug those that we love has been something many of us have missed greatly. Even greeting each other with a handshake has been off limits and so ‘elbow bumping’ some how seems to be the thing to do!

We’re looking at ‘Worshipping God through our Senses’ - a five week series covering how we can worship God through sight, sound, touch, smell and taste. This week we are thinking about the sense of touch.

We’re going to use three stories from Matthew’s gospel, two where Jesus touches others and one when someone touches the garment Jesus was wearing and all three people were changed forever after those encounters.

Major Alison Stone

We continue our series: ‘Worshipping God with our senses’. Here, I shall be considering thoughts around hearing and listening.

I want to say right at the outset that God still speaks! In a world that both demands and attracts our attention in a myriad different ways, our ears, hearts and minds are not always attuned to physically listening out for a Word from the Lord.

However, God’s sound can be heard audibly if only we know how to listen. Sometimes this takes discipline. It often involves summoning a quiet consciousness – finding time and space to concentrate on what is speaking to you about God and consequently, what is urging you on to worship God.

A deep spiritual skill is distinguishing between the voice of God and the voices which are not of God. The writer Henri Nouwen suggests that ‘the more faithful we are to our vocation (as Christians) the easier such distinguishing will become. Do not despair’

The Bible has many and varied verses which speak of the sound of God, his voice and presence. We will prayerfully explore this wonderful topic together in our worship. Thank you for being with us. ‘If you have ears, come and hear!’

Major Richard Mingay

Today we commence a five-week series on Worshipping God with our senses. This is fascinating stuff! More than that, it is deeply spiritual. Scripture is full of references that speak of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and touching.

In this series Ali, Caroline and I will be exploring each one of these senses and how they enhance our experience and worship of God. For some, the past year of Lockdown may have heightened these senses, for others they will have been dulled. Our prayer is that through God’s Word to us here, we might really delve deep into our feelings and there find God in Christ at the very depth of who we are with all our faults yet also, with all our gifts.

In this Bible message we consider ‘Sight’ focussing on Isaiah’s great vision of God in Chapter six of his book. As Saint Matthew’s Gospel says: ‘blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. May that be so for us all.

Major Richard Mingay