A place to relax, chat and enjoy good coffee and music whilst experiencing a short presentation on the Christian faith.
What it is not:
A cult or religious agenda asking you to change church or spend money!
Why Devine Exchange?
Over the years religion has played its part; both positively and negatively in shaping our communities. However, many people feel that the true message of Jesus has been snowed under mountains of tradition, misconception, confusion and misunderstanding.
Devine Exchange wants to strip away the clutter and invite you, not to a religion, but a relationship with Jesus.
Topics:
What’s the point? Living with hope Poverty, injustice and Jesus Jesus and Dividing Walls Divine conspiracy: death and resurrection of Jesus A companion for life: travelling with Jesus The gift of Christmas
Today I recieved the 1st part of the Foundational Year of Poterbrook Learning. Looking foreward to studying it and applying it within the life of Living Room.
It is amazing to see the power of generosity when is released, it is life transforming.
Life is hard and for many life is hopeless. We live in a part of the city where we have high lives of suicide, unmployment, crime, and low educational achivement. So why are we here?
We are here because we believe that hope can be found, and when hope is found it becomes contagious. But hope in what? Hope that one day I will win the lottery, that I will have the best job in the world, hope to have everything so that I cannot work anymore, ist that hope? That kind of hope is conditional, it does not last and it dissapoints. Son when things don't work out, and what we hope for does not happen we tend to become bitter, cynical, and resentful. We blame God or we blame ourselves.
This week we experienced the power of generosity and that power is giving birth to hope in God.
We want to explore and ask the question: Who is Jesus?
Jesus means many thing to many people and all have an idea of who we is, was and will be. Different religions have an idea of him, yet the ironically he asked his followers this same question: Who do you say I am?
We are going to explore this during this month and next one in order to have a reality check of who this man was, is and will be.
We are going to read therefore the first 8 chapters of the Gospel of Mark.
To be brutally honest we want to explore his claims and see how that will challenge our understanding of him. If he is true and what he says is truth, then that has an impact in how I live my life, within my family, my community, my work, my hobbies, my day, my dreams, hope and my future.
We are saying goodbye to our Belfast Bible College students who became part of the the Living Room Church Planting Project. Matias, Susan and Naomi we wish you all the very best as you carry on with your studies and seek the Lord in your future ministry. Matias and Susan were able to join with us every Sunday in our gathering and they helped with the Parenting Course in Cliftinville Integrated Primary School.
Matias wrote: "We were particularly glad to be involved in what the Lord did through a Parenting Course that was offered to Cliftonville community through the school and run by “The Living Room” Church (where we served through this year). It was great to see a good number of parents who set aside an hour a week to learn more about their role as parents through a good time of discussion and mutual enhancement. Although most of them didn’t consider themselves as religious people, they wanted to hear about good parenting ways in order to enrich their relationship in Belfast with their children and guide them through good paths".
Thank you for being part of the Living Room and for Living to Share the Love of Jesus in our mist and community.
Creating Communities At the heart of the Living Room is creating a community of Faith that relevantly reaches out to the community we are called to serve. For that reason it has been crucial for us to know more about the nature and of community and its complexities. We are placed in one of the most deprived wards in Belfast, yet that does not mean that everything is hopeless. I have seen real hope from people who really have a heart for this community. I have seen visionaries in this community dreaming of a better future for those who live here. I have talked to community workers wanting to see true transformation and trust being built with the different traditions that populate North Belfast. In partnership with the our Local School we ran a Parenting evening event, with a disco for pupils from nursery to P4. We had around 80 adults coming and I had the opportunity to share with them about Hope, Vision and Transformation. We will repeat this event for the P5 to P7 the 14th April and we are hoping that we will have a good response, hoping that a number of them will sign up to the next parenting course. At the heart of every community there is trust. That is what we are building here with the Living Room. We are doing that by serving the community by our involvement with Cliftonville Community Regeneration Forum. By actively being involved with our Primary School and in the very near future involved with our Local Football Club. We are creating communities by praying to our Lord on behalf of this community. By taking every opportunity to share our story. By becoming a positive influence trusting in God to move powerfully in us and in the lives of those whom meet. We do it by praying to the Lord will send people with a servant heart to the Cliftonville area. It is our hope and vision the transformation of individuals and communities. We believe that this only possible through the Gospel. We are confident that God is building his Kingdom here yet he is not doing it with our best ideas or best possible programs but as we humble ourselves before Him. “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7.14. ESV
Catching up... During these last months lots has happened in the Living Room and to bring you up to date here are some of the things that I want to share with you: After Alpha. We run an after Alpha Course with those who attended our Alpha pilot, it was a great experience for all of us involved. CAP. We have carry on working with Christian Against Poverty and supporting those who are benefiting from it. At the present we are almost finishing out CAP Life Healing Choices Bible Course with some of our clients. This has being a great encouragement as they have experienced spiritual support. We delivered door to door CAP leaflets and through our Local Primary School. Christmas. We had two important events during last year’s Christmas. We had an open house and many ofneighbors came for mince pies and mulled wine, and we presented a gift to “Let Youth Lead”, a local youth organization that works with youngster in our community (see picture below). Parenting Course. At the present we are running the 21st Century Parenting Course from Care for the Family we have a group of 10 parents coming every Thursday afternoon and evening. It has has been a great place to establish friendships and support.
We believe that the Bible is the Word of God for any given generation and for every culture. That is why we will be soon creating a permanent link with different Bible sites so that we can have access to it. For that reason we want to introduce this link to you.
