IT'S EVANGELISM YEAR!

Welcome to the Evangelism Year of Vision4Life, the third of three years that we hope will start to transform the United Reformed Church, and our partners, for mission. We began with the Bible Year, and continued with prayer year. Re-engaging with the Bible and prayer have not stopped, but equip us for evangelism as we discover fresh ways of sharing God’s story with our friends and neighbourhoods.

The Evangelism Year runs from Advent 2010 to December 2011.

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Reprint of booklets

We are pleased to announce a small reprint of the Exploring Evangelism booklet and limited numbers are now available again. Please contact Tracey Hardingham for details or to order copies.

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Forums

Forums are on the way

We are still trying to set up a new forum on this site so please bear with us - we hope to give you a chance to have your say very soon. In the meantime if you want to feedback on any part of the site, please go to the Contact Us page on the main menu, or the Feedback page under Bible Year.

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Seasons - Advent & Christmas

Seasonal Prayer material

Designed to provide prayer ideas for specific times of the year. Some will also have a wider relevance so could be used at any time e.g. during advent we reflect on the themes of waiting and hope, summer provides input on healing and retreats and Harvest focuses on prayer for evangelism.

Advent & Christmas

Our first season looks forward to Advent and Christmas, though there are a number of resources already there as the season progresses this will be added to.


Prayer Station for Advent

Here is a group of ideas, which can be used together; stand alone or as part of a bigger event during advent that will help you set up a series of prayer stations.

Download advent-prayer-station.pdf

Ipswich Road URC, Norwich have produced a small 3 fold card to go with the Advent Prayer Stations

Download AdventPrayerStationsCard.pdf

Continue reading
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Prayer Year Image Gallery

This is a selection of the images produced for the Vision4Life Prayer Year. Click on any image to view and right click on the resulting image to download.
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TLS Gateways into Evangelism

Mothering Sunday

It can be quite a challenge to produce a service for Mothering Sunday, which falls mid-way through Lent. In this document you will find an order of service, suggested prayers, reflections and activities and a letter of invitation that you may adapt to your own situation.

Download mothering sunday.pdf
These are  rewritten versions of the accompanying bible stories

Download stories for MotheringSunday.pdf
Oxfam are suggesting we use mothers day as a opportunity to raise (political) awareness about maternal health. The aim is to lobby to encourage politicians to ensure we meet Millennium Development Goal 5 to reduce the maternal mortality rate by three-quarters between 1990 and 2015. The suggestion is that the children send a mothers day card to make sure they know how important the health of newborn babies and their mothers around the world is.
Click here for more details

Praying with Pretzels

This activity is a variation on the bread making prayer in the Prayer toolkit and explores pretzel making as a prayerful activity during Lent. Pretzels are originally Lent food – not the little ones that we buy as snacks from the supermarket, but big soft breads in the same shape.

Download praying with pretzels.pdf

Wilderness God

Going into the wilderness, desert or wild place is a theme often visited in Lent. Here are some prayers around that theme that could be used by individuals or groups.

Download wilderness god.pdf

Lenten Reflections

There are two documents here. The first is a selection of 3 reflections for use in Lent.

Download lenten reflections.pdf
The second is a large collection of reflections and prayers for Lent, offered by the Silence and Retreats Group - a veritable gold-mine of useful materials.

Download Lenten Reflections SRCollection.pdf

Lent and Easter Prayer Stations

Here are some prayer stations which can be used during Lent or the run up to Easter. They might also be useful for those doing the 24/7 prayer event in Holy Week.

Download Lent Easter prayer stations.pdf

Lent and Easter Meals

This material offers a plan for five meals to share during Lent. You might want to use these meals as a time of preparation on the run up to the 24/7 prayer initiative in Holy Week
Download Lent meals.pdf
Download Lent Meals booklet version.pdf

Counting the cost


Counting the Cost, an exciting new Lenten resource from Commitment for Life

Download Do something positive this Lent.pdf or link directly to the Commitment for life site below

Holy Week Prayers

This material provides some prayers and meditation that can be used by individuals or groups during Holy Week. The week is divided into two to cover the first and last half of Holy Week.

Download Holy Week prayers a - first half.pdf
Download Holy Week prayers b - second half.pdf

Worst Week

Some bible and prayer material to help you to reflect on the beginning of Holy Week. We know that at the end of this week we will have cause for celebration – but we also know that our celebration will be empty and just about meaningless unless we first walk with Jesus through the fear and the betrayal and the pain of Holy Week.

Download worst week.pdf

Easter Day

A reflection for Easter Day for use by individuals or groups.

Download Easter Day.pdf

Resurrection Sketch

To provide reflection on the story of the Resurrection for an all-age service for Easter

Download resurrection sketch.pdf

A friend who walks our way

To explore our understanding of mission in light of the Emmaus story and to examine how we can respond to this in prayer.

Download a friend who walks our way.pdf
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Who do you think you are - all age

This is an all age version of one of the main courses which you can download, see the Who do you think you are - all age pdfSelect from the menu on the right or view the Bible Year Menu Card

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Introduction for newcomers

Vision4 Life - What's all the noise about?
‘How can we become a vibrant and sustainable Christian community within the next ten years?’ That’s the question Catch the Vision posed for us all back in 2003, and this year we can all start answering it. We’ve moved on from simplifying our church structures to something nearer the heart of things for many of us – how to breathe new life into local congregations.
So what is the introductory year, until December 2008, about?
Four colourful booklets of taster material were published in February and sent out widely through the denomination. These are designed to help local churches find ways of talking together about some of the things we know should be central to our church life, but which we don’t always do as well or as often as we should. One booklet looks at the Bible, one at prayer and another at evangelism – or the way we tell our faith stories. The fourth booklet includes ideas for how to get your congregation to the point of deciding to ‘sign up’ for Vision4Life, as well as some ideas for a service once you have done so.
From responses received it seems many churches have been waiting for something like this to help them in addressing what their congregation is doing now and where God wants it to be in the future. Not only that, when we Christians do similar things at the same time as one another there is an opportunity for God to bless our shared experiences in a way that cannot happen when we do our thinking individually and at different times.
The next stage of Vision4Life starts with Advent 2008 with a year focusing on the Bible. A menu of materials will be sent to every congregation this autumn and fuller versions of what is on offer will be available in print and on the website as the year unfolds. Some congregations will probably want to get more involved than others and as with the introductory material the resources will be designed in ways that make them adaptable to local needs. It is up to each congregation to think through how to feed some of these ideas into the various networks and age groups they have among them.
From Advent 2009 there will be a year focused on prayer, and in Advent 2010 a year centred around evangelism begins. The hope is that by December 2010, building on what we have already done, we should feel more confident to address the sharing of our faith stories which is one of the activities we seem to find most difficulty with.
If this is something your church is already doing and you feel you don't need Vision4Life, then the encouragement is to still GET INVOLVED AND SIGN UP! It may be you already have your own materials you are using and that is just fine. This is not a programme but a process designed to help the church focus on these three crucial areas of our faith. So study what the bible means to you sometime during 2008/9, use you own materials, interact with other churches on the website and get stuck in. Encourage others who will find the V4L materials important to helping them move forward. But do join in.
THE TIMETABLE…
  • Advent 2008 – Year One, focussed on the Bible, begins…
  • Year Two materials with support events for planners available from September '09
  • Advent 2009 – Year Two, with an added focus on Prayer, begins
  • Year Three materials with support events for planners available from September '10
  • Advent 2010 – Year Three, adding a focus on telling faith stories for evangelism, begins
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Southwold Awareness Trail

Scrapbooking is a popular hobby and craft technique that can be used by all ages and abilities. In this activity you are invited to explore the Bible stories people remember using scrapbooking.
Select from the menu on the right or view the Bible Year Menu Card
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