Message from our Minister, Sean Fountain
It is a great pleasure to be able welcome you to our Church website.
If you are visiting Clacton, why
not come and join us at Pier Avenue
Baptist Church, you are guaranteed a warm welcome.
Choppy Seas
I saw on the TV
the other day a news report about a new scheme for people who have a
fear of flying. The scheme involves people attending a series of
counselling sessions, meetings with pilots and then a test flight. On
the flight, they get to have a go at controlling the aircraft for
themselves. Many of the passengers said what a difference the
experience had made for them.
I have no problem
with aircraft, but boats are a different story! I start feeling sea-sick
as soon as I get near the water. I always try and spot the nervous
sailor as I get on a boat because there is safety in numbers. I have to
spot the life jackets. I count up how many women and children I will
have to fight so that I can get my life jacket. Not only do I need to
know the escape route I have to work out the route of least resistance!
A friend has a
lovely picture of me on a boat going to the Farne Islands to spot the
Puffins. I am easy to find, I am the one who is green in colour,
gripping the cabin of the boat for dear life!
Thankfully, I
have never experienced a storm at sea. I don’t know how I would cope
with it. For those disciples the storm on the lake was a terrifying
situation, even for experienced fishermen, and yet Jesus managed to
sleep through it. Only when the disciples managed to wake Him, did
Jesus stand up and order the wind and waves to stop.
Often, storms
will blow up in our lives. Some of them can be terrifying. Maybe you
have experienced the storm of worry, the storm of health, the storm of
unemployment. I like these words from John Ortberg;
"Peace
doesn’t come from finding a lake with no storms. It comes from having
Jesus in the boat."
And that can be
our experience, as we ask Jesus to come into our life situations we can
know the peace that only He can give.
God bless,
Sean
Our Mission Statement
 Our fellowship here in Clacton has a Mission Statement,
which summarizes what we stand for. It says that... Our Purpose
Is:
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To celebrate God's presence
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To communicate God's Word
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To educate God's people
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To demonstrate God's love
We have broken this down to explain it. Our
purpose is:
to celebrate God’s presence.
We do this whenever we meet for worship – mainly on Sundays at 10:30am &
6:00pm – but also at other times when we praise and worship God together.
It says we are here to communicate
God’s Word. We strongly believe in mission – both locally and
internationally, and we support all kinds of mission work, involving
practical caring as well as evangelism.
It says we aim to educate God’s
people. This we do through various youth and children's’
activities, through Bible study and House groups, and through our Sunday
teaching programme.
And it says we exist to
demonstrate God’s love. We truly want our Church to be a family, in
which Christian love is shared between every member, and through which
God’s love is shown to the local community and the world.
These are the principles we stand for, and we welcome
all who love the Lord Jesus Christ, and who share these aims, to join us
in serving God in Clacton.
As Baptists, we are part of the universal Church of
Jesus Christ – but we have our own distinctive practices too. Our name
comes from our belief that baptism is for 'believers' not babies. We
baptise those who profess a personal faith in Christ, and we do this by
'immersion' in water – not sprinkling. We also believe that each local
Church (fellowship) is independent, and we do not have bishops or a 'national' Church.
The committed members of each local Church have full responsibility to
support and finance its work.
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