Seasons of the Soul Series

Seasons of the Soul Series

Finding God in every season of life

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.
- Ecclesiastes

We all love to be in seasons of prospering, success and fruitfulness, where we sense God’s blessing on what we are doing. Of course! Most of us have also experienced seasons of suffering too, where external pressures or internal pressures can impact our sense of well-being and make us question what our lives are meant to look like. Seasons come and go and these ancient words from the book of Ecclesiastes tell us that all of this is normal human experience. It may be more accurate to say that parts of our lives can appear to be in different seasons - whilst one thing is dying, another may be coming to life.  Age sometimes seems to correlate with seasons, maturity bringing fruit into our lives that was elusive in younger years.

One idea that can help us navigate the ebb and flow of blessing and hardship in our lives is the idea that just as there are seasons in nature, our lives can follow similar patterns. A winter season can look very dark but God may be at work in the darkness doing essential work in us. Work we can cooperate with or resist. Some people talk about the ‘seasons of the soul’  --  if you had to choose the one you are currently in, what would you say?

This series is called Seasons of the Soul and is all about finding God in every season of life. The series is really asking the question ‘What is God doing in your lifeat the moment? How can you cooperate with the work of the Spirit in your life as he seeks to renew and heal your mind and body to make you more like Jesus?’ We want to give you an opportunity to think, reflect and pray about where you are at with God and allow him to work in the deeps of your soul.

Here’s what we’re hearing about each week in our messages on Sundays:

• Winter - 2nd February

• Spring – 9th February

• Summer – 16th February

• Autumn – 23rd February

Download our discussion notes to go deeper with the topics each week. This also includes recommended reading and signing up for our Wholeness Course as well:

• Seasons of the Soul Series - Discussion Notes (PDF)

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MESSAGES FROM THIS SERIES

Coming soon!

Wholeness Course Starts 25th Feb

Wholeness: Explore Identity

Explore how our lives can be established on the sure foundation of our God given identity. This is a course with stories of breakthrough, teaching, including our ‘Spiritual spring clean’ and opportunities for receiving prayer.

Our next Wholeness 1: Explore Identity course will be taking place over 6 weeks beginning the 25th February and running on Tuesday evenings from 8pm - 10pm at Woodlands. To sign up follow the link below.

To find out more about the wholeness course head to the webpage here.

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Hear some Testimony’s from the Wholeness Course

Immanuel Series: Life Giver | Tim Dobson | 15th December 2024 at 11am

Immanuel Series

God with us

People often go home for Christmas. No matter how many messages, virtual meetings, or posted cards and gifts - there is nothing like someone’s actual physical presence in the room. When someone you love comes home, tears often flow. Human beings are wired for this — we are reassured and filled with joy by touching, hearing and seeing someone in our time and space. When Jesus entered into human history he entered our reality, our circumstances, our families, our work lives, our most secret and public lives. And it changed everything.

This series aims to explore the mystery of Jesus entering our world.

Immanuel Series: Peace Bringer | Dave Mitchell | 8th December 2024 at 11am

Immanuel Series

God with us

People often go home for Christmas. No matter how many messages, virtual meetings, or posted cards and gifts - there is nothing like someone’s actual physical presence in the room. When someone you love comes home, tears often flow. Human beings are wired for this — we are reassured and filled with joy by touching, hearing and seeing someone in our time and space. When Jesus entered into human history he entered our reality, our circumstances, our families, our work lives, our most secret and public lives. And it changed everything.

This series aims to explore the mystery of Jesus entering our world.

Immanuel: Peace Bringer | Dave Mitchell | 14th December 2024 at 7pm

Immanuel Series

God with us

People often go home for Christmas. No matter how many messages, virtual meetings, or posted cards and gifts - there is nothing like someone’s actual physical presence in the room. When someone you love comes home, tears often flow. Human beings are wired for this — we are reassured and filled with joy by touching, hearing and seeing someone in our time and space. When Jesus entered into human history he entered our reality, our circumstances, our families, our work lives, our most secret and public lives. And it changed everything.

This series aims to explore the mystery of Jesus entering our world.

Immanuel Series: God with us | Dave Mitchell | 1st December 2024 at 11am

Immanuel Series

God with us

People often go home for Christmas. No matter how many messages, virtual meetings, or posted cards and gifts - there is nothing like someone’s actual physical presence in the room. When someone you love comes home, tears often flow. Human beings are wired for this — we are reassured and filled with joy by touching, hearing and seeing someone in our time and space. When Jesus entered into human history he entered our reality, our circumstances, our families, our work lives, our most secret and public lives. And it changed everything.

This series aims to explore the mystery of Jesus entering our world.

Immanuel: God with Us | Rachell Riddall | 1st December 2024 at 6.30pm

Immanuel Series

God with us

People often go home for Christmas. No matter how many messages, virtual meetings, or posted cards and gifts - there is nothing like someone’s actual physical presence in the room. When someone you love comes home, tears often flow. Human beings are wired for this — we are reassured and filled with joy by touching, hearing and seeing someone in our time and space. When Jesus entered into human history he entered our reality, our circumstances, our families, our work lives, our most secret and public lives. And it changed everything.

This series aims to explore the mystery of Jesus entering our world.

January Prayer Calendar

Pray each day

Each month, you’re invited to pray for church and all that is happening with our monthly Prayer Calendar. You can view and download the calendar below as a PDF.

Only one service on Sunday 29th Dec

Prayer Week: 19-26 January 2025

It’s Prayer Week from 19th - 26th January 2025 - let’s get praying and fasting!

You are invited to join the Woodlands Church Family for a dedicated week of prayer and fasting for our church, city, nation and the world. Let's remember the words of Jesus as we pray. Matthew 6 v 33: 'Seek First His Kingdom'.

As we start 2025, it feels wholly appropriate to gather together in one spirit to fast and pray and cry out to God for his kingdom to come here, as it is in heaven. It is a brilliant way to start the New Year, surrendering ourselves to God's goodness and power and his will for ourselves, our church and our world, which so desperately needs it.

There are a few key ways you can get involved throughout Prayer Week and we’d love everyone to take part.

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A Week of Prayer & Fasting

There are lots of ways to join in at home and in person. We’d love it if everyone in our church community got involved…

1. Book a slot in the 24/7 Prayer Room
   You can sign up to pray in hour long slots in our creative Prayer Room space in Woodlands Central. The Prayer Room opens on Sunday 19th January at 7pm.

2. Come to our Evening of Prayer & Worship
   Join people from all eight sites of the Woodlands Church Family on Tuesday 21st January from 7.45pm - 9.30pm in the Main Hall at Woodlands Central for an evening of prayer and worship. Our focus is to pray for all areas of the city to be transformed with the love and power of God and to pray for Unity for us and churches across the City.

3. Join in with Morning Prayer Watch from 7.15am - 8.15am
   Join us at Central from Monday to Friday, the 20th - 24th January for daily sessions hosted and led by different members of our staff team and church community as we pray for ourselves, our Church, our City and the World each morning.

4. Fast during Prayer Week
   The Bible teaches the value of fasting in order to focus on prayer and seek God’s will. We would like for our church family to think about fasting and make a plan for how this could fit into your routine during Prayer Week. It could be that you decide to fast a single meal, or fast for a day or even longer. To learn about fasting, watch this preach from Tim Dobson on Spiritual Disciplines: Fasting & Feasting. If you can only fast one meal or one day, why not fast with others on Tuesday 21st January ahead of the Evening of Prayer & Worship gathering.

5. Pray the Lord’s Prayer at Noon
   Set an alarm and say the Lord’s Prayer each day at 12pm along with hundreds of others in our church family.

6. Download our Prayer Guide
   Use our handy guide to help you focus and pray throughout the week.

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Praying for Our Churches

To help us pray across the Woodlands Church Family during Prayer Week, we asked the leaders of each church to share their prayer requests so that we can pray specifically for each of their needs. We’ll be posting these on Facebook once a day from Monday through Saturday. Please take some time this week to be praying for:

• Woodlands Central in Clifton

• The Community Church in Southmead

• Highgrove Church in Sea Mills

• Woodlands Metro in the City Centre

• Branch Community Church in Henbury/Brentry

• Woodlands Southside in South Bristol

• Hillside Church in Backwell

• Woodlands East in Easton - Launching on 2nd February 2025!

An Introduction to Reading the Bible Well - Tim Dobson

The Bible is an amazing book through which God can speak to us, but it can be tricky to understand in places. Here are some helpful tips to read the Bible well.

Discipleship in Mark's Gospel - with Peter Morden (Principal of Bristol Baptist College)

What does Mark have to say to help us with our life of discipleship?

November Bible School with Janey Lawry-White "God Vision for Women"

If you missed the Bible school Session in November with Janey Lawry-White, you can listen here

December Prayer Calendar

Pray each day

Each month, you’re invited to pray for church and all that is happening with our monthly Prayer Calendar. You can view and download the calendar below as a PDF.

Immanuel Series

Immanuel Series

God with us

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign:
The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
- Isaiah 7:14

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name
Immanuel, which means, God with us.
- Matthew 1:23

People often go home for Christmas. No matter how many messages, virtual meetings, or posted cards and gifts - there is nothing like someone’s actual physical presence in the room. When someone you love comes home, tears often flow. Human beings are wired for this — we are reassured and filled with joy by touching, hearing and seeing someone in our time and space. When Jesus entered into human history he entered our reality, our circumstances, our families, our work lives, our most secret and public lives. And it changed everything.

Perhaps still reeling from the experience he had just been through John started his letter with these words about Jesus: We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life.
- 1 John 1:1 NLT

C. S Lewis called earth ‘the visited planet’. This Christmas amongst the busyness and festivities we are taking time to ponder again the profound mystery of Jesus entry into our world. He is “Immanuel” which means “God is with us”.

Here’s what we’re hearing about each week in our messages on Sundays:

• 1st December: God With Us

• 8th December: Peace Bringer

• 16th December: Life Giver

Download our discussion notes to go deeper with the topics each week. This also includes recommended reading and a video to watch as well:

• Immanuel Series - Discussion Notes (PDF)

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MESSAGES FROM THIS SERIES

Monthly Men's Breakfast

Every month at Woodlands, we run a Men's Breakfast! This is a great opportunity for fellowship over a fry up. If you are curious to know more, or if you are already sold and want to sign up, get in touch with Martin here..

Volunteer Opportunity: Newcomers Admin

The Woodlands Church Family (WCF) is a vibrant, growing family of churches with seven sites located across the city of Bristol and a vision to plant more.

We are recruiting for volunteers to join our Newcomers Team to support the assimilation of new people to Woodlands Central. We’d love to hear from you if you’re interesting being part of the team.

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 ABOUT THIS VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITY

We are looking for administrative support for the Newcomers team. Ideally we would like someone who could commit to helping us 3 to 4 hours on a Monday and/or Tuesday, after our newcomers events. These happen once or twice each month on Sundays.

Key areas of work include:

• Administer the newcomers process by submitting new contact cards, inviting people to newcomer’s events and managing the process flow.

• Process newcomers after events, including uploading forms and photos to our database. 

Personal attributes and key skills

• Strong administration skills with an eye for detail

• Good written communication skills

• Administering confidential information in line with our Data Protection Policy

• Team player

Our volunteer roles require a commitment to be a follower of Jesus and a worshipping member of the Woodlands Church Family.

Support for this voluntary role

• In-house training on Data Protection and use of ChurchSuite database

• Open invitation to join in with our wider team meetings on Monday mornings where we gather together, worship, share good news stories and pray for one another.

Interested? Get in touch!
Please contact our Newcomers Team by emailing newcomers@woodlandschurch.net for an opportunity to meet and discuss the role further.

Vacancy for Senior Children & Families Lead

The Woodlands Church Family (WCF) is a vibrant, growing family of churches with six sites located across the city of Bristol and a vision to plant more. As we’ve grown, so too has our team, and we have an exciting opportunity for someone to join our team as Senior Children and Families Lead at Woodlands Central.

 As a Woodlands Church Family we aim to disciple children and families to be connected, confident and equipped.

1. Connected
We aim to help children and families to connect with Jesus, with one another in friendships, in relationships with the church community and with a sense of belonging.

2.  Confident
We aim to help disciple children to be confident in their knowledge of who God is, to have a sense of their own identity in Christ and therefore confident enough to ask questions, explore faith and be curious.

3. Equipped
We aim to equip and support parents as they disciple their children with the help of the Holy Spirit. We aim to equip children with tools to help them to pray, read the bible and experience the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. We want to equip them to own their own faith in Jesus, to obey Jesus and to be empowered ministers to the world around them. 

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About the Role
This position is a strategic leadership role to oversee and grow the Children’s and Families ministries at Woodlands Central. This involves leading, shaping and building an expanding children's ministry for children aged 0-11. This includes planning ministry programmes, events and outreach initiatives throughout the year. You will be responsible for communicating vision to the church. You will lead and line manage the staffed Children’s Team and through them recruit, train and support a large team of volunteers. You will oversee the families ministry including daytime groups and events, equipping parents to disciple their children in the home. 

Candidates should be highly motivated, enthusiastic, able to take initiative, work well in a team and be passionate to see children grow in their faith.

Requirements: This role requires a commitment to be a follower of Jesus and either a member of the Woodlands Church Family or another local church.

To find out more about this role, download the following documents:

• Role Summary & Terms

• Job Description

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Terms
This is a permanent position contracted at a minimum of 3 days per week (22 hours 30 mins) with the possibility of more hours being added and the role potentially becoming a full-time position.

The salary band for this role is £30,000 pro rata, depending on experience. The annual holiday entitlement is 25 days pro rata plus 8 days bank holiday pro rata.

The role will be based at Woodlands Church in Clifton, Bristol.

The post is subject to satisfactory references.

We have a legal responsibility to ensure that all our employees have the legal right to live and work in the UK. Therefore, please only apply if you are eligible to work in the UK as we will have to verify this before you can start work.

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How to apply

The closing date for applications is midnight on Thursday, 2nd January 2025. However, this vacancy will close once we have sufficient applications. 

Please contact Nigel Savage, one of our Senior Leaders at Woodlands Central (nigel.savage@woodlandschurch.net) if you have any questions about the role.

If shortlisted, interviews will take place at Woodlands Church on the morning of Friday, 17th January 2025.

 For an application form please contact our HR Administrator Jenny Hanley at hr@woodlandschurch.net

Please send your completed application to Nigel Savage (nigel.savage@woodlandschurch.net) and out HR Lead Julia Shrimpton hr@woodlandschurch.net.

November Prayer Calendar

Pray each day

Each month, you’re invited to pray for church and all that is happening with our monthly Prayer Calendar. You can view and download the calendar below as a PDF.

Calling all Christmas Choir & Brass Player

We’re getting ready for Christmas at Woodies and are looking for people to join our choir and brass band for the Carols by Candlelight services happening on:

14th December (7pm)
15th December (5pm & 7pm)

Choir rehearsals will be on Monday nights in the Upper Hall from 7.30pm - 9pm on the following dates: 
11th November  
18th November
25th November
(No rehearsal 2nd December due to the 'Big Singalong' rehearsal) 
9th December

Would you like to get involved? Find out how below…

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WANT TO JOIN THE CHRISTMAS CHOIR?
For the Christmas choir, ideally you’d have the ability to read music and some experience of singing in a choir. This is helpful, but not essential. You do have to be able to sing in tune and hold a part.
Email our Worship Pastor Jo Demcolli for more information.

ARE YOU A BRASS BRAND PLAYER?
If you are a a brass player at a grade 7 standard or higher, please get in touch with Nigel Savage for more information.