News Items from the Last 6 Months

Romanian missionary Mircea Pestean is visiting the UK 1st -12th October along with his wife Maria.

Mircea is the leader of Maranatha Missions ,a group of 30 mainly small village churches deep in rural
Transylvania! Ron Hellyer and Mircea worked closely together for many years seeing many hundreds of people young and old come to know the Lord Jesus.

As part of this visit we are hosting a one day conference on 2nd October at Open Gate .
At 9 am there will be a Full English Breakfast cooked by the men - all are welcome.
Mircea will give an overview of the work, answer questions and whet our appetites for the evening meeting!
After the breakfast (approx. 11 am) we will be having a number of short interactive seminars for people interested in visiting Romania on Short Term Mission. Be prepared to have a go at the activities.

o Stand up and share your faith in 5 minutes .

o Use glove puppets to tell a bible story to children who don’t speak English.

o How do you conduct a bible study with woman who can’t read or write ?

o Q&A’s on Short Term Mission.

An evening service starting at 7.30pm where Mircea’s theme will be ‘From Communism to Christ.’
Mircea will talk about his country’s transition over the last 20 years, his personal testimony and the work of Maranatha Missions . Be prepared for an interesting and evangelistic evening. Please come and bring your friends,

All of the events are free of charge and open to anybody who is interested . For more details please see Jon Lex, Grog Heaton or Rick West.

Opengate Podcasts are now available as free donwloads from itunes. You can find them by searching for Opengate church. If you subscribe you will receive automatic updates every time a new sermon or other podcast is added.
You can also subscribe using the links on the resources page.

Have you ever been using a computer, and suddenly it gets stuck? It slows right down, or stops all together:

the screen freezes on a single image or goes blank...

the computer itself may be making all sorts of noises – grinding, groaning and humming away – but it doesn't seem to be getting anywhere.

If you work with computers a lot you'll already have an idea what to do.

Or if you contact your friendly IT guru, you'll probably be given the famous advice that seems to be the universal solution for all IT problems... the 'cure all' for computers:

'Switch it off and switch it back on again...'

A computer can be a complex thing. It has all these processes going on, all these messages and bits of information buzzing around, some half done, some conflicting with others, some hanging around with nothing to do, waiting for something to happen. When you switch it off and back on again, all that (hopefully) stops. It gets back to its basic state: things that don't need to be happening stop; things that should be happening are freed up and given more resources to really fly. The computer somehow manages to get its priorities back in order; its tasks are clarified and its conflicts resolved. It's the digital equivalent of a good spring clean.

It's called a 'reboot'.

It doesn't mean that the computer is bad or broken or hasn't got some really useful functions and programs still. It just means that perhaps things have got jammed up; perhaps things are not running as cleanly or as smoothly as they might.

Perhaps there's a lot more power and possibility in this computer and we are not seeing or using the half of it.

Life can sometimes get a bit like that jammed up computer. And church – which is an expression of all our individual lives and journeys combined – can do too. Sometimes perhaps we as church might need to be refocussed, re-envisioned, reinvigorated, repositioned, re-ordered, restored, revealed... renewed.

To be the church that the world needs and that the Spirit calls us to be, we need to be

Church: Rebooted


Church: Rebooted is a season and series of prayer, teaching, worship, meditation and seeking after the things of God, as we seek to reflect his love and salvation in our lives and community.

Some of our Brazilians will be leaving us during July and August and we will be having a farewell celebration for them on Friday 16th July at 8pm. Debora, who first arrived as an Opengate student 6 years ago will be returning to Pelotas at the end of July. Debora will be marrying Tiago, in Brazil, next Easter. Felipe will be moving to Edinburgh to serve in Leith Baptist Church alongside Eder and Marcelo, Lauren and Jaoa Mendiondo will be returning to Brazil in August. Everyone is welcome to come to the Church Lounge at 8pm for a time of worship, dance, testimony and a few nibbles on Friday 16th July.

Our July Family Day will be in Hotham Park. We will meet on the area that used to be Rainbows End at 11am for a time of worship, short word and fun and games. Bring a picnic lunch.

Opengate's Noah's Ark float won the Bognor Carnival's "Float entry" catagory. Thank-you to Dan and his team of helpers who spent many hours building a fantastic float, made costumes and joined in the procession as the carnival walked through the streets of Bognor.

We are planning to enter a float into the Illuminations Gala at the end of August. Keep checking the website for more information.

Local Artist, Chris Banks, would like to invite you to an exhibition and sale of her work on Saturday 26th June between 1 and 6pm; a variety and acrylic and watercolours. All proceeds will go towards sponsoring Chris's son Joel, who having got through the audition process has gained a place in the National Youth Theatre summer school. He now has a fantastic once in a lifetime opportunity.

This exhibition is by way of being a Mum's contribution to her son's future!

On July 18th we will be having a family event on the beach (no evening service). We will meet at the café by the beach huts at 4.30pm - be ready to enjoy yourself or just chill out. This is a great chance to connect & bring anyone who does not usually go to church.... More details will follow later, but make sure you have the date in your diary!

This year's Holiday Bible Club will run from July 27th - 30th from 10 am to 12 noon and will feature Bill and Bodge the Builder. All school age children from the age of 5 to 11 are welcome to come and enjoy a fun filled time that will include games, craft, songs and making new friends

• Download a registration form here

Our June Family Day will start with a breakfast. A relaxed breakfast with friends is a great way to start the day, especially if there are a few extra treats involved. So come to the church for a continental breakfast any time between 9.00 and 9.40 a.m. on Sunday 13th June. No need to bring anything other than a suggested donation of £1.50 which will cover a choice of croissants, pain au chocolat, brioches etc as well as your usual toast and marmalade, and a hot drink. We will stop serving at 9.50 in order to be ready for the service to begin.
There will then be a time of worship together in the church followed by Graham leading an introductory session using the DVD Breathe from the Nooma series by Rob Bell. We will then use the DVD as a basis for discussion led seminars.