Morning Service - Sunday 14th April

A few tips to help us look after ourselves during troubled times

The Healthy Mind Platter

This platter contains the 7 daily activities that make up a complete set of ‘mental nutrients’ needed to keep our brains and relationships functioning at their best.

Breathing into stress exercise

We all experience times of stress and anxiety, as humans we have a natural tendency to want to avoid or escape these uncomfortable feelings and lots of us adopt patterns from an early age to help us cope. For example some of us might try and regain a sense of control by working extra hard, striving to achieve but eventually reaching burnout, while some of us might try to numb our feelings by over indulging in food, alcohol or Netflix! While this is normal, it isn’t always the healthiest way of dealing with difficult times and can lead to us damaging ourselves or our relationships.

Instead of turning away from our difficult feelings and stress – if we turn towards it and face it – we often find its not quite as overwhelming as we feared and we tend to recover much quicker. One key way of dealing with difficult emotions and stress instead of burying them is to bring more AWARENESS to them.

If we then bring an attitude of CURIOSITY to our stress, it can really help to not get so caught up in automatic pilot when we then get pulled into our usual avoidance patterns. Here is a simple exercise using the breath (something that can always be used to calm and ground us to the present moment)

• The moment you notice you are feeling stressed or anxious or overwhelmed, PAUSE for a few moments and be CURIOUS about it
• Where in your body is this feeling located? (might be your head, your throat, your abdomen etc)
• What words would you use to describe this feeling? (might be constricted, tight, pressure, heat, restlessness etc)
• How would you rate this level of discomfort (on a scale of 0-10)
• Is the feeling more on the right side, or the left side, is it more to the back or the front of your body?
• Stand up with your back straight, hands by your sides and notice the weight of your body as you feel grounded. Then take a few deep breaths in through your nose right to the space where you feel the stress located in your body and slowly exhale.
• After a minute of breathing into the stress, be curious again about its quality – has it shifted or changed in location or intensity?
• Try and do this as often as you can when you become aware of feeling stress – practicing this will help to change your brain and you will begin to feel more in control.

An Attitude of Gratitude

One more strategy that I believe to be one of the most effective ways of dealing with difficult times is to intentionally adopt a GRATITUDE practice.

Science and research has now demonstrated over and over again that the emotion of gratitude is the one that has a highest correlation to our positive wellbeing and there are many health benefits:

Gives us more energy, we have a higher level of emotional intelligence, we are more forgiving and less judgmental, it can reduce levels of anxiety and depression, increases feelings of connection, we sleep better and have fewer headaches! I have had first-hand experience of experiencing some of these benefits so it’s not just academic.

Over the past 18 months since suffering my spinal fluid leak, I’ve had many days when I couldn’t see any hope and I have struggled just to get through each day. My experience has changed me deeply and I know I now have such a different outlook on life. One of the main things that has helped me is adopting a daily gratitude practice. Even on my darkest days, being able to focus on the things I am grateful to God for has given me hope and has lifted me out of a very dark place.

Just spending 3 minutes each morning or evening thinking about 3 things within the previous 24 hours that you are grateful for. It could be material things like having a warm home, enough food, good books to read etc but also think about experiences you’ve had, things that have brought you joy or peace, a spontaneous hug from your loved one, a text or email from a friend, a work project or encounter that went well… we can all find things to be grateful for – try not to just list the things but actually spend time in the feeling of gratitude, feel your heart open and your emotions elevate when you do this. It can be done during prayer or quiet time with God, you can write it in a journal before bed each night, you can even do it in the shower! The important thing is to do it daily – I promise if you can do this for the next 30 days you will start really noticing a difference.

Welcome to South Craven Baptist Church

We are a church with a heart to serve the local communities of Sutton, Glusburn, and Crosshills.

Our mission is to reach out to people with God's love, and make a difference in the lives of ordinary people.

We hope that our times of worship will allow people to draw closer to God and to one another.

We endeavour through all we are doing to make a difference in our community.

A difference that will change the lives of people young and old alike. Over many years we have worked from a conviction that people matter to God and as a consequence they matter to us.

Meet our Team

About us

There has been a Baptist Church in Sutton in Craven since 1711. From humble beginnings in a property near the High Street, to the magnificent buildings erected on the site by Holme Bridge in the nineteenth century and now replaced by the modern multi purpose building that you see standing back from the road.

This building was replaced by the modern multi purpose building that you see standing back from the road today.

In the late 18th century the then Sutton Baptist Church founded a church at The Glusburn Institute and for some years had their own minister and autonomy the two churches became one again in 2000.

Standing in Chapel Garden, the modern stainless steel sculpture that you see on arriving at the church exemplifies the purpose of the church to be a church in the heart of community.

Using the symbolism dating back generations of a fish to represent Christianity and the modern shape to represent an eye giving the concept that God is watching over his people.

The pupil of the eye is represented by the figure of a person. The cross which is at the heart of the person is hollow and so allows light to shine through it and typifies God's love shining through his people to the community in which they both live and worship.

Worship at South Craven Baptist Church

Sunday mornings are incredibly important in the life of the church. It is the time when we can come together in the presence of God to bring an offering of worship.

Looking back to Acts chapter 2:42-47 on at least two occasions during the month we will meet around the meal table, for a cooked breakfast or hot chocolate and croissants. This is not just because most of us like food (which we do) but more importantly so that we can truly share fellowship together.

By meeting in this way we get to share very informal conversations and build up relationships with each other. Worship and teaching then just flow very naturally from our conversations.

Family Breakfast is exactly what it says and our worship on that morning is very often led by Laura who loves to engage the whole family together in both worship and teaching.

Our times of praise are led by our worship band which we try to make accessible to everyone. We use a lot of contemporary worship music along with some of the great songs of the past. Very often times of worship are led by members of the band.

Young Church

Young Church at South Craven Baptist Church is a provision for all young people from 0-18 years.

The first Sunday of every month is a Breakfast and All Age Service, where everybody can join in with the whole service.

On all other weeks we have 3 Young Church Groups. All groups are lead by approved and experienced volunteers with Safeguarding Training and DBS checks.

Kindlings Under 5s

Children in this age group can stay in church and play in the play area or they can go to the Beck Room for stories and play.

Sparks Age 5 - 11

Meeting in the Dales Room, this group explore bible stories and themes using games, crafts and activities, music and lots more. Everyone is encouraged to join in to their capability and to have fun learning about God in ways that are appropriate to them.

Energize Age 11plus

This group meet in the Garden Room, where they take lessons from the Bible and discuss how to apply them in today's society and in their lives. These sessions take much more of a discussion format and all are encouraged to share their views in a safe space, without judgement.

Girls' Brigade

There has been a Girls' Brigade company at South Craven Baptist Church for 50 years.

When the company was formed in 1963, the organisation was called the Girls' Life Brigade. The uniform was very formal hats, blazers, ties and strictly no trousers! How things have changed. Today we can be found wearing hoodies, singing, dancing and getting up to all sorts of interesting things.

Throughout the 120 year history of the Girls' Brigade, there has always been one constant to seek, serve and follow Jesus. This is a Christian organisation with the principles of love and service at its heart. Our activity programme reflects this, with a spiritual element running through.

The girls hear stories from the Bible and learn how to relate the example of Jesus to the morality and dilemmas of modern life. Life skills are an important part of what we do, as it's good for a 6 year old to learn to skip and a 16 year old to make a meal.

Activity themes include food, our environment, people who help us, technology, looking good and social involvement. Whatever their age, our girls love playing games, singing action songs and making things. We regularly have our artwork used in church to illustrate the theme of Sunday services and make small gifts to give out to the congregation.

Conference Facilities

If you are looking for a place to hold an away day, small conference, off site deacons meeting or PCC meeting we may well have the facilities that you are looking for at an affordable price.

For us here at South Craven Baptist Church this is a new and bold venture into the conference and training world. We are committed to providing a quality and adaptable venue catering for your every need to ensure the smooth running of your conference or event.

We are ideally situated at the gateway to the Dales, just five minutes away from the Aire Valley Trunk Road in the heart of Sutton-in-Craven. Sutton Park and Sutton Clough are within easy walking distance should you wish a little outdoor time.

South Craven Baptist Church can provide a full range of state of the art equipment required for your church or corporate training requirements. We can also meet your catering needs and will be happy to quote you for our services from buffet lunches to light refreshments on arrival and during the day.

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