Metro Christian Centre - Bury, 13 Parkhills Road, Bury (2026)

18/10/2026

💚☕ **TODAY – EVERYONE WELCOME!** ☕💚

🍰🥪 **MACMILLAN COFFEE AFTERNOON & LUNCH** 🥪🍰

Looking for a friendly Sunday get-together? Why not come along today! 😊

💚 **Join us first for our morning meeting at 10:00am** for worship, encouragement and fellowship, then stay on for lunch, cake and fundraising for an amazing cause.

We’d love to welcome you for a wonderful time of food, fun and community as we support **Macmillan Cancer Support**. 💚

✨ **There’s lots to enjoy!** ✨

🥪 Sandwiches and delicious cakes
☕ Tea, coffee and a friendly chat
🍫 Chocolate tombola
🧸 Teddy sale
📝 Quizzes
🎨 Colouring fun for the children

Bring your friends, bring the family, or simply pop in for a cuppa. **You don’t need to attend our church – absolutely everyone is welcome!** 💚

⛪ **Church Meeting:** 10:00am
🍰 **Macmillan Lunch & Coffee Afternoon:** 12 noon – 2:00pm
📍 Metro Christian Centre, Parkhills Rd, Bury

Come along, enjoy some treats and help us support a fantastic cause. We’d love to see you there! 🥰

💚 **Please share this post and help spread the word!** 💚

18/10/2026

We join with brothers and sisters throughout the world as we bring our worship to the Lord.

16/10/2026

4/4 THE KING WHO GAVE HIMSELF. The Levite in Judges 19 should have protected the woman, but instead sacrifices her to preserve himself. He is a husband who doesn’t love faithfully, a religious man who doesn’t reflect God's character, and a person who uses another human being as a means of achieving his own ends. The story exposes a world in which everyone does what is right in their own eyes. We’re left longing for a true King, a faithful Husband, a Priest who truly represents the heart of God. We look towards Jesus.

There are disturbing parallels between the woman's story and the story of the cross. Both involve betrayal, a crowd, the abuse of power, public humiliation, and a broken body. We must never confuse their stories or suggest that the woman's suffering was good. Abuse is evil. The cross does not make violence beautiful. But the contrast between the Levite and Jesus is vital. The Levite hands another person over to save himself; Jesus gives himself to save others. The Levite abandons the vulnerable to the violence of the crowd; Jesus enters the darkness of human violence willingly, refusing to let cruelty determine the character of his love. Here is the King we have been longing for, the true Bridegroom, the Priest who doesn’t sacrifice someone else, but offers himself.

At the cross, Jesus exposes our sin and opens the way to forgiveness, reconciling us to God and restoring broken relationships with one another. The cross calls us away from self-interest and towards self-giving love, asking us to stop treating people as objects, obstacles or inconveniences, calling us to use whatever influence we possess to protect rather than exploit, to serve rather than dominate, and to bring healing rather than amplify harm. The woman’s broken body becomes a summons to outrage and further violence, but Jesus gives himself so that broken people can be reconciled and made new. The risen Christ doesn’t abandon us to our worst instincts. He calls us home, restoring our dignity and teaching us how to love.

Watch Tristan online at https://youtu.be/s11fMqIgRqs?is=_b8-0ZMxuOEHukMA

15/10/2026

3/4 THE WOMAN WHOSE VOICE WAS NEVER HEARD. One of the most disturbing features of Judges 19 is not only the violence done to the woman, but the way everyone else speaks and acts around her. Men make decisions about her, negotiate over her, determine what will happen to her, yet her own voice is absent from the story. She is treated as an object rather than a person whose dignity and life matter. After the violence of the night, she makes her way back to the house and collapses at the entrance, her hands resting on the threshold, betrayed by the person who should have protected her, lying broken at the very doorway where she had hoped for refuge.

The next morning, the Levite discovers her there and tells her to get up, evidently unconcerned about what she has endured. He then takes her home and mutilates her body, using it to summon the tribes of Israel. The woman who was silenced becomes the centre of a national outcry, but even then the focus shifts away from her suffering towards the anger of the men who respond, leaving us with a searching question: who will do something about this? It’s a question that reaches far beyond ancient Israel.

When someone suffers abuse, do we listen to them? When someone speaks about being harmed, do we take their words seriously? When injustice is exposed, do we pursue protection and accountability? Judges 19 warns us that outrage alone doesn’t guarantee justice. The violence that follows spreads further, bringing still more suffering. Anger can expose that something is wrong, but it can’t be allowed to become another excuse for cruelty.

Jesus shows us a different way. At the cross, Jesus himself is betrayed, condemned, subjected to public humiliation, yet doesn’t turn suffering into an excuse for revenge. He gives himself in love to reconcile us to God and to one another. If we follow him, we must learn to hear those whom others refuse to hear, listen without blame, protect those at risk, report wrongdoing appropriately, and refuse to make forgiveness an excuse to avoid accountability.

Watch Tristan online at https://youtu.be/s11fMqIgRqs?is=_b8-0ZMxuOEHukMA

14/10/2026

💚☕ **THIS SUNDAY – EVERYONE WELCOME!** ☕💚

🍰🥪 **MACMILLAN COFFEE AFTERNOON & LUNCH** 🥪🍰

Fancy a spot of lunch, a cuppa and some cake? Why not come along this Sunday! 😊

We’d love to welcome you for a lovely afternoon of food, fun and fundraising in support of **Macmillan Cancer Support**. 💚

✨ **There’s lots to enjoy!** ✨

🥪 Sandwiches and delicious cakes
☕ Tea, coffee and a friendly chat
🍫 Chocolate tombola
🧸 Teddy sale
📝 Quizzes
🎨 Colouring fun for the children

Bring your friends, bring the family, or simply pop in for a cuppa. **You don’t need to attend our church – absolutely everyone is welcome!** 💚

📅 **This Sunday**
⏰ **12 noon – 2pm**
📍 Metro Christian Centre, Parkhills Rd, Bury

Come along, enjoy some treats and help us support a fantastic cause. We’d love to see you there! 🥰

💚 **Please share this post and help spread the word!** 💚

14/10/2026

2/4 WHEN HOME IS NO LONGER SAFE. Judges 19 tells a devastating story about what happens when ‘safe’ places become sources of danger. The Levite travels with the woman he has come to bring home. As evening approaches, they reach Gibeah, an Israelite town, where he expects to find safety rather than stop in a foreign city. An older man eventually offers them shelter. At last, they are inside, somewhere safe… but then there’s a horrifying turn of events.

A violent crowd gathers outside, determined to commit an outrageous act. The old man pleads with them not to, yet offers the women inside to the crowd in an attempt to protect his male guest. The Levite himself, the very man who came seeking his concubine, pushes her outside to face the violence, sacrificing her to save himself. Judges 19 exposes the emptiness of a society that claims to belong to God but has lost sight of God's character. Echoing Genesis 19, the shock is that the behaviour associated with S***m is now found among God's own people. Religious titles, respectable appearances, and familiar traditions cannot be a substitute for love, integrity and protection.

We must never assume that someone is trustworthy simply because they are respected, influential, or spiritually prominent. Nor should we protect an institution's reputation at the expense of someone who has been harmed. Real love protects the vulnerable. Real leadership accepts responsibility. Real faith listens when someone says they are unsafe.

If a ‘safe’ place has failed you, this passage doesn’t ask you to pretend that betrayal didn’t happen, nor does it make the victim responsible for another person's wrongdoing. Instead, it exposes the cruelty of those who abandon the vulnerable, leaving us longing for someone better: a faithful Protector, a just King, a true Shepherd who won’t sacrifice others to save himself. In Jesus, we meet such a One. He doesn’t abandon the vulnerable to the wolves, but gives himself in love. As followers of Jesus, may we confront wrongdoing, protect those at risk, and reflect the heart of God.

Watch Tristan online at https://youtu.be/s11fMqIgRqs?is=_b8-0ZMxuOEHukMA

13/10/2026

Based on Pastor Tristan’s sermon ‘CHRIST IN THE MARGINS | THE LEVITE’S CONCUBINE’ from Judges 19.

1/4 WHEN WE LEARN TO LOOK AWAY. We have developed ways of coping with the suffering we see around us. When violence appears on television - it’s only a film; when the news shows the devastation of war - change channel; when social media confronts us with somebody else’s pain - simply keep scrolling. We can’t carry every sorrow in the world, but, in protecting ourselves from being overwhelmed, we can become less able to feel the suffering of others.

Judges 19 confronts us with one of the darkest stories in the Bible: a woman whose voice is never heard, whose choices are made by others, and whose body is treated as though it belongs to everyone except herself. It’s not an invitation to stare at violence or consume another person’s suffering as entertainment. The writer doesn’t linger over every horrific detail, but exposes evil, refusing to let us pretend that what happened was insignificant. This woman, her suffering, and her humanity matter.

It’s a difficult story precisely because it shows us what happens when people stop seeing one another as human beings made in the image of God. Judges 19:1 says, “In those days Israel had no king”, then later, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (21:25). When everyone becomes their own authority, other people can become obstacles, possessions, or expendable objects. The one with the least power often pays the highest price. Are we so used to seeing suffering that we no longer really see the people who suffer, scrolling past the grieving family, ignoring the person who feels unsafe, remaining silent when someone is mistreated?

Jesus never treated people as disposable, but saw the overlooked, and drew near to the wounded. When we look at the cross, we see the terrible cost of a world that sacrifices the vulnerable to preserve the powerful. Yet we also see the love of God refusing to remain distant, urging us to be sensitive to the suffering of others, and not turn away, but see, care, and act with courage and compassion.

Watch Tristan online at https://youtu.be/s11fMqIgRqs?is=_b8-0ZMxuOEHukMA

11/10/2026

Lord, let this be for me a day of joyous praise.
May my troubled thoughts fade away as I bring to mind all the good things that you have done,
so that, overwhelmed by your love and faithfulness, I may carry with me a melody of grateful song.
(Lectio365)

08/10/2026

4/4 FROM THE HILLSIDE TO CALVARY There are two hillsides: the one where Rizpah keeps vigil, the other, Calvary. Rizpah’s story doesn’t mean that she is Jesus. Her suffering is not an atoning sacrifice, nor her grief something God needed to happen. Her story does however help us recognise something that shines with its fullest light in Christ. Rizpah draws near to the disgraced, refuses to abandon the exposed bodies, protects their dignity, and stays when others have gone home. At the cross we see Jesus entering the place of suffering, betrayed, condemned, mocked, wounded, and publicly exposed, his body shamed by others.

The cross reveals the violence of human sin and the failure of people who would rather preserve their position than protect an innocent life. But the cross also reveals God - “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” (2 Corinthians 5:19) Jesus does more than give us an example of courage: he bears our sin, opens the way to forgiveness, and calls us into new life. The cross tells us that God has not remained distant from our brokenness, but has come into it.

Rizpah protects the dead, but Jesus rises from the dead. Rizpah’s story moves towards burial, but Jesus’ story moves through burial into resurrection. That’s our hope. We don’t merely believe that suffering should be noticed, but that Jesus Christ is risen. Evil doesn’t possess the future. Death doesn’t have the final word. The grief, the wounds, the losses, are real, but so is the resurrection, and because Jesus is risen, we can have courage to act even when we cannot see the outcome.

Rizpah. A woman with little power, standing at the margins, unable to change the past, but refusing to surrender the present to indifference.
Calvary. There we meet the love of God, our sin is exposed, and forgiveness is opened. Beyond the cross stands an empty tomb. The love that draws near has a future. The Jesus who enters the margins is the Jesus who rises again.

Because he lives, our love, courage, and faithfulness are never wasted.

Watch Olivier online at https://youtu.be/7gO5wXLsSfk?is=sdLNJTilZfbWfYpz

07/10/2026

3/4 WHAT CAN LOVE DO HERE? Rizpah’s grief was deeply personal, but on that hillside she guards not only her own sons, but all seven bodies. In her pain she recognises the pain of others. That’s profoundly beautiful. Sometimes suffering can turn us completely inward, we become so overwhelmed by our own wounds that there is no room left for anyone else. But, by God’s grace, our wounds can help us recognise the wounds of others: the one hurt, the one bereaved, or the survivor. This doesn’t mean that suffering is good, or that every wounded person must become an activist, not does it mean that we should romanticise pain. It simply means that cruelty does not have to have the final word - love can still grow in damaged ground. Rizpah asks us: “What can love do here?”

Sometimes love sits alongside, listens, raises money, challenges a decision, or reports abuse. Sometimes love says, “I was wrong, and I need to change”, or simply refuses to abandon someone who has been abandoned by everybody else. Jesus showed us this kind of love perfectly. He continually moved towards people others pushed away, saw the person behind the label, touched the untouchable, listened to the unheard, and welcomed the rejected. At the cross, Jesus entered the deepest place of human shame and suffering, but didn’t allow the cruelty surrounding him to determine the character of his love. His prayer for forgiveness didn’t mean that crucifixion was acceptable. Mercy doesn’t turn evil into good. Grace names sin honestly and opens a way for repentance.

If we have been wounded, Jesus sees us. If we have wounded others, Jesus calls us into the light. We need to speak the truth, stop the harm, and accept accountability. The cross is not permission to ignore injustice, but the place where God confronts sin and reveals saving love.

“What can love do here?” It can’t do everything, everywhere, but here, with this person, in this situation, today, it can. Rizpah couldn’t change everything, but she could love the people in front of her, and that’s where faithful discipleship begins.

Watch Olivier online at https://youtu.be/7gO5wXLsSfk?is=sdLNJTilZfbWfYpz

Metro Christian Centre - Bury

18/10/2026

18/10/2026

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15/10/2026

14/10/2026

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