Dear all,
It was a misty morning, as I remember it, over eleven years ago as Jo and I walked up the road on a Sunday morning into Bessels for the first time.
We followed Neil and Sheila Watson into the building. She hasn’t aged a bit and Neil… well, that’s another story.
As soon as my foot touched that wooden step in the entrance I felt it would be a good fit. I don’t know how, but I just did. I then waited several months while the church family came to the same conclusion (well most of them anyway!).
It has been a fun ride so far (we’re not leaving!) and I am chuffed and humbled to be part of a loving church family that has such a long and, mostly, vibrant history.
At our last Elders’ Meeting (we meet once a month to chat and pray about the church, seeking God for the best ways forward) I kicked off a discussion by asking the following question:
What “journey” do we think God is taking us on as a church?
Rick, Stephen, Charlie and I chatted about this for a good fifteen minutes!
We felt the following (the headers are in italics and my thoughts for this blog flow from them)…
1. There has been a softening around the edges: This is a positive. The lines have become blurred concerning those who are “in” or “out”. This reflects the gospel I believe. We’re all “in” with God unless we reject God and decide to be “out”. To lessen potential confusion please let me explain! I believe that God extends his love to us all encouraging us to respond out of free will. We can freely reject God and God will respect and accept this for eternity (with a very heavy heart), or we can freely accept God now and for eternity (which he celebrates wildly). But what about all those who have never really had a chance to clearly respond to God through Jesus? In the Bible in the book of Romans it says that God judges us according to our hearts. I therefore believe that folk who don’t have a chance to respond will be looked upon by our gracious God in accordance to how he thinks they would have responded if they’d heard of Jesus. AND I have to keep reminding myself that God is far more gracious than I am!
2. There is more of an acceptance that we’re all a mess: There is a pressure in our culture to have it all together and this can become a tiring way to live.
3. An emphasis on meeting people where they are: This isn’t dumbing down, but rather connecting with our culture. “Incarnational” is the big word for it – living with and experiencing the lives of those we long to know God.
4. We have Bible teaching which is gospel centred: When we use the term “gospel” (Good News) we definitely are thinking of a focus on what Jesus has done for us as individual human beings in removing the blockage between us and God by his life, death, resurrection and ascension. But it means so much more than this. The gospel is wide; it affects our personal relationship with God for sure but also how we live with our fellow human beings and the world as well.
5. We must make sure people don’t get burnt out: In the busyness of life we don’t want to just keep adding things to people’s to-do list with a layer of Protestant Work Ethic guilt that means they definitely do it. There must be time to stop, play and smell the flowers (if that floats your boat)!
6. We’d love to see “mature” Christians supporting others more and more: This is a work in progress which is often unseen but definitely alive. We’d love to see “whole body” pastoral care where a visit or prayer from Jo Bloggs (he’s a great guy by the way) is just as valid as one from a minister.
7. We offer a smorgasbord: This can sometimes seem messy but, on reflection, fits Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom of God which we are seeking in our Vision as a church. We often don’t know where the kingdom comes from or how it grows according to Matthew 13. Therefore, we should expect a little mess.
8. We are elevating midweek and people’s frontlines, but not at the expense of church services: This was a major point of conversation as it was pointed out very graciously that with our encouragement of PODs some folk have not heard it this way. They have heard me saying: “Come on Sundays if you feel like it.” This is simply not the case. We firmly believe in the importance of worship (from the old English “Worthship”) as a way of giving God the credit he deserves as we connect with God and one another . This includes but isn’t limited to the way most of us think of worship on a Sunday. I remember Stephen Scott once sharing, in an Elders’ meeting about PODs; that his walk with God used to be like this: Come up for air on a Sunday, take a deep breath and then hold it until midweek homegroup. Then, hold his breath again until the next Sunday. I believe that seeing worship as the time when we refill is just one dimension of worship. It should also be when we share stories with one another about what God has been up to and invited us into the rest of the week. We want to lift the rest of the week (helping our neighbour, school pick-up, work, enjoying a meal with friends, playing sport, watching a film, reading a novel, playing the banjo, taming wild ferrets and repairing wheelchairs) up to the same level as Sunday services. By this I mean that we are aware and expectant of God on Tuesday mornings just as we are on Sundays.
One of my favourite novelists is the Catholic writer Walker Percy. His six novels are quite simply stunning and they all have the same aim. To try and answer the question – How do I make sense of my Christian faith on a Wednesday morning. He once said: “The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.”
Well… This is the journey that we feel and hope we’re on as a church…
It’s a possibility…
And it doesn’t bring despair…
It brings hope.
Here’s to the next eleven years!
Yours because of Jesus – Neil.
