Zetland Park Methodist Church Pastoral Letters
November 2012
We'll praise him for all that is past - and trust him for all that's to come!
November sees the celebration of our Chapel Anniversary. It is a great opportunity to give thanks for the church we have inherited and for all that our forebears achieved. Often it is only in looking backwards that we see the incredible bravery and commitment of our forbears in the faith - the risks they took in investing time and money and energy to ensure that the message of God's love for us was not lost. It is their commitment that challenges me to ask how people will eventually look back in future years on our own efforts today and what conclusions they will draw!
It would probably be true to say that the church we have inherited assumes we live in a Christian country where the majority of the population are sympathetic with our belief system, are educated in the basic beliefs of the faith and adhere to our moral standards. In this inherited church the major activity is weekly worship of God performed in a manner which assumes the congregation prefer to be more observers than active participants, where pastoral care for the faithful is important but discipling is assumed only necessary for the young in years, and the outworking of our service to others is usually done through good works done individually rather than rather than as a community.
Alas, in the UK Christians are now only a small minority within a population which are very suspicious of any establishment, question any faith system and understands virtually nothing about the Christianity. To them worship is irrelevant, there is no obvious way that their misunderstandings about the faith can be corrected, they cannot see how what they observe the church doing bears any resemblance to the life and teachings of Jesus, and to them the church is little more than a cosy members-only club!
Many Christian leaders, myself included, see the situation we face today as being very similar to the one the early Church was faced with. From their example we know that growth is possible - but it demands huge risk and great trust in God. The major activity we now need to be involved in is showing the Love of God through our own care and compassion for all people. Only then will we gain the right to talk to them about the God who loves them and bring them in that vital relationship with Him by offering discipling to all ages. For them, only then will worship become relevant. And as I have said recently, we need to realise that true worship isn't what we do behind closed doors on Sunday but is what we offer every hour of every day in the way we live out our lives.
To allow such transformation in the way the church functions demands of us huge trust in God and enormous commitment.