Blog
We are starting a short sermon series this week that will dip into the book of Revelation, specifically the letters written to the seven churches in Asia. As we started preparing for this first week in the series, someone asked the question, "if God were to write a letter to Westville Methodist Church, what would He say?" Brilliant question!
In our men's group recently we had a conversation about men in the church - why it is that joining a church community can be hard for men in particular, and what the church has to offer that is helpful for men. The response was interesting: leaving aside for a moment the 'God-shaped vacuum' in each of us and the opportunity to meet God in community, the deep need that the church can potentially meet for men is relational. Much has been written about the "epidemic of loneliness" in society generally (the US Surgeon General published an 80 page document last year on that subject, subtitled the "Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community") and several commentators note that this epidemic is particularly prevalent among men - we are often "less skilled than women at making friends".
Have you noticed how often you have found yourself having a conversation with a complete stranger and you end up discussing the weather in minute detail? It's not that we're all amateur meteorologists, but rather that we instinctively gravitate towards these kind of conversations, which are non-threatening, but which don't tend to deepen the relationship much!
Elizabeth O'Connor writes that the members of the Church of the Saviour in Washington DC "are committed to being a people on an inward journey and a people on an outward journey". This, she says describes "what the Christian life is all about".
I listened to an interview this week with the current vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton, Archie Coates (HTB is the church in London which launched the Alpha course and it was, until recently, led by Nicky Gumbel). The interviewer reflected on the daunting task of following an international figure like Gumbel and in responding Coates spoke a little about his daily devotional practice.
The apostle Paul often uses athletic or sporting images to make his point. In his first letter to the Corinthian church, he writes about our attitude as followers of Jesus - he says we should run not just as participants, but instead aiming to winning the race; that we should submit to strict discipline, like a boxer training for a title fight (1 Cor 9:24-27).
“Keys, phone, purse …” So often before we leave home we check to make sure that we have these items. Many of us have constant thoughts about things we need to do to ensure that we have prepared adequately for the day ahead. Jesus sends us out with less, inviting us to trust, to be ready to engage with and respond to the activities and events in the world around us.
We remember the time when the two sisters welcomed Jesus into their home and Martha was kept busy with practical household arrangements while Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and listened. Martha and Mary personify two postures: active service and quiet contemplation respectively.
This week, the press has been nervously pointing out how fragile our new government is. I was so frustrated to hear Helen Zille's provocative remarks in a recent interview - I found myself wondering if the perceived arrogance of her position was going to derail this hopeful thing that was taking shape in South Africa.
Our worship commission met for the first time this week. Our aim is to think creatively about our three worship services and consider how we can do everything possible to help people to encounter God in worship. When I asked the group what we value most about our experience of corporate worship, it was striking that the responses had nothing to do with the quality of music or preaching or anything like that, but we said that what we really longed for was to see all our people participating actively in worship and meeting with God (and we recognised that that encounter with God can take place in so many different ways).