Congregational Communication - Friday 27th Jan 2023
January Past
I am not sure how you experienced January. Many of you were thankfully able to have a holiday and get away to see family and friends and it is good to see you returning refreshed. For the church January seemed to be a month when there was a lot going on, both things that were challenging and things that we can be thankful for. GSF was a highlight, a reminder of how good it is to work together in the gospel with a common mind and purpose, with many good conversations reported and some bibles distributed to children who wanted them to read. To have a gospel to share, God’s message that brings to those who believe it forgiveness, adoption as God’s children, and eternal life, and to be free to share it with our own and others’ children, is a cause of great thankfulness. And thanks to the GSF executive and team, who worked so hard to make it a good week, to the Pit crew who make life so much easier for the team, and to all who served – in helping with morning tea and cleaning, the AV and PA team, the registration team.
'GSF was a highlight, a reminder of how good it is to work together in the gospel with a common mind and purpose.'
But there have also been the challenges we all know about. The grief we felt and continue to feel at Matt and Kate’s accident. The shock of hearing of Will and Ashleigh’s accident, as well as thankfulness that it was not worse and they are recovering. For some of us there have been bereavements, others are still dealing with difficult family situations, others with serious illness and its aftermath. After this January, even though our lives get busier when school resumes, I look forward to the resumption of routine with almost a sense of relief.
Resuming the rhythm of ministry
And I hope you look forward to the resumption of the rhythm of our ministries as well – getting back into growth groups, serving in our Sunday ministries, taking children to youth group and kids clubs, meeting with other mums in playgroup and mainly music. Look forward to them, not just as the resumption of social contact – though that is good, or a sign of normal non-Covid life – though that is something to be thankful for – but look forward to them as activities that rather than drain, sustain, sustain us in our faith in Jesus and commitment to living His way, living lives of fruitful love; activities that give us opportunity to love others, to be Jesus’ disciples who are committed to making disciples, whether that is of our children, our friends, our neighbours. That rhythm of life is an expression of our being called to be God’s children and live lives worthy of Him, that we are conscious that we are engaged in a spiritual battle and so are diligent to encourage in each other that way of life – the way of righteousness and truth, of readiness with the gospel, of faith and hope, of word and prayer – that way of life that will allow us to triumph in that battle by standing firm to the end.
'Encourage in each other that way of life – the way of righteousness and truth, of readiness with the gospel, of faith and hope, of word and prayer – that way of life that will allow us to triumph in that battle by standing firm to the end.'
Change and Adaptation
As we go into the New Year there will be changes and adaptations to our ministries. Some changes are known – we will have to finish off our interrupted elder’s election and continue with the work involved in moving towards finding someone to replace me. There are other smaller but good changes that will take place – for example, next Sunday we will return after many years to using glass communion cups, cutting down on our plastic waste. That does mean we will have to collect them in the last song of the service, but it is a change that is worth it. But there are some adaptations to ministry structures that will take some time to work through. I hope to be able to speak more about this in our next communication after our first Session meeting, but Chris’ burnout has given the Pastors and Session much food for thought. We will have to think about how this can be prevented, what changes we will need to make in both patterns of work and our expectations of our pastors. This will take some time, but making disciples is something we do together and part of the solution will be to engage more with the ‘one anothers’ of Scripture – how we can love, encourage, admonish, teach one another, each of us accepting some responsibility for the continued growth and perseverance of our brothers and sisters as disciples of the Lord Jesus because we are Jesus’ disciples, known as such by loving one another as He has loved us [John 13:34-35].
Think about your service
So this year will be a good year to think about the gifts you have and the service you are called to in the congregation. The gospel is the same as it was before Covid, the need of people to hear it is the same, and our location, our context is the same. So we will continue to focus on mum’s and bub’s, childrens’ and youth ministries as key ways of making disciples, and on the role of the 5:00 pm congregation in helping people live through key transitions, the transitions many of you have made, as disciples of Jesus – whether that transition is from overseas to Australia, from school to uni or work, from being single to being married, from going to church with the family to going to church on your own. And we will focus on our growth groups. The encouragement from the relationships formed in these went a long way to helping us all through Covid and they continue to be central to the encouragement we can give each other to keep growing as Jesus’ disciples and helping new people settle into the congregation. A goal is to have nearly all of you in some kind of group with fellow believers during the week, encouraging and nurturing each other in the faith. But to retain our focus and to achieve our goal some of you will need to think seriously about whether the Lord is calling you to accept the responsibilities of leadership in these various ministries and making yourself available to be both trained for that and to serve in that capacity. I and the other pastors are praying that the Lord would put that on the hearts of many of you, and we look forward to having conversations with you about that. And this is not so the church can have programmes. It is because in serving your brothers and sisters you are serving the Lord Jesus; in helping each other live genuine, faithful Christian lives you are honouring the Saviour’s love that died to make each of us His own; in sharing in making disciples of Jesus you are doing something that matters for eternity, something that is never in vain.
'In serving your brothers and sisters you are serving the Lord Jesus; in helping each other live genuine, faithful Christian lives you are honouring the Saviour’s love that died to make each of us His own; in sharing in making disciples of Jesus you are doing something that matters for eternity, something that is never in vain.'
I am looking forward to seeing what the Lord, who can do more than we can ask or think [Eph. 3:20-21], does amongst us, in us and through us this year as we, trusting Him, give ourselves to living as He commands and walk in step with His Spirit.
