Friday Communication - 28th July 2023
This Friday there is already an important communication from Session in which you can read about the first meeting of the congregation in relation to calling a colleague and successor. In this communication Session speaks about the procedure on Monday night, and also their reasons for and the principles guiding Session’s nominations for the selection committee whose appointment they anticipate to be the major outcome of that meeting. I commend it to you.
But I thought I would continue this small series on what I think we need to prioritize as a congregation for the investment of our time and energy as we continue to recover from our Covid years, for this is not something we should be distracted from by the search for a colleague and successor, and while the burden of that search can be delegated to the selection committee this rebuilding of our common life is something we all have a role in.
The first feature of our common life we should prioritize our investment in is our gathering, and our three guiding principles – recognizing that the abiding truths of God’s word have not changed; recognizing that we are meant to live the Christian life together; and recognizing that making disciples remains our agenda – give us both the why and the how of investment in our gathering.
God’s Word and our gathering
Scripture reveals the abiding purpose of God to have a people for His own. This is seen from the promises God made to Abraham on [Gen. 12:2, 17:6-7], in His rescue of Israel from Egypt [Ex. 19:4-6, Lev. 26:12], in His establishing of David’s throne [2 Sam. 7:10-11], a promise repeated in the prophets [Jer. 30:22, Ezk. 36:28, 37:27, Hos. 1:8-11, 3:22-23], and realized in the Lord Jesus of whom Paul writes that “he gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for Himself a people for His own possession, eager to do what is good.” [Titus 2:14, 1 Peter 2:9-10].
This purpose finds full expression in the gathering of God’s redeemed people and all creation around the throne of God and the Lamb in heaven [Rev. 5] but is testified to now by the gatherings of His people on earth. Our gathering Sunday by Sunday around the gospel word testifies to the great and abiding purpose of God to have His own people, gathered to Him by the powerful gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our gathering says God is active in realizing His purpose even now, and it says the characteristic of His people is that they believe God’s gospel word and order their lives by the word of the Lord Jesus, for His word tells us we should not neglect our gathering with each other [Heb. 10:24-25]. It can seem such a small, inconsequential thing to turn up and join your brothers and sisters on Sunday, but it witnesses in our world to that the great saving purpose of our God continues and denies the lie that somehow God has abandoned His world.
It can seem such a small, inconsequential thing to turn up and join your brothers and sisters on Sunday, but it witnesses in our world to that the great saving purpose of our God continues
We show that we recognize the abiding truth that God is determined to have a saved people for His own through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus just by turning up, turning up to hear God’s word that has called you to life amongst His people, turning up to meet with people you have not chosen but your saving God has, people He has committed you to love, turning up to witness to the world by our public gathering that Jesus is Lord.
Life together and our gathering
Our gathering also expresses, models and supports God’s intention that we are meant to live the Christian life together, that we are the body of Christ, by God’s ordering committed to and dependent on each other for growth and health as Christ’s followers [1 Cor. 12]. That commitment and interdependence extends beyond the gathering but its primary expression is when we meet and we can be served in love by the gifts God gives to each of us for the building up of the body of Christ. In that service our gathering sets the pattern for our interactions throughout the week and participating in the gathering explicitly rejects the idea that we can be isolated Christians pursuing an individualistic salvation, Christians not characterised by love of one another.
It is important therefore that we prioritize time and energy to serving one another in love when we meet. Our gathering depends for its good functioning on the service of many – in welcoming, AV and PA, morning tea and supper, cleaning, Sunday School, creche, prayer, music, Bible reading, teaching and leading. It is hard for our morning services to operate with less than thirty to forty people actively involved in some form of necessary service, which means about sixty involved of a morning. Then, as we don’t want to burn out any we rotate the service teams from week to week. To run, for example, a six week roster where people do two weeks out of six, requires the participation of nearly all in serving in some form on a Sunday. But this is a good thing, for it makes clear that we on Sundays are not the consumers of a product provided by some organization but a family of Jesus’ followers doing what we are called to do, serve one another in love. It is in harmony with the shape of the Christian life, which is to show the mind of Christ in looking not just to our own interests but the interests of others, dying to self to reckon others more important than ourselves [Phil. 2:1-11].
We on Sundays are not the consumers of a product provided by some organization
but a family of Jesus’ followers doing what we are called to do, serve one another in love.
Yet at the moment those teams are not full and the burden, especially in cleaning, welcoming, morning tea, creche, falls disproportionately on a few. Where that happens there is a danger of people becoming worn out, which none of us would want to see happen to a sister or brother. We know there are reasons some find it difficult to serve – chronic illness, frequent illnesses amongst children – but those of us who are able, which may mean one parent of a couple with young children, should, as we recover from the Covid disruption, prioritise being involved in serving for it is God’s will we live our Christian lives together, and serving in our Sunday gathering is an important way of fulfilling that will.
Making disciples and our gathering
And we should prioritise investing time and energy in our Sunday gathering for it is central to sustaining our own Christian discipleship and supporting others becoming and being disciples. In our gathering we are ministered to by all the ways God has given to sustain our faith and help us grow in knowledge of our Lord’s will. Here we hear the word read and taught, the word that encourages, convicts and equips us to live as followers of Jesus; here we receive the Lord’s Supper and witness baptism, those signs the Lord Jesus has given us to teach us the gospel and assure us of our share in its blessings; here we can be joined in common prayer, and share in singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs which teach and encourage; here we can encourage each other in conversation to love and good deeds. These are the ways God has given us to sustain our Christian lives and we should not think to prosper as Jesus’ followers where we do not use diligently what the Lord Jesus has provided.
we should prioritise investing time and energy in our Sunday gathering for it is central to sustaining our own Christian discipleship and supporting others becoming and being disciples.
And our gathering can help our evangelism. Not only does it remind us of the gospel truths so that we can maintain clarity about the gospel in our own conversations during the week, our gathering is a place where new believers or those inquiring about Christianity can hear the gospel in what we say, sing and pray. It is also a place where we can introduce people who are not yet Christians to other Christians and they have the opportunity, where there is a lot of ignorance and misconceptions about churches, to see how normal we are, what care we take of children, our consideration of others. All of this can help build trust and an openness to the gospel message, or make it easier for a new believer to settle into a Christian meeting, vital for their growing faith. But for this to be effective new people need to see the same faces when they return. That makes it easier for them, not having to be continually introducing themselves to strangers, and it conveys that we take meeting seriously, it is a priority in our lives.
Because our gathering Sunday by Sunday expresses our commitment to the abiding truth of God’s word and His abiding purpose to gather a people of His own by that word; because it expresses our commitment to living the Christian life together as God wills we should; because it is vital to sustaining our own discipleship and helping others be and become disciples of the Lord Jesus, we should all be prioritising investing time and energy in gathering Sunday by Sunday and making our gatherings ones marked by truth and love.
So be determined to be there week by week, even though, especially for those with young children, it takes effort. Be determined to be there as someone who can engage with and encourage others. Be determined to be there as a disciple of Jesus who shows that by serving in love, as our Lord loved and served us.
Be determined to be there as someone who can engage with and encourage others. Be determined to be there as a disciple of Jesus who shows that by serving in love, as our Lord loved and served us.
