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| A job well done last Saturday!! |
Not everyone
has the same ideas about ‘Community’.
If we take it as being synonymous with ‘society’ then Mrs T told us she didn’t really believe in it whereas her current successor once called for it to be ‘big’.
Last weekend as both boilers in the Sanctuary and Alfred Ellis Hall simultaneously went kaput I felt very conscious of the value and inspiration of our church ‘community’.
If we take it as being synonymous with ‘society’ then Mrs T told us she didn’t really believe in it whereas her current successor once called for it to be ‘big’.
Last weekend as both boilers in the Sanctuary and Alfred Ellis Hall simultaneously went kaput I felt very conscious of the value and inspiration of our church ‘community’.
After a
flurry of emails we decided to hold the Sunday morning Communion Service in the
hall which meant a big effort at 5pm the night before to get things ready. So many willing volunteers came along,
bringing not only themselves but also a willing spirit that the job of assembling
a hundred chairs and various other bits of ‘essential’ church furniture was
done in no time. As things were got ready there was a sense of purposeful ‘togetherness’ which actually made
the whole experience such a good and positive one I was almost grateful for the
two misbehaving boilers!
I’ve always thought that the idea of ‘community’ is central to Christianity.
Rob Bell in his book, Love Wins, expresses the rather provocative idea that the phrase ‘a personal relationship with Jesus Christ’ is simply one you’ll never find in the gospels. He’s just flagging up the thought that faith isn’t meant to be only, or even primarily, a personal pilgrimage with God. Faith is also about ‘community’ – learning and experiencing it in a Faith Community and living it out in a Local one.
For me this was exemplified in a really inspiration way at the Lent Lecture, hosted by Churches Together for Chesham, at which the former Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, Sir Peter Fahy was the speaker. He spoke so eloquently and passionately of his Christian faith, formed through his Roman Catholic tradition, and the way it impacted upon his life as a serving police officer. For Sir Peter there has clearly never been a division between what he privately believes and how he publicly acts and I sensed that all of us came away from that splendid evening at Broadway Baptist Church in Chesham deeply inspired by the connection between belief and praxis this former Chief Constable displayed. All of us need good role models and I thought Sir Peter was a gift to us that evening.
As our Lent journey continues my prayer is that we will all make that connection between the private and public parts of our lives and realise afresh that as Easter Morning People our faith is not only about how I say my prayers by the bedside but also how I live out that prayerful life in all the various communities to which I belong.
Best wishes,
I’ve always thought that the idea of ‘community’ is central to Christianity.
Rob Bell in his book, Love Wins, expresses the rather provocative idea that the phrase ‘a personal relationship with Jesus Christ’ is simply one you’ll never find in the gospels. He’s just flagging up the thought that faith isn’t meant to be only, or even primarily, a personal pilgrimage with God. Faith is also about ‘community’ – learning and experiencing it in a Faith Community and living it out in a Local one.
For me this was exemplified in a really inspiration way at the Lent Lecture, hosted by Churches Together for Chesham, at which the former Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, Sir Peter Fahy was the speaker. He spoke so eloquently and passionately of his Christian faith, formed through his Roman Catholic tradition, and the way it impacted upon his life as a serving police officer. For Sir Peter there has clearly never been a division between what he privately believes and how he publicly acts and I sensed that all of us came away from that splendid evening at Broadway Baptist Church in Chesham deeply inspired by the connection between belief and praxis this former Chief Constable displayed. All of us need good role models and I thought Sir Peter was a gift to us that evening.
As our Lent journey continues my prayer is that we will all make that connection between the private and public parts of our lives and realise afresh that as Easter Morning People our faith is not only about how I say my prayers by the bedside but also how I live out that prayerful life in all the various communities to which I belong.
Best wishes,
Ian
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