The minister writes… from our November 2023 newsletter
Dear friends,
In the last newsletter I asked you all, as a church, to prayerfully consider where God might be leading us. I’d like to thank all those who engaged in conversations during the service on the 1st October and who have emailed or spoken to me since, sharing their thoughts and ideas. Please continue to do so.
It is heartwarming to know that we share the same concerns and longings and that we do want to be walking God’s path.
Below I share some of your ideas but firstly, let me ask a few more questions:
What is it about coming to church that makes it special for you?
Worship?
Singing and praying together?
Hearing God’s word?
Fellowship?
Serving others?
Most of you have been followers of Jesus for many years. What inspires you and helps you in your daily living out of your faith?
What excites you about your faith? What would you most want to share with others?
On Sunday 29th October (just as this newsletter appears) we are going to be thinking about some of those more personal aspects of our faith because it is in those places where we encounter God that we grow spiritually, and out of those experiences that we are encouraged and enabled for mission.
Now, here, in no particular order, are some of the ideas you have shared:
- Have the church open for private prayer and meditation. Either at times of significance (as we did at the outbreak of the Russian/Ukrainian war and could do again now with the Israel/Palestinian situation) or as a regular thing, perhaps on a certain day each month?
- Hold a weekly/ twice-weekly café.
- Sing carols around the local streets, collecting for charity and handing out flyers advertising our Carol Service and other Christmas events/services.
- Consider combining with Crowthorne MC – maybe in new premises.
- Approach the groups who hire our halls and ask if they would like us to pray for any specific concerns they might have, and/or invite them to attend/take part in a service like the Carol Service.
- Employ a Youth/Families worker jointly with Crowthorne (partially subsidised by Circuit) to build on existing initiatives such as Babes and Tots/Messy Church and to start new ones, helping to establish relationships with families already linked to our church and reaching out to others. (More about this elsewhere in the newsletter.)
- Offer a monthly Sunday afternoon Café style service. Everyone welcome but with families especially in mind.
- Choose one or two people whom we would love to see come to church and pray for them daily, looking for opportunities to invite them to church events and special Sunday services which are especially welcoming to people not in the habit of attending church e.g. Remembrance, Carol Service or a specific service like a grandparents/grandchildren’s service or a ‘Back-to-Church-Sunday.’
Some of those ideas may seem more blue-sky thinking, some very commendable but would need people and resources to enable, others – like the last one about praying – simple and easy.
Maybe, because it is simple, we underestimate how effective prayer can be. We shouldn’t!
I receive Our Daily Bread reflections via email and this one about the power of prayer stood out for me:
In 1982, pastor Christian Führer began Monday prayer meetings at Leipzig’s St. Nicholas Church. For years, just a handful gathered to ask God for peace amid global violence and the oppressive East German regime. Though communist authorities watched churches closely, they were unconcerned until attendance swelled and spilled over to mass meetings outside the church gates. On October 9, 1989, seventy thousand demonstrators met and peacefully protested. Six thousand East German police stood ready to respond to any provocation. The crowd remained peaceful, however, and historians consider this day a watershed moment. A month later, the Berlin Wall fell.
That massive transformation all started with a prayer meeting!
As we turn to God and begin relying on his wisdom and strength, things often begin to shift and reshape. We must remember that it is God, not us, who enacts the transformation. But our prayer is how we participate in the transforming work he is doing.
Friends, let us continue to think and talk and share our ideas. Let us get excited when we begin to see signs that God is in that thinking, talking and sharing – but most of all, let us keep on praying.
With every blessing as we go forward together,
Sharon