November 2007

Dear Friends

 

“There’s a goose asleep in the rain!”

 

Such was the message of a certain Mr Forgetful as we heard from one of the great Roger Hargreaves stories at the hands of Derek Tidball the preacher on our Church Anniversary Sunday recently.  And in case you missed it, or if you yourself can’t remember Derek’s message(!!), he went on from the children’s talk to consider words from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians (ch 1).  The words he spoke about the church being a model church, an exemplary church, are I believe well worth recording here, and well worth remembering indeed in the days, weeks and years ahead in WRBC.

 

He highlighted five of the significant features of the exemplary church, starting off with a church marked by radical conversions to faith in Jesus Christ.  This means that people are not just drifting into our orbit, or joining in with us as a social club only.  Instead because of the Gospel we live out, here is a conscious turning away from old lifestyles and a conscious turning to the living God.

 

The exemplary church is secondly a church characterised by hard work, where such hard work is the outcome of faith and love and hope.  We are to be participants in the life of the church and not simply spectators.

 

He identified a third characteristic of a model church as one where there is evidence of spiritual power.  Have you considered the question Derek Tidball posed for us, even as he had been posed it himself?  “What is it that has happened in the life of the church during the past six months that requires the Holy Spirit as an explanation?”  Isn’t this about a real sense of something dynamic, another dimension breaking in?

 

The exemplary church is also a church with a joyful receptiveness to God’s word.  What place for the Scriptures, how is the Bible valued, in our church’s life?  We were able to pursue this even further on Bible Sunday a week later!  And finally Derek argued that a church on fire with missionary zeal is a mark of the exemplary church.  This church didn’t send missionaries; they were missionaries.  A community with the Gospel heard on their lips, and with the good news demonstrated in their actions and attitudes.

 

I really do believe it is worth considering these five features alongside our church’s life.  To be sure we are not perfect, and perhaps you may feel we are not exemplary to any great extent, but I am sure that we can offer illustrations of how these marks of one exemplary church in Scripture are evident in our life together here and now.  Indeed why not take some time to think about it this month?  And why not write to me with your reflections?

 

Derek Tidball prayed for us as a church community that on our Anniversary Sunday these marks of the Thessalonian church might be the marks of our church too.  This is my prayer also as we go forward into another year together, as we grow in Christ and in each other.

 

With my love and prayers, your pastor

 

Andrew