Pastor’s Thoughts – Autumn 2023
Dear friends,
Summer seems to have been pretty busy here, but I hope that you have had some time for a break over the last few weeks. The ‘Back to School’ banners appeared in shops before schools had even broken up, which must have been disconcerting for most of our children and young people. There is always a sense that we are rushing to the next thing. By now, I’m sure you are ready for whatever lies ahead, whether it’s new schools, new classes or life after school. September always feels like the start of a new term even if school days are a distant memory, so it’s appropriate for me to look ahead, and for us to think about what we will be doing over the next weeks.
Some years ago we looked at a teaching series by a Canadian author called Henry Blackaby. It was called Experiencing God: knowing and doing the will of God. He had a very simple idea behind what he wanted to get across: Watch to see where God is working and join him! It feels to me that a lot of what we try to achieve is to put ourselves into a position where we can see God at work and join in. You only have to look at some of the things in which we are involved currently to see that they start with a small idea, and then we see the Lord take them forward in a whole new way. This has been true of Exchange and our ministry to our friends at the Ibis Hotel. Once we understand what he wants us to do, we just have to keep up with him!
I want to suggest to you that being watchful goes along with being prayerful. Colossians 4:2 says: Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. How do we know where to watch if we don’t pray for God to show us? So the Elders have decided to keep 10–17 September as a Week of Prayer. We did this last year, and felt that it is the right way to begin this new season of activity. There is a full programme of events elsewhere but the pattern will include a daily morning prayer meeting on Zoom and an evening at the Church Centre, with various other activities along the way. I am really grateful to Martin Gill for organising this and bringing us our theme, which will be centred on Psalm 103.
September also sees the launch of Hope 23/24, a major initiative backed by Hope UK. I wrote in the last issue about the Talking Jesus research done last year. The most-asked question in that research was: ‘Will everything be okay?’ People need hope and Jesus is the only real source of that. So over the next 12 months we’ll have events, training and other opportunities to bring people that hope.
Harvest this year is on 1 October and we’ll be celebrating God’s goodness to us as we remember the work of Operation Agri, the Baptist development charity. We’ll be supporting their project Transforming Farms in Tanzania. We’ll be having a hot buffet and bring and share lunch on that day.
After that we will be repeating a series we did several years ago entitled The Big Picture. Over nine weeks we will go through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation to understand the big picture that the Bible is painting. This will be supported by small group studies for our Life Groups and give everyone an opportunity to see how the Bible fits together, how the Old Testament fits with the New Testament, and what the story of God’s love for us means.
One highlight is that in December Kang-San Tan, the General Director of the Baptist Missionary Society, will be coming to share more of what BMS World Mission is doing.
Wishing you every blessing,
John
