Co-mission[ing]

As we enter into September for some of our Church family it will be the start of University life or working life. I still remember the four times when Ann or I made that trip to a new University to see one of our children into their University accommodation and start their Degree studies.

Why did we go with them? Well, of course, we were concerned that they should be supported in their new stage of life, know that we care for them, and will be there for them if they got into any difficulty. Perhaps they could have done without the tears, but they knew our love and encouragement.

In Scripture

Interestingly, we see something similar in Scripture. Not for a University start, but for sending into new ministry. We see it in Acts 6. The new Deacons were chosen by the congregation, and they were presented to the Elders. We then read (v6) “they presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.“

We see it again in Acts 13 where, while the church in Antioch was worshipping, praying and fasting, God through His Spirit told the leaders to set apart Barnabas and Paul to a new work God was calling them to. We then read (v3) “So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.“

All God’s people

From the Acts 13 passage we have come to associate this sending by the leaders as something that we do when missionaries are sent. But we can see that what the Apostles did in Acts 6 was remarkably similar. In Eph 4, when the gifts God gives to the church are listed, those who are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers – those with particular gifts for the building up of the church so we can reach maturity in Christ – are mentioned along with “each one of us [to whom] grace has been given as Christ apportioned it” ! so that “speaking the truth in love we will grow to maturity in Christ who is the head.” In other words, each one of us plays a part in the building up of the body to maturity. So we should ‘commission’ all who are serving God within the church, and for each of us as we serve God in our homes, families, workplaces, living out Jesus’ Great Commission.

Starting the year

As we start a new ‘Academic Year’ – as many of our ministries restart after the summer break – we recognise that God calls us all to use our gifts to serve Him throughout our life, in the many roles and opportunities He gives. And so we rightly should stop, recall that it is God who has called us, seek His anointing, wisdom, strength and guidance, as we commit one another to the work of the Lord through prayer. And as we do so, we commit ourselves to one another, in prayerful support, as we together serve Him throughout the coming year.

Having a Weekly Holiday Holy Day

Imagine this: After years of working every single day of your life, a new boss comes in and says that you can have a day a week where you stay away from work! In fact, you are to ensure that you deliberately do not do any work on that day. 52 days of holiday where there was none! And, furthermore, you were to use that day to spend time with the one who loves most! You’d be lost for words, wouldn’t you?

Sometimes we get things wrong because we start thinking about it the wrong way. We need to start afresh. And for many of us, brought up in Christian homes, we’ve started thinking about Sunday as the set of things we ‘have to do’, or maybe the set of things we cannot do, rather than the liberating time God intends us to have. The result? We move from the joyful rest God intended into a slavery of family visits, day trips, sports, ‘must watch’ TV and more, creating a busy, hectic day so unlike God’s intended day. Rather than find the freedom God wants, we’re back in slavery again.

So, lets recall some principles from God’s word to help us rethink and go on to recapture the joy of the holiday Holy Day God gives us every week.

1. It’s a part of God’s created order

When God created all things He rested on the seventh day, blessed it (Gen 2:1-3) and “made it holy” – set it apart for special use. This day was part of His design for our best, both in having rest and in having time with God. And God underlined the importance of this day even before the commandments were given (Ex 16:22-29).

2. It’s the command with the longest explanation

Of all the 10 commands we might think that the Sabbath day was the simplest. But God spends more time explaining it than any other (Ex 20:8-11). In doing so God again ties in the command to His creative order (Ex 20:11), emphasising it’s importance to our well-being.

3. His commands are given for our good

Our God is our Father who loves us dearly. His commands are given for our good (Deut 10:10-12). Our response? We’re told “circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer” (Deut 10:16) because He wants our best.

4. Our salvation leads us into relationship with God

In the same passage we are reminded that it was God who set His affection upon us and chose us (Deut 10:15). We were created for relationship. Relationship needs time. Knowing the busyness of life, God has given us a day of rest from work so that we can spend time with Him.

5. Jesus led us by His example

Time spent with His Father was a joy for Jesus. And so we read “As His custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day” (Lk 4:16). The Spirit’s work in us is to conform us to the image of Jesus, having the same joy in spending time with God, in worship and His word.

6. It was joyfully celebrated by the early church

Although the day was changed, the creative order of having a day for rest and rejoicing in God remains for our blessing. We are free from condemnation of breaking the law (Rom 14:4-5, Col 2:16) but the Law is now written on our heart (Heb 8:10) and therefore the church joyfully met weekly for worship and fellowship (Acts 20:5, 1 Cor 16:2, Rev 1:10).

Conclusion

God’s provision of rest and time for relationship with Him is a huge expression of His love for us and His desire for our good. They’re not given to bring captivity, but to provide freedom. They’re given, above all, so that we have a vibrant, living, passionate relationship with Him.

Introduction

We live in a world which is still hugely influenced by ‘rationalism’. Rationalism can be defined as a system of thought or philosophy that “regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge” (Encyclopedia Britannica). Often this is manifest in the elevation of science or a similar system of induction or proof as the highest or only acceptable basis of belief. Interestingly, Britannica goes on to say “The rationalist’s confidence in reason and proof tends, therefore, to detract from their respect for other ways of knowing.”  A rationalist viewpoint is in itself limited, but rationalists tend not to admit to that.

The impact of a ‘pop. rationalism’ (unquestioning and naive) is that many will look down on the Bible and the claims of Christians. They will view such beliefs as on a par with superstition, and dismiss faith as unthinking or at the very least as of a lower level of understanding which recourse to scientific explanation will so quickly overturn that its okay to dismiss without further investigation.

Can a rational world be reached?

But, does this mean that we cannot reach a rational (or even post-rational) world with the gospel? As you’d expect, the answer is ‘no’.

But the bigger question is ‘How might a reach a rational world with the gospel’? The answer to that is to consider how you approach people who have a rationalistic mind-frame … where should I start? Here are some useful tips. But remember that each person is an individual … there is no ‘winning formula’! Listen, hear where each person is coming from, and respond to each person as they need and God leads.

Some helpful tips

1. The Bible tells us to ‘be thinking’, not to turn off our brains

I have often found it helpful to point out that belief in Jesus is never pictured as an irrational step. In fact, the Bible commends the Bereans for examining the scriptures daily to see if what was said is true (Acts 17:11). When Paul was presenting his defence to Agrippa he countered Agrippa’s charge that he was mad by saying (Acts 26:25) “What I am saying is true and reasonable“ and pointed that the evidence was there for him to investigate: “none of this has escaped his attention because it was not done in a corner“.

In fact, the rationalist’s conception of ‘faith’ itself is often in error. They will often think of it as blind belief. But faith is turning from trust in other things to trust in God and His word. Heb 11:1 puts it like this: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.“ It’s a ‘substantial’ thing … there is substance to it, and it’s evidence based! The question is therefore not whether we are believing in nothing, but what is it that Christians believe in, and what is the evidence. A rationalist, to be true to themselves, has to investigate these things before they can arrive at their conclusion.

2. They have rejected a “god they don’t know“

When talking to the Athenians in Acts 17, Paul uses their statue “to an unknown god“ to expose the problem with their belief. They have dismissed God as unknowable beyond the things they have created as gods, but Paul argues that this God is real and knowable.

So, it is useful to ask people what they think God (or, to put it another way, the god they have rejected), is like and to question where they get this belief or understanding from. It is then often possible to identify the non-rational way they have obtained that understanding, and to encourage them to look at how God reveals Himself in the Bible (for example, invite them to look at Ps 19 and what kind of God that reveals, and where it points to as evidence for such a God … Paul uses a similar approach in Acts 17:24-28.

3. We all worship something

In rejecting the idea of God, the rationalist may think he/she can reject God, but what they invest their time in, what would hurt most if it was taken away from them, and what their satisfaction will rest in at the end of their life when they look back, all point to the God that they have selected instead – it is where our worship is that tells us what our god is. It is often shocking for a rationalist to realise that they do, in fact, worship something, so we need kindness and gentleness in revealing this. It is possible to walk people [carefully and lovingly] through Romans 1:20-25 to help reveal hearts.

4. What we worship does not satisfy

Paul makes this very clear to the Athenians in Acts 17:29 … these are merely things we’ve created by our own hands. There is a lovely, though shocking, passage in Is 44:12-20, which exposes the foolishness of a person who makes an idol with his own hands and then worships it. Although a rationalist would say that it’s just as foolish as we would see it, the reality is that to not worship God is to worship something else, and its just as fragile and ineffective.

5. What we worship will not last

Ecclesiastes reveals graphically how, although God gives us many good things “under the sun“, they are things we cannot take with us (e.g. Eccl 5:10-17) and the conclusion in Eccl 12:6-8 is that it’s all meaningless and so we need to “remember Him“.

6. There must be a better answer

If all this is the case, there must be a better answer. In Acts 17:30-31 Paul points the Athenians to God who “calls all people everywhere to repent” … to make the rational decision to turn from what is not true, cannot last and does not satisfy to the only one who use true, does last and will satisfy. But it is also helpful to take people back to Gen 3:1-7 because there we see that there is a lie (“you can … know good and evil“ – i.e. we can be rational and decide for ourselves what is right) which leads to faith in themselves and their own way rather than faith in God. It is to those living in the consequences of this lie that Jesus says “I am the way, the truth and the life“ … He is the answer. And believing in Him is not irrational – it is evidenced by His life, His death and supremely in His resurrection, as well as in the impact that believing in Jesus has in us.

Conclusion

It is easy to be put off by those who claim that they have turned their back on Jesus because they are rational and we are not. But the reality is that their rationalism is actually irrational – they have just never investigated their own claims to their logical conclusion, and they have usually never looked at the claims of Jesus. After Paul spoke to Agrippa, it was Agrippa, challenged by what Paul said, who nervously said (Acts 26:28-29) “ ‘Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to become a Christian?’ Paul replied, ‘Short time or long I pray that not only you but all those listening to me may become what I am, except for these chains‘.”  We, like Paul, seek to persuade men and women, longing that they too might find life and peace in Jesus.

It’s getting to ‘crunch time’ in many sports. It’s just that time of year. In football or rugby it’s coming to the end of the season and clubs are fighting for cups or league titles, or to not get relegated. In Motorsport the new season is just getting underway, but early season performance lays the foundation for the rest of the year.

Whether any of this interests you at all or not, there is one theme in common with those sports I’ve mentioned: they require teams to be working together towards the same goal. There have been football teams and F1 teams which have underperformed because people within their teams and management are focussed on different goals.

Of course, God’s church is an entirely different thing – it would be foolish to compare it too closely to any sporting team. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit says the Lord Almighty“ (Zech 4:6). But, after the crucifixion it is clear that the disciples were a discouraged (Lk 24:13-32), disbelieving (Jn 20:24-29), directionless (Jn 21:3) and fearful (Jn 20:19) people. The transformation over the next 40 days was remarkable. By Acts 1:12 they had direction, purpose and were a prepared people.

Jesus’ teaching over 40 days pointed them towards three things: The reality of His victory (Acts 1:3), the power of His Spirit (Acts 1:4-5), and the task of His Kingdom (Acts 1:6-8). The reality of His victory was to be their message; The power of His Spirit was to be their confidence; and The Task of His Kingdom was to be their purpose. And so, on seeing Jesus ascend to heaven, it’s no wonder that the Angels say to the disciples “Why do you stand there looking into the sky?“ – they had no reason to be longing for what was past or future, they had a task to complete right now!

And that focus is the same for us. We are a people who know the reality of His victory – “He is not here, He is risen!“, and we see His victory worked out in our lives as we live for Jesus. We are a people empowered by His Spirit, each day seeing Him work in incredible ways as we serve Him. And we are a people who hear the same call – that we will be His witnesses in all we do and wherever we go.

Its difficult to live that out sometimes. We live in a world of great opposition to the gospel of Jesus and to His people. We live as a counter-culture, a “city set on a hill“, “aliens and strangers in the world“. And so our zeal can waiver, our focus can drift onto other things. But God knows this. And He has given us great encouragement in His word as we face these challenges.

That’s why we’re looking through Acts and 1 Peter in the coming term – they are books written about God’s people who remain faithful through difficult times, despite great persecution and difficulty. They are written to encourage us: We too are weak people, but we too are loved people, empowered people, equipped people and fruitful people. We have the same God at work in us as we follow the same call and as we work for the same Kingdom. And they are written to focus our hearts and minds: to see clearly His Kingdom work and His Kingdom purposes that we have been called into.

What was the result of Jesus’ teaching and the work of His Spirit in them? We see it repeatedly stated in the opening chapters of Acts (Acts 1:12-13, 2:1, 2:44, 4:32): they were together, of one mind and heart. Their focus was on Jesus, His Kingdom and His work. It is our prayer that God would encourage our hearts in the coming months, sharpen our focus, empower our service and enlarge His Kingdom through us as we hear His voice in the coming term.

I wonder what verses you have learnt off by heart? Its a dying discipline for many, but it’s a great thing to do (see Ps 119:11, for example!). One of the first verses I learnt because I decided to (rather than as a requirement for getting a prize at Sunday School!) was Eph 2:8-9. I guess many of you will also have learnt it at some time too:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast.“

I learnt it because I was travelling to Southern Ireland to do outreach amongst people who were predominately from a Roman Catholic background. Their upbringing told them that their life was about the merit that they could earn before God which would allow them to qualify for His grace in dying for them. Yet in Eph 2:1-7 Paul recalls the depth of our fallen nature and utter unworthiness before a Holy God and then, in that terrible reality, declares these glorious words … that it is nothing to do with my work, my merit, but entirely about His undeserved kindness to unworthy people. There is nothing to do; I am called simply to repent of my rebellion and trust in the finished work of Jesus who paid the penalty for my sin. In fact, if we are to examine scripture further, we find that even the ability to hear and respond to this gospel message is an act of His grace because we are spiritually dead (Col 2:13, Rom 5:6-8).

The problem

This verse was amazing! It opened my eyes to the goodness of God in His salvation plan, confirmed in my heart the security of His salvation, and thrilled my soul with the extent of His love. Yet there was a problem. I didn’t ‘get’ that what starts by grace continues by grace. I failed to realise that His work in me was exactly that … His work. I had the desire to follow Him (the “hunger and thirst for righteousness” that characterises all saved people), and so set out to follow Him as best I could. But the problem was that it was the best I could. It took me many years to understand that it was to be Christ who was to work in me (Gal 2:20), it was with His energy I was to labour and not my energy (Col 1:29), it is His fruit that His Spirit brings about in me (Gal 5:22-25), His transformation (Rom 12:1-2), not my character change. The wonder of His Grace in sanctification took time to dawn on me.

And that wasn’t the only problem. Because I was seeking to do things myself, I became proud of my own achievements and judgemental of others lack of achievement. The “so that no-one can boast“ of Eph 2:9 was, for me, for salvation only. I was the epitome of the unmerciful servant of Matt 18:21-25 … and it wasn’t a pretty sight. Charles Swindoll, in his fantastic book “The Grace Awakening” calls such people “Grace Killers”, and he wasn’t wrong.

Grow in grace

Sadly, I discovered that I was far from the only one who was amazed by God’s grace in salvation but failed to recognise His work of Grace in our lives in Christ beyond salvation. Our fallen nature that elevates works so much makes it hard to comprehend the extent and scandalously generous nature of grace in every part of our life. To so many believers the reality of what Jesus says when He says “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt 11:30) is utterly foreign. And the result is so often the hardness, coldness and lack of love that so characterised my own life.

But, 2 Pet 3:18 says that we are to “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.“ Piper, commenting on this verse says this:

“Peter’s great desire for these people and for us is that we might experience lots and lots of God’s grace; that we might suck it up through our roots and grow by it; that we might soak it in like sunshine through our leaves and grow by it.

After “Jesus” there is no sweeter word in all the Bible than “grace.” As Dr. Widen would say, “It’s the greatest unused resource in all the world.” It is the wealth of God’s kindness; the riches of his mercy; the soothing ointment of his forgiveness; the free and undeserved, but lavishly offered hope of eternal life.”

John Piper

In our Spring sermon series we will be looking at Grace in the morning sermons and, to complement this, looking at the book of James in the evening services. It is my passionate prayer that God might use these series to open our eyes anew, or reawaken in our hearts afresh, amazement at the outrageous grace of God to us, soften our hearts in grace to one another, and revive in us a greater hunger and thirst for righteousness that comes to us only by His grace.

When the angel spoke to the Shepherds at the first Christmas, the glory of the Lord shone and the Shepherds heard this: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.”

When we’ve heard or seen something often enough, we tend to lose the wonder and awe of it. Recently I was in a cafe in Tetbury. While I queued up to order at this obviously very popular place a child went from his Mum’s side in front of me to look at a strange object close to us. He recognised the QWERTY keyboard on it, but the rest was alien to him. Fascinated, he pressed a key and a bit of metal popped up from inside the machine. He tried another key, and a different bit of metal appeared. He tried three keys at once, and three bits of metal appeared (and got stuck together). He was fascinated. ‘What is it?’, he asked, but his Mum was talking. He tried some more keys, but nothing seemed to happen. Being a sympathetic sort of person, I walked across to the typewriter he was playing with, untangled the arms, and said ‘Its a typewriter. It used to be used to write letters and books before computers came along.’ By this time his mother had noticed what was going on, and she started to explain how it all worked. He was fascinated.

The cafe was actually full of typewriters of various ages. I’m not sure why, but I guess it was just part of their ‘theme’. Those of us ‘of a certain age’ hardly noticed them. Yet to those from a younger generation who had never seen anything like them before they were fascinating, interesting, and intriguing. But (here’s the point), if I hadn’t realised what the child did not know, if I hadn’t spoken about it, if his Mum hadn’t taken up the conversation and explained more, it would just have been a bit of ‘installation art’ – of interest, but with no real value or purpose.

When the Angel announced Jesus’ birth, the announcement said, first of all, that it was ‘news’. The Greek word used there is euaggelizó which is a compound word: eú, “good, well” and angell?, “announce, herald”. A herald brought vital information that was previously unknown. And today, though it may seem so familiar, we’re also heralds of that ‘news’ … there is a world out there who, like that boy in the cafe, see a ‘thing’ which they don’t understand and there is news we still have to tell.

The Angel secondly said that it was ‘good news’ … again it’s all part of that one word ‘euaggelizó’. It means ‘the complete good message’. That’s why the Angel goes on to explain what the good news is: ‘Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you: He is Christ the Lord’. This is what we need to explain to people. When the mother was explaining the typewriter to the boy she said ‘those metal sticks – they have letters on the end’. I didn’t think to explain that! I kind of assumed he’d know it. But the boy said ‘Oh!’, and looked at the metal letters on the end of the sticks. The mother then explained about the inked ribbon and how the letters hit the ribbon to put the letters image on the paper. He was fascinated, and understood how it worked. Christmas has a message that is amazing news of sins forgiven, life offered, relationship with God, and eternal hope. So few have any idea of the reality of that message this Christmas. What an incredible opportunity to share ‘good news’ we are offered each Christmas!

How are you going to be heralds of the good news of Jesus this Christmas?

Finally, you’ll see that the Greek word looks rather like the English word ‘evangelist’. And that’s because that’s where the English word comes from. This Angel was an ‘evangelist’ … the good news of Jesus was proclaimed by him. Christmas provides us with this incredible opportunity to obey God’s call to use to be his witnesses, to be heralds of the good news. Whether it is sitting down to read a book about the Christmas story to your children (or grand-children), asking a question of a friend like ‘When did you first hear about the real story of Christmas?’ and using the opportunity to explain what they probably don’t know, or sending a Christmas card that explains the real story, this is a time when you can help take people from ‘interest’ to ‘amazement’. How are you going to be heralds of the good news of Jesus this Christmas?

At Cambray we are committed to the work of Christians Against Poverty and partner with them to see lives changed through the reduction of debt and poverty.

We run a CAP Money Course, a revolutionary money management course that gives delegates the opportunity to learn skills that have a lasting impact on their finances.  Please email Geraldine Luffrum for information about the next course.

To find out more about CAP’s impact, we warmly recommend reading this insightful report from the London School Of Economics.

Recently on a Sunday morning I was talking about the ‘Life of Faith’ of Abel, and I started with a [true] story of a Pastor in the US gambling town of Reno. He was asked in a conference ‘What has being a Pastor in Reno to do with gambling?’. His reply was shocking and unexpected – His reply was: ‘Everything!’. Surprised, the interviewer asked him to explain. He said ‘It’s everything to do with gambling because God calls us to be ‘all in’ for Jesus … to place our whole lives on Him, our trust on Him, and our future on Him and Him alone. We cannot know what it is to truly be a disciple of Jesus if we have not put everything on Jesus.’

Entering the land

In Joshua 3 the people are about to enter the Land. For 40 years they wandered in the wilderness because their parents did not go ‘all in’ for God. They had decided that the giants and cities in the Land were too much for God to defeat, and this despite seeing God do wonders for them in Egypt, part the Red Sea for them to cross safely, destroy their enemies, and feed, protect and prosper them. Now a new generation are to enter the Land, to step into the place God has set aside for them to live and prosper in as a light to the world for Him. God had promised His provision (Josh 1:3), His power (Josh 1:5) and His presence (Josh 1:6). All that they had to do was step out trusting in Him.

But, how could they do that if, like their parents, they were not ‘all in’ for God? If my life is everything to me I’ll not be prepared to put it on the line for Him. If my reputation is everything to me ‘ll not be prepared to risk it for Him. If my wealth is everything to me, I’ll not be prepared to give it over to Him. If my sense of security in the comfort of where I am is vital to me, I’ll not be prepared to step out for Him.

Consecration

Because of this, in Joshua 3:5, on the eve of entering the land, Joshua tells the people “consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you“. For them this meant the practical actions of bathing with water to wash off the dirt of the old, and the separation from everything unclean as a commitment to a new life given over to God. It’s the same thing that David did in 2 Sam 12:20 after his sin with Bathsheba and his act of repentance … it was a dramatic putting off the old and entering into a new life of dedication and obedience. It was a clear turning from all that they had put their trust in and the wrong ways of their former life to lay everything down in trust in God and service to God. Although the act of consecration was a one-off event, the act signified moving to a new live with the daily reality of living for God that puts all on the altar for Him.

… is normal Christian living

In Christ we have been called to the same consecration of our lives. Romans 12:1-2 calls us to present our bodies as living sacrifices … all on the altar for Him. Col 3:5-14 calls on us to put to death our old life and turn to the new life of the Spirit we have in Christ. The tense of both of these passages shows us that these actions are to be a continuous ongoing experience. 1 Pet 2:9-10 tells us that we are to be His Royal Priesthood, a Holy Nation … our ongoing position is to be set apart for Him. This call to a consecrated life, to be ‘all in’ for Jesus, is not for the ‘Super Christian’ … it is God’s call to you and me, right now.

The reality for Cambray Baptist Church is that, like God’s people about to enter the land, we cannot and will not experience the fullness of all the blessing God has for us without being ‘all in’ for Jesus. The challenge for each one of us is to stop, examine our hearts and lives and, where we are holding out on God, to offer up ourselves to Him anew. Like the Israelites, we will only see the fullness of all God has for us in Christ when, like our saviour Himself, we humble ourselves and die to our ourselves that we might live to Christ (Mark 8:34-35, Gal 5:24).

It’s summer! The sun is shining, the days are warm, and we even had amazing weather at our Church Picnic too! For some schools the holidays are just days away, for students they have already begun, and for some pupils there are only three weeks left until the long summer holidays. This is a time of looking forward to holidays, time together and to the future.

For me its an interesting time of year this year, because only a week ago last year was the Induction service after I arrived in CBC. So, for me, this marks a year into God’s time for me in Cambray Baptist Church. And therefore, for me, it’s a time of looking back as well as forward.

In looking back I am drawn to Acts 20, where Paul was going on to Jerusalem from his ministry in Greece and Macedonia. He met with the Elders from Ephesus, and spoke to encourage them as they thanked him for his work amongst them. As Paul was so grateful for many dear brothers and sisters in Christ who he met and befriended in his time in the churches in that area, so I also am so grateful for having come to know and love men and women of God with a shared passion for the Lord and His Kingdom. There have been many times when I have missed dear friends in my previous church, but I am so grateful for the many friends in CBC and the shared vision for God’s work in CBC and Cheltenham.

I am also grateful for the work I can see God doing amongst us. This year has been very much a year of laying foundations. I am acutely aware that change both excites some and scares others. And so, together with the leaders, we have sought to lead carefully. We have laid the groundwork of leadership and admin structures, encouraged and built on the strength of our network of Small Groups. We are creating a framework for evangelism and Pastoral Care, planning simple ways of engaging with the church whether as a new-comer through our Welcome or a regular attendee through clear involvement routes (come to the Members meeting in July to hear more about these!). We have also spent time training and encouraging in gospel witness, and have seen that bear fruit in folk brought into church and along to the Life Explored course. And we have expanded our outreach with the Schools workshops and visits, Christmas and Easter outreach and our first attempts at Race Week outreach.

Looking ahead, in addition to continuing to see God lead in these areas, we will be seeking to provide more events and opportunities for evangelistic outreach, each with links into further opportunities to hear the gospel and engage with church life. The opening of John Lewis and the improvements to High Street and Cambray Place are already bringing potential opportunities which we are actively exploring. It will be exciting to see what God calls and enables us to do! In addition we are being clearly called to develop our children and youth work, whilst encouraging the work amongst adults and the elderly. These are challenges which we cannot yet see how God will provide for, but we know that He does not call us into situations that He has not provided for.

In Acts 16:6-10 Paul goes through a difficult time. Not persecution but, for him, the strange experience of knowing God’s call yet coming against difficulty and blockages. It took time, but God revealed His purposes and provided His means, and so the gospel came to Europe. Looking to the future is always a mixture of emotions – the excitement of what could be, together with a nervousness about the unknown … recall how you felt before going to a new school! Like Paul, we want to follow God’s lead only, not running ahead or lagging behind His call. And like Paul, we don’t see fully how it will work out at this point in time. But we can, like Paul, walk in confidence as God leads us, walking in the power of His Spirit (which raised Christ from the dead!), walking in the encouragement of the fellowship of God’s people around us, and the certainty that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me“. May the God of all encouragement encourage your hearts as we follow His leading.

Summer is coming! Have you planned your holiday yet? Are you already dreaming of sunny beaches and lazy days?

I guess most of us who are able will plan the usual beach holiday, or maybe something slightly more adventurous. But, have you ever thought about using your holiday to do something more?

And what if you are a young person who has just finished their GCSEs or A-Levels, or a Student, and you are wondering what to do with those weeks/months that lie ahead? Or what if you are retired but fit and able?

Maybe you’ve hardly given it a thought, but there are many organisations and opportunities which could use you over some or all of the summer period. Here are some examples, but there are many others:

In the UK:

• Beach Missions with United Beach Mission (https://www.ubm.org.uk/), Scripture Union (https://www.scriptureunion.org.uk) or CEF (https://www.cefbritain.org)
• Helping to Lead in Camps with Scripture Union (https://www.scriptureunion.org.uk) or going on a camp with WEC (https://wec-uk.org/stories/roll-on-the-summer)
• Doing outreach in cities with London City Mission (https://www.lcm.org.uk), or Christian Answer teams (https://www.ubm.org.uk/)
• Reaching International students with UCCF Summer Teams (https://www.uccf.org.uk/) or Friends International teams (https://friendsinternational.uk)

In Europe:

• Beach Missions with Mission Vacances (https://www.ubm.org.uk/)
• Summer Teams with UCCF (https://www.uccf.org.uk/)
• Summer Teams with OM (https://www.om.org/uk/)
• Summer Teams with YWAM (https://ywam.org/get-involved-now)

Going further and deeper:

Short-term mission work in:

• Asia (OMF – https://omf.org/uk/get-involved/serveasia/)
• Africa (AIM – http://eu.aimint.org/go/shortterm/)
• Africa (SIM – http://www.sim.co.uk/serve/pathways/)
• World-wide (OM – https://www.uk.om.org/Pages/Category/go)
• World-wide (CrossLinks – https://www.crosslinks.org/what-we-do/short-term-placements/)
• World-wide (WEC – https://wec-uk.org/)
• World-wide (Interserve – https://www.interserve.org.uk/what-is-god/service-streams/on-track/)

You might think that this is for the ‘keen Christian’ / ‘super Christian’ or just simply ‘Someone older than me’ or ‘Someone younger than me’. There are actually opportunities for all, and you will be amazed at all God can do through someone like you! So, go on ! have a look and see what you can do with your summer which you would never have expected!

The sun is here (well, as much as we get in the UK)! People you’ve not seen all winter are coming out from ‘hibernation’ in front of TVs, log fires and blankets. Fair-weather runners and cyclists have returned to the streets. And people are dining ‘al fresco’ in gardens and on streets all around the town.

This means it is much more likely that you will encounter your neighbours, get to know more folk in your street, or meet folk you don’t know – it’s a time when you may have many more opportunities than normal to shine for Jesus!

So here are some ideas of things you can do to meet people and love them as Christ loves them over the summer:

Walks

• Invite your neighbour or friend to join you in a walk in the evening
• If you have young family, invite friends to come with your children to the park
• Invite friends for a Sunday afternoon walk on Cleeve Hill or Pitville Park or wherever you go to

Trips

• If you have National Trust / English Heritage membership, gather some friends to visit a NT property on a Saturday afternoon … and if not, then pay for their entrance
• Find out about local markets or summer village fetes/fairs; go along and meet people and talk with people there
• If you have young family, arrange a day trip to a beach or Cotswold Water Park with other families you know

Activity

• If you live in a suburb or village, find out when the local fete/fundays are and volunteer to help out, or just go along and support them, using opportunities to make friends
• If you have a local primary school, see if they need volunteers to help in open days or sports days
• Into cycling? Then invite others who like to cycle for an afternoon or day cycling together. Not into cycling? – then do you sail or canoe or climb? Don’t do it solo when you can get alongside others!

Garden

• When your neighbours are in their garden, use the opportunities to chat to them.
• If you have a project in the garden that needs help, ask your neighbours to help, or if they are working in their garden then offer to help them!
• It’s Bar-B-Que season … run a bring-and-share Bar-B-Que for friends or neighbours

Going big

• Is there opportunity to organise a local ‘Fun Day’ for your street or community?
• What about a summer activity or sports day in a local park among a group of neighbours or friends, or even for your community (your Small Group might organise one!)
• Hold a Saturday morning Dad’s and Kids get-together in a local park

These are only ideas to get you started thinking! The key thing is to be open to the opportunities God provides day to day, making the most of every opportunity in the normality of life. So, it might be getting onto a local park litter collecting team, it might be helping a neighbour who is decorating their house, it might be offering to help a friend wash or fix their car, it might be getting together with neighbours to mow the shared lawn areas near your house, it might be inviting friends to watch Wimbledon with you. You are the only ‘missionary’ in your set of friends, neighbours and contacts … it’s a mission field that God has said is “ripe to harvest. So pray, therefore, the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into His harvest field“.

God uses individuals

A couple of Sundays back we looked again at what it means to be a Witness for Jesus. Of course we know that Jesus says “You will be my witnesses“ (Acts 1:9). The interesting thing is that there is no exclusion or exception clause in that. The reality, as I mentioned that Don Posterski says in his book ‘Why am I afraid to tell you I’m a Christian‘, is that we are all signposts … but we either point to Jesus or away from Him.

But you may feel ‘what can God possibly use me for?’. Maybe you feel so weak, afraid or unable. I found the following passage in Roger Carswell’s book entitled ‘And some Evangelists’. I hope you find it helpful:

“Fashionable new ideas about the way to do God’s work in the current culture burst on to the Christian scene at frequent intervals. Seminars and conferences are taken on their rounds and they have their influence. A work which has been particularly blessed of the Lord becomes a prototype for others. Some of these make a valid contribution to the task, though one cannot franchise the work of God.

God’s underlying method, however, has always been to take individuals and use them. God chose Joseph to deliver Egypt and His people from starvation; Moses to lead them out of slavery; Joshua to lead them into the promised land; the judges were raised up personally by God, as were the prophets. The list of such characters in Scripture is long and impressive, but why did God choose these people?

God looks for individuals to “stand in the gap” (Ezek 22:30). All God’s gracious dealings prepared them for their distinctive roles, nevertheless God is looking for qualities which He can use. David is an obvious example here. He is marked out as an individual who had both integrity and skill and is described as “a man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22). Undoubtedly, God blesses particular organisations and churches, but His method is to take, fill and use individuals committed to Him.

Such individuals are not mavericks, speaking whatever thoughts they dream up. Jeremiah 23:9-40 clearly exposes such people. But the person who seeks to honour the Lord will always proclaim the word of God. God uses people who proclaim the Word, which God is committed to use.”

Roger Carswell then goes through a list of ordinary people, raised up by God, and used by Him throughout the Bible. Many were hardly mentioned, even in the Bible, or are unnamed, but God remembers them and lifts them up as an example in Heb 11:32-29.

God isn’t looking for experts, isn’t looking for the trained, isn’t looking for the eloquent or the skilled, isn’t looking for the great or the powerful. His plan is to use ordinary Christians … people like you and me, people who simply, willingly, go each day in obedience to live and speak for Him, to be His witnesses. The key is simply this … it’s not in your power but in His. So, are you the individual Jesus is going to use?

Members Meetings should be about more than reports and voting. They should be a place where we celebrate together God’s goodness to us as we look back, where we look forward as the leaders share where God is directing us to take the church, and above all where we pray for God’s powerful work in His people and the work of the church.

The Members Meeting last week was our church AGM, and we looked back at the past year through a number of reports and saw God’s blessing on us in providing new staff and finance through the year. We shared the financial challenges as we seek to expand the outreach activities and missionary engagement of the church in the years ahead.

We were excited to hear the testimonies of 7 people who had applied to join the church as new members and to accept each of them as members, and to re-elect four Trustees and one new Trustee so that our leadership team of Elders and Deacons is at full strength.

But what I want to share with you were the One year and Five year objectives we have set for ourselves as an Eldership for the church. In our January Magazine we shared with you the new Church Vision. Now we want to express what this looks like as we move towards a church which is fulfilling the commissions of Jesus before His Ascension.

The headlines of our Five Year objectives were as follows:

• Growth by the Regular heart-beat of people coming to the Lord
• Evident maturity seen in all believers growing in Grace, the Fruit of the Spirit, Servant-Heartedness, Passion for God and Passion for the lost
• CBC is a leading centre of discipleship and training in Cheltenham, the area and nationally
• CBC is a ‘church planting church‘ which has planted or is revitalising a church in the most needy area of Cheltenham
• CBC is a ‘sending church‘ – training and regularly sending out valuable leaders, workers and planters into the national and global mission field

These are ambitious but reachable objectives which are suitable for a church of the size of CBC. However, we will not reach these unless we develop carefully, step by step. We have started towards many of these already, and a recent commitment by the leaders that CBC will make church revitalisation / planting a core part of who we are as a church, as well as a review of Mission and Missionary Support both are practical steps towards this. But, we need annual objectives which are smaller steps towards these five year goals.

So, the headlines from the One Year objectives (April 2018-April 2019) are as follows:

• Admin, leadership, and Pastoral structures for growth are all put in place and bedded in
• Intentional Witness becomes part of the CBC ‘DNA’
• Integration of every believer into church life so that every person is using the gifts God has given them within church life or for outreach
• Effective communication of the vision and objectives of the church to the church as a whole
• Expectation of great things from God

We know we are being called by God to be a church which is fulfilling its call to “Go into all the world and make disciples“. As a leadership we believe that these are great stepping stones to help us be a church which is obedient to the Lord’s call, a body which will fulfil the commissions to Love, Grow and Go with the gospel so that Cheltenham, this nation and the world are impacted for God’s Kingdom.

[You can find out more detail on these objectives and on our commitment to be a planting/revitalising church from hand-outs that are available from the church office.]