Minister’s Letter

NOVEMBER:

Dear friends

As I write it could be something of an understatement to say that we are going through some difficult times as a nation. Economically and financially things seem to be going very badly wrong, unemployment seems set to rise, and in many homes anxiety about the future is very high. Locally too I have been ministering to some very difficult pastoral situations. I have sat alongside many who might identify with St Paul who once said to the Christian community in Corinth “we are pressed on every side by troubles…. perplexed…. hunted… and knocked down”. Just occasionally it can feel as if everything is against us can’t it? I guess we can take some comfort from knowing we are not alone in these feelings. And yes, we do wonder where God is in it all.

It should be said that I had been feeling a little bit sorry for myself last month anyway. One or two things just seemed to be going wrong, despite my best efforts, and if I am honest I was also missing Rachel who as you know has gone off to study Classics at Durham. But then I was rather challenged when I picked up November’s Barnabas Aid Magazine to read this:

“On 20^th July 100 young Muslim extremists attacked the Christian community in the town of Andulo, Angola. One woman was seriously injured, and Leti Raimundo, the school-age daughter of a Deacon at one of the churches, was decapitated.”

I felt sick to my stomach. As a Christian Minister I know I may well be misrepresented, misunderstood, mocked or even vilified but no one is threatening to decapitate me or my children. Rachel enjoys the freedom to attend the Christian Union at her college – she has a choice of several churches, and mild mannered mockery is the worse she has to put up with when she witnesses to her faith. She is free. In November it is right that we are encouraged to remember those who gave their lives for this freedom during both world wars, and in the many conflicts since. But additionally this month we are asked also to stand up for our persecuted sisters and brothers across the world, many of whom live in daily fear of their lives because of their refusal to let go of the freedom they have found in Jesus Christ.

I am humbled by all who sacrificed their lives, and I will wear a poppy in their honour, but also as I put my cross around my neck each day this November I will remember the ongoing witness of all who still seek to serve Jesus in lands where our faith is increasingly outlawed. I commend the work of groups such as the Barnabas Fund, Open Doors and others to your prayers. In reality I am told Angola is fairly tolerant compared with many other countries! On Saturday November 8th, along with many young Christians from all over the UK, Rachel will attend an afternoon of peaceful demonstrations in London outside embassies of countries where religious freedom is not tolerated and where Christians are persecuted. I stand with her. And I pray that whenever I am tempted to believe Satan’s lies and doubt that anything good can ever come out of the troubles around me, I shall remember Leti Raimundo and choose to say with St Paul:

"We are pressed in on every side by troubles, but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed but we don’t give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down but we get up again and we keep going”

2 Corinthians 4:8

I believe that Christian martyrs such as Leti do not die in vain - the Barnabas Fund report continues as follows:

“The Gospel is advancing strongly in Andulo – twenty pastors supported by Barnabas Fund are active in evangelism; the Christian bookshop is having a great impact in the community and it has also opened a small chemist’s shop for basic health care. The work is greatly appreciated by the Angolan government”.

I guess those forces which would seek to destroy freedom are not very happy about this!

So as we seek to stand for Jesus in all our contexts, in and through all that the enemy throws at us, let us remember Leti, and together let’s keep going!

Every blessing

Kath<><

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OCTOBER

Dear friends

September/October time sees the Harvest season well and truly underway and we are all eagerly anticipating our Harvest Weekend, which will have a yummy Buffet Supper on Saturday 18th October @ the school, followed by an All Age Harvest celebration the following morning. As well as giving thanks for the earth’s harvest, this is a season which reminds us that God’s Harvest also includes the huge variety of things that we are each involved in through our daily lives. It reminds us that we work and speak for him in all we do and say, and that we are privileged to be partners with him in the growing of his Kingdom and helpers in his harvest field. To that end it will be good also to hear of the difference made to the people of Burkina Faso through the amazing work done by Tear Fund, whom we have supported at SCMC for about five years and whose “Step up to the Plate” project will be the beneficiary of all profits raised. We shall also get the chance to try some exciting new recipes donated by various famous chefs, as well as sample a little taste of Africa! Do please make this a priority in your diaries, “Step up to the Plate” and bring friends and family along too.

At a Harvest supper held at St Andrews last month we watched the award winning film – “An Inconvenient Truth” – which offered us a salutary reminder that we are called to be stewards of the whole earth. Harvest is a good time to contemplate the implications for all of us as we face inevitable climate change. I found Al Gore’s film deeply moving, and very challenging, and the DVD is available for you to borrow if you haven’t yet seen it.. Coincidentally, a series of three scientific documentaries on the BBC concluded that same weekend, and it affirmed clearly that global warming and associated climate change is already a global reality. It seems to me that we have a special obligation as Christians to not give in to despair but instead do what we can to step forward and take some simple, if small, positive actions. I encourage you to step up to this commitment to God’s creation in as many ways as you can – use low energy bulbs, turn your thermostat down, insulate your house, walk more, recycle – there are so many more things you can do including asking politicians some very awkward questions! Please stand up to be counted.

Speaking of which, we will be asking you to stand up and be counted this month – firstly, I am talking about the October count where Methodism does an annual count of worshippers each Sunday. But secondly, and much more importantly for me, I refer to Membership. For many people, becoming a Church Member seems a very big step, perhaps because they think they don’t yet know enough about Christianity, or think they don’t quite understand all of it, or maybe they feel that they aren’t quite good enough to be a Member, or worry that they might end up being expected to do too much, or maybe they are simply waiting to be asked in person! So please take this as a warm invitation to step up and be counted! None of us know it all, all of us feel we have so much to learn, but becoming a Member is a way to step up and publicly declare our allegiance to Jesus and to each other. The wonderful step into Membership is indeed a significant step of witness and commitment, and it might very well be the next step for you to take as you journey on with Jesus and with us at SCMC! It will be wonderful to be welcoming a harvest of new Members in the next couple of months, so if you would like to find out more and step up to be counted, do please speak with me. We are all on a journey, we are all invited to belong, and it will be our privilege to have you alongside us as we all continue to seek to stand up and be counted as Christ’s.  

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AUGUST

Dear friends

The holidays are here at last! At least that’s what all the children, students and teachers are able to say anyway! I can testify to the fact that as far as our friends at the Junior School are concerned, July 22nd couldn’t come round fast enough. It’s been quite a year. As Governor I was privileged to be part of the two day process which appointed the new Head Teacher, Simon Wood, who will be replacing John Gadd, and goodness, what a gruelling process the candidates had to go through! The school then had their Ofsted inspection for a further two days, and this time we were on the receiving end of the process, with the Governing Body being grilled by the Lead Inspector. It was absolutely wonderful for the school to hear a couple of days later that we had achieved the highest accolade – Southwater Juniors is officially an “outstanding” school, in every category (Governors included!). They then topped it off by winning the District Sports, and even the village itself joined in by winning SE Village of the Year!

I have to say, and as many of you will have witnessed, I am competitive! Why? Because it feels great to win, to do well, to achieve the best you can. (And yes, I know it’s not all about winning, it’s the taking part etc!). But in a well conducted appraisal or an inspection/assessment process you are aiming to be the best you can be (as opposed to beating everyone else into second place). The school has worked hard for its success, which is thoroughly deserved. Well done, one and all!

All this made me think, what would an outstanding church look like? What kind of feature would an “Inspector of Churches” be looking for – what makes for excellence in the Kingdom? Perhaps your answers to this might be sent to Joyce for inclusion in the September newsletter?! Of course the temptation might be to say that the world’s mega churches, with their glitzy worship and their wonderful buildings and their big budgets and their array of worship leaders and pastors and preachers etc are the model of “outstanding”. But, while careful not to knock such churches, as Clair Fisher reminded our homegroup recently, on that rather dodgy criteria Jesus’ own ministry would be declared “in need of special measures”, along with most of the world’s churches for that matter! We have to be careful as big is not necessarily the hallmark of success in the Kingdom. Neither is “big = best” part of the School Inspectorate’s criteria! A tiny village infant school can just as easily be considered “outstanding”.

Maybe if we look back at our history we might find a better way of assessing churches other than size? The first Christians were so called because they were identified as “Christ’s ones” – and in Antioch the refrain locally was simple: “look how these Christians love one another!” In the cut-throat Roman Empire and the city states of Europe there was no social security, no way up from the bottom, and a benevolent patronage rather than talent was the only way to achieve success. The Christian community turned this world view inside out, putting love at the centre of all they did, opening their homes to each other and to the needy, practising radical table fellowship, and if necessary standing up for the Way of Jesus - even if death was the inevitable result. The accolade of “outstanding Christian” was  the special title given to the martyrs and not the mega church.

From small but phenomenally effective beginnings the Kingdom grew, and the influence of the liberating Gospel of Jesus Christ now inhabits every corner of the globe and impacts on every facet of life. SCMC is a small but vibrant community of Christians and explorers of Christ, called along with our sisters and brothers in churches of all shapes and sizes to play our part in God’s amazing Kingdom, each of us privileged to be His partner in restoring the world to its true identity. So don’t compare us or yourself to anyone else! Look to Jesus, offer Him the gifts you have, and He will use you to expand His rule of love and justice. Because the glorious truth is that in God’s Kingdom, thanks to Jesus, you and I are made perfect – yep, in Him we are all “outstanding”.

Every blessing

Kath <><

JUNE

Dear friends

I am planning an incredible amount of stuff for things that are coming up this month – so if my thoughts seem disconnected hang on to the end, when it should all start to make sense (I hope!). In no particular order: I have a service of baptism at St Andrews; a few people at SCMC with whom to talk through membership; a public meeting with Horsham District Council who want the churches to help meet some of the various issues faced by the people in Roffey (where St Andrews is situated). As Governor at the Junior School there are some important meetings coming up and vital decisions to make as we seek to find a new Head Teacher. I have a meeting at Beeson House to help promote the work being done by the church in Southwater, in particular through the Youth Project, & Young at Heart. I will be going to the first meeting of what will be the 2nd Five Year Village Plan and hope that we make as great a contribution to this plan as we did the last. I have a paper to present to the Circuit Leadership Team our vision for a Children, Family and Community worker to work at SCMC & St Andrews so we can make an even greater impact on our communities. This submission will be competing with other suggestions for funding so this presentation is important, as will be the special Circuit meeting in July. Plus we have our SCMC Leadership Team Away Day, a process culminating in our  Church Vision Day on June 29^th. Phew! Needless to say I am awash with paperwork and my head hurts!

So I found myself wondering what connects all of this? And it isn’t because I am paid to do it all! (Actually, I’m not!). I began by mentioning baptism and membership - these both signify a desire to belong to the church, and my job is to remind people that they are not joining a club; neither are they signing up for something of nominal allegiance or impact. Belonging to a church should make a clear and visible difference to the way you live your life, the lifestyle choices you make, and how you choose to use your time and money. And I can’t just teach this – I have to try and live it out myself! Now I am by no means the best at this (I could point you to any number of better examples!) but, in my own way, I am trying to live out the meaning of my baptism - every day. By being involved in the community, trying to build bridges to church for those who think church is deadly and boring, through doing things such as Messy Church & Let’s Go, through trying to lead worship that makes sense to seekers and so on, I am trying to ensure that those who stand outside looking in at us are challenged and amazed at the reality that actually is “church”. And I suppose I am getting ‘out there’ so I can try to claim some of their territory for God – pitching my God-tent in the public domain!

I will be reminding us on our Vision Day that just by being church properly, we can win people for Christ – the first Christians were so called because the citizens of Antioch saw the believers lives being worked out every day, and commented “see how these ‘Christ-ones’ love one another!” But a church such as those we read about in the book of Acts needs as many as possible to sign up to the missional journey – as we grow numerically at SCMC we cannot sit back on our laurels as if there is no more to be done, no more souls to save, nor more needs to serve! And as we grow neither can new members expect the existing ones to continue to carry all the tasks. All of us are called to work, serve, and to witness to Christ.

Here’s the challenge put to one church by their leader recently - he asked them to consider the vision and commitment they were giving to their jobs and careers. He wasn’t asking them to abandon their ambitions; rather he wondered what might happen to the Christian churches if we put in the kind of effort expected from us by our paid employers? What if our ambition to achieve success was translated across to our involvement in church? Indeed, what I wonder, is success, for a community in Christ?

So, do please make sure you join us at our annual Church Vision Day on June 29th, 10am – 2pm (Bring & Share lunch), when we can all think about this some more!

Every blessing

Kath <><

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MAY

Dear friends,

May is a glorious month – everywhere is crammed full of new life; the hedgerows around us are wearing every shade of green, and from my windows I can see kamikaze blackbirds bursting forth in a seemingly never-ending search to find enough food to feed the hungry beaks back in the nests. All is still fresh and new, and the summer is just a hint away. People have begun to emerge from their homes, and we can extend pleasantries with our neighbours outside without fearing to catch a chill. (And it’s my birthday, so there’s another reason to enjoy the month!)

I have a friend who suffers quite badly from SAD or seasonal affective disorder. She finds the long, dark days of winter very difficult, and can’t wait for the brighter days of spring and summer to come round. To those who know her, a real difference can be discerned around now - the month of May marks a significant sea-change in her mood and she positively bounces about, re-energised and full of life. When I see her at this time of year I am reminded how celebrating Pentecost in May feels particularly appropriate for those of us in northern climes! When we read Acts 2 we see how the friends of Jesus underwent a dramatic change as they experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit so powerfully that they couldn’t contain the energy which flowed into and out of them, sending them out onto the streets to speak of Jesus to all who would listen. Their exuberance and enthusiasm led some to think they were drunk, but this was no earthly spirit that gripped them! The Holy Spirit, as foretold by the prophet Joel, had burst into the world in a new way and with unstoppable force. Nothing would ever be the same again. On that day his friends knew that Jesus’ promise to always be with them had been fulfilled – although he was no longer with them in his physical presence, the Spirit of God who filled, empowered and directed Jesus was now alive in them! It would take years before our Christian theology, creeds and doctrine would be able to articulate the reality that these men and women were then experiencing – the power of God, at work in them. Wow!

With the active presence and power of Jesus at work in and through these ordinary people, amazing things were to be achieved; that day alone some 3000 people became followers of Jesus, and the Christian faith would break out of its small local Jewish roots and find its way across the globe, and then on into the hearts and minds of people of all nations ever since. Such is the power of Pentecost, such is the impact of a life lived full of God’s Holy Spirit. It was this power, this sense of the real presence of Christ in his life that had eluded John Wesley until that wonderful day in May 1738 when he attended a meeting in Aldersgate Street. He commented that previously in relation to his experience of God he had had the faith of a servant, but after this he knew the assurance of a son. His brother Charles also had a similar experience of faith just days beforehand; both brothers now had this amazing sense of the indwelling Spirit of God such that they would emerge with what became a Spirit-filled determination that all the world might know the wonders of God’s grace! While John and Charles Wesley, like all of us, continued on in the real life ups and downs of personal faith, nonetheless, through them and others who felt similarly, a powerful renewal movement was born that burst out of its Anglican roots to become Methodism. So we have much to celebrate this month!

As we leave the Easter season and all the celebrations of SCMC’s 18th birthday behind us, it is my prayer that in the days ahead you ‘may know, may feel, your sins forgiven’ and allow God’s Holy Spirit to touch you, that you might be changed from the inside out. As we celebrate Pentecost may the Holy Spirit fill you to the full, so that you too will be brimming over with the love of Christ, that others might be brought to new life in Jesus. May you experience the power of a Pentecost faith! Amen.

APRIL

Dear friends,

Happy Easter! And Happy 18^th birthday also! What with Easter and our church anniversary so close together this year, it seems that we have a lot to celebrate right now! It was really wonderful to have so many people with us on Easter Sunday – our visitors made up in number for those of you who were away for the weekend, and by the time breakfast had finished over 50 of us were able to break bread together and celebrate the glorious fact that Jesus is alive, still with us, inspiring and encouraging us, teaching, challenging and affirming us in all we are endeavouring to be and to do in His name here in Southwater.

I hope that as many of you as possible will be joining our ongoing celebrations over the first weekend in April as we give thanks for the life and witness of SCMC over the last 18 years. Mave Whitchurch will be preaching on Sunday April 6th, and I am really looking forward to welcoming her. I have worked with Mave over the past five years as she has developed N:Vision, an ecumenical network aiming to disciple young people and children across Sussex, Surrey and Kent. Mave is the Baptist SE regional youth officer and N:Vision has grown out of her commitment to equipping and envisioning young people in their faith. She will have just returned from a two week prayer retreat in Kansas, so I expect she will have a lot to share!

On the Saturday (April 5^th) we will be throwing a party, and it seems very fitting that we should do so, even if not everyone can be there! We are only 18 once! I note that Jesus was not above attending the odd party! Have you ever noticed how much of his teaching takes place at dinner parties? And feasts, banquets and parties seem to be everywhere in the stories he told. It is ok to celebrate, to have fun together! He came to give life in all its fullness! We might wish to reflect however on his challenges: he mixed with all people, high and low, yet often he shared his table openly with those on whom his society looked down, and he taught that those who believed they had an automatic right of entry to the great banquet of heaven might need to rethink things! God’s hospitality extends far beyond our social and religious comfort zones. 

Jesus rebuked those who moaned that his disciples did not fast or keep rigorously to the religious rules – he was himself rebuked for hanging out with the sinners, the disreputable and the dissolute. And every time we share bread and wine, at every party, every feast, and every meal with others we are called to remember that he was consistent to the end, even choosing to spend his last night on earth celebrating Passover with those whom he knew were about to deny him, abandon him, and even betray him. He knelt at the feet of these same men and women at this last meal and like a lowly servant washed their feet. “Unless you do similarly, you can’t consider yourself my friend – love each other in the same way I have loved you”. His is a love that recognises our failings yet forgives and accepts us nonetheless, a love that transcends our rigid pettiness, our social niceties, and our self imposed religiosity; a love that calls us to love others with the same open, compassionate, generous and forgiving hearts as His. As we meet to celebrate the love we have found in Jesus, and as we celebrate together in his name, whether in worship or in fish and chip suppers, we shall know the blessing of his risen presence!

Every blessing Kath <><

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MARCH

Dear friends,

In our recent Home Group we turned to the highly topical subject of “Love”, topical because we were meeting during the week which included Valentine’s Day (indeed the Thursday group actually met on the 14th Feb! Did you have candles and roses? We need to know!). We found out a great deal about each other in what was only our second meeting, we laughed (a lot!), and also managed to learn three Jewish words for LOVE. It has always struck me how absurd it is that we can say we love chocolate (perhaps even more so if we have given it up for Lent!), or we love our favourite jumper, love our cat, love our children and love our husband or wife! The word love, in English, has to carry an amazingly wide range of meaning.

Much more sensibly Hebrew, the language of the Jewish scriptures, has at least three words for love. There is the word which points us to the companionship, or friendship side of loving someone. Then there is the word which means choosing to act upon the emotion of wanting to be with someone – love as a verb, an action, a choice. This reminded me of someone who told me once that “love is what you do and say when you don’t feel loving at all”. Finally there is a third word which refers to the physical aspect of love, the sexual relationship between man and wife or the platonic hug or cuddle of friends.

On reflection we realised that these three words were very helpful not simply in understanding love, but in helping us reflect on what is happening when we meet to worship God. In worship we are telling God we love Him in response to Him telling us the very same! We realised that like the first Hebrew meaning for love, we meet together because we want to be with others who share our desire to follow Jesus – we are drawn to be with the people of God in fellowship and with them we want to experience the presence of Jesus, our friend and saviour. This is the companionship of faith, or to use an old fashioned phrase “the communion of saints”.

Second, we choose to take time to worship God, in fact Sunday by Sunday we choose Him over a wide range of other possibilities: why? Because we love Him, and even if we don’t always feel like it, we come together because like love, worship is not just an emotion, it is an action.

Third, when we worship we bring our whole selves – we are physical and not just spiritual or intellectual beings. When we are moved by something we may cry, when happy we might laugh, when excited we may clap or even jump up and down! In worship we can use our whole body to express our love, perhaps in dance, in raised hands, through waving flags, or in quiet kneeling with clasped hands. All these are ways to express love for God physically in worship. So, if you witness this, please don’t disparage such behaviour as “happy clappy”! If physically you are a more restrained person, just remember, they are simply in love with the God of love!  

Little children, let us love, not simply through word and speech,
but in word and action -

beloved let us love one another, because love is from God.

God’s love was revealed among us in this way:

God sent His only Son into the world

so that we might live through Him.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in Him,

and God abides in them!

1John3:18 – 4: 16

Every blessing Kath <><

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FEBRUARY 2008

Dear friends,

I am writing on what is apparently the most depressed day of the whole year, Monday January 21^st. This is a hard time of year for people; Christmas spending ensures lots of bills hitting the doormat at the same time bringing a sharp financial reality check (a bit like the current stock market!). More people contact their lawyers for a divorce in early January, perhaps because staying together for Christmas proved to be the last straw. New Year resolutions made with determination have now begun to fail and people feel despondent about their ability to change themselves for the better. The days may be slowly getting longer, but they are officially more grey, wet and overcast than at any other time of the year! The sun is there but we don’t see it. Our mood can shift downwards. There is little hope. All is dark and gloomy still. As I thought about this, and amidst all the issues that January had already brought for us in Southwater, I was studying the disciple Nathanael who we meet twice in John’s Gospel. Pick up your Bible, take a quick look at John 1:45 – 51 (or click here to see it!) and then let me share my thoughts.

Interestingly, Nathanael doesn’t appear in the other three Gospel lists of the first 12 disciples, leading some scholars to suggest he might also have been known as Bartholomew or Thaddeus. (My view? This side of heaven we are unlikely to know for sure!) Anyhow, John tells us that Jesus describes Nathanael as a “true and honest man of Israel”. This compliment caught Nathanael’s attention, but he seems much more impressed by Jesus’ supernatural knowledge that he, Nathanael, had earlier been sitting “under a fig tree”. By the way, this lovely visual image probably meant that Nathanael was a deep thinking student of the Jewish Law. This explains why initially Nathanael wasn’t remotely impressed when asked by Philip to come and see the man who Philip, Peter and Andrew believed to be “the One” promised by God. Why? Because Jesus hailed from Nazareth, and Nathanael, himself from neighbouring Cana, very much doubted whether “anything good could come out of Nazareth?” - any half decent student of the Jewish scriptures knew the Messiah was to come out of Bethlehem! (Yes, this is ironic – we have all read Matthew and Luke so we know what Nathanael as yet didn’t know). Anyway, it was rather the equivalent of a Horsham-ite saying “can anything good come out of Crawley?” (apologies to Crawley!).

Looking back, I think Nathanael must have realised that this was a pivotal moment in his life – sitting under a tree trying to figure out the meaning of life, Philip’s invitation to meet the Messiah from Nazareth must have sounded a real joke. But despite his doubts he went to meet this Jesus. How phenomenally grateful he must have been to Philip, the Philip who gently urged him to “Come and see for yourself! Come and join with us, and meet this Jesus, God’s Son”. Can we, dare we say such things to the people whom we know who like Nathanael are desperately searching for truth and for meaning - come and see, come and see He in whom we have found our hope!

I know that Angie and I wish something of this Christian hope had been better communicated in Southwater where this month we are again facing the all too common tragic consequence of the darkness that infects our society like a disease, where children prefer death to life. As a culture we are dis – eased. Our souls are dis - comforted. As a community and church we have had cause these past few weeks to battle with the forces of darkness that would infect, drag down and destroy. We fight with the only weapons we have – God’s truth through His word, His love available to all in Jesus, and the comforting presence and power of His compassionate Spirit.

Perhaps you can now see why I am urging you all to come and be part of a small group – come and see His love expressed in mutual care, challenge and fellowship; come and listen to His Word and learn how to apply it to your lives; come and share your experience of His presence; come and be honest about your doubts, and give us the chance to celebrate your successes! Where else are you going to find Jesus? To my mind, Sunday mornings gives us so little time ‘under the fig tree’ to learn about Jesus, the one of whom John says in his very last verse “if all the things Jesus did were written down, then the whole world could not contain the books!”

In John 2:50, a bemused Jesus tells Nathanael he hasn’t seen anything yet – “you will see greater things than this!” And in John 21:1 – 14 we read how Nathanael was amongst those privileged to experience the first ever Messy Beach Breakfast (!) when he ate bread and fish in the presence of the Risen Lord. Nathanael was one of the 12, that small group which swiftly became 72 (Luke 10:1), a church which after Easter grew to at least 500 (1Cor15:6), and who on the day of Pentecost grew in one day to become 3000+ (Acts 2:41), and so on until today when we Christians number well over 2 billion!!

Five years ago, in Southwater Junior School, each Sunday morning a group never much more than 12 strong gathered to meet with Jesus. Because some of these people held firm to the promise that they would see greater things, they asked others to come and see, and, no surprise, God honoured this commitment and we grew. Others joined us, as we did a variety of things to include people on the edges of our church life. Occasional mid week evenings and Sunday afternoons provided a range of study experiences and social activities which began to give us more opportunities to introduce Jesus to people. Slowly we learned that church is a people and not a place, and that life following Jesus is meant to be fun as well as serious! Post Alpha we have an average worship attendance of 40 and a community roll of about 80. Now 80 is the absolute maximum number of people a person can have any meaningful link with, and 12 is the number with whom we can sustain the greatest intimacy and deepest commitment. Vibrant small groups are therefore essential if we are to sustain where we are now, and are Jesus’ template for growth. At SCMC we stand firm in the hope that the best is yet to come – Jesus promises that we will see greater things! Please come, join a group, and let’s all see!

Every blessing:

Kath<><