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Posts so far which I hope are both interesting and provocative!

What foundation is the church built on?

Ecclesiology & Missiology – Which comes first?

Restaurant or Bring & Share?

And the most recent:

Why we must continue to change

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Many blessings,

Sandy

It is also estimated that since the beginning of time there have been just over 100 Billion people who have lived on earth (in fact the Population Reference Bureau website that I looked at starts the population on earth at 2 – see Genesis!).

It was once thought that the earth was the centre of the universe, however scientists now believe that the earth is simply one planet within our galaxy of approximately 200 billion stars. And our galaxy is one of approximately 100 billion galaxies in the universe!

So there are more stars in the sky than people who have ever lived and as many galaxies in the universe as people who have ever lived!

The read Genesis 15:5 – “God took Abram outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

Then go back to the first chapter of the Bible Genesis 1:16. In the midst of the creation of the sun and moon to provide light and govern the day and night we read the almost throw away line: “He also made the stars.”

In those five words are the creation of 100 billion galaxies each with up to 200 billion stars! Five words that contain and express the awesome and majestic power of God.

When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels

and crowned them with glory and honour.

You made them rulers over the works of your hands;

you put everything under their feet:..

LORD, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8)

So we will consciously structure the Diocese, Deaneries and Parishes :

•    to enable  everyone to hear and experience the gospel leading to spiritual and numerical growth.

•    to recognise all baptised Christians have gifts and all have a vocation and that every member ministry is at the heart of our life together.

•    to affirm all ministry is collaborative, by working in teams, groups or clusters which involve both ordained and lay people

In implementing the strategy for Ministry for Mission based on these principles we will work with our ecumenical partners at local and diocesan level.

These principles dovetail very well with our recent preaching and study under the title ‘What is Church?’ In that series we were reminded that ‘It is not the church of God that has a mission in the world but the God of mission who has a church in the world.’ The first principle of enabling ‘everyone to hear and experience the gospel’ is part of that mission.

In that phrase there is an important word, the word ‘everyone.’ Who is ‘everyone?’ The answer is obvious – ‘everyone!’ Everyone means every man woman and child who lives, works and socialises in our parish. It means the neighbours who live alongside each of us, the people we work with, the people we socialise with, the people we meet at the checkout in the Co-Op, the young people who go to schools in our parish and the staff who teach in those schools.

Romans 10v14 says: “And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” If everyone is to hear we can’t leave it to the Vicar or to someone else it will take all of us being willing to tell and to demonstrate the gospel.

‘The mission of the Church is the gift of participating through the Holy Spirit in the Son’s mission from the Father to the world.’

It is therefore of the essence (the DNA) of the Church to be a missionary community. “There is Church because there is mission, not vice versa.” Apart from worship, everything else is secondary to this. This sets the standard by which the Church tests all its activity.

Church planting should not, therefore, be church centred. It should not be another device to perpetuate an institution for that institution’s own sake. It is to be an expression of the mission of God. What is mission if not the engagement with God in the entire enterprise of bringing the whole of creation to its intended destiny? A local church cannot claim to be part of this if it only serves itself'

It was wonderful to welcome so many to join us for this special occasion and I think we would all want to thank Bishop Christopher for his involvement and encouragement to us all.

I wonder though how many of us have stopped to wonder what we were celebrating? Yes we were celebrating 175 years of witness, worship and service that has been based at St Paul’s. Yes we were celebrating the many hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have been touched by God through St Paul’s in that time. Yes we were celebrating those who have served the community in and through St Paul’s. But what about the word ‘Consecration?’

The word Consecration can be defined as ‘the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service’ and the word literally means ‘to associate with the sacred.’ Our Diocesan Website says about the consecration of a new Church building: “The consecration of a church building marks an important moment in the life of any community, for it represents a time of new vitality and life for worship, fellowship and mission ... Through such a rite, we give thanks to God for the past, we enjoy him in the present and we entrust the future to his guidance and grace. We then go out into the world in the power of the Holy Spirit, as living witnesses to his dwelling among us.”

That happened 175 years ago, but as Bishop Christopher reminded us the church is not the building it is the people. It is the people who have ‘new vitality and life for worship, fellowship and mission’ and it is the people who ‘go out into the world in the power of the Holy Spirit, as living witnesses to his dwelling among us.’

I think it is appropriate that the 175^th Anniversary of the Consecration of our building took place on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent began. Lent is a time of self examination and self discipline leading to a re-dedication and  re-consecration of ourselves to God. As we continue to journey through Lent this year may we once again consecrate ourselves to God that as we approach the celebrations of Easter each of us may know a new vitality and life for worship, fellowship and mission.

It's fairly long but well worth reading:

On one of my recent journeys, as I gazed from the coach window, I was led into a train of thought concerning the condition of the multitudes around me. They were living carelessly in the most open and shameless rebellion against God, without a thought for their eternal welfare. As I looked out of the window, I seemed to see them all . . . millions of people all around me given up to their drink and their pleasure, their dancing and their music, their business and their anxieties, their politics and their troubles. Ignorant - willfully ignorant in many cases - and in other instances knowing all about the truth and not caring at all. But all of them, the whole mass of them, sweeping on and up in their blasphemies and devilries to the Throne of God. While my mind was thus engaged, I had a vision.

I saw a dark and stormy ocean. Over it the black clouds hung heavily; through them every now and then vivid lightening flashed and loud thunder rolled, while the winds moaned, and the waves rose and foamed, towered and broke, only to rise and foam, tower and break again.

In that ocean I thought I saw myriads of poor human beings plunging and floating, shouting and shrieking, cursing and struggling and drowning; and as they cursed and screamed they rose and shrieked again, and then some sank to rise no more.

And I saw out of this dark angry ocean, a mighty rock that rose up with its summit towering high above the black clouds that overhung the stormy sea. And all around the base of this great rock I saw a vast platform. Onto this platform, I saw with delight a number of the poor struggling, drowning wretches continually climbing out of the angry ocean. And I saw that a few of those who were already safe on the platform were helping the poor creatures still in the angry waters to reach the place of safety.

On looking more closely I found a number of those who had been rescued, industriously working and scheming by ladders, ropes, boats and other means more effective, to deliver the poor strugglers out of the sea. Here and there were some who actually jumped into the water, regardless of the consequences in their passion to "rescue the perishing." And I hardly know which gladdened me the most - the sight of the poor drowning people climbing onto the rocks reaching a place of safety, or the devotion and self-sacrifice of those whose whole being was wrapped up in the effort for their deliverance.

As I looked on, I saw that the occupants of that platform were quite a mixed company. That is, they were divided into different "sets" or classes, and they occupied themselves with different pleasures and employments. But only a very few of them seemed to make it their business to get the people out of the sea.

But what puzzled me most was the fact that though all of them had been rescued at one time or another from the ocean, nearly everyone seemed to have forgotten all about it. Anyway, it seemed the memory of its darkness and danger no longer troubled them at all. And what seemed equally strange and perplexing to me was that these people did not even seem to have any care - that is any agonizing care - about the poor perishing ones who were struggling and drowning right before their very eyes . . . many of whom were their own husbands and wives, brothers and sisters and even their own children.

Now this astonishing unconcern could not have been the result of ignorance or lack of knowledge, because they lived right there in full sight of it all and even talked about it sometimes. Many even went regularly to hear lectures and sermons in which the awful state of these poor drowning creatures was described.

I have always said that the occupants of this platform were engaged in different pursuits and pastimes. Some of them were absorbed day and night in trading and business in order to make gain, storing up their savings in boxes, safes and the like.

Many spent their time in amusing themselves with growing flowers on the side of the rock, others in painting pieces of cloth or in playing music, or in dressing themselves up in different styles and walking about to be admired. Some occupied themselves chiefly in eating and drinking, others were taken up with arguing about the poor drowning creatures that had already been rescued. But the thing to me that seemed the most amazing was that those on the platform to whom He called, who heard His voice and felt that they ought to obey it - at least they said they did - those who confessed to love Him much were in full sympathy with Him in the task He had undertaken - who worshiped Him or who professed to do so - were so taken up with their trades and professions, their money saving and pleasures, their families and circles, their religions and arguments about it, and their preparation for going to the mainland, that they did not listen to the cry that came to them from this Wonderful Being who had Himself gone down into the sea. Anyway, if they heard it they did not heed it. They did not care. And so the multitude went on right before them struggling and shrieking and drowning in the darkness.

And then I saw something that seemed to me even more strange than anything that had gone on before in this strange vision. I saw that some of these people on the platform whom this Wonderful Being had called to, wanting them to come and help Him in His difficult task of saving these perishing creatures, were always praying and crying out to Him to come to them!

Some wanted Him to come and stay with them, and spend His time and strength in making them happier. Others wanted Him to come and take away various doubts and misgivings they had concerning the truth of some letters He had written them. Some wanted Him to come and make them feel more secure on the rock - so secure that they would be quite sure that they should never slip off again into the ocean. Numbers of others wanted Him to make them feel quite certain that they would really get off the rock and onto the mainland someday: because as a matter of fact, it was well known that some had walked so carelessly as to loose their footing, and had fallen back again into the stormy waters.

So these people used to meet and get up as high on the rock as they could, and looking towards the mainland (where they thought the Great Being was) they would cry out, "Come to us! Come and help us!" And all the while He was down (by His Spirit) among the poor struggling, drowning creatures in the angry deep, with His arms around them trying to drag them out, and looking up - oh! so longingly but all in vain - to those on the rock, crying to them with His voice all hoarse from calling, "Come to Me! Come, and help Me!

And then I understood it all. It was plain enough. The sea was the ocean of life - the sea of real, actual human existence. That lightening was the gleaming of piercing truth coming from Jehovahs Throne. That thunder was the distant echoing ofthe wrath of God. Those multitudes of people shrieking, struggling and agonizing in the stormy sea, was the thousands and thousands of poor harlots and harlot-makers, of drunkards and drunkard makers, of thieves, liars, blasphemers and ungodly people of every kindred, tongue and nation.

Oh what a black sea it was! And oh, what multitudes of rich and poor, ignorant and educated were there. They were all so unalike in their outward circumstances and conditions, yet all alike in one thing - all sinners before God - all held by, and holding onto, some iniquity, fascinated by some idol, the slaves of some devilish lust, and ruled by the foul fiend from the bottomless pit!

"All alike in one thing?" No, all alike in two things - not only the same in their wickedness but, unless rescued, the same in their sinking, sinking . . . down, down, down . . . to the same terrible doom. That great sheltering rock represented Calvary, the place where Jesus had died for them. And the people on it were those who had been rescued. The way they used their energies, gifts and time represented the occupations and amusements of those who professed to be saved from sin and hell - followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. The handful of fierce, determined ones, who were risking their own lives in saving the perishing were true soldiers of the cross of Jesus. That Mighty Being who was calling to them from the midst of the angry waters was the Son of God, "the same yesterday, today and forever" who is still struggling and interceding to save the dying multitudes about us from this terrible doom of damnation, and whose voice can be heard above the music, machinery, and noise of life, calling on the rescued to come and help Him save the world.

My friends in Christ, you are rescued from the waters, you are on the rock, He is in the dark sea calling on you to come to Him and help Him. Will you go? Look for yourselves. The surging sea of life, crowded with perishing multitudes rolls up to the very spot on which you stand. Leaving the vision, I now come to speak of the fact - a fact that is as real as the Bible, as real as the Christ who hung upon the cross, as real as the judgment day will be, and as real as the heaven and hell that will follow it.

Look! Dont be deceived by appearances - men and things are not what they seem. All who are not on the rock are in the sea! Look at them from the standpoint of the great White Throne, and what a sight you have! Jesus Christ, the Son of God is, through His Spirit, in the midst of this dying multitude, struggling to save them. And He is calling on you to jump into the sea - to go right away to His side and help Him in the holy strife. Will you jump? That is, will you go to His feet and place yourself absolutely at His disposal?

A young Christian once came to me, and told me that for some time she had been giving the Lord her profession and prayers and money, but now she wanted to give Him her life. She wanted to go right into the fight. In other words, she wanted to go to His assistance in the sea. As when a man from the shore, seeing another struggling in the water, takes off those outer garments that would hinder his efforts and leaps to the rescue, so will you who still linger on the bank, thinking and singing and praying about the poor perishing souls, lay aside your shame, your pride, your cares about other peoples opinions, your love of ease and all the selfish loves that have kept you back for so long, and rush to the rescue of this multitude of dying men and women.

Does the surging sea look dark and dangerous? Unquestionably it is so. There is no doubt that the leap for you, as for everyone who takes it, means difficulty and scorn and suffering. For you it may mean more than this. It may mean death. He who beckons you from the sea however, knows what it will mean - and knowing, He still calls to you and bids to you to come.

You must do it! You cannot hold back. You have enjoyed yourself in Christianity long enough. You have had pleasant feelings, pleasant songs, pleasant meetings, pleasant prospects. There has been much of human happiness, much clapping of hands and shouting of praises - very much of heaven on earth.

Now then, go to God and tell Him you are prepared as much as necessary to turn your back upon it all, and that you are willing to spend the rest of your days struggling in the midst of these perishing multitudes, whatever it may cost you.

You must do it. With the light that is now broken in upon your mind and the call that is now sounding in your ears, and the beckoning hands that are now before your eyes, you have no alternative. To go down among the perishing crowds is your duty. Your happiness from now on will consist in sharing their misery, your ease in sharing their pain, your crown in helping them to bear their cross, and your heaven in going into the very jaws of hell to rescue them.

Now what will you do?

By William Booth (1829-1912)