Many more blessings

What to say about today? I could start with missing my alarm and waking up an hour and half late! Lol. Thankfully managed to get everything sorted and to church in time! We had a good number for communion despite the -4 temp outside.

Over the last few weeks we've regularly had 40 or so people on a Sunday morning. Today was no different. Church isn't about numbers - it's about the glory of God - but it seems to me as more people gather to praise him we are able to give him glory with a louder voice. It has been a great encouragement to see the church beginning to grow and more of the Lord's people making their home with us.

We also had Slavko and Alison and Mattay with us today. Alison grew up up the road from us with our friends at West Kilburn Baptist Church. She met Slavko while they were studying at Oak Hill Theological College and have since got married and had their son Mattay. Slavko grew up in Serbia, was converted during the war as Yugoslavia broke up, and now is taking his family home with him to share the love of Jesus. It was great to have them with us and for us to hear about their plans under God to serve him in Slavko's homeland.

Some of you may have seen my status on Friday that a friend of mine had put his faith in Christ. He and his family have been coming along to the church for a couple of months. Today I sat down with him and his wife and confirmed that not only has the Lord poured his grace out on him, but on his wife too!

There is more blessings than that today, but I will stop for now. Please pray for these two new Christians and that the Lord would prepare us as a church to welcome more people into the family of Jesus.

Sunday 26th Sept

Many blessings today (which to be honest isn't unusual). Simon led communion this morning and Laurence led the morning service - that I was preaching at. We had a few visitors as well, some new, some returning. We ran out of chairs at communion and had over 40 for the main service. That included James, from Canada. He has just started at LTS and is placed with us during his studies. It was great to welcome him amongst us.

I was preaching from 1Cor 4v1 "So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God." It was a warning sermon encouraging us to keep the right people in the right place.

The "us" is the apostles. They are not our masters, but fellow servants of Christ. In the same way our teachers and church leaders today are not the ones we are to follow. They are fellow servants of Christ who lead us to Christ. We are only to follow them to the extent that they lead us to Christ.

The apostles however had a very specific ministry that was theirs alone. They were the stewards of the secret things of God. In a Roman household the steward was the chief servant. The master of the house would entrust his property to their care and they were to take care of it and distribute it to the other servants. In the same way the Lord Jesus entrusted the gospel (the secret hidden for ages past but now revealed in the message of the cross) to his apostles. They were to be faithful in passing on what they were entrusted with. All the servants that come after therefore receive the gospel via the apostles. The church at Corinth was beginning to listen to people who were not listening to their apostle Paul. All the problems at Corinth stem from this sad reality. They had become arrogant and were acting as if they didn't need Paul and his teaching anymore, as if they had new revelation from God.

It is vital for spiritual health that we do not divorce God's word from God's stewards, the apostles. Then, the Corinthians needed to remember that they needed God's word passed on to them via those whom God entrusted it to. Now, we need to be sure that we do not "go beyond what is written." The Scripture is where the apostles have passed on what they were entrusted with, as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. We must not wander away from the Scripture or go beyond what it says, distorting it's meaning or claiming new revelation. Otherwise we too, at best, will be worldly, mere infants in Christ. Only as we hang on to the secret wisdom of God, the message of Christ crucified, (who is for us wisdom from God - that is our righteousness, holiness and redemtpion,) will we be more like Christ and begin to bring and give him the glory that is all his.

There was more but that's a fair summary!

This afternoon we cut our cafe short and went to the Oasis Church grand relocation service (see picture). Abbey Road Baptist Church has recently been refurbished, and the Arabic church plant (Oasis) has taken up residence in the afternoons. It was a blessing to be there and even more to have some really good support from our church.

All in all many blessings today. Thanks be to God who gives us every good thing.

Welcoming Visitors To Church

Walking into a church building for the first time can be a daunting prospect. Even for a mature believer, perhaps on holiday somewhere, it can be a difficult thing to walk into an unfamiliar church service.

Recenlty this story was related to me. A lady walks in to a small church in London. She sits down at the back. Before the service no-one speaks to her. At the end of the service as she gets up to leave; meanwhile a deacon approaches the pastor before he has even left the pulpit and the members begin to chat among themselves. Seeing the lady about to leave without anyone having said, "Hello," let alone given a proper welcome the pastor excuses himself from the deacon, shimmies through the congregation and dashes to the church door where he is able to great the lady, and then introduce her to another member of the church who she talks with for 10 minutes or more before she eventually leaves. What is wrong with this picture?

Meanwhile the same week a couple arrive at another London church for the first time. They are greated at the door and pointed down to the main hall. Before they have sat down they are greated again and before the service starts they are engaged in brief friendly conversation, asking a few questions and explaining where to find songs words. At the end of the service, as people sit quietly considering what has taken place in the service the pastor makes his way up to the door of the church. After chatting with someone else the couple make their way towards the door where they are greated by the pastor and invited to stay. Fully intending to spend some time directly with them once others have been greated at the door, the pastor goes into to the refreshment hall and isn't able to chat with either husband or wife, because both have been engaged in conversation by different members of the church. What is right with this picture?

Which church is most likely to see the visitor(s) again? Which church most exhibits the gospel in it's natural response to visitors?

What happens the moment you walk in to a church and the moment the service ends can play a massive role in how someone responds to the message that has been preached. The message can be removed from their minds by an unfriendly, uncertain attitude to strangers and leave people thinking, 'Well that was interesting but I'm not going there again,' or, 'Not sure I agree with what was said, but there is something here that I like.' As James says, "Faith without works is dead." However good your doctrine is, if it doesn't work out in your lives then your gospel will be discreditted. To have great doctrine but to have foresaken the love you had at first is a recipee for church closure. The great work of Jesus on the cross was to be foresaken by God so that we can be adopted into the family of God. Jesus in the parable of the sheep and the goats tells us the evidence of faith is the welcoming and blessing of his people. We're told that some by entertaining strangers have unwittingly entertained angels! As God in the gospel welcomes us into glory as his loved children, the outworking of the gospel in our lives, and so especially our churches ought to be a selfless, warm, welcoming environment. If that is missing then there is something missing in your faith.

But welcoming and fostering a welcoming atmosphere is about more than simply saying "Hello". It is about more than having people on 'welcome team' or 'stewarding' rota. It is about Christians together understanding the welcome they have received in the gospel. That though we were excluded from the people of God, through Christ's exclusion we have now been welcomed, with all our faults and failings, right into God's heart. That together we are the family of God, with God's love lavished upon them. If this reality has changed our hearts then we are able to look beyond our own problems and desires on Sunday morning and begin to welcome the foreigner and stranger and "sinner" into the community of God's people. Not smothering them with greedy and slightly manic eyes, desperately trying to persuade them to come next week too! But making them welcome, helping them relax, giving them space, showing them there is a place here and friendship here if they are willing to respond to the offer. This is the atmosphere of the gospel that needs to soak through the church.

There are of course practical issues. It is important to have people at the door to show an immediately friendly face and give any necessary directions and answer any presenting questions. But it is as necessay to have people not 'on duty' who are able to say at least a brief, "Hello," rather than leaving them there to stew for 5 minutes before the service starts. It is important that the preacher is allowed to get to the door quickly so that he can personally great any visitors. It is equally important to allow people to leave quickly if they really do want/need to go!

Assuming people stay after the service (please do provide an opportunity for this) then people need to be ready to chat. Think of a few questions you can ask beyond, "What's your name," and, "Where do you live." It may be appropriate to ask, "If you don't mind, can I ask what brought you to church today?" This may even open an opportunity to share some of your testimony of God's goodness to you. Other questions you could ask are, "Have you read much of the Bible?" And the follow up, "What did you think?" Even, "What did you think of the service/sermon?" Be ready to give your own answers if you get a one-word answer back with no return question. There's no need to be pushy, or feel we need to unload the whole gospel on them. But we also mustn't be afraid to talk about spiritual matters with them. They have come to church after all!

One final practicallity of welcoming people. The initial welcome is often actually the easy bit. The great question, it seems to me, is how the church responds when someone has been coming for a month or two. Everyone knows their name, what they do and where they are from, and no-one speaks to them anymore. When they came first they were welcomed. Now they get no more than a friendly smile. Deliberately think of things to talk about with them. Pray for them and be interested in their lives. "How was your week?" "Did you get that job?" "Have you been reading your Bible; what part; have you found it useful?" "What are you praying towards at the moment?" "Are you going away in the summer?" And so on. Invite them out for a meal - or better still over to your house. Share with them, not only the gospel, but your life as well.

Christ gave all of himself for us, so let us give ourselves to the new face. When the gospel preached is matched by the atmosphere of the gospel lived the way is opened in God's grace for lives to be transformed and churches to grow, all to the glory of God.

A new blog for church and pastoral stuff

Just downloaded a new app for my phone that makes posting blogs a good deal easier. Decided to try a new blog to post news about church and pastoral thoughts - that kind of thing. Nothing especially revolutionary, but hopefully interesting at least :) Maybe even a few photos.