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Here we are on our second day and looking at the second question on the survey.

2. This is what we believe: God exists, God desires certain things to be,  God has God’s own mission for the world.

 What can we imagine God desires to see in the next ten years in the Christian faith communities of our area, and in the society around us?

What will the future hold for our congregation, if the trends we have identified in question #1 continue as they seem to be unfolding? How will things look in 2025? 

 Yesterday we looked at what is happening around us right now, today.  If we don’t know where we are right now we can not try to see where we will be 10 years from now.  When we start to think to the future, we need to also remember that God has a purpose for us and has invited us to be part of His mission.  We are not just looking at what we want to do, if you leave it all to me, we might have laser light shows during the worship service, this however may be all about me and very little to do with God. God is inviting us to be part of what He is doing and wants to do.  Remember that God is the giver of life, is calling us into fullness of life and is preparing us for eternal life.

So as we look at where we are and open ourselves up to what God is doing and wants to do, what will things look like in 10 years.  While this is about God’s work, lets look at ourselves, we will all be 10 years older.  Some of us will have less hair, or greyer hair. Some people will have retired and possibly moved from where they are now to another residence, and some will have moved to another community.  Some people will be very close to 1oo years old, and others will be just starting to have a family.  For myself I will have two children that will be out of high school, and one just about to finish.  In ten years I may even be a grandparent.  Life will be different, we will be different, how we identify ourselves will be different and for some of us we will not be part of this community of faith for various reasons.

So when we move out from ourselves into our community of faith, what will be the same, what will be different, and what will have changed so much that we may not recognize it.  The church has gone through change and has survived, we do not need to be afraid of change.  Change itself can be a wonderful blessing.  Our congregation at one time was two separate congregations but the two congregations were willing to give up what they had to create what we have now. So when we look at the church, who will be sitting beside you in the pew or chair?  Who will be on the leadership team?  What will the worship service look like? What will the music ministry look like?  Will we still be in the same building? Will we be still have the same focus for missions?  How will Christian Education look like for all age groups?

We cannot just look at our own ministry, we must look at the community around us and what are some of the trends that are affecting our community.  Will there be more or less churches in the community?  Will we still be partners in ministry with Gordonville the way we are or will we have a different relationship? What businesses will be in the town?  What ministries will still be in the community?  What new ministries will be needed to deal with changing needs and demographics?  Will we have the commitment to serve in new opportunities for ministry in our changing community?

I realize that this is just talk right now, we cannot predict the future exactly but we can take the information that we have now and start opening ourselves up to where God is leading us instead of being blind to what is happening right now and not being able to move forward with God.  One reality that is becoming more and more apparent in Canada and the United States, is that people are coming to church less and less.  This isn’t because people don’t like Jesus, it is because people’s lives are changing.  There is a busyness, there are multiple commitments whether it is family, work, school, kids, or sports.  We need to acknowledge this new reality and move to meet people where they are at and share the joy and love of Jesus, instead of complaining about it.  In some cases it is acknowledging this reality and prepare people to be examples of Jesus where they are going and being.  We have the opportunity to help people engage people with the life changing grace of Jesus. This is an opportunity, not a failure, not the beginning of the end, it is an opportunity to connect with people and help people to grow. What are your thoughts?  Feel free to leave a comment on the board here, email me at edcharlton12@gmail.com, or Facebook message me or write on the Facebook page.

The next few Blog posts are going to be commenting on a survey that was put out to our congregation.  These will be more to help us start thinking about our future and not in response to the survey itself. Some of these questions were taken from our presbytery’s visioning process.

1. How are things today for our congregation? What trends have we seen (positive and negative) in congregational life in recent years?

It is important for us to all to start off by taking an honest look at where we are right now.  We cannot forget that there are good elements in our church culture, practice, and heart.  Too often we do not see the good things that we do everyday right now.  On the flip side, there are some areas that are growth areas.  We cannot assume that what worked in the past will connect with people today.  Priorities are different today than they were, ten, twenty, or thirty years prior to day.  While the world has changed churches have not changed as much.  Yes the Gospel that we preach is eternal and it is as important today as it was 1000 years ago, but how people hear the Gospel has changed. How we live out our faith has changed, as has how we address sin.

It is also important for us to look around and be aware of what we see, in the church, in our lives, and in our community. We are already in a time of transition in a number of ministries.  When we start to look at the trends we need to also look at our commitment levels to continue ministries but also to look outside the church for the needs of the community.  We need to have this conversation, what are your thoughts?

 

The church over its history was meant to show and share God’s love and grace as people continue to live out their lives. One reality that we can all relate to is that we have sinned and experienced the sin of others also.  The community of faith was and is supposed to show us how to show people grace as we work through sin.

It seems harder in our day and age and in our society to confront sin, part of it is because what is sinful keeps changing both in society and also in our understanding of the Bible.  Another aspect that makes it harder to deal with sin is that we don’t know how to respectfully.  Too often sin has been dealt with by using the jagged edge of gossip.  This neither confronts sin nor does it does it bring God’s grace into the equation, in fact, gossip puts grace farther out of reach.  The sad truth is that we also let sin slide because we benefit from sin.  In a society that does not show the same loyalty as it used to, where if we are unhappy or challenged or our needs are not being met, we move on, we leave and go somewhere else.  Also when it comes to the idea of work, it is almost unheard of for a younger generation to even conceive of working with the same company for their entire working career.  And sadly the same is true of relationships, it is more about happiness than commitment.  It has become about the quick fixes for the immediate gain rather than working towards a better life that is realized over a lifetime, not just a couple of months or a year.

With all these factors a reality, it becomes harder and harder to confront sin, because we have forgotten what this really means.  It is about bringing the life changing love and grace that we see with Jesus, who dealt with broken and sinful people and offered them the hope that there would be change, the reality that they were loved, and the help to be free from their sin, not that their sin would be accepted but that they would  be freed to heal and move forward.  Jesus over and over again said, “Come and follow me.”  He invited people into a relationship with Him where He was the leader, the one that cared for them and the one who helped them to grow and change and to live.

Discipline in the church used to be about this life changing grace being lived out where sin was confronted and people where helped to change their lives and the community was stronger because of it, not just the individual.  The grace of Jesus is to benefit the community and the individual, not just one or the other. Another aspect of discipline was to train ourselves to give and receive God’s grace in our own lives to guard us against sin and to bring us out of the pot hole or in some cases canyon of sin.  That these would be stops in the journey of life, not becoming life itself.  Jesus came to free us from our sin, not to reenforce our belief and life in it.  But as I write this I wonder if the biggest problem that our society has with sin and grace is not the disbelief in God or Jesus, or even not wanting to confront sin, but that we as the body of Christ, a community of faith, followers of Jesus, do not believe that God’s grace is as powerful as we say it is and we don’t live it out ourselves because either we don’t understand it or are afraid. Yet God says in Isaiah 41:10, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

May the grace of God as written in His word, as lived out through Jesus, and as given by the Holy Spirit live in you and through you, changing you and giving you life to the fullest.

I am not about to make any definitive claims on wisdom other than this one and that is it comes from God.  This is where I see wisdom coming from and I think that it is important that we get this out of the way first.  For some of us and some of you, wisdom is important but it is important for all the wrong reasons.  Some people draw on wisdom as a means of power and control, not as a means of freedom that I believe God is giving it for.

When we look at the readings for this past Sunday, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 and John 2:13-22, we see that people from various places are having trouble with what God is doing and understanding the why.  The officials in the Gospel of John ask Jesus by what authority does he do what he is doing?  Instead of just saying it is from God, Jesus challenges their understanding of the temple but also of who Jesus is, and who we are as the people of God.  Jesus say, “if you destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it again.”  The Jewish officials thought that Jesus was talking about the temple but He was really talking about Himself.  Sometimes when we are confronted with God’s wisdom we are so focused on ourselves and our own understanding that we miss the bigger picture of what God is doing.

People have the same problem with the cross.  It is even harder is some Western contexts to relate to the cross because of what it represents.  The cross represents pain, suffering, sinfulness, hatred, anger, wrath, oppression, rebellion, hopelessness and so much more, but all of these things are stumbling blocks because at times we try to hide, to hide from, to ignore, to lie about all of these things in our own lives, we are told to, we are encouraged to, we are told that these things are bad, and yet they are real and Jesus confronts them in us and with us.  On the cross, Jesus takes all of these things and dies for us so that we can find hope, peace, love, healing, grace, faithfulness,  and life. A symbol of death is also a symbol of life, a symbol of failure becomes the shining light of success. Sinfulness is confronted and washed away, bring those who come to Jesus into holiness because of all that Jesus has done and is doing.

The Cross doesn’t make sense if your starting point is you.  The Cross only makes sense if your start with God and His life saving love.  God’s wisdom is not your wisdom or my wisdom, it is the wisdom that humbles us and lets us see that it is not about me but about the one who saves me. Jesus.

This was the main text that I just preached on this past Sunday.  There is so much here and I have been told so much that sometimes we miss what is right infront of us.  One person was telling me about their Bible study where they parked on the line “and the heavens were torn apart”. The vividness and rawness of this sentence and this has stuck with me for ten to fifteen years.  I talked about how baptism was a part of ceremonial washing, a turning back to God, Jesus’ obedience, dying to ourselves and being raised in the new life with Jesus, but there is even more than this.

One thing I like about these blogs is that I can come here and share with you things that I did not include in the sermon but also things that really struck me as I was thinking back over the sermon/message.  John the baptist was teaching about repentance, and when you think about this even more, the big idea here is that there is a second/third/forth/etc chance to come to God.  In my own life I doubted that God could or would possibly forgive me, and yet the simplicity of this event is that John was saying there is still hope for someone like you.  No matter what your sin is, God still has love for you.  This is incredibly important because there are people like myself who do or have thought cast out by God and John is saying turn back to God, turn away from your sins and turn to the God who loves you. Not will love you (i.e. if you do something, then God will love you) but does love you (right now this instant without any action on your part).

The world that we live in, with all of its advances and comforts, is tough.  Whether you are trying to just survive from one day to the next, or are trying to forge a new path in a new direction there are difficulties and worries.  Some of the worries that we face are health problems, work problems, worrying about kids and their futures, worrying about the environment, hearing about violence, hate, destruction, rape, and war or the threat of war.  One of the biggest questions that people ask is if all of this is going on where is God?  or since all this is going on isn’t this proof that there isn’t a God?

The Bible talks about all of this.  God says that all of this is going to happen.  It is troubling that so many people forget that God said all of this would happen, and yes God is allowing it to happen.  God doesn’t want all of this “bad” stuff to happen but in many cases God is stepping back and allowing us to have what we really want, a world without God.  We sometimes forget that God loves us and we get mad at God and tell us to leave us alone.  Well if God is the God of love, of life, of grace, of hope, of peace, and we ask Him to leave us alone, what do we expect to have left in our lives.  When we don’t have enough time for God and don’t show our families, and the people in our lives the importance of having enough time for God, we are taking away from them the God who tells us what will happen without Him, and we are taking away the God who has come, is coming, and will come again in and through Jesus and His Holy Spirit.  God enters into the darkness and the worry of this world to remind us of His eternal love, grace, hope, and forgiveness. He shines in the darkness of this tough world and invites us to be transformed and to help others experience the Holy Love of God.

Yes this life is tough, Jesus told us it would be, we will face many different struggles and trials, but we do not have to accept the invitation of the darkness and sin of this world but we can grasp onto and cling to Jesus who brings us the life, love, grace, and hope of God, strengthening us and renewing us.  Will you invite Jesus in or ask/tell Him to leave you alone?

After reading about 2 police officers being shot in New York and also reading about the abuse of women and children in Iraq and Syria by IS, it is hard to think that there is a God who loves us and is in control, but remember there is.  Some would say that some of the worst violence in history has been perpetrated by those who profess to love God.  In some case they are right.  But what does it mean to love God?

It is easier for many people to love those we see.  To love those that we can see the love physically and tangibly returned to us, and I think that for many people to day we do not always see God at work in our lives and are not taught how to see God at work in our lives. Others may have trouble believing that they can see or relate to God.  Yet God has revealed Himself in Jesus, through the Bible (the inspired word of God), through His Holy Spirit, and through the many miracles that surround us every day. But most of all God has come to those He loves and invites us to love Him.  In the life of Jesus, the aspect that was most troubling about Him was that He was showing God’s love through actions, not through rules.  Yes the rules were still there and Jesus was working within the realm of those rules, but Jesus highlighted the love of God and showed His disciples, the people that He met and those He healed how powerful God’s love was, not how powerful God was, not how quickly God could wipe out a city, or get revenge, how powerful and important the love of God is in our lives.  No it is not going to suddenly take all our problems away. But it is real and it is inviting us to come to Him, to be renewed by Him, to be loved and accepted, and to grow into the people that we are meant to be, not just the people we choose to be or told by our society or culture we are suppose to be.  We are given value and are valued by the creator of the universe, not by a passing fad, not by a prideful culture, not by the majority or the minority, but by God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. God’s love that came down at Christmas, meets where we are at no matter how perfect or messy our situation is, and calls to follow Him, not leaving us where we are at, but bringing us along to something precious because He is precious, because He has loved us and invites us to love Him.  What is stopping us from loving Him with everything that we have?  Is it because we are too busy, too stress, too comfortable, or we are too unsure and we are afraid to commit because what happens if we are wrong?  In the Bible the people are continually pointing to all the things that God has done and is doing.  Why do we now doubt what the Bible says, what our friends and families might say about God and Jesus.  Are we taught to question everything and trust nothing?  If so we are in trouble because we have been taught to trust things that have only been around for a short period of time and doubt what has been tried and true for hundreds of years.  I’m not against change, or science, and I don’t think that science and faith need to battle against each other but I do believe and think that we need to remember to love the one that has loved us for longer than we have been alive.  We need to trust God who seeks to lift us up, not push us down.  We need to trust in the heart of the Gospel, the truth that God has given us in Jesus, and in His Bible, and allow His Holy Spirit to lead us.  We need to allow truth to be real, because in the truth that comes from God is a deeper love than anything or anyone can offer.

As I am sitting here thinking about the message from yesterday, I am contemplating two things.  The first thing is that joy is more of a state of being than a feeling, and the second is that we are taught to not be joyful.

When I read the verse, “Do not grieve, the joy of the LORD is your strength” Nehemiah 8:10b, I can’t help but think that there must be more to joy than just feeling happy.  Nehemiah is talking about being joyful in a time that you could be grieving.  Mary is in a situation where she has gone away, most likely sent away from her immediate family and community while she is pregnant, all because she was faithful and God gave her a child even though she was not married.  She could have done a number of things, bragging about what God has done because she is so good, she could be saying woe is me, but instead she is thankful and is praising God.  In her faithfulness she is still able to praise God, even though things aren’t going as easily as she would want them to and then there is the fact that God has interrupted her life plans, or has He?  She strikes me as someone who had the goal of being faithful to God no matter what.  Would I be that way, am I that way?  The answer to that is some days are better than others.  What about you?

The second part of this is that if we were to live lives filled with the joy of the Lord, which I am seriously doubting our society really wants because if we did, our society and economy would fail.  As I look around I see instances of encouragement to live and experience joy, but this joy is not satisfying, it ends.  If we truly live lives of joy, we would not be constantly trying to get our fix of joy. We would be more thankful, loving, and I think we would look and act more like the people that Jesus talks about when He answered the question about the greatest commandment, “To love the LORD your God with all your heart, mind, body and soul, and the second is like it, to love your neighbour as yourself.”  God wants us to live lives of joy but for some reason we get caught up in dissatisfaction instead of joy.  We covet, we are envious, prideful, and greedy (every one to a different degree) but in our wanting more we move a way from the joyful humility that Jesus displays, lives out and calls us to follow in.  In our strivings are we striving to follow Jesus or to fit in in this world?  Jesus came to bring us and call us into fullness of life but too often we try to fill our life with things that do not bring us Joy.  Maybe we need to be spending more time with Jesus to find out what real joy, a life of joy really is, I bet it is bigger and deeper than many of us can imagine.

If you are looking for a blog on world peace, this is not it.  I like to think about it but I don’t have all the answers to world peace that someone else hasn’t said already.  I can’t say that what I am about to write about is new.  It is my experience of peace that I need to remind myself about and maybe you need the reminder of that also.

Before we go any further, it might be helpful for you to know that yes I am a technophile.  I like technology, I use it everyday.  However I must admit that technology has not brought me the greatest peace that I have felt.  Yes at times, I have used technology to unwind or to relax, but the greatest peace I have experienced has been when technology has either been absent or used to see the intricacies of God’s creation (I do like to take photographs).  I love being out in God’s creation.  Yes some of it scares me, I’m not much for heights even though I do like walking up mountains, I don’t like snakes but I have come to a place where I don’t freeze up and start screaming, but most of God’s creation brings me peace.  Even a few weeks ago when the electricity was out and even though it was cloudy and I couldn’t see the stars, it was a peaceful night for myself and I enjoyed going out for a walk.  My kids and I were not on the same page but I still enjoyed the windy quietness.

The peaceful times of being out in God’s creation without the hum of technology and the brightness of electricity generated lights, have meant a lot to me.  I grew up out in the country and enjoyed walking through the woods, or by streams.  Seeing the animals run through the under brush or sit and try and figure me out while I stood and tried to figure it out.  There is a naturalness to this time together that I believe is stepping closer to God.  Not that a piece of God is in the tree but the tree is also a creation of God.  I also get a similar peaceful feeling when I am with people that are important to me but also people who have God’s supernatural peace about them.  I am privileged to have six kids and there are times when we are together when I can feel the peace of God because we are sharing the love of God.  No matter how much we try to make something special, or our lives more comfortable, if we do not have the love of God in us and are sharing in the love of God, we will never find the depth of peace that God is offering to us.

God demonstrates His love for us through Jesus, and shows us that He is making peace with us.  I don’t think we will ever find the true peace we are looking for until we stop fighting against God, and be at peace with God, because I think this is what we are really looking for deep down even though we don’t always want to admit it.  Come to Jesus and ask for forgiveness and peace and in it you will find the eternal love of God.

I don’t think that I have ever consciously noticed the relationship between patience and hope.  Sometimes what we hope for, we get right away.  Whether we were prompted to hope by someone who was about to give us something, not that we really thought about wanting it before, and then gave it to us.  However, most times that we are hoping, we don’t get what we want right away.  Now we could be impatient and cause ourselves and those around us more and more stress and anxiety.  This time of year whether you are driving through a snow storm or braving crowded stores looking for that perfect gift you could be impatient.  If you choose to be impatient, you may teach those around you strange hand gestures, or strange sounding words followed by wrinkled up facial expressions (strangely enough there is a whole industry to stop wrinkles and it has very little ties to stopping impatience) and people may want to stop being around you.

However patience is tied to the journey of hope.  Without hope, do we have a reason to be patient.  Instead of choosing the impatient actions that seem so easy to choose, we choose to be patient, we are showing love to those around us and seeing value in the journey that we are facing.  Patience shows that you have hope, whether it is for a person or a situation (this then helps other people to hope).  When we are being patient, we are also being loving and showing our faithfulness.  Paul rights in 1 Corinthians 13:13 that faith, hope, and love will last forever, will you live these three out in your life, practising the fine art of patience like Jesus is being patient with you?