Dear Friends

What do you think of when you see or hear the word ‘church’?

Is it to do with a building – usually chilly, often damp; pews, spires, bells, peaceful churchyards?  Or is it services with impenetrable language (or sublime poetry?), hymns (ditto), prayers. pulpits and priests?  Perhaps for some, church feels more like a ‘religious’ club…

Or maybe when we think about church, we think about the people – the people who come together week by week to worship and pray and sing and learn from each other about life and faith, who laugh and cry with each other, and encourage each other as they follow the Lord Jesus.

If we think about church in terms of people and community, then church is not something we go to; rather, we are church.  In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul describes the Christians meeting together as the body of Christ.  Just as the human body needs all its members to grow healthy and strong, the church will only flourish with the participation of all its members with their diverse gifts and skills.  And if the church is flourishing through the exercising and sharing of the gifts and experiences of the people, then the wider community flourishes too as the church looks outwards. 

Clare Joyner puts it like this: “is [church a Starbucks-like] experience where we slip in, grab some coffee and a bagel, enjoy a service being provided and then slip back out? Or is it a family thing…a community thing…where we show up early to help brew the coffee, pour it for each other, worship together and clean up our mess before leaving? Serving is not just about helping meet the practical needs of the church; it is largely about the ways we grow, individually and as a community, throughout the process.”

So I want to take this opportunity to thank all those who serve – on PCCs and various other committees, as churchwardens, flower arrangers, musicians and choir members, bell ringers, lay pastoral assistants, administrators, treasurers, secretaries, sacristans and sidespeople, readers, intercessors; those who tend the churchyards, and cook and clean and maintain rotas and edit and publish magazines and newsletters; those who unlock and lock up our church buildings and put up and take down notices, and those who think up fund raising ideas and encourage others, and the myriad other tasks which are undertaken…

And I want to encourage you to prayerfully consider your gifts, skills and expertise, and how you might offer them.  Church is not an exclusive club – we are simply people journeying together, learning to be community, and seeking to serve others in Jesus’ name.   Linda