Going Up the Gears

As with much of life, Churches tend to go up the gears in September as activities and organisations resume after a summer break.

As we drive around the city these days, there is an increase in traffic as schools go back. As exam results are published and processed, many students are getting ready to take new courses in universities, or begin the world of work.

Churches are trying to process the recruitment of volunteers who help to run all kinds of activities and organisations, and it seems like the calendar is full of events and plans for the next few months.

It’s like we have to adjust our rhythms from the more relaxed vibes of the summer to a more intentional and focussed season of looking beyond ourselves to the world around us and our local communities and their needs.

This week, our church has been involved in a global week of prayer and joining with churches all over the world to pray for the very pressing needs of our world at this time. We pray that, at a time of spiritual awakening, more and more people would become aware of God’s love and His presence, and we seek to do all we can through our prayers, our worship and our programmes to make this visible and tangible in people’s lives. It’s a humbling thought that, as I pray for the hour I have committed to this week, there are others around the world, perhaps because of time zones at a very different point in their day, downing tools and seeking the face of God to meet with him and pray for our world and its needs, which are many and complex. It’s an endeavour that God’s people around the world are engaged in together.

This Saturday, 6th September, we hope to host a community fun day in the church and its grounds to welcome the local community to a great day’s fun for all the family. There will be bouncy castles, face-painting, balloon modelling, tea and coffee, barbecue and ice cream, a petting zoo and lots of information about our organisations and activities.

We want people to know they are welcome to anything that happens here, and to meet the people who gather in this beautiful building people drive past every day and to know what we are about.

There are all sorts of activities on offer each week, from physical and sporting activities, to social activities, to activities to nurture and deepen your spiritual life.

One of the invitations we seek to extend at our community fun day is to a course that explores the purpose or meaning of life called the Alpha course. Our course begins on Wednesday 17 September and runs for some weeks during the Autumn.

At our Sunday morning service at 11 am, we have invited  a man to come and share whose life was powerfully transformed by doing an Alpha course. He has a really powerful story to share and we hope he will encourage some to take up this opportunity.

As the pace of life tends to increase in Churches in September, as it does in many other facets of life, there are also opportunities to intentionally slow down in prayer and worship. We appreciate those opportunities when life seems frazzled and busy and we feel increasingly stretched thin in terms of what we can do with our depleted time and energy resources. Jesus himself needed to withdraw at times to spend time with His heavenly Father and to be refilled and replenished with God’s Spirit.

We hope that, as Sunday school and parish organisations get going again, you will find something that will bring blessing and encouragement to you and your family on offer here.

I am always indebted hugely to our amazing volunteers who work so hard to offer these opportunities, and give so much of their time and talent to reach out to others with the love and opportunity to connect with God in our daily lives.

We would love you to come and connect with us, and we hope you can come to experience the good things on offer at the community fun day, find out more about some of our activities and experience the blessing of worship with us.

Looking forward to speaking again soon.

Much love to everyone,

Jono.

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