Living it out

Having failed to blog in a while, I have found a bit of time at the end of a brilliant Easter weekend. This Easter has been on of the best for a few years for a number of reasons. The whole week has been busy, so much to sort out at church, things to plan, meetings to attend and clearing out cupboards for good measure. Today has been a great day for our church, there was breakfast, an Easter egg hunt, messy worship, roast dinner, sung worship and then a service at a local resident home. It was a busy day but a day full of fun, laughter, and most of all life. This was the first of our Family and Community Sundays where we meet for family friendly worship and then seek to engage with our community in various ways. It was a great start and people entered into the spirit of the day.

If there is one thing I am discovering at the moment, it is that the church should be the ultimate expression of the creative life of God. God loves a resourceful church who are willing not only to think outside the box but live outside of it. The church must seek to be as creative as possible in order to take hope to its community. This is not about gimmicks but genuine interaction and mission.

In the experience of His resurrection we must seek to live our lives for Him and make sure that as many people are touch by our journey as possible. Today may have been Easter Sunday where we focus on the life giving resurrection but we live in the same power tomorrow. Faith is best lived out in the reality of life and can't be contained on one day of the week or certain time of year.

Go raised His son to bring us life so lets live it.

Matt

This is your life

I was leaving my coaching session of the Beacon Under 13's carrying two footballs when one of the lads asked for one of them. I said "no", and so he asked why. My reply was along the lines of: "it was dark, there were cars around and that I was about to put them in my car." He then added but "I want one." I replied once again to his question with "sometime we don't always get what we want and we have to do things we don't want to." Smart, so I thought. He then said "I only wanted the ball not your life story!"

This young lads comment has kept coming back to me in the last week because I think it has a lot to teach us about how the church relates it faith, beliefs and values to those around us. I think we have something people want even if they don't realise it. Something that is good, precious and liberating. My relationship with God is what sustains me, drives me and empowers me to be the person I am and will be. I highly recommend it!

I recognise that the church has finds itself in a difficult cultural climate, where people have become sceptical about religion, organised groups and also the church. It is not easy being a Christian but that's the point, it not supposed to be. My belief is that people want to share their life stories with others (christian or not), people want to be in community with one another but have forgotten how.

The church needs to rediscover its confidence in telling it's stories, and then get out of its buildings and share them.

Matt