There is a fantastic buzz about the church at the moment and I think this year is going to be God blessed. A year of new beginnings for many with perhaps one or two endings.
Anyway, enough of the prophetic musings, those of you who braved the snow and ice to come to worship on 3rd Jan will know that I shared my thoughts concerning our focus for the year. In fact, this has become something of a tradition now, and I have had some comments from people who were speculating on the motto for the year.
We had the (now) famous one for the single ladies among you: ‘more Christian men in 2010’. Nuff said!
Then there was my rather weak attempt at trying to encapsulate the vision: ‘win the lost again in 2010’.
This has been greatly improved by Elly Leake to: ‘Be fishers of men in 2010’. Thanks Elly, this is the one I am going with.
So my encouragement to us all at the start of the year is to be fishers of men in 2010. Let’s go all out to help our friends to find faith in Jesus. For some this will mean sowing seeds so they can begin their spiritual journey, for others it is gentle encouragement to continue with their search for the buried treasure of the Kingdom.
So let’s pray for people, develop genuine friendships with those outside the church, engage in random acts of kindness, gently share our faith in Jesus, invite them to the concerts and special events during the year, and bring them to church and especially to the Alpha next Autumn.
I know that the Holy Spirit will anoint our efforts and as we preach the Gospel throughout the year there will be much fruit. People will be ‘born again in twenty ten’ (thanks to Rob Phillips for this one!)
Let’s go for it. It’s going to be quite an adventure!
