Pastor’s Thoughts – August 2014

Dear friends,

Last month I spoke about counting our blessings, and the value of humility if we are to be faithful as disciples and as a church. One of the blessings that I acknowledged then was our staff who serve us so well in so many ways. We are very blessed in this way and I am thankful to the Lord for each of them. So there is great sadness for me in reporting that Sarah and Nicola both feel that this is the right time for them to move on to some other area of service.

Sarah has worked in the Church Office since the days that we were in Church Street. She has served as PA and Youth Administrator for Paul & Katie, Patrick and now Garry. That alone should be worthy of a long service medal! She has brought efficiency, enthusiasm, competence and patience to our Youth Ministry and is one of the reasons that it has grown and flourished over the years. She probably won’t like me for saying this, or acknowledge it herself because she is a very humble person, but it is the truth.

Nicola has been my PA for six years and has been an immense help and blessing to me in that time. She has worked tirelessly to enable me to do the best that I could and her ability to understand what’s in my head is remarkable. She has matched that with an organisational ability and an attention to detail that I simply don’t possess. She has been a primary cause for the success of our relationship with the various community organisations that use the Centre. I am deeply grateful to her for all that she has done.

To both Sarah and Nicola I would like to express my thanks and best wishes. They have both given so much and made a tangible difference to us as a church, and to enabling us to move into the new Centre and onwards to the place where the Lord is leading us next.

They are both still here until the end of the year. My prayer now is that they will know exactly where the Lord wants them to serve in future.

In the meantime the process for appointing a full time Centre Manager proceeds and we hope to be advertising that position in the near future.

As Christians we face an inevitable dilemma: few of us like change but God hates us staying the same. We like safety and security but He likes risk, submission and dependence on Him. Jesus’ constant challenge to the people he met was “Come, follow me!”

To the fishermen at the lakeshore – leave your nets and follow me; to Matthew the tax collector – leave your safe existence and follow me; to the rich young man – leave your wealth and follow me.

In fact he tells his disciples this:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25)

So as we say thank you to Sarah and Nicola we also look forward to the new. To new situations for them and for us all. All of our security comes from who Jesus is. It comes from our belonging to Him. It doesn’t came from our wealth, our jobs or our birth. All of it is from who He is and who we are in Him.

We are adopted into God’s family as His children. So however strange or unknown the future may be we are safe in His hands. That’s why He likes things to change; He wants us to know that our security never changes; it’s always about Him and our relationship with Him.

Yours in Christ
John