What is the church for?
There are as many different answers to that question as there are people thinking about it, both church members and those who are not.
Some think we exist just to be a “Holy Club” which meets together to serve the needs of our own spirituality. Others that we meet as a social welfare charity to help those in need. Twenty two years ago The Methodist Church expressed our beliefs about our purpose in a document that has been regularly affirmed since and that forms the basis of all the decisions we take and all the work we do. It is the foundation of our life together. It states:
The calling of the Methodist Church is to respond to the gospel of God’s love in Christ and to live out its discipleship in worship and mission. The Church exists to:
- Increase the awareness of God’s presence and celebrate God’s love (Worship)
- Help people to grow and learn as Christians, through mutual support and care (Learning and Caring)
- Be a good neighbour to people in need and to challenge injustice (Service)
- Make more followers of Jesus Christ (Evangelism)
In our Annual Report as a circuit we state that:
The Charity’s mission is to be a powerful spiritual influence in the community and a visible expression of God’s inclusive love.
We aim to achieve this by encouraging, through the churches in our Circuit, the worship, social, and outreach activities that currently exist; seeking new ways to extend to others the fellowship of the Church family; and through these to develop the life of the Circuit and its churches.
The Circuit exists to:
- Increase awareness of God’s presence and to celebrate God’s love;
- Help people to learn and grow as Christians, through mutual support and care; and
- Be good to people in need and challenge injustice
This is why our circuit and our churches exist. It is what should drive and underpin our life and work together. It is the work of the kingdom of God. It is the work of developing deep roots and rich faith in ourselves in order that we can work as God’s disciples in the world opening people’s eyes to the overflowing abundance of God’s love through the stories we tell, the lives we lead and the practical work we engage in.
Through our work, prayers and life together we provide worship in each of our churches, we serve tea, coffee with a huge dose of chat and care to those in our communities, we support uniformed organisations as they work with young people, we work with Foodbanks and night shelter projects as they seek to offer practical help to those in need, we campaign on social issues, we think about the impact of our life on the environment and we offer opportunities to study the Bible and think about our faith. All this and so much more is the richness of our life together.
In order to achieve this we need resources. Our ministers need homes to live in which need to be maintained well both to enable the minister’s life and work and to protect the Circuit’s investment in the property. Our finances need to be managed and reported on. Our investment property need to be effectively managed. Our priorities and vision need to be carefully considered and plans need to be made to enable wishes and hopes to become actions. For our worship to happen we need Local Preachers and Worship Leaders who need high quality training and continuing development. Our Safeguarding Officers in our churches and Circuit need to work to ensure that we all do the best we can to let everyone know that they are valued and to enable us all to be safe and flourish in our life together. All this and more is the regular pattern of our life together. If all this seems a huge amount to you then you’re right, it is but the miracle is that God has provided us with huge resources to enable it all.
As I look around the Circuit I see congregations full of people with different gifts and enthusiasms - plenty of resource to enable our life together to flourish and grow. However, if we are to grow it needs all of us to step in and take a role rather than just relying on a few, by now very tired, souls to carry us all. Our Circuit Stewards, Jane, Fleur and Stephen (our treasurer) regularly seem to move mountains on our behalf. Their role is to provide vision and leadership in the Circuit, to lead our Human Resources work, to manage our property and finances and to support our ministers. They do an amazing job and are a brilliant and effective team but they can’t continue to carry the amount they do between only the three of them. Could you step up and join the team or offer it support or is there someone in your church or elsewhere in the Circuit who you think would be good in the role?
There’s a reflection on the Feeding of the Five Thousand that imagines everyone in the crowd sitting with tummies rumbling complaining about the lack of food while they all have their sandwiches in their pockets! Nobody dares get them out in case they feel they will need to share and there won’t be enough to go round. Then a small boy, who hasn’t yet learned not to trust in abundance and generosity, spontaneously offers his lunch and as Jesus prays an abundance of food appears from back pockets and shoulder bags. More than enough.
So how about it? What are you holding in your back pocket just in case it’s not enough or the work’s too hard? Could you be a Circuit Steward, a Circuit Meeting Rep, or attend District Synod on our behalf? Could you help in the organisation of your own church? If we all give then there will be more than enough to go round. The good news is that some of us are already doing so: we have new Local Preachers and Worship Leaders training (thanks to Rev Sue Male who is enabling this): we have an amazing team of skilled Safeguarding Officers (thanks to Paul Williams our Circuit Safeguarding Officer who co-ordinates them); we have a brilliant Circuit Human Resources Committee who together ensure that we are a good employer to our lay employees. Why not join them and together we can work to show God’s love, to support those in need and to grow in our knowledge and love of God.
With thanks and prayers for all you are and do and blessings for the future