Those of you who have been coming along to All Saints for a while will know that close to the beginning of each year, we remind ourselves of the vision that we believe that we’ve been given to energise and direct our work as God’s people in this community. For those of you who have joined us more recently, this might not be as familiar to you, so it’s a good opportunity to hear what we are about here.
At it’s most basic, we believe that are called to be closer to Christ and sent to be closer to others.
For the last six years or so our vision has been seen in these three key images.
This first one reminds us of all those things that Father God has poured into our lives, as individuals and as a church. A church that has experienced and is experiencing the generosity of the Father in so many ways cannot be hidden. It has to shine out, it has to spread out. In this image of our vision we see the generous riches of God pouring into this church, a beacon of light, overflowing to the community around us.
Here we have a representation of a meal in a house in Bethany. Jesus is seated in the middle. Mary is abandoned in adoration at Jesus’ feet. Martha is serving faithfully in the kitchen and Lazarus is leaning, in friendship against Jesus. All three are coming closer to Jesus, who is our Lord, our God, and our friend. In this image of our vision we see a Christ centred church of faithful service, abandoned adoration, and intimate friendship with Jesus.
Thirdly, last year we added this image of a river. A river of the Holy Spirit that bubbles up among us, flows through us, refreshing and reviving us, and flows out, into the community, bringing life and restoration.
As we work towards this vision, we do so in a way that expresses our core values of Loving God, Loving Each Other, Loving Our Neighbours, Celebrating, and Exploring.
At the back of church there are triptychs and bookmarks that you are welcome to take and use as reminders of these through the year.
In the autumn and winter of last year a few threads came together, that I want to share with you this morning, that I believe God is calling us to explore in the coming year.
In the autumn I was having a retreat day, praying for the parish, and I was struck anew by the most important number in the parish. Which is? 15,000. Its the population of the parish. I had a sense of the reality that the vast majority of that 15,000 are dying in the dark, because they do not know the source of life and light that is Jesus. There was that feeling that we read about Jesus having in our gospel reading of seeing these crowds in my mind’s eye, harassed and helpless, without a shepherd and not even knowing it. There was a feeling of impotence to do much about it, but knowing that something needs to change.
I started dreaming up initiatives, mission strategies – I even came up with a name – 2025 for the 15,000.
I was talking about this with Nick Brooke, and he wisely cautioned me. I was feeling some kind of fire for this, but a whole load of activity or mission initiatives landed on the church, without the church catching fire, isn’t going to achieve much. For it to make a difference, the fire has to spread first.
I shared this with a few folk, and one of them came back to me with a picture of people coming together to build a bonfire, and I started to think about what this might look like.
We talked about it at staff meetings, and at our PCC Away Day, as we thought about a strategic framework that the diocese had asked us to look at.
It might sound a bit dry, but actually it was all weaving together. As a PCC we felt that God was leading us to focus on what it would take for us to double in size as a church over the next five years, to encourage young people into leadership, and to grow new worshipping communities.
These are big ambitions. They are not achievable in our own strength. We cannot do these things unless the Spirit of God moves and brings people, in huge numbers, to faith in Jesus.
All these threads started to come together. A renewed sense that I had of God giving us a heart for the lost in our communities. Of God doing that by building a fire. Of a long term vision for the growth of the church, not because we want more people at our services for our sake, but for their salvation.
In light of this, for the first couple of months of the year we are going to be exploring different aspects of God’s fire in our Sunday morning services. There are video series available on RightNow for you to look at on your own or in your small groups to complement this focus.
We’re beginning this morning with that short phrase from our reading from Paul’s second letter to his protege, Timothy. Paul writes,
“Fan into flame the gift of God.”
I don’t know if you’ve ever physically fanned something into flame. It was something I used to do quite a lot as a Scout as a youngster. As an adult trying to get the fire in a BBQ going I’ve done it a fair few times. Getting a plate or a folded up newspaper and flapping it vigorously until the flames catch.
Even if you’ve not done it yourself, you may have seen others, live or on TV or film.
But what does it mean for us to fan into flame the gift of God?
Firstly, what gift of God? In the verses before this one Paul talks about Timothy’s faith and then goes onto talk about the Holy Spirit not being a spirit of timidity but of power, love, and self-discipline. So, from the context, it seems that the gift that Paul is talking about is probably something to do with faith and the Holy Spirit. And how to fan that into flame? Don’t be timid, but be self-disciplined, loving and open to using the power that comes with faith.
One of the things that is key to this, and has been identified by the PCC as a critical part of building the fire, and fanning the flames, is prayer.
Whilst we are not going to be launching lots of new mission initiatives, I do want to share with you two ways in which we’re hoping to encourage more intentional prayer for people to come to faith.
The first is called “pray for 5”. The idea is that each of us identifies five people that we are going to pray for to follow Jesus. We’re going to be praying for these people in our services, in our small groups, and in our own prayers at home. You might want to have a physical reminder around the house or in the car, to help with this.
The second builds on the prayer walks that Nick Brooke has been organising. We are going to prayer walk the whole parish, a section at a time. On the third Saturday of the month, we will meet, walk, and pray around our parish, praying for those who live in those places to come closer to Jesus.
As we pray in these ways, are attentive to listening to what God is doing there, and bringing our love for these people to God, I believe that God will give us opportunities to share our faith, to show God’s love, and we will see the flames of faith spread.
I wonder how you feel about all of this. I feel excited but also nervous. What if the fire gets out of control? What if it doesn’t catch at all?
What if it does, and loads of new people start coming along. That’ll be great, but will also bring it’s own challenges. Do we really want a church on fire?
I do. I want this church on fire. I want this church on fire because I want it to be a beacon of hope in the darkness, a place of warmth and light, a place where people can find company, where there is good food that nourishes the soul. And most of all, a place where people encounter the holy fire of God, burning but never consuming.
I don’t know what that will look like, and it scares me a bit, but I do want this church on fire. Will you join me in helping to build the fire and fan the flames?
Just before Christmas someone came to talk to me and shared with me a sense that our harmony as a church may be at risk.
When God is moving, Satan wants to stop the church moving with God. One of the things that can stop us moving and following God’s lead faithfully is a lack of harmony.
This is not to say that everybody has to agree about everything, but that as these changes happen, we have a responsibility to be on our guard, and to be really deliberate about choosing to love each other, as we say is one of our core values. For some of us that will mean loving those who are moving more quickly than we are comfortable with, and for some it will mean loving those who are finding the changes painful.
As we go into this year, let’s resolve to work together, in harmony, to build the fire, to fan the flames, and to see what God will do as we are sent to be closer to others and to draw them to the light and life of Jesus.
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