From the Minister

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

Matthew 28:6 (NIV)

It’s great to be celebrating the Easter life we find in Jesus our risen saviour. We have the privilege on Maundy Thursday of seeing the development of the old Jewish tradition celebrating the Passover that was transformed into a new celebration as Jesus broke bread and shared wine that we celebrate as communion with God and each other. It will be great to walk, pray and bless our village as we go for a Churches Together walk of witness on Good Friday (9 am) starting and finishing at The Cross in Melbourn. I can’t wait for Good Friday afternoon as we invite our friends to share the Easter story of new life in a messy way with us. On Easter Sunday it will be fantastic to be reminded of the new life found in Jesus as we join together for an all-age Family service and celebrate the risen Saviour together.

As we look at new life on Easter Sunday I hope this will inspire us into new life as a church as this term we look again at our vision of “Making Disciples Through Being Jesus.” After much thought, prayer and reflection I think the gospel of John is perhaps the most coherent place to start thinking about what it is to be a disciple that makes disciples. The essence of being Jesus is simply about how available we are to allow the presence of Jesus to be in our lives and affect the lives of others. This is what I hope we will explore through the next year as we move through John with his articulate teaching that commends us to a place of becoming deeper disciples. My prayer is that we might become deeper disciples by being empowered by the Holy Spirit, to live truth that gives worth and value to God as disciples of Jesus. Being a disciple makes disciples of others.

As the days become warmer, spring flowers burst into bloom, my prayer is that we will burst into new life as we seek to serve Jesus with our lives together as a church.

Blessings,
Stuart

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

Matthew 28:6

Well it has been great as a church in February to spend time together on a weekend as 87 people made the journey through the snow, sleet and rain to Derbyshire. Together we spent time looking at the book of Colossians that teaches us of Jesus as the image of God. We had a great time as Robert and Ro led us through the book of Colossians in a theoretical way, then in a more practical way of praying (5-step prayer approach), and finally we ministered to one another in groups. It was great for the children in our last session to come and lead our thinking on being the body of Christ as we went into a time of family communion. Who can forget the great varied programme that the evening concert brought through the witty, entertaining sense of humour of Patrick Jordan, with particular note to Simon’s health and safety. We had drama, poetry, music, puppets, much humour and finally those choruses we all thought we knew.

I would describe the church weekend as a great time, held in beautiful surroundings, with great food, and above all our focus on God leading us to become a deeper community together.

Finally in this letter as we have looked back at a great weekend I want us to look forward to what promises to be a great Easter celebration as we join together to celebrate a Passover meal and celebrate communion on Maundy Thursday, join our walk of witnesses on Good Friday and join with the United Reform church in their morning service. On Good Friday afternoon from 2-4 pm we are going to gather for “Easter Life”, an all-age expression of messy church. Messy church is to help all ages belong to church, help people have fun together, give people a chance to express their God-given creativity, invite people into an experience of Christian community and to introduce people to the life of Jesus through hospitality, friendship, stories and worship. We hope that Easter Life will be a great informal way to introduce a friend to church community. Finally on Easter Sunday we will join together in an Easter Celebration. Let’s make this Easter bring the joy of the life of the risen Christ as we look into the empty tomb together and declare he has risen afresh in our lives.

Blessings,
Stuart

(Love) always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:7

Well this February is an exciting month as many of us look forward to the church weekend. My prayer is it will be a time of spiritual refreshment, a time of growth as disciples of Jesus, and lots of fun on our journey through the weekend.

This month we will start a new series that will help us journey towards Easter as we reflect on the passages in the book of Mark when Jesus predicts his death, challenges attitudes and shows us how to persevere with love.

The more passionately we love and persevere through life, the more intensively we experience the joy of life. The more passionately we love and persevere through life, the more we also experience the pain of life.

As Jesus journeys towards the Cross we see a passionate love that perseveres through experiences of joy as palms are waved, with the knowledge that his mission would only be achieved by pain, anguish and toil found in the Cross.

Jesus’ life is not full of gratuitous whinging but of openness and honesty with his disciples. We often keep our struggles and our difficulties to ourselves; we imagine in keeping the difficulties hidden we protect ourselves from people that will not understand. The truth is for many of us that being honest and open may help us persevere through those hard times with love and support from God through others.

Jesus shows us how to persevere with love by being open and honest in our relationships, discipleship, attitudes, service, and praise.

As we move through this time traditionally known as Lent, I hope together we will examine, explore, and experience Jesus’ transformative love that challenges us to be like Jesus in our struggles, difficulties and in our joys.

Blessings,
Stuart