Pastor @ mbc’s Weblog

Dear Friends,

If you asked me which football team I supported, I would say “Norwich City” – the team my uncle used to take me to watch as a boy. I like them to do well, and I always hope they win – but if I am honest, I am not much of a supporter. I haven’t actually been to see them play for many years, and I make very little effort to even watch them on TV. The truth of the matter is that I am interested in Norwich City – but I am not really a supporter – to be a supporter, you have to actually do something to make your support meaningful.

The parallel between this and the attitude many people have to Christianity is not hard to spot. Lots of people claim to be Christians, but when it comes down to it, they don’t read their Bible (which Christians believe is God’s inspired Word); they don’t spend time with God in prayer; and they don’t make going to Church a priority in their lives.  What is left?  Maybe a Christmas carol or two?

I’m not saying that going to Church makes you a Christian, or that following Jesus is all about reading your Bible and saying your prayers – but surely, if our faith is to mean anything, it must be more than just wishful thoughts, or a vague interest in Christian things.

Being a Christian means belonging to Christ!  When we come to faith in him, he becomes our Lord, as well as our Saviour – he rules over us, and changes and shapes everything we are. Nothing can ever be the same again.

On Sunday evenings this summer, we are going to be asking “Whose life is it anyway?” – and thinking about the many different facets of our stewardship as Jesus’ friends.  Peter speaks about Christians as  “living stones, precious in God’s sight … a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God” (1 Peter 2. 4-5).

At the most basic level, perhaps we need to ask ourselves if we are just interested in Jesus – or if we mean business as genuine followers and disciples of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. If we do – then we may need to get out of our “comfort zones”, and start taking our calling, and our responsibilities seriously.  God bless you!

Best wishes,       Stephen

Dear Friends,

At our May Church Meeting, we agreed to try something new. At present, we hold Church Business Meetings every month (except for August and December) – ten meetings per year. We are going to change this to six business meetings per year – which will be held on alternate months (January, March, May, July, September and November). The other four meetings, in February, April, June and October, will be “Open Forum” evenings, giving us an opportunity to talk about some of the most important issues facing our Church, in some depth. These evenings will not have an agenda, but will look at questions like “How can we be more effective in evangelism?”, “How can we support our youth organizations?”, “What do we expect of our leaders?”, “How can we relate more closely with other churches?”, “How can we be more involved in world mission?”, and “What is our vision for MBC?”   Normally, we do not have time to talk about these big and important questions, because of the pressure of agendas – but we are hoping that this new format will allow us to explore some of these issues in greater depth.

We very much want these evenings to be open to non Church Members, as well as those who are in membership – please come and join us as we try to discern what God is saying to us. We also hope that some of our younger friends will come, as it is very important that we reflect the views of all the age-groups.

The first of these “Open Forum” evenings will be on Wednesday June 20^th (at 8pm), when we will be looking back at some of the hopes and dreams that were expressed last year, during the interregnum; and asking how we have begun to move forward towards these hopes. This will lead us into a sharing of ideas about how the Church can change and grow in the next few years.  Please do come and help us in this new venture!

I shall be on holiday for the first part of June, as my sister and her family from Florida are coming to stay with us. We will be showing them around Margate (including MBC), so you may see us about!  It may not be Florida, but its home!

Best wishes,    Stephen.

Dear Friends,

 Over the last two months, I have talked about some possible goals we might consider in terms of worship and fellowship.  A third area of our Church’s life and witness is discipleship. 

What do we mean by discipleship?   Well, a disciple is someone who is learning how to follow Jesus – just as the original disciples learned by watching, listening and imitating their Lord and Saviour. Eventually, he was confident enough in them to send them out to put into practice what they had learned from him (Luke 9 & 10). Every Christian is a learner – and we learn by spending time with Jesus, and by doing the things we see him do.  Discipleship, then, is the process of Christian learning and growing, as we move forward in understanding our faith, and in putting it into practice. To put it another way, discipleship is “becoming more like Jesus” – day by day, and hour by hour. 

In our personal lives, we should each have some discipleship goals to aim for. For example – are there some old ways of thinking and acting that I need to get rid of, because they don’t reflect Christ’s character? How can I become more Christ-like in my home life, my working life, my relationships, my Church involvement? Do I need to spend more time with God in prayer, and in reading His word? We can all set ourselves goals in these things, and regularly check on whether we are making progress or not.

In Church life, too, we can have discipleship goals to aim at. The Church ought to be challenging and encouraging every believer to grow to be more like Jesus – are we doing that? Are we providing teaching and training, so that every person can move forward in their Christian faith?  Do we encourage each believer to belong to a group in which they can listen, learn and share with others, and be supported in their discipleship?

A lot of this has to do with effort. The Bible is very clear that we cannot be saved by our own effort – far from it!  It is only by grace that we can receive new life. But effort is still required by God – in fact the New Testament says “make every effort” at least eight times! We mustn’t just sit around waiting to grow; we must strive to become more like Jesus, working and learning and risking, so that God can gradually mould us to the likeness of His Son.  It’s a long road – but its worth it!

Best wishes,                        Stephen

Dear Friends,

I have been reflecting on the kinds of goals that we should have, as a Church that is trying to build God’s Kingdom in peoples’ lives today.

Last month, I wrote about some possible goals we could set in our worship. This time, I want to focus on fellowship.

Fellowship is a much abused word. We use it to cover all kinds of trivial and superficial things: we “have fellowship” over a cup of coffee – when in reality all we are doing is talking about the weather. We “share fellowship” with other Christians – when all we do is sit in the same Church as them for an hour! Truthfully, these things are not “fellowship” at all. Real fellowship is a genuine sharing of our time, our needs, our hopes and dreams; it is a willingness to open ourselves up to one another in honesty and vulnerability; real fellowship is committed, costly and time-consuming.  But it is also liberating and amazingly rewarding!

Why do we need “fellowship”?  Because God has created us to live in community – to need to belong. We are (to coin a phrase) relational beings – we cannot be whole on our own: we need love. And as Christians, we come to faith in Christ as individuals, but we are “born again” into a family, a body, a temple, a community of faith.  Now fellowship is not easy – it doesn’t just happen! We have to work at it, encourage it, nurture it and enable it. If we are going to be a healthy, loving, faithful Church, then genuine fellowship will have to become one of our main priorities. How?

One or two suggestions:-  how about more of us supporting the Church’s “Fellowship Groups” – the housegroups which already meet regularly for prayer & Bible Study ?  How about each of us setting ourselves the goal of getting to know one new person in the Church every week – not just their name, but all about them? How about using the important gift of hospitality – invite someone round to your home for a meal, or just for a cup of tea?  How about letting go of our “comfort zones” – and taking an interest in other age groups? Over 50’s (like me) – lets get to know the under 20’s!  Teenagers – go and talk to a wrinkly!

You may even find that they are quite nice!

Have a very happy and joyful Easter. Jesus is alive!  Hallelujah!

With best wishes,     Stephen

Dear Friends,

 Last month I wrote about the importance of goals – knowing what we are aiming for. This is especially true of an organization (like a Church) in which there are lots of people all playing their part. If we are not clear about our goals, we could be like the couple on the tandem who struggled up to the top of a hill; and when they finally got there, one of them said “Gosh, that was hard work – I thought at one point we were going to roll back down again!”  And the other rider said  “ Yes I know – it’s a good job I kept the brakes on just in case!”

 First of all, this month, let me suggest some goals in the important area of Worship.  A Church is, first and foremost, a worshipping community – and one of our main goals should be to enable and encourage every person (whatever their age or spiritual maturity) to worship God with glad and thankful hearts.  Now we need to remember one or two things about worship – chiefly we need to understand that worship is for God, not for us. The aim of worship is to give God pleasure – to offer him our praise, our thanks, our love, our time, our service, because it pleases him when we do…worship is not about having my needs met, or my tastes pandered to.

Next, we need to realize that worship is not just about music – although music can play an important part in worship. We all have our musical tastes and preferences – but God loves everything from Handel to Hip- Hop; and worship is for him, not us. He also loves lots of noise – and he loves silence: they both have a part to play. And worship is not just something we do for an hour on Sunday – real worship is the offering of our whole life to God – every moment, every day, every part of who I am.

Perhaps one goal this year should be to make worship a greater priority than it already is – after all, there is nothing more important in this life than loving God, and expressing our love in worship.

Another goal could be for all of us to give more of ourselves in worship. God does not look on the outward appearance (choice of hymns, version of Bible) – he looks on the heart. When he looks on yours, does he see you giving yourself to him in praise wholeheartedly?

And perhaps one final goal could be for each of us to encourage someone else in their worship each Sunday. Negative words and thoughts have no place; but God loves it when we urge each other on in our love for him.

                                    Every Blessing,      Stephen