Blog
"Do you trust God with your life?" That was the question someone put to me the other day. Well, you don't need a fancy theological degree to know that the right answer is "yes, of course I do" and I was nodding before the question was finished. "Yes, but, do you really?" came the reply. It is a question worth wrestling with, isn't it? In the midst of the challenges we face each day, what does it look like to trust God?
I was looking through a book of prayers this week written for all kinds of occasions. The collection is called "Every moment holy" and the author is making the key point that even the most ordinary parts of the day can be sacred. So, by way of example, the book contains a prayer called "a liturgy for laundering" :) Every moment is holy.
Quaker philosopher Elton Trueblood once said that "*Churchgoer* is a vulgar, ignorant word. It should never be used. You can't go to church. You are the church, wherever you go." If he's right, the only day of the week when Westville Methodist Church's address is 38 Jan Hofmeyr Road is Sunday. The rest of the time, our church is in the world - caring for families, working, playing, being good neighbours.
Research conducted some years ago found that the average person will meet 2.8 new people per day, meaning that at the end of a normal lifespan we will have crossed paths with some 80 000 people! If you're an introvert, looking at that figure might require you to sit down and take a few deep breaths :)
St Catherine of Sienna once heard God say to her that she was to "walk with two feet; love of God and love of all that God loves". Similarly, John Wesley said that if we want to grow in grace and maturity, we need to practice acts of piety (devotion to God) and acts of mercy (love of neighbour). We need both - we can walk on one foot, but two is much better if we want to get anywhere!
Our district synod met this week and over the course of three days together, we heard many accounts of struggle and brokenness from our people as we acknowledged the challenges presently facing the Methodist Church. At many levels we are in a difficult place - showing signs of decline in numbers, finances and impact across our District.
Members from churches all around Westville gathered together at Home Ground Church this week to pray for our community. There is something so healthy about Christians being together in prayer, notwithstanding our differences in tradition, practice and belief. As the psalmist says, "How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along! It’s like the dew on Mount Hermon flowing down the slopes of Zion. Yes, that’s where God commands the blessing!" (Ps 133:1,3 MSG)
At our leaders meeting this week we reflected on the picture of the early church in Acts 2:42ff - a community who built relationships by eating together and meeting regularly for worship and prayer. There is something deeply attractive about that picture and it is no surprise to read at the end of that passage that "every day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved."
We have been in conversation recently with a company who provide mentoring and training for students in the built environment (ie: engineers, land surveyors, contract managers etc). These students are required to do periods of in-service training as part of their academic qualifications. Most of that training happens on construction sites but there are also blocks of classroom time and we have been approached to be a site for that classroom training.
Charles Wesley wrote this hymn in the late 1730's to express our hope and joy on Easter Sunday. To give you an idea of his passion for the subject, the original hymn contains 11 verses! Notice how the followers of Jesus are caught up in the resurrection of Christ in verse 4 - this is Jesus' story, but it is also ours.