Blog
In the penultimate session of our course this week we heard the encouraging truth that, notwithstanding our bad experiences with New Years Resolutions :), it is absolutely possible for God to renew and change us. We need not be stuck - we can be changed!
How long have you been a part of the Westville Methodist community? I've been here just over three years and feel very much at home :) But this weekend marks an amazing milestone for our caretaker, Samson Shezi, who has now worked at WMC for 40 years!
"God created people in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27)
Author and pastor A W Tozer once made the bold claim that the "most important thing about us is what comes into our mind when we think about God". Why? Well, as we learned in our Lent course session this week, we become like the God we worship. In other words, if our picture of God is warped - if we see God as angry, neglectful or disinterested - this will directly shape what kind of people we become. Our Lent course is focused on spiritual formation - being intentional about our role in the process of becoming like the God we worship.
In the first session of our Lent course this week, we were introduced to the concept of spiritual formation - the forming/shaping of spiritual character that has taken place in each of us over time. Dallas Willard said in an interview once that "everyone gets a spiritual formation. It’s like education. Everyone gets an education; it’s just a matter of which one you get."
Maybe you have heard the story of the minister who tried to save money by watering down the paint he was using to paint the church building. After the job was done, he could see that it didn't look great at all and, as he stood there wondering what to do about it, a voice boomed from the heavens, "Repaint. And thin no more!".
I recently heard an experienced colleague describe how he had been meeting with a counsellor and one of the themes they explored was his tendency towards people-pleasing (very common among clergy!) My colleague freely admitted that he found it very hard to disappoint people, and the counsellor then said that unless he was open to more conflict in his life, his relationships were likely to remain largely superficial.
In the services last Sunday, I shared some details about an exciting project due to launch here in the next couple of weeks. A providential meeting with a young barista is becoming what we hope will be a wonderful partnership for our community. From humble beginnings, Ndu Ngcobo has achieved significant success in the competitive coffee world, but his bigger dream is to offer hope and skills to young people in his home community.
We've updated our church app and would love to have you try it out!
Michael Easter's excellent book "The comfort crisis" makes the argument that our relentless quest for greater ease and comfort is not good for us; on the contrary, he suggests that if we want to thrive in this life we need to actively seek out discomfort. The book weaves together a range of scientific studies with the story he tells of his own epic (uncomfortable) journey through vast uninhabited areas in the Arctic. We have found it a fascinating read!