Blog
Nearly a century ago Archbishop William Temple famously said that "The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members". I suspect that some other NGO’s might challenge that statement today, but it’s still a powerful idea – as the Church we don’t exist simply for our own benefit. On the other hand, a church that is entirely outwardly-focused and pays no attention to the needs of its own members may find that its members soon grow weary and discouraged.
A few years back we invited the WMC community to come to a meeting and share ideas for our future. Feedback from that meeting showed every single group identifying reviving our youth and children’s ministry as absolutely vital for our church. This clearly was front of mind for everyone, but how were we to see progress, especially post-Covid?
On Wednesday evening about 50 of us gathered at the church to dream and talk about WMC and our future direction. What a great evening it was! We worshipped together and enjoyed robust discussion, lots of laughter, some inspired ideas, *Cordon Bleu* wors rolls and above all, a real sense of hope and excitement about the way forward for our church community.
It’s good to be back home after a lovely, restful couple of weeks away with our family. And encouraging to see how the WMC team has got on with things just fine without me :) (in truth, the real challenge these last few weeks has been managing without Samson, who is due to return from some well-deserved leave this weekend)!
St Paul probably had something else in mind when he spoke in 2 Corinthians 3:18 about our unveiled faces reflecting the glory of God :) but doesn’t it feel like a significant threshold that we have crossed, now that the last of the Covid regulations have been repealed?
Our young adults home group restarted this last week after a long break. Honestly, it's been difficult to get going again - we got out of the habit of meeting in person during the various levels of lockdown and starting again feels like exercising a muscle that hasn't been used in years! Many of our groups have experienced a similar lethargy and found it hard to get going again.
For many months during the pandemic the Westville Churches Foodbank has operated from our property, and what a remarkable ministry it has been! Thousands of rands worth of food were distributed each week using a very well organised system for tracking individuals and their specific needs. It was especially encouraging during this time to hear from people who were able to report that they had managed to get back on their feet and no longer needed our help.
This last Sunday in our 9am service we were privileged to celebrate the baptism of little Bryce – one of the most cheerful babies I’ve met in a while :) It’s a significant moment for the child and family, but also a reminder to all of us that we are loved as that baby is – with no strings or conditions attached. In some Christian traditions baptism is held back until the person is able to make that choice for themselves. I appreciate and respect that perspective, but I think that our role is only part of the story.
Our Exec met this week and we reflected on just how hard things have been for so many people in our community recently. We have seen a fantastic response from our congregation when it comes to helping flood victims and the ongoing work of our other relief projects, but as we met we wondered how we might also more effectively support our WMC members.
Over the course of this last week our District synod has gathered, principally in Westville, but also via Zoom in locations around the province. As always, synod has had wonderful moments of celebration and re-connecting with Methodists from across KZN. We have however also had to grapple with significant challenges that our church is facing in the fallout from the pandemic and other crises we have experienced recently in KZN.