Our Mission as a Church

Last time I wrote a Front Page I talked about two psalms that we read at our APCM and why I had chosen them. However, that day we also had another Bible reading – Matthew ch.28 vs.16-20. It includes this command that Jesus gave his disciples (in vs.19-20) –

“Go and make disciples of all nations,

baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

These are the words, I think, that inspired our church’s Mission Statement – where we say that we aim:

To help people know Christ, grow in Christ, and go for Christ.

In a sense, because of Jesus’ words, the church should have been aiming to do this for the last 2000 years. However, how to go about it, the best way of putting it into practice, has changed a lot over the centuries, as travel, communications, governments, etc have all changed. The message about Jesus has stayed the same (2 Timothy has reminded us of that), and the mission to tell others has not changed - but the circumstances have. And for us now, they have changed again in the last year - hopefully not for ever, but they have changed. So, this has meant doing things differently - Zoom, YouTube, phone calls, being careful in our buildings, meeting outside, etc - but with the same aim as we’ve always had and hopefully always will have. And although we’re really sad about some of the things we’ve not been able to do, the change in circumstances has brought some new opportunities.

And so, as we now come towards December, we have to be realistic – Christmas won’t be the same this year. It just wouldn’t be right to pack hundreds of people, singing loudly, into our churches just now. Yet Christmas isn’t cancelled – we will just be doing things differently – just as churches have always had to adapt. And there will be new opportunities. Look out for details coming soon. 

Thank you, Mark.