Monday, 3 March 2014

To know your face, to know your place

Good evening. Another week has come and gone and so another blog is here, enjoy!

It was a good first week back at Eston after half term and another busy one at that. We began the week with our prize-giving meeting for our kids who are connected to the Salvation Army. Eston are so blessed to have such a big ministry focussed on Children. I have said before that on a Wednesday night we get roughly around 25-30 kids come to kids club and it is such a blessing to see them want to come to the Salvation Army, these kids want to come to Church and that's what they do every Wednesday. They may not realise it but Eston Salvation Army is their Church, this is where they come to meet God, even though they may not realise it.

On Friday we went to Crewe for the weekend for FORGE, which basically was a conference for anyone who works in the Salvation Army with youth and it was such a good weekend. The worship was fantastic, the seminars that were offered were interesting and the company was great. Although the weekend focussed on youth, some of the lectures did speak broadly about youth work and included children's ministry and what they had to say was fascinating. A session led by Professor David Voas focussed on the numerical decline of the church in regards to young people and basically the message from the talk was that young people are essential for the Church, I quote "The Church must retain it's young people if it is to survive" (Professor David Voas). That is such a challenge and maybe for some churches such a reality check, the church needs kids. There are even statistics that there is far more significant church growth when there are children in the congregation, in a study conducted by professor Voas he found that if there are more than 2 children to every 10 adults then the church growth is up by 25%. We need to focus on Children, the other lecture I went to was led by Reverend. Doctor Steve Emery-Wright and he says that "Youth and Children ministry must be at the heart of the vision..." It's such a challenge and the weekend definitely allowed me to focus on that challenge for the coming months, here at Eston.

As a conclusion to the weekend we had Lt.Col Alan Burns lead the final session. He focussed his message on John Chapter 1 and how Jesus was in the community, "the word became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us...", if we are going to be effective in mission and bringing Jesus into the everyday lives of people in our communities we minister to, we need to be there. It was such a powerful message and really got me thinking, am I myself, individually, fit for mission? Alan Burns went on to say that we need to "be", we need to be who Jesus wants us to be, to take up our identity in Christ. We need to be like Jesus and let Him do what it says in John Chapter 1, let Him "in dwell in us". I personally need to be more like Jesus, for it was Jesus that made transformation happen and it was Jesus who ultimately changed lives. If I am not like Him, showing the love and compassion to all people like he did then I am not going to be effective or "fit for mission". The colonel went on to preach about being "there". Jesus knew exactly where his place was, it was with those who were suffering. He didn't stay in the temple, He was out there with the lepers, the tax collectors, the prostitutes. We as a church need to know where we should be and that is not in the church. Mission is about being sent and to quote what Alan Burns was saying, "the here (inside the church) to 'there' journey is the biggest journey." Do I know my place? Am I personally placing myself out there, am I meeting people who need me to tell them of God's love rather than the people who I feel comfortable with being around? I need to be more like Jesus and "Be there", I need to know who I am in Christ and then go out and spread that message to those who are suffering.

I hope you have a good week this week and don't hesitate to ask any questions about the blog. Do get in touch!

God Bless.

@peggo36
pegg.j@hotmail.co.uk

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