A Christian Community - meeting needs

Our church has just finished its 3rd event for its 350th year celebration, mixed in with harvest festival. One of our aims this year and in the years to come, is that we become a known and important part of the local community.

As we prepared for the festival various local groups and organisations got involved, offered help or produced exhibits for the church. Community is a two way thing, it should never be just the church pushing an agenda of evangelising the area or on the other hand the community expecting the church to be there for them when they remember it. It needs to be a win win situation both those who are part of the church and those who are not but are in the wider community, need to feel involved, appreciated and need to enjoy the experience. Church needs to be a place of welcome and belonging.

A local Art group produced paintings of biblical events and people, the gardening club produced incredible floral displays and one person produced a beautiful front of church display of flowers, fruit and vegetables. The local primary school produced a diorama of Adam and Eve and a local florist, a garden centre, a funeral home and a baker all helped in various ways.

Community working together produced a display in the church and a lot of fun through games, bouncy castles and craft, that let everyone enjoy themselves, many staying far longer than they intended, meeting all sorts of needs for all sorts of people across a wide age range.There is biblical precedent for this, when Jesus was talking to the community, they stayed so long that his disciples worried about what they would give them to eat. Jesus knew their need and met it, thousands were fed. One of our floral displays interpreted this passage.

Jesus met their need to hear him, to be healed and then to be fed. The various groups helped us financially, practically and with their skills while many picked up a bible to read the stories so that they could interpret them. We provided a place to show, a place to have fun, a place to bring all of their "offerings" as we brought thanks to God for all he gives us. In doing all of this bridges have been built which I pray will allow a two way flow as we become very much part of our community.

Transformed by Christ

When my children were small, there were some toys called Transformers, they have more recently been brought back to life with the transformer movies. Robots that can change and become something else, like sports cars, planes, tanks and so on. They could even join together to form bigger robots. As the children played with these toys they changed shape regularly, but the transformations were limited.

Some of us find it hard to undergo even one transformation in life, letting go of the past and moving on into the future. Its often not very easy, especially if the past is still having a marked and possibly negative impact on who we are and how we behave. How often have I heard the comment "Its how I am get used to it because I am not going to change"? It always puts up my antenna because it seems like the cry of person locked into a behaviour pattern that they are unwilling to address, even if it has a bad effect on others.

As I read some of the things that Jesus had to say, one of the things I see is that he was about transforming people. Calling them to shed the old habits, religious rites, learned behaviours and attitudes and becoming something new and wonderful in him.

You must be born again - he tells Nicodemus, to the man's confusion and surprise.


Sell all you have, give it to the poor and follow me - the wealthy man is told.

Give up your families and livelihoods the disciples are told as Jesus calls them together.

Lives are changed when they come into contact with Jesus, we are transformed. The old is gone the new is put on. But we have choices, we can hold to the past, we can continue to live by the old habits and attitudes or we can allow the full open heart surgery of Christ to remodel, to transform us into those who he means us to be. We can allow Christ to be totally in control or we can try and fit him into our way of thinking and doing so that we can justify being as we are.

Which will each of us choose, to let Christ transform us or to cling on to the things that have shaped us and so made us so often less than we might be in him?

Forgiveness, a gift

(Reposted as it dropped out of the blog)

Forgiveness is a difficult thing for many people, especially when we have been deeply hurt by the actions or words of others. Is forgiveness dependent upon something else, that is does the ability or the need to forgive rely on something that someone else does first or is it a choice that the one forgiving makes irrespective of the situation - in effect a gift we give?

It seems to me that there are various ways of looking at this. Jesus tells us we need to repent of our sins and accept forgiveness so that we might be born again and travel the road of the disciple. There is Moses in the desert asking God to forgive the people and so not destroy them, the people having made merry the wrong way and worshipped other idols. Then there is Jesus telling Peter that forgiveness knows no limits in terms of repeated offense.

I have often heard folks say that you cannot forgive unless the offender recognises their fault and repents and asks forgiveness. While that may ring well with us and seems to tie up with salvation (If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins ...), since we are told to repent (turn from) our wrong doing and accept Gods forgiveness, is it always the case that we cannot forgive until recognition and a desire to apologise or put it right, occur?

On the cross Jesus asked God to forgive those responsible even though they were jeering at him or had washed their hands of responsibility. We are told in Colossians to forgive those we have a problem with so it would seem that we are to forgive unconditionally. God has already sorted out the price of our wrong doing via the cross, in doing so he offers forgiveness to all who will accept Christ and accept the need for forgiveness. The offer has been made to all regardless of them accepting it. It is in accepting God's gift that we are set free from the cost of our sin or wrong doing. Forgiveness is often seen in psychological circles as a release in the one forgiving from building up anger, resentment and such, in effect removing the chains that those actions or words have put onto us. So perhaps the point is that we offer forgiveness, and so set ourselves free from the impact of someone else's actions or words against us?

What if the person concerned does not think they have done anything wrong - after all those who called for Jesus' execution thought they were doing the right thing? Adding it all together I think we do well to forgive regardless of the state, understanding or response of the person or people concerned so that we harbour no grudge, bitterness or desire for retribution. In effect it is a gift we give. That does not mean we don't need to be careful or sensible about things like boundaries in such situations else we could just become the punch bag for someones anger or angst. It does mean that we forgive as we expect to be forgiven.

 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Light a flame

You would have to be in a complete state of isolation in the United Kingdom, not to have noticed something of the Olympic flames' 70 day hike around the country. Passing from hand to hand as each bearer takes up the flame and in turn passes it on to the next. Today and tomorrow its in Essex, where I live, and tomorrow we will all be up early to see the flame pass through Harlow.

Years back I recall a children's song we sang in church which has the words

Light a flame within my heart
That's burning bright
Fan the fire of joy in me
To set the world alight
Let my flame begin to spread
My life to glow
God of light may I reflect
Your love to all I know

Some of you will know that there is a praise bus going ahead of the flame, so that the good news of Jesus can be given out - That God loves us. When we are alight with the love of God, there is, at least in my experience, a burning desire to find ways to show that love to others.

As that love is shown then others, who may not have heard this wonderful truth, will hear it, see it, experience it and it might just touch them as it touched us. The truth will dawn and will set each one free. The fire spreads like that, heart to heart, each being lit by the Christ to become a part of his torch procession, a procession which will be lit always, a flame that is never extinguished.


Some of us in Harlow will be praying through the night tonight, my slot will focus on renewal - the renewal that comes for a deeper walk with Christ and so spills out into our churches, communities and country. A flame lit or re-lit in our hearts that will spread like wildfire and will go on past the time when the Olympics in London have long been forgotten.

Come on and Celebrate ...

We have just celebrated the Queens diamond Jubilee - 60 years on the throne, a great occasion and one where the whole UK celebrated with the commonwealth and the rest of the world. In all of this the Queen is and has been a figure of respect and unity.

Jesus is the head over the Christian Church, he is the unifying factor of all peoples and of his Church. He has been for nearly 2000 years. Its in Christ that we have unity, even when at times we seemed fractured and broken as churches. Church history is littered with broken churches and splits. BUT the Church in all of its multi coloured forms is one under Christ.

Our church is one such multi-coloured form, a Baptist church formed in 1662 - so for us this year is a celebration of 350 years of witness and faithful service to Christ, our head. This weekend we will be celebrating with Potter St Baptist Church, which emerged from the same root as Harlow Baptist church at the same time.

We are celebrating with services
10.45am - Joint Celebration @ Harlow Baptist church, Fore St Harlow - CM17 0AB
4.30pm (ish) - Joint Celebration @ Potter Street Baptist church, Potter Street, Harlow - CM17 9AW

and a shared lunch and games afternoon
12.30pm - onwards Lunch and games


Jesus is Lord, over his Church, over the churches, over his people!