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Littleborough Methodist Circuit
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From the Minister’s Study Recipe for growth (2) Over the last few months I have been emphasising
growth. I pointed out some characteristics that made the early church grow.
The first requisite for growth is health. A healthy child is a growing
church. The Bible describes Christians as children of God and the church as
the body of Christ. Logically, it therefore follows that a growing body must
be a healthy body. Some of you would have heard me quote Dr Taylor’s article
in some of my sermons in related subjects. Appended below find the full
article for your reflection on your own personal growth as a person and
corporately in your chapel. The question I comment for our reflection is
this: How healthy am I as a Christian to facilitate my personal
spiritual growth? How healthy is my chapel to facilitate growth? What changes
are necessary to facilitate growth? In his article ‘Attributes of a Healthy Church’¾Dr Lawrence Russell Taylor, writes "Most
churches are dying, as indicated by steadily haemorrhaging attendance, an
ever-increasing mean age of the members, a perceived lack of relevancy in the
secular community at large, and the accompanying financial strain that comes
from decline. On the other hand, some churches are alive, vital, growing and
vibrant. What makes the difference between the two? What does a healthy church
look like? What are its characteristics and attributes? Just as there are
symptoms of disease and decay, there are also symptoms¾indications¾of
health in a church, viz : 1. A healthy church studies the Bible The
reason God created and redeemed us by His Son’s vicarious death on Calvary’s
cross is that we might know Him¾indeed,
knowing Him is the primary purpose of life, without which we will never feel
satisfied and complete. But we can only know Him through the revelation of
His Word, so we study His Book¾all of
it, verse by verse¾in
order that we might know Him better every day. The primary responsibility of the
shepherd, the senior pastor, is to teach the Bible to God’s people. Jesus
said, ‘Feed my sheep,’ and in the Old Testament God said His Word was wheat
for our souls. In a healthy church, you will find congregations regularly
studying the Bible together because they are deeply hungry to know God. 2. A healthy church is filled with people who
pray Paul said to pray without ceasing; Jesus said people ought always to
pray; Samuel thought it a sin against God to not pray; King David cried to
God day and night; Martin Luther prayed from 3 to 6 a.m. every morning. Every
revival and movement of God in history was under-girded with faithful
prayer-warriors who cried out to God day and night. Heaven sits still until
earth prays, but where God’s people will call upon Him in earnest, He will
answer in power. 3. A healthy church worships in Spirit and in
truth A misunderstanding often exists between those who prefer older
hymns and those who prefer more modern choruses to be sung in worship. The
fact is that both can be dead and cold, and either can be alive and vibrant.
We can use many different kinds of songs in worship¾hymns, choruses, ancient and modern; and we can
use all sorts of musical accompaniment¾organs, pianos, keyboards, guitars, drums,
bass, brass, woodwind, to play all different musical styles¾folk, rock, jazz, classical, rap, and so on. People often think that if one group prefers
choruses and another hymns, we should try to blend them or have different
services with different kinds of music. While that may be helpful,
eliminating hymns is not the goal¾the
goal is heart-felt worship. A healthy church is a church where people pour
out their hearts in adoration and praise of God, regardless of what kind of
musical accompaniment is used. We do not want to eliminate hymns, we want to
eliminate dead worship that does not move the heart and soul, and create a
worship atmosphere where people will enter in and adore God fervently, emotionally,
lovingly. 4. A healthy church is filled with people who
love one another. Jesus said the earmark of discipleship is our love for
each other; John said if we do not love each other, we are not truly
followers of Christ; the early Christians were known for their reputation of
loving each other. Biblical love is not a feeling, not a warm emotion,
as we often think of love. Biblical love is action, it is not what we
feel, it is what we do. If we feel warm and fuzzy toward someone but never do
anything to express love, we do not love them, according to the Bible.
Conversely, if we feel nothing, or even a touch of repulsion toward another,
but do practical things to help that person, we love them in the biblical
sense. A healthy church is filled with people who care
for each other, who surround one another with comfort, who telephone each
other just to encourage, who pray for each other, who stop by to wash dishes,
who take a shut-in for a drive in the country, who are
warm and friendly to all, who fix the car of a single mum for her, read to
someone whose eyesight is failing, put up storm windows for a neighbour,
paint a house for someone who cannot afford to have it done, give someone a
ride to a doctor’s appointment, baby-sit a couple’s children so they can have
a date to enrich their marriage, who take strangers to lunch after church on
Sunday, and have coffee in the morning with a new member. A healthy church is
filled with people who express God’s love in small, everyday, practical,
creative ways. When you walk into a healthy church on meeting day, you can
feel the love in the air. 5. A healthy church is growing in numbers,
not because adding more bodies is a goal, but because a healthy church is
filled with people who love God so much that they want to share that love
with others, so they are consequently involved in evangelism, outreach,
missions and social ministry. A healthy church is filled with people who tell
other people about Jesus¾not
about the Church (no one is attracted to an institution)¾but about Jesus (everyone needs Him); not
talking about our programs, but Him! In
a healthy church, some people regularly go out on the streets telling
passers-by of the Saviour who loves them, others are calling on old friends
and sharing the gospel with them, others are going on short-term mission
trips to take God’s love to developing countries, still others financially
support missionaries, while others help out in crusades and evangelistic
outreaches of all sorts, and others visit strangers in hospitals and nursing
homes to tell them of Christ, while others volunteer in soup kitchens,
pregnancy centres, hospices, and social service agencies so that they can let
needy people know of the God who loves them unconditionally. In a healthy
church, everyone has a burden¾a
burning desire¾to see
others know Jesus. A healthy church is a Bible-learning church; a healthy
church is a praying church; a healthy church is a worshipping church; a
healthy church is a loving church; and a healthy church is an evangelising
church. How healthy would you say your church is? What can you do to make it
healthier so it will join the ranks of the vibrant and alive and avoid the
fate of the dying? May we put some of these points into practice to
facilitate our own growth? I believe we can grow, because we can do all
things through Christ who strengthens us Phil.4: 13 I hope to meet you at the Lake Bank Services; I
wish you Happy summer sunshine. Daniel The
richest man in the world ‘What does it profit a man to gain the
whole world, and lose his own soul?’ Matthew 16:26 A rich landowner named Carl often rode around
his vast estate in order to congratulate himself on his great wealth. One
day, while riding around on his favourite horse, he saw Hans, an old farmer.
Hans was sitting beneath a tree as Carl rode past. Hans was asked what he was
doing, and replied, ‘I was just thanking God for my food.’ Carl protested, ‘If that is all I had to eat, I
wouldn’t feel like giving thanks.’ But Hans replied,’ God has given me
everything I need and I am thankful to Him. The old Farmer added, ‘It is
strange that you should come past me today, because I had a dream last night.
In my dream, a voice said to me, "The richest man in the valley will die
tonight." I don’t know what that means, but I thought I ought to tell
you.’ Carl was annoyed. ‘Dreams are nonsense’ he
snorted, and galloped away. But he did not forget Hans’ words. Carl was obviously the richest man in the
valley, so that evening he invited his doctor to his house. Carl told the
doctor what old Hans had said. After a thorough examination, the doctor told
the wealthy landowner, Carl, you are as strong and as healthy as can be.
There is no way you will die tonight.’ Nevertheless, to assure himself, the doctor
stayed with Carl, and played cards with him all through the night. The doctor
left next morning, and Carl thanked him, and apologised for becoming so upset
over the old man’s dream. As Carl was eating his breakfast, a messenger
arrived at the door. ‘What is it?’ Carl asked. The messenger explained, ‘It’s
old Hans¾he died last night in his
sleep.’ In Matthew 6:19–21, Jesus says to us, ‘Do not
store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and
where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in
and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’ What
is the Church? A few months ago, Derek sent out a challenge, asking
‘What is the Church’? Of the many different visions of the Church
given by the Bible, there are three which really speak to us as we try to
build a modern-day Church. Firstly, The Church is ‘a
group of people who are called out of the world’. We often speak of ‘churchy’
things as being ecclesiastical. Even the Church’s insurance company has the
name ‘Ecclesiastical’! The word comes from the Greek ekklesia, which
means literally ‘an assembly or group of people, who are called out’. And
they are called out of the world. To emphasise this point, St Peter instructs
us, ‘Live your lives as strangers. . .’ (1 Peter 1:17), where the word
stranger could mean immigrant or refugee. The idea is that Christians are in
the world but not of the World (see John 17:16). Hebrew 11:15
re-phrases this idea yet another way, when it speaks of spiritual people
‘longing for a better country¾a
heavenly one. This also explains why we pray in the Lord’s Prayer that God’s
Kingdom might be established here on earth, as it is in Heaven. The second way to describe the Church is
to think of it as ‘a collective of believers’. In 1 Corinthians
12:12–end, St Paul describes the Church as though it was a body. In a
lengthy discussion, he illustrates the way that the various parts of a body
are inter-connected and inter-dependent. Each part of the body needs all the
other parts. He re-states his case more strongly in Romans 12:5, when he says
‘In Christ, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all
the others.’ The Church envisaged by St Paul is therefore built up of
people who are close and, of necessity, of like mind. The source of the unity
binding together the believers who make up the Church is Jesus. This explains
why Paul says in Ephesians 1:23, ‘The Church, which is Jesus’ body, is
the fullness of Him who fills everything.’ Elsewhere, in Galatians 3:28, St
Paul summarised this view by saying ‘We are one in Christ Jesus.’ Thirdly, the Church is ‘a
spiritual body’¾a unit
centred and kept by God. In 1 Corinthians 12:26, St Paul explains that if one
part of the body [i.e. a member of the Church] should suffer, then every part
will inevitably suffer also. This might be a difficult concept, because Paul
is not just talking as though Church members should sympathise with one
another. Rather, the unity goes deeper: as they serve God through the Church,
each member of the Church is filled with His Holy Spirit. If one member of
the Church grieves (or causes grief) then the Spirit Who fills them will
inevitably communicate with the other believers in the Church. This helps
explain why St Paul says in Ephesians 5:32, ‘This is a profound mystery¾I am talking about Christ and the Church;’ a
concept that Colossians 1:27 phrases differently: ‘God has made known … the
glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you.’ If we want to be a true Church, we therefore
need to concentrate on unity¾that
unity being maintained by a common aim: serving God. To serve Him properly,
we need to recognise that we are spiritually interconnected, and need
therefore to work at renouncing worldliness¾in
fact, we are to act as though we are mere refugees from Heaven. No wonder
Jesus said we must ‘Seek God first, and His righteousness!’ (Matthew 6:33). Your
slip is showing! A true story, reprinted from The Church
Times (12 July 2002): I cam back to the Manse after an 8 am. Communion
Service, to be greeted with the question, "What’s with the Flora?" It dawned on me that, when frantically
scrabbling around for a dog collar (like pens and odd socks, they vanish)¾I’d grabbed a collar cut out, during an earlier
crisis, from an old margarine tub . . . but this time I’d put it in the wrong
way round, thereby displaying lettering and little coloured flowers. The dreadful thing was that the congregation had
said nothing¾they
had either not noticed, or just put it down to their minister’s increasing
eccentricity. John Wall Notes
· Quotes · Anecdotes . . . and be kind to one
another (Eph 4:32) The difference between the atonement as
set forth in the Old Testament and in the New is that in the former case the
sheep died for the shepherd and in the latter the Shepherd died for the sheep
Dr Schofield Cameo
Character Corner Naomi (book of Ruth) Wife of Elimelech who left Bethlehem, because of
famine, to live in Moab with his family (chap 1:1,2) She:– Was very unhappy there
(1:20) On the death of her husband and sons, returned
to Bethlehem with Ruth (1:16) Sought security for Ruth (3:1) SHE:– Was happy with Ruth
and Boaz, family & friends Was a grandmother to Obed who became grandfather
to David the King (4:18:22) The lineage of David followed down the
generations to Joseph (Matt 1:16,17) who took Mary to Bethlehem, thus
fulfilling Micah 5:2. Florence Did
You Know? Before Johannes Gutenberg invented his printing
press in 1438, there were only about 30,000 books throughout the whole of
Europe, nearly all of them being Bibles or commentaries. By 1500, there were
more than 9 million books. Today there are more than a trillion books. The first Bible Society was founded 1804.
Currently, the Bible societies are involved in projects in 685 languages, in
which a part of the Bible is being translated for the first time in 468
languages. According to the 1999 Scripture Language Report issued by the United
Bible Societies, the Bible¾either
complete or in portions¾is
available in 2,233 languages. The Bible is the world’s best-selling book, but
also the world’s most shoplifted book. The
penalty paid by a Saudi Arabian for owning a Bible is death. A
response to a Summer filled with sport The following is a true story. A few years ago, at the Seattle ‘Special’
Olympics, nine contestants assembled at the starting line, ready for the
100-yard dash. All were physically or mentally handicapped. At the sound of
the gun, they all started out, not exactly at a dash, but with a relish to
run the race to the finish, and to win. All, that is, except for one small
boy, who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a couple of times and began to
cry. The other eight heard the boy cry. They slowed
down and looked back, and then each turned around and went back. Every one of
them. One girl with Down’s Syndrome bent down and kissed him, and said ‘This
will make it better.’ Then all nine linked arms and walked together to
the finishing line. Everyone in the stadium stood, and the cheering
lasted for several minutes. People who were there are still telling the
story. Why? Because deep-down we know this one thing: what matters in this
life is more than winning for ourselves. What matters in life if helping
others to win, even if it means slowing down and changing our course. And to think they call some of these
people mentally handicapped . . . The Church is the
community of the Spirit, not as having a monopoly of the Spirit, but as
having been called into existence by God and having been entrusted with the
word and the sacraments. In the Church,
there should be going on in a consecrated way the work of the Spirit which,
in a diffuse way, is going on throughout creation. When the Church is
truly the Church, it is introducing a new dimension into the social
situation, thus giving hope for an eternal transformation. George Appleton, former Bishop of Jerusalem The USA The US is the world’s foremost economic and
military power. It is also a major source of entertainment via Hollywood,
Disney, and its multiple TV and satellite networks. Its ethnic and racial
diversity is celebrated as a core element of American ideology but, in practice,
racial violence, discrimination and segregation have been (and continue to
be) a feature of American life.
Today, Asians from the Pacific rim and Hispanics
from the Americas are seeking what their predecessors wanted: political
freedom and prosperity. This shift is reflected in America’s interests
abroad, which are now less European than ever before. American foreign policy has always been a mix of
idealism concerning its ‘mission’ mingled with naked self-interest. This
latter aspect is illustrated in its international record on the environment,
arms sales, and most recently an unwillingness to co-operate with the
International Criminal Court (ICC). the apparent isolationism of the USA has
attracted much criticism from foreign governments. Country Data File: Population: 280
Million Capital Washington DC Average annual income US
$34,260 Of all the countries in the rich, first world,
the USA has the highest: income, proportion of its population who attend a
Christian Church, and the extent of its missionary outreach is superb. But .
. . the USA also has the world’s highest divorce rate, abortion rate; and the
first-world’s worst murder rate, illiteracy rate, and the divide between rich
and poor is vast, and increasing. The USA is the world’s number one producer
of arms and pornography. Please pray: ·
For President George Bush (a professing
Methodist) as he seeks to lead his deeply-divided country. ·
For the Bush administration, which much of the
world sees as being unjust, self-serving and morally tainted. ·
The USA often portrays itself as a good example
of ‘a Christian Country.’ Pray that the USA will give a better Christian
witness, particularly as it exports so many films and TV programmes. ·
Some anti-Western elements in the Muslim world
represent the USA as a ‘typical’ Christian country, but publicise the worst
excesses from Hollywood. Pray that the Gospel will not be compromised by
unwise cultural exports. ·
As the USA continues its so-called ‘war on
terror,’ pray that it will not appear to be prosecuting another crusade
against Islam. ·
Pray for the Church in the USA, which is tainted
with heresies¾particularly
the health & wealth Gospel. Source of information: http://news.bbc.co.uk and Operation
World. The danger of the Church is always the danger
Our Lord met in the wilderness: to try
to attain her end by self-preservation, to preserve her life at all costs, to regard herself
as a beleaguered fortress, to defend herself against the world, to keep the
institution going at all costs, to persuade men and women not that she will
support them, but that they must support her. Bishop Robin, formerly of Adelaide Continuous
improvement A little girl was sitting on her grandfather's
lap as he read her a bedtime story. From time to time, she would take her
eyes off the book and reach up to touch his wrinkled cheek. She was
alternately stroking her own cheek, then his again. Finally she spoke up, "Grandpa, did God
make you?" "Yes, sweetheart," he answered,
"God made me a long time ago." "Oh," she paused, "Grandpa, did
God make me too?" "Yes, indeed, my dear," he said,
"God made you just a little while ago." Feeling their respective faces again, she
observed, "God’s getting better at it, isn’t He?" Only an authentic
encounter with the Lord brings forth renewal and the desire to serve and be
sent We can alter ecclesiastical structures, recast
our institutions, direct ourselves toward new goals, brush up on our
theology, scrap our liturgy, and use a different one, but none of it is going
to lead us to renewal, unless we acquire simplicity of heart Herbert van
Zeller There are many among the martyrs who are
my age or younger, and are weak or weaker than I; but the Divine Grace that
did not fail them will sustain me. Robert Southwell (1561–1595) poet and martyr I believe in one holy,
catholic and apostolic Church ¾ and greatly regret
that it does not exist William Temple It is
holiness that gives the Churchher most powerful influence The closer a people live to the natural world,
the more deeply they feel that intense desire to communicate with the powers
that be, however dimly those powers might be perceived. It is only in the great cities of the twentieth
century that atheism can thrive, for there man is surrounded by his own work,
and has no time to think, no time to marvel, and no time to understand. Robin Daniel, This Holy Seed |
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