Is Sunday Enough?

 Is Sunday Enough?

In the UK we are not short of church buildings.  They are everywhere!  Take Market Harborough for example.  In a town of 28,000 there are eight church buildings, with two being shared, and another three or four churches meeting in hired premises.  In the surrounding villages, historic buildings point their spires upwards while a smattering of chapels nestle between the housing.  Of all these, most only have church services on Sundays, while many rural Parish Churches in England now only have a service once a month. 

Imagine what it would be like if the same level of activity was found on our buses and trains. You have a journey that is important to you.  Perhaps you need to visit a sick relative, or attend a job interview, or even do your shopping.  But when you arrive at the bus stop or station you find a sign that says buses (or trains) only run for one hour on Sundays.  Of course, that would be ridiculous, but is the point I am trying to make any less ridiculous?

I don’t want to argue for more activities through the week, though in some situations, that might be a good idea.  Rather I want us to think about church as the people.  There is nothing new in that.  For me, the tragedy is that many who would describe themselves as Christians are only active for one hour on one day a week.

So, getting back to my bus analogy, what is the point of a bus service?  Clearly, it is to help people make a journey from one place to another at times that are likely to be convenient to them.  And what is the point of church?  Is it not to help people to make a journey from one situation to another?  That might be from life without Christ to glorious daily living with Jesus.  Or it might be from a life dominated by sinful or bad habits, to holiness.  Or it might be from being pretty ignorant about the Bible to discovering what an exciting collection of books it contains.  You might think of other spiritual journeys people need to take, but is the one hour on one day a week the service we should be offering?

Of course, when the buses aren’t running, people could use a taxi, a private car or even a bicycle. But we would want normal service to be resumed.  If people have the inclination, there are library books and religious meetings on TV and the internet.  They could get themselves there!  But then why has God given all his people gifts to be used in service?

My Bible tells me that God gives various gifts to his people for the fulfilling of his purposes.  Do we think that God’s purposes are only relevant for one hour on one day a week?  Of course not.  So, who has what gifts in your church?  Who are those with pastoral caring ministries (I don’t mean the official ones)?  Who are those who are natural evangelists, prepared to share faith with others?  Who are those with sufficient spiritual maturity who can teach others and nurture new believers?

Do they (or perhaps we) have a vision for being available to serve the Lord with their gifts at any time on any day?  What would the leaders in your church need to do to encourage these ministries?  Imagine a church where people leave after the Sunday service, ready to engage in the work God wants us to do.  Now imagine the meeting the following Sunday, where stories are shared about their exciting experiences through the week, and where new people are introduced and matters for prayer are shared.  
Is it not tragic, that instead of that, we will turn up for the same old one hour Sunday service of collective worship, sing hymns and songs, say prayers and listen to a sermon?

Is Sunday enough?  In the immediately previous issue of Praise & Prayer News I raised the question, “Is God Interested in Your Church?”. In it, I suggested that, often, the preservation and care of inherited buildings was not on God’s list of things that are important.  Yet it is something that absorbs huge amounts of time, money and energy.  I wondered if I might have been too outspoken and might have offended some who love their buildings.  I nearly sent out a follow up apologising to any I might have offended.  The point I was trying to make was that what God is concerned about, as illustrated in the life of Jesus Christ, is people.

If you believe that God cares about those people next door, if he longs that they would come to experience his love and forgiveness, if he longs that people in your church would know him better, then is one hour on one day a week sufficient?  If WE are the church rather than the building, can we be open 24/7?  Perhaps we should stop thinking about the Minister, and release and encourage the ministers.
  
Barry Osborne 18th March 2022

Is God Interested In Your Church?

 I find myself wondering how you will have reacted to this question.  Actually, it is a modified version of the title I had intended to use: “God is Not Interested in Your Church”.  Obviously, it is intended to provoke a response, and many will feel that it is an unnecessary question, because you are convinced already that he is.  But is he?

I awoke from a good night's sleep recently with the words of the intended title ringing in my mind.  I have no idea why, unless it was that God wanted to get me thinking and writing on the topic.  For many Christians in the rural areas, while we might say that the church is really the people and not the building, it is the building that becomes dominant and all consuming.  Beloved ancient piles of stones, some with towers, some with steeples, some with both, and some with neither, stand as a witness to our faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.  They were lovingly erected at considerable cost by a generous benefactor or congregation.  As such, they are treasured.  But is God interested?

Christians know that everything material is temporal, and we cannot take it with us when the time comes.  However, we develop attachment to buildings, chairs (even pews), and various traditions.  We build a world around ourselves of all this, almost as if we need it to feel at home.  Of course, you know that home is not here but hereafter.  So, while our very human attachment to these things also makes them precious to us, is God interested in our whims?

Even Christian organisations, such as Rural Mission Solutions, cannot have any long-term guarantee of holding God’s interest.  So, what is God interested in?  The simple answer is “people”.  Now, I am not arguing that God is not interested in his created world; I am convinced that he is.  The point I wish to make is that I am equally convinced he would not be interested in the ‘Parish Church of St Barry and All Angels’, as far as the building is concerned, though I am sure it would be splendid.
 
The Bible reveals that God is passionate about people - even those who couldn't care less about him.  Those that do not know him, he longs that they would come to know him.  Those of us who do know him, he longs that we would share in his plan and purposes for us all.  God is not on his own when it comes to an interest in people.  I am an avid people watcher. From early life to old age, people fascinate me. Their looks and mannerisms are almost mesmerising.  I just love people.  I watch them on television, often through tears generated by various emotions.  But God loves them so much more.

Call me a church building luddite if you wish, but I really do believe that God is not only disinterested in our church buildings, but that there are times when he might rejoice if they fell down!  All that time and money that goes into maintenance, heating and lighting, insuring and polishing the things WE call holy, really ought to be spent on the things that God calls or would like to call holy.  Most of the buildings were designed to meet the needs that existed in days gone by.  If they do not meet the needs of the real church today, then they are not needed.

Did we learn anything about church during the pandemic?   Interestingly, many churches said that members of their congregations drew closer using Zoom meetings when they were unable to meet face to face.  Many also said that new people attended, some have started meeting face to face and some have become committed members.  Most churches maintained income while saving running costs!
Of course, meeting face to face and being able to sing again is an advantage, but we learned (I hope) that we are not utterly dependent on our historic buildings.  

 By law each member of the Parochial Church Council in the Church of England has responsibility, with others including the Church Wardens, for the maintenance of all their church premises.  Often this includes a costly historic building.  PCC members find themselves cast in the role of curators.  Significant amounts of money and time are spent in this way.  But the PCC is also responsible, together with the incumbent, for the mission of the church which, in the guidance for Church Office Holders, is set before matters of buildings.  But what happens if the care of the property hinders the mission of the church?

Free churches do not normally carry such a legal burden but might have a chapel that is a ‘Listed Building’ which is restrictive.  In Baptist, Congregational, and some other denominations the maintenance of the inherited premises is the responsibility of the local congregation, much like the Church of England but not as onerous. 

We live in a world where many millions of men, women, and children have yet to understand the wonder of the gospel message, and where people suffer illness unnecessarily, and where people live in poverty and go hungry.  Is God interested in them?  

If we had not inherited mediaeval or other old buildings, largely inappropriate for our use today, we would find other ways of meeting economically and share our financial resources with those in need. Yes, our church buildings matter to us, but is God interested in them as much as he is in the poor, the sick, the homeless and the hungry?

Right now, in the face of the appalling invasion of Ukraine and the dispossession of tens of thousands, European churches are stepping up to show God’s love.  Because the churches are ‘out there where the need is’, the world is taking notice.  Now that’s the kind of church in which God is interested.  But is God interested in your church?

 

Barry Osborne 4th March 2022

It's All About 'WHO'

It’s All About ‘Who’

Have you ever noticed that in the New Testament there is little information about methods or strategies for mission?  The gospel, Acts, and the epistles all generally make clear that we are all called to share in God’s mission and the proclamation of the gospel, but there is no “How To” section.  As a man who likes to think through methods and systems, this intrigues me.

 Instead, the emphasis is on ‘Who’ rather than ‘How’.  Is it, therefore, right to infer that God is more interested in the ‘Who’ aspect?  Both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament do go into detail on this point.  Regarding finding a new King for Israel, the Lord counsels Samuel to “look into the heart” rather than the physical appearance.  During the Exile, Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego are of note because of their righteous characters rather than their skill sets.  The New Testament continues this theme with many of the apostle Paul’s letters, and those of John also touching on the importance of good character.  Competence in financial administration might have been a requirement for the seven ‘deacons’ chosen to ensure that the widows received what was due to them, but the requirement was for men full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom (See Acts 6:1-3).

 In the UK, the issue of character and integrity has come to the fore in the news with the allegations about the actions of our Prime Minister.  Suddenly, it seems important that we have a Prime Minister whom we can trust!  Sadly, all such leaders tend to have feet of clay.  By contrast, the news in the 24 hours prior to my writing this piece drew attention to the courage and perseverance of two tennis stars who played on despite physical difficulties.  The fact that they both lost their games seems unimportant compared with their readiness to soldier on despite the blisters etc.

 But politics and sport are hardly in the same league as building the kingdom of God and taking the message of the kingdom to those who have yet to embrace it.  So, I return to my question about what really matters to God when it comes to serving him.  The focus must be on the character aspect of “Who?” rather than the skill set.  It has to be ‘Who’

By now it is possible that the title of this piece (It has to be ‘who’) might be bringing to mind a song from an old romantic film starring Ginger Rogers.  That song was made famous by Frank Sinatra; “It had to be you”.  So, I make no apology for changing my title from “It has to be who”, to “It has to be you”.  Both the film and the song make the point that there was only one person who was the right marriage partner.  At this point what I am writing parts company with the film and song - or does it?

 It has to be you!

God is searching, not for a soul mate, but for people who will genuinely love him and want to help fulfil his purposes in the world in which we live.  I hope that you include yourself in that company.  God’s great desire is that everyone would come to repentance (2Peter 3:9). God chooses and works through ordinary people telling the story of his saving love.  For Andrew and Philip, two men who had begun to realise how special Jesus was, they shared the message with Peter and Nathaniel.  For a woman who met Jesus at a well, her immediate contacts were the people living in the same village.  None of those who passed on the news were perfect, but it had to be them.

 I am amazed that God looks for partnership in mission to people like me.  He has a host of angels that will do his will, but he calls us to share with him.  I guess we will never know the full reason.  It was Daniel Niles, a Ceylonese pastor, evangelist and one time president of the Ceylon Methodist Conference, who originated the definition of evangelism as “One beggar telling another beggar where he found bread”.  The point of his statement, which some find puzzling, is there is - or should be - nothing presumptuous about sharing the gospel with another person.  But at the same time the statement removes all excuses for failing to accept the invitation to partner with Jesus in his mission.  It has to be you.

 It has to be you because there are some people that God loves and for whom you are a significant contact.  There is no magic formula for evangelising.  It’s not about the method; it's about the ‘who’.  And in this case - the ‘who’ is you.  The best thing I can advise since we are not given an exemption, is to pray, pray, and pray again that God will use you and open the heart of those to whom he wants you to witness.

Thank you for being part of the answer to “Who?”  Please let me know how you get on.  We will join you in praying for any of your friends if you pass on their names.  We will treat this in confidence.

Thankfulness

 Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph. 5:19.20)

When I started this series of e-letters I entitled is Praise and Prayer News but like so much in life, each issue has tended to be more about prayer requests than about praise.  In both our personal devotional times and in a worship together with others, there is often no space for thanksgiving.  In days gone by, it was the practice in the Salvation Army and Pentecostal denominations to have specific testimony time when items for thanksgiving were regularly shared.  I believe that this is much less common today, and rare in many - possibly most - other denominations.

One of my favourite passages on prayer in the Bible is Philippians 4:6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God".  Throughout Paul's letters in the New Testament he often expresses thanks to God for the faith lived out in the churches for which he cared.  In the gospels thanksgiving is mentioned several times in relation to food, but little else.  One outstanding exception is the healing of ten men who had leprosy (See Luke 17:11-19) where only one man in ten gave thanks for healing.

As a child I was taught to mind my Ps and Qs, meaning to remember good manners and say please and thank you.  You may remember my encouragements in previous issue to express thanks to people doing mundane jobs.  How often a few words of thanks have brought pleasure to such situations.  I sometimes wonder whether God is disappointed in us if we fail to genuinely thank him for answers to prayer and blessings we experience each day.  Do we normally give thanks to God for our food (and do you do that publicly in restaurants)?  Do we give thanks for safe journeys and convenient parking spaces?

Some charismatic churches place emphasis on 'praise times' which is good but has the risk of becoming a time for self indulgence in joyful singing rather than heartfelt thanksgiving.  One of the newer songs (now old) is "Give thanks with a grateful heart", written by Henry Smith in 1978 during a difficult time in his life and facing a degenerative condition that would make him legally blind.  I find the words and music very moving.  It challenges me to be more faithful in thanksgiving to God.  I have so much blessing in my life that he certainly deserved more thanksgiving.

I am sure that you are capable of developing this theme further, so I will leave it here, with the hope that you and I will be better in future at setting aside time to say thank you to God before we start asking again!

Introducing Martin
Thank you for your prayers as we have moved through the process of seeking an Operations Manager who could lift some of the administrative and management work from my shoulders and help us to grow and develop this ministry as we face the challenge of millions of men, women and children in rural UK who have yet to hear clearly the good news about Jesus.

Martin Scheller has now joined the team and hit the ground running.  Please pray for Martin as he settles into this role and learns our ways.  Pray too for me as I plan and carry out the process of delegation.

Our trustees were unanimous in offering the role to Martin.  That was not easy as we had several other good applicant.  So, give thanks for the trustees and their care in the process.

We give thanks to God for you, and for your love and prayers.

Barry Osborne- 15th November 2021.

A Reason for Our Hope

 A Reason for Our Hope

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…” (1 Peter 3:15)

This is a verse of scripture that has always intrigued me.  Peter’s letter was written to Christians who had been scattered under persecution.  What, I wonder, might be the context in which they might be asked to explain the reason for their hope?  Most communities in those days probably would have been small enough for a stranger to be noticed.  Since the reason for their arrival would soon be known, Peter presumes that there is every possibility that the curiosity of their new neighbours will be aroused.  While that might not be the same in our context, the issue of being ready to articulate something about our faith remains as important today wherever we live.

It is also interesting that Peter presumes that it is “their hope” that will be the focus of curiosity.  This is the fifth time that Peter has used this wod.  In his first reference (1 Peter 1:3) he refers to regeneration into a living hope through the resurrection of Christ.  Because Jesus rose from the dead, he demonstrated his Messiahship and divine nature, but this also gives us the expectation that one day we too will rise and live with him forever.  It was such an expectation, or hope, that enabled early Christians to endure persecution.

This then is the reason for their hope, as is also explained in 1 Peter  1:13 and 21. The other reference Peter makes about hope was to talk about the character of Christian wives.  While some find such veres as (1Peter 3:5) controversial it does bring home to us all that people will make judgements about our faith by how we relate and behave towards one another.  It was also for this reason that Peter writes about the manner in which we explain our hope, or our faith in Christ  (see verse 16).

I am occasionally asked why I moved from Sussex to the East Midlands.  An easy and simple answer would be to state that it was to do with my work, but the real reason is that  I believed that God was calling me here.  The real reason for that is because Jesus Christ gave his life for me, I have felt it right to surrender my life to do his will.  There is absolutely no reason why I should be embarrassed or afraid to tell people that.

While it is unlikely that anyone in the general culture of the UK would ever ask about your hope in God, it ought not to be unusual or surprising if they asked something about the way we behave.  For example, “I notice you never use bad language, why is that?”  But this begs the question whether our lives are attractively and noticeably different from the way others behave.  I emphasise the word “attractively”.  This is another point that Peter makes.  Our response should be with gentleness and respect.

One way by which I try to bring God and Jesus into the conversation is to make reference to the fact that I go to church.  For example, I might be able to say, “Someone made a similar remark at church last Sunday!”  When new people move into the street I offer to give them the names of good local churches if they are interested.  Just such a comment provoked my most recent new neighbour to reveal that she was also a Christian.  Now the neighbour we have between us has two neighbours praying for him!

Times may have changed since Peter wrote his letter, but human needs remain the same.  People in the communities in which we live, shop and work, are deeply loved by a God who gave his life for their salvation.  Helping them to discover that kove and a personal relationship with God is the best thing we could ever do for them.  So, let's make sure that there is something attractive about how we live, and then be ready to explain it with gentleness and respect.  Where we live, and the communities in which we move are God’s gift to us, and an opportunity for sharing good news.  Let’s “be prepared”.

Barry Osborne 18the September 2021

No Disappointment

I am writing this on 12th July 2021, the day after England’s defeat in the Euro 2020 Football Competition.  Hopes had been running high as time and again England had come through victorious.  Now we were to face a team with a far better record in international football for the final match.  England flags were flying from buildings, and many people really believed that this year, at last this year, we would bring home the cup.  But we didn’t.

It would be easy to look for someone to blame, or to blame the team as a whole, or to lay all the blame at the feet of Gareth Southgate, the manager and the man who chose those who would take the penalties that failed.  When we experience disappointment, especially when our expectations have been high, it is natural to seek to deal with how we feel ,by blaming or scapegoating somebody - or anybody!

When I woke this morning, I found the words of an old gospel song were in my head.

He is not a disappointment, Jesus is far more to me

Than in all my glowing daydreams I imagined he could be.

And the more I get to know him, so the more I find him true,

And the more I long that others would be led to know him too.

I remember singing this often in the sixties and seventies.  I wondered whether YouTube might have a recording.  Unfortunately the few recordings there used a different and far less effective tune than the one we used.  But while there, my eye was caught by a video on how women should handle disappointment in their love life.  Intrigued, I listened for a while and heard this “You need to find a man who wants you just as much as you want him”.  Wow! I could feel this resounding with good theology and so supporting what I am trying to share with you.

There is a significant difference between being disappointed that we did not win the cup, and focusing our disappointment on the team or any individuals.  We all experience disappointments in our lives.  I could provide you with quite a list!  But when it comes to faith, how should we deal with disappointments?  Perhaps a good place to start would be to pick up on that advice to lovelorn women, and ask the question, “Do we really believe that God loves us?”  In the light of Calvary, how could we question his love?  If Jesus gave his life for us and our salvation, how much more will he care for us as we follow him!

People fascinate me.  When reading the gospels, the pen portraits they provide of the people that encounter Jesus is often thrilling.  Take, for example, the family of two sisters and a brother who lived at Bethany   In John 11:5 we learn that Jesus loved all three of them.  When serious illness cast a shadow over their lives, the women sent a message to Jesus  telling him that someone he and they loved was ill.  Doubtless they presumed that because Jesus cared for this family he would come and perform one of his miracles.  But he did not and Lazarus died.  Can you imagine their disappointment?

Reading further in this account in John 11, we read that when Jesus did turn up, Lazarus had been dead for four days.  Martha was the first to go to meet him, leaving her sister, Mary.  Her words to Jesus are fascinating.  She said,”‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”  Later, Mary could only manage the first of those sentences.  Martha might have realised that by the time the message had reached Jesus, it was already too late.  However, it would have been clear that Jesus had not come rushing to their aid.  But, despite this, she did not lose her confidence in Jesus, and in his care for her as a friend.

Along the lines of the advice to the lovelorn, it would be reasonable to infer that she had found in Jesus a man who cared as much about her family as they did about him.  The circumstances were disappointing, but Jesus was not.  When you know that Jesus loves you so much he would die for you, you will never feel disappointed in him.  If bad things happen, if he keeps you waiting for that answer to prayer, or even if he says “No”, he will never - can never - stop loving you - more deeply than you will ever understand.

Knowing that might not take away all the disappointments we experience in life, but it will certainly help us to manage them.  Hats off to Garteh Southgate who, in the depths of disappointment, declared that his team had “given it all they could”.  That showed considerable grace.

We have to handle the disappointments that God allows to come along in our life, but we are the better men and women when we do not indulge in the blame game.  When you know him, you know that he will never let you down.

Barry Osborne 12th July 2021

Hope Deferred and Hope Assured

 Hope Deferred and Hope Assured

Over recent months, most if not all people in the UK have been living with deferred hope.  Like children in the backseat of a car we have found ourselves wondering “Are we there yet?”  Covid-19 and its variants has kept us hoping it will soon be over, while at the same time living with deferred government deadlines as various predictions have been found false occasionally.

Many still long to be reunited with family members and to enjoy a warm embrace.  Some feel desperate for a good holiday, but are frustrated by travel restrictions.  Some wonder whether they will have a job once their furlough ends.  When this all began in March 2020 I thought that perhaps restrictions might last a few months, but month after month has passed and there is still some uncertainty whether the light at the end of the tunnel is the way out or another train hurtling towards us!

Proverbs 13:12 describes it in this way:  “Hope deferred makes the heart sick”.   While some people are able to accept the inevitability of having to live with restrictions a little longer, many others find it a struggle.  Only a few days ago I heard someone say, “I am sick of all this waiting”.

Early Christians, anticipating the imminent return of Christ, also found the waiting a problem.  Peter, writing to scattered Christians, addressed this in his second letter, writing, ”The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance”. (2Peter 3:9).  They could not have imagined that 2,000 years later we would still be eagerly waiting for his return.  But unlike our hope that we will be completely free from the virus this year, our hope in Christ is certain.

One of my favourite passages about this hope is found in Hebrews 6:19,20, where we read, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf.”  The imagery is largely lost in these days of motorised shipping, as sailing ships were more familiar to the writer.  The master of a large sailing ship desiring to anchor at a specific point in a harbour would furl his sails to slow the ship as it came into the harbour.  He would then lower a boat from the ship, and lower the anchor into the boat.  The boat then rowed to the desired destination where the anchor would then be dropped.  Back on board the ship, men would start turning the capstan so that each turn of the capstan would bring the ship to the anchor.

Since Jesus has already entered heaven and our hope is in him, it is this hope that draws us ever closer to the Lord and to heaven.  In 1882 when Priscilla Jane Owens wrote “Will your anchor hold in the storms of life” she must have been unfamiliar with the way of the seas.  An anchor “fastened to the rock” in a storm would inevitably capsize the ship as waves rose 20 feet causing the anchor to drag it under the water!  It's great to sing but, sadly, the wrong image.  The more appropriate hymn is “With Christ in the vessel we can smile at the storm”. (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptruPe5AuBU).

John Newton, a man who knew a thing or two about surviving storms at sea, wrote the following.

Begone unbelief, my Savior is near,

And for my relief will surely appear:

By prayer let me wrestle, and He wilt perform,

With Christ in the vessel, I smile at the storm.

 

Though dark be my way, since He is my Guide,

’Tis mine to obey, ’tis His to provide;

Though cisterns be broken, and creatures all fail,

The Word He has spoken shall surely prevail.

 

His love in time past forbids me to think

He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink;

Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review,

Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through.

 

Hope, in this sense, is a confident expectation - hope assured of fulfilment..