Fruit from the tree

Let me open my meanderings this week by saying just how much I appreciate the support of our continually growing community. I reckon that I am one of the most blessed of local church pastors! Oh, I concede that the journey is anything but a bed of roses; but when I look around at other places and situations, I would not want to swap. I was involved in several conversations throughout yesterday and I got to thinking about what makes this new and emerging Christian community different to some others?

FRESHNESS – Some places and even people can give off a kind of mildew smell! We are not at all mildewed or showing any signs of going stale. I like to think that there is a general openness to new things, even when some of that new stuff sounds a little bit on the radical side.

CAN DO ATTITUDE – I have been around churches and other organizations long enough to know that the world has more than enough wet blankets to go around. What a blessing to have such a positive group who are ready and willing to just get in and do it! This morning I ran across someone who spoke to me about something that I thought was presently just a ‘good idea’ only to find that some were already well advanced in the realization of it! I have to confess that I did put something of a brake on things but just loved the CAN DO thinking.

OUTSIDE THE BOX – I can recall in my previous appointment when an ageing congregation used to faithfully run a cake stall in the main street each month to raise funds. This was something that they had done for many years and it was as much a social occasion as a money spinner. When I was able to give permission for people to think more broadly we came up with the idea of one really BIG annual occasion that finished up making more money in its first year than the previous ten years cake stalls! In recent weeks I have been thrilled – and somewhat challenged – as I have listened in to some of the fund raising ideas being bounced around. Please keep dreaming outside that box.

ENCOURAGEMENT – One of the greatest gifts that any organization can have is to be blessed with a good smattering of encouragers. A companion of Paul in the New Testament was a guy called Barnabas. Now old Barney was clearly a very gifted man; but his name was also his greatest gift. Barnabas means ‘son of encouragement’ and he was clearly that. When Paul was having a little trouble early on it was Barnabas that stuck with him and got his ministry under way. Later, when Paul was having a little trouble with a guy called John Mark, it was Barney again who took the young John Mark under his wing. We have more than our fair share of sons and daughters of encouragement right now.

OPENNESS – In the very early weeks of 2002 as Ronnie and I settled into life in this neck of the woods I recall travelling into Castle Hill one day and seeing a sign advertising the Castle Hill RSL. In very big letters it read ‘Visitors Welcome – Conditions apply’. Some churches that I have visited are a bit like that. We are the church of course we are welcoming! Welcoming as long as you look like us, act like us and think like us! Visitors are welcome but it doesn’t take long to find that conditions apply. No church has this part of their life down perfectly but we seem to have a fairly good handle on it right now and don’t worry I will continue to push this little matter, because it isn’t a little matter.

Our mission tag is that we are on about – ‘Building Communities of Care and Hope.’ Often these sorts of things are clichés that never really seem to manifest themselves in reality. I believe that we are very well advanced in our desire to be a people who actively advance this cause and add value to the many and varied communities that we are all involved in. This is not about a group of different programs, but rather something that is in many ways a very organic thing. I mentioned on Sunday that you don’t see apple trees grunting and straining to produce apples – they just do it! And when they are in season they can’t turn off producing, they just keep spitting out apples. It is what apple trees do. Perhaps naively, I think that we should be the same as the apple tree – it’s just what we do.

Cheers - John