We believe God has called us to build a loving, worshipping, learning, evangelistic, and Spirit-filled fellowship here in Burwell.
Each year we seek a bible passage to inspire and guide us as to how we might go about doing that. What should we focus on for the year?
As we enter 2020 what are God’s hopes and dreams for this year? We asked for suggestions for a year text and received several.
As the Elders reflected on these, we felt that we could use one to sum up most of what the others were saying…
…live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God… Col 1:10
We will have time to look at the context more in a couple of weeks’ time, but it is important to point out that it comes from the apostle Paul’s prayer for the Colossian Christians. He is praying that they may be enabled to live a life worthy of the Lord and delight Him. It is an exhortation but it is also a prophetic blessing May You …live a life worthy of the Lord….
From some of the other suggestions for year text we felt God was calling on us to do our part, consecrating ourselves, for him to do his part, do amazing things. So, we have chosen to phrase the memory verse as a command, but we need to bear in mind it also comes as a prayer and a blessing.
So, how do we plan to respond to that this year?
We are planning a Church away day to help us think more about growth. We are sharing this with Renew Church and will hear Rev Ken Benjamin teach on the topic “Where do we grow from here?” I have heard Ken speak and his theme ties in very closely with what we have been thinking about as leaders – how do we cross over the Jordon into the messy board lands? There will be opportunity for teaching, prayer and discussion. Don’t miss out.
We will need good bible teaching and times of spiritual refreshment so we can grow in the knowledge of God. So, we will be continuing in Esther and in our All Age services we will be thinking about handling emotions well.
We will also want to bear fruit in every good work: Holiday@Home events, Men’s Events and Reflections. We continue to listen on the way ahead with Cookery Club and Youth Work. We are planning a holiday club for children, hopefully with even more children this year. Inviting them into Good News club and Sunday Club.
We will continue good work in the community whether at the farmers market or the carnival or as individuals like those who serve as Town Pastors or Chaplains or indeed in our workplaces and homes.
I want to take the opportunity to share the personal vision which God has given me. As with all prophetic revelation I urge you to weigh it, test it and see if the Spirit confirms it.
Several people have shared that they believe God wants to fill the church. That’s great and I would love that. But I am by nature rather pessimistic and inclined to be suspicious of prophetic words which say God is going to do what we all want Him to do. I look at the spiritual climate and what we are seeing at the moment and I don’t see much to inspire hope for this kind of growth. So, I hear these words as a reflection of our hearts desire and wait for confirmation from God if it really is His will.
As a Lyfe group we have been using Jarrod Cooper’s materials on Living a supernatural life and these have been great fun and have challenged us to have more faith. At the end of last year, as part of our response to what God was saying through Lyfe Group, I was waiting on God and listening to what He might be saying to me. I received what I believe may be a prophetic word for me personally but it ended with a chapter and verse. Gen 28:3. I tend to receive revelations of Chapter and verse without any idea what the verse says. So, I looked it up, with some trepidation, the end of Genesis not being, in general, a particularly likely source for an encourage verse. This is what it says.
May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.
Honestly, I am not sure yet what that might look like but it does something in my spirit when I read it and I believe that this is God’s intention for us. We need to face facts and believe God anyway. Yes, we are a small village church with a mainly older congregation and large city churches just up the road but God is able to do whatever He chooses.
May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.