The Bride of Christ
I was attending a conference on leadership recently when a pretty seminal experience took place. It was not as a result of any of the excellent talks (and they were excellent) but during one of the coffee breaks. I was standing in the sunshine drinking tea and chatting to some friends from a neighbouring church and simply listening to their thoughts. One of them was really having a go at the church. He was pointing out (probably correctly even if not gracefully) how it was unfriendly to outsiders, unfocused on evangelism, cliquey, stuck in the past, ineffective and all the rest, and how this leadership stuff was all very well but what good was it in such a flawed and ugly institution. (My words about how I heard it so I apologise if my friend is reading this and thinking that I am putting words in his mouth). He then wondered off to look at the bookshop.
I stood there thinking and cogitating what had been said, much of it that I agreed with, and it dawned on me. He had not said one positive thing about the church and, if I thought about it, I had never heard him say anything positive about the church. I could recall his love of Jesus and how he talked at times about His saviour, but the church was always, as far as I could recall, the focus of all of his negativity. As I stood there I knew that I was probably as guilty of it as he was and I felt Jesus say to me, “how would you like it if I talked that way about Sofie?”
If the church is the Bride of Jesus, and the Bible seems to state clearly that it is, why do we talk so disparagingly about her? how would we feel if our Bride were so criticised? Jesus loves the church and died for her… maybe we need to seek in her what he sees in her. I think we probably need to seek to beautify her rather than point out her spots.
A New Beginning
This is a new beginning for me. 6 weeks to the end of my time as the minister of Christ Church Braintree and then it is a whole new world. No longer a church leader. No longer responsible for everything. A time to follow Jesus more closely, listening and seeking, walking towards a new place that God will show me. I will spend time with the family, spend time with the church i will be worshipping with and spend time writing for the glory of God.
Genesis 12
It is a hard thing to be called in a direction that was unexpected. I thought that i would spend the rest of my life leading churches and serving Jesus in that capacity through preaching and teaching… and who knows that might be what i go back to. Yet I find myself, like Abram, called to leave the people i love and know to go to a place that is uncertain, but the promise of God. i will follow God, even into unexpected places.
