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From the Manse

Love is a Wonderful Thing

Dear friends,

Anyone who has attended a wedding recently will have fresh in their minds the sharing of the joy of a couple in love whatever age they are. The nurture of this romantic love blossoms into a deep and lasting friendship of mutual trust and companionship.

So it is in our relationship with God in the burst of ‘new Christian love‘ that has freedom to grow and blossom in deep friendship with Jesus over the course of time.

If we were to regard standing on the ‘threshold of an open door‘ as the beginning of our Christian experience, we would begin to look both ways. Following Jesus leads us to look inwards to the life of the church community for support and encouragement and outwards to the needs of the wider community in offering others encouragement and support. Out of this participation each one is embraced by belonging and a growing sense of self-worth in God.

So, in standing on the threshold of an open door, love is indeed a wonderful thing for it knows no boundaries. It is the key to our Christian growth, and it is the key to opening doors for other people to be aware and to experience the love of God in their everyday lives.

For a ‘church door‘ to be truly open, however, it requires a ‘two way passage‘, and such a concept prompts us to reflect further.

Does the worshipping congregation enable the wider community to see and experience the love and friendship of God when they look in?

Or is it the wider community that are indeed the people who are bringing the love and friendship of God in to a church community?

I‘m passionate with the belief that all people grow when they keep moving in both directions. And so I‘m also convinced that people should not stand on the ‘threshold of an open church door‘ in ways that blocks movement in both directions for all people.

In chapter 18 of Matthew‘s gospel, the whole thrust of the teaching is based on ‘relations in the kingdom‘, and the pastoral care and concern that we have for each other. This influences so much of who we are together, and what others see in us. And so on one side of the door we could say that our Christian life is most fully expressed when the faith community works together to improve the quality of its community life so that it reflects the transforming power of the gospel to the world.

In turn, we might well also want to ask ourselves another question about ‘what does the church look like to the folk who look in through our church doors? If it is a dispersed church community throughout the week, people won‘t see a lot will they?

It is vital for the health of any church that it keeps in its sight what an outside perspective might look like to people. For example, what images of our life together could help transform someone else‘s outlook in how they perceive themselves, and relate to God?

I would hope that what people do see when looking in at Badminton Road is a community of action, filled and overflowing with the love of God that holds out the hope of something better. That people see God‘s love because God is love (1 John 4.8; 4.10).

Jesus calls us to live out God‘s love for one another (John 13.34-35), but we are by no means perfect in love (Matt.5.48), and yet as sinners who are held by grace, we do seek to follow the way of love and grow more Christ-like in our behaviour.

This means each one of us taking hold of the truth in chapter 13 in 1 Corinthians, where Paul expounds the free, self-giving agape love. Gods‘ gift of love that supersedes and undergirds everything we are in freedom from the compulsive power of self-centeredness, and instead we are empowered to love God and our neighbours with a joyful heart.

This is where I believe we, as a church, should not stand on ‘the threshold of the church door‘ that blocks the way for other people.

This would be to behave as if we are a closed community, which I do not believe is gospel at all. Remember Jesus said ‘whoever welcomes a little child in my name (any age), welcomes me.

We keep on moving both ways joyfully making way for other people to pass through the church door with us. Such is the activity of God‘s Spirit bringing in his kingdom with love that never fails.

This is surely the mission that Badminton Road intentionally embarked on when it undertook its community survey in the autumn of 2008. This is the vision that confirmed the need that the wider community needs a place to meet and which we set about fulfilling.

The Café is already providing people with a place where they can find encouragement, support, a friend to sit with them and listen to them. It is a beginning to people discovering acceptance without conditions, and experiencing God‘s love for them.

There are many facets to ‘building community with Jesus at the centre‘, but central to it all, is Gods‘ unconditional love in the support and encouragement that people share together.

With every blessing,

Rev Ann E Owen.

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