Dear Emmanuel Group of Churches folks,
Happiest of New Years to you all. On this, my first day back at work in 2020, I wanted to start by looking back on 2019 and saying thank you. We had a great year as a Group of Churches in so many ways, with new people joining us, people growing in faith, growing in relationship with each other, and with us finding a lot of different ways to meet new people and serve our communities, both as a whole Church and as individuals. This is fantastic. There’s so much to be thankful to God for and also to one another.
I’m also told by Mike Maddocks this morning that financial giving last year was up by 4.25% overall compared to 2018. That is, actually, amazing. I’m so thankful to you all for your faith and generosity. We will do all we can to continue to make good use of the gifts, both financial and in other senses, that God has given us in 2020.
I hope that you have been aware of rich blessings from God as we have celebrated the Christmas season. That season is not done yet. I hope that we are able together to resist the urge to rush forward and spend these next few days continuing to realise just how spectacular it is that God chose to become one of us, be born as a baby and live among people like you and me who had rejected and would reject, many times over, His offer to be His people and know love, peace, hope and joy, true fullness of life.
That offer remains open to all of us, whoever we are, whatever we’ve done, however we feel about ourselves. We believe in Jesus, about whom John writes:
’10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God’ (John 1:10-13),
We’ve said that the first part of 2020 will be about ‘mission’ in the life of our Churches. And so, as I’ve been praying and thinking about what 2020 might hold for us as a Church, this is the first thing I want to encourage us to do – believe Jesus is who He said He is and accept Him. If we do this, it will have results. Trusting God and stepping out in faith leads to opportunities to show love, kindness and to be used by God to show His way of living, His power, to all.
Most people I meet don’t think they want to meet Jesus or think they need to. I think they do. I know that knowing Jesus is the thing that gives me life and hope. So I want to spend 2020 sharing that life and hope as widely as I can.
But how?
‘God blesses those who work for peace,
for they will be called the children of God.’ (Matthew 5:9)
‘Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone’. (Romans 12:8)
These might seem strange verses to share with you about how to go about the mission we’ve all been given, to share the good news of Jesus, but I think this is where we start from. Where in our lives, our homes, our communities, our workplaces is there a lack of peace? Let’s be people who are known for doing all we can to work for peace.
Second, have confidence in the good news of Jesus. ’16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” (Romans 1:16-17, quoting Habakuk 2:4). Having faith can sometimes feel like the hardest thing to do. But faith is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8). I think that to put ourselves in God’s hands, trusting that His power will work in us is one of the strongest, most powerful things we can do. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me not through Haydon who is amazing and awesome and quite funny sometimes (but less often than he thinks).
If we do these two things, I think we will be well-placed to be faithful followers of Jesus and good news to our communities. I want to do all I can, with so many others of you who help so much to lead, guide and manage these Churches, to grow our faith, trust and knowledge of God this year.
Just before Christmas, I visited one of our youth groups, God Squad, to do my best answer their questions about God, faith and the Bible. First of all, it was truly heartening to see how much these young people wanted to know God. Secondly, their questions were hard but important. Please do pray for our young folks as they seek God. Thirdly, it made me think that many of us have questions about faith, but we don’t ask them. Questions are good. They are part of life. Answers aren’t often definitive and they’re best arrived at together, rather than just accepting the supposed wisdom of one great ‘oracle’ (I’ve certainly never been one of those). I’m thinking about the best way to approach this, but in the meantime, if you’ve got questions about God or faith that you’ve been itching to ask but never have, please do and we will try and find a good way to answer them together this year.
Have a great start to 2020.
Every blessing
Haydon
