14 May, 2023
This week we are moving away from our scheduled reading as we continue in the Life and Witness Consultation process with the Presbytery.
Dr Craig Mitchell will be leading most of the worship service, things will be set up a little differently in the church, there will be opportunities for conversation and table groups as we discern, dream and vision some steps into the future, as we pray about those possibilities and share them with each other.
We’ll be having conversations around where and what we’ve been doing in the past and give thanks for that. We’ll talk about what we’re doing now and what is important for us and then we’ll talk about what we are being called by God to do or be. All of this will feed into the responses that Presbytery will share with us around our Life and Witness in this place.
As I have reflected on ministry and mission over the past few years the Rev Dr Sam Wells, Anglican minister at St Martin in the Fields, gives me some great definitions and challenges. Sam delivers this in a great video called Being With. I will do a session on this in the near future.
In this video Sam talks of 4 approaches to mission – working for, working with, being with, being for. I won’t give definitions on these here, but what stands out for me is “being with”. This is when we might sit down and have a coffee with someone, maybe someone who is disadvantaged in one way or another, or maybe someone who is doing it tough for some reason; and we are just with that person, listening to them, being present, with our focus on them. We don’t need to solve the situation; we just need to be there.
What do we need to be undertaking that allows us to “be with” others? If this was our focus, what could it look like? Is this a way to bring the Kingdom of heaven about here on earth? Where is God calling us to be and with whom?
All questions and thoughts to bring with you to worship on Sunday.
Jay Robinson