A few weeks ago now I was reflecting about church and had an image in my mind of an orange. All my life I have been involved in church life trying to make it as juicy as possible – helping to make the worship relevant or contemporary, being involved in social programs, modernising our buildings, updating our use of technology, learning about leading services and preaching, trying to run vibrant house groups. It has been a good journey and I know that God has blessed many of our efforts and ideas. At times we have felt inspired.

The aim of all this commitment and endeavour has been to help make the inside of the orange (the church) as juicy as possible, as attractive as possible, as meaningful as possible and our hope has been that in doing so we would attract more people to join us on the inside of the orange, form a living relationship with God/Jesus and join church. We have prayed about this, sung about this and worked for this with all our effort.

All this has placed me right at the centre of the orange (the church) and I have been ordained as one of it’s ‘ministers’ or ‘priests’ and now, with responsibility for my own ‘church’ I have set about trying to make this particular orange as juicy as it can be here in Twerton.

This has been good and important. And not wanting to devalue any of this effort, or anyone else’s commitment, I now believe that God is wanting us to completely rethink what it means to be the church.

For years ‘church’ has been a building, a service, a program provider or an institution. From here on we need to see it as a people on a mission. For years ‘church’ has been something we went to, attended or helped to make. From now on we need to see it as something we belong to and participate in. The change is from seeing church as a club to seeing it as a team. Just as a football club is something people organise, watch, contribute to and maintain and a football team is something you belong to and participate in, we need to see church as a team where everyone is involved in working towards a goal.

What we need to do is turn this orange inside out. For years the juice has been kept and maintained on the inside of our church buildings, our church services and our church programs. From now on we need to open up the orange and get the juice on the outside – into people’s lives, our workplaces and our neighbourhoods.

This is a completely new way of seeing church and will require us to give up our old ideas and practices and systems. ‘Minister’ will no longer be a title given to just one or two but instead owned by everyone. ‘Disciple’ will no longer be something the super keen sign up for but will be the normal Christian life. ‘Worship’ will no longer be something we go to for an hour but a life lived in adoration to God and in response to his love. ‘Mission’ will no longer be something cringey that only the bravest and craziest of us do but the very foundation of our community life together.

And it is to this mission that we will begin to invite others to join us in. It is to this life that we will now invite people to commit to. It is to this ‘order’ that we will invite people to shape their life around. Instead of asking people to come to church we will be asking if they want to participate in the life we are living, centred on Jesus, focused on blessing our neighbourhood, and oriented around seeing the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

It is time to get the juice out, to step outside our church buildings and structures and services and to give ourselves away to people in need around us. And by our love for one another, for our neighbours and for our God perhaps at last many will again know us to be ‘Jesus’ disciples’ rather than just people ‘who go to church’.

Undoubtedly it will mean a few of the things we currently cherish will fall away or be less highly prioritised. So be it. May God help us as we start to peel away the skin and open ourselves to the reality of people’s life, letting go of our desire to be a church on that meets together and becoming a church that meets the needs of others.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for there is the kingdom of heaven.

Until next year!  Richard

This is what the story is about…

And it is what we are about here as a church in Twerton

We have a simple purpose:

• to connect ourselves to God and
• to connect ourselves with others and
• to connect others up with God

We need to keep it simple – it’s about CONNECTION!

The way we do this is to embody the message of Jesus and to proclaim the message of Jesus.

We embody the message in numerous ways – through how we live together, through how we behave, through how we speak, through how we worship, how we care, how we respond to needs, how we love one another.

We proclaim the message through words – at work, at the school gate, at home with our children, at funerals, at weddings, at Rose Cottage and the Rec House – telling people of God’s good news for their lives.

This past week we celebrated another year together and elected new representatives to oversee our life together.  We reviewed what God has been doing and we reminded ourselves of our mission – to be connected.  We are excited about the year ahead.  Join us.

As we journey together as a church family we want to encourage each other with stories of what we see God doing in our lives.  Simple stories, simply told. Real. Authentic.

To help us in all this we are going to make sure that each week we hear from each other when we meet.  So come ready to share your stories.  Get used to looking out for the workings of God and listen out for what the Spirit is saying to us as a family being shaped into the life of Jesus.

This Sunday is normal (if there is ever a normal Sunday here!), and I am going to be looking a the Sower in the last of our ‘Level Teaching’ series…
The week after (25th October) we are going to have a healing service where the focus will be on us praying for each other and blessing one another in Jesus’ name.

On the 1st November Louise and Toby are going to be baptised with Dan reaffirming his vows… Always a great time – if there is anyone else who wants to be baptised let me know.

Then over the next 4 weeks I have invited 4 church leaders from across the city
Paul Langham – 8th November
Patrick Whitworth – 15th November
Stewart Keiller – 22nd November
Paul Wakely - 29th November

What quality!

I invited them along time ago – back in May – to come and speak into our situation, to bring a blessing and to pray for us in Twerton. They may well bring a few of their churches to come too to join them… It should be good as we listen for what God is saying to us from leaders outside our situation and whom we respect.

So in all in all 7 weeks of Sundays all jammed packed with goodies…

Bring your friends, invite others who are local Christians to listen too (it’s not just for St Michael’s) and join me as we listen out for what God is saying together…

Looking forward to them all
God bless
Rich

Oh and here’s a picky to forward to your mates : )

We want our church here in Twerton to be known for what happens on Mondays not Sundays.

On Mondays we are involved in God’s mission. On Mondays we are praying and connecting with God, on our own and with others. On Mondays we are engaged with the problems of our neighbours and our friends. On Mondays we are wondering what God is prompting us to do or say or think about. On Mondays we are at work, or at home or at the school and we are aware that God is with us and that we represent him.

On Mondays we are pouring ourselves out for the sake of our world, trying to follow Jesus’ example. On Mondays we are praying in the spirit as much as we can so as not to miss out on being a messenger of God’s kingdom. On Mondays we are making decisions about how to live, how to act, how to think. On Mondays we are avoiding bad things and embracing good things. On Mondays we are with the poor.

On Mondays we are depending on God’s grace for what we do, knowing that nothing we do with out him counts for much. On Mondays we are guiding our children and creating the right environment for them to grow up in. On Mondays we are spending our money wisely and giving our money away. On Mondays we are engaged in our world. On Mondays we welcome in the stranger and the lonely.

On Mondays we read the bible for our personal development and to feed our soul. On Mondays we reflect and sit and think. On Mondays we phone up our friends and eat with others. On Mondays we decide what to watch on TV and what not to watch. On Mondays we are grateful for all that God has done for us and prayerful for everything that is out of sorts in our lives. On Mondays we try to resist sin and when we sin we confess it.

On Mondays we laugh and joke. On Mondays we exercise. On Mondays we call in on those in need and cull up those who need a chat. On Mondays we take rest seriously and leave tomorrows worries to tomorrow. On Mondays we wake, we work, we play, we relax, we sleep. On Mondays we live life… life with Jesus…

Making Monday special is our aim.

And Sundays is another thing all together.

Check out this video… it’s one guy’s way of telling the story…

A few weeks ago now I was reflecting about church and had an image in my mind of an orange. All my life I have been involved in church life trying to make it as juicy as possible – helping to make the worship relevant or contemporary, being involved in social programs, modernising our buildings, updating our use of technology, learning about leading services and preaching, trying to run vibrant house groups. It has been a good journey and I know that God has blessed many of our efforts and ideas. At times we have felt inspired.

The aim of all this commitment and endeavour has been to help make the inside of the orange (the church) as juicy as possible, as attractive as possible, as meaningful as possible and our hope has been that in doing so we would attract more people to join us on the inside of the orange, form a living relationship with God/Jesus and join church. We have prayed about this, sung about this and worked for this with all our effort.

All this has placed me right at the centre of the orange (the church) and I have been ordained as one of it’s ‘ministers’ or ‘priests’ and now, with responsibility for my own ‘church’ I have set about trying to make this particular orange as juicy as it can be here in Twerton.

This has been good and important. And not wanting to devalue any of this effort, or anyone else’s commitment, I now believe that God is wanting us to completely rethink what it means to be the church.

For years ‘church’ has been a building, a service, a program provider or an institution. From here on we need to see it as a people on a mission. For years ‘church’ has been something we went to, attended or helped to make. From now on we need to see it as something we belong to and participate in. The change is from seeing church as a club to seeing it as a team. Just as a football club is something people organise, watch, contribute to and maintain and a football team is something you belong to and participate in, we need to see church as a team where everyone is involved in working towards a goal.

What we need to do is turn this orange inside out. For years the juice has been kept and maintained on the inside of our church buildings, our church services and our church programs. From now on we need to open up the orange and get the juice on the outside – into people’s lives, our workplaces and our neighbourhoods.

This is a completely new way of seeing church and will require us to give up our old ideas and practices and systems. ‘Minister’ will no longer be a title given to just one or two but instead owned by everyone. ‘Disciple’ will no longer be something the super keen sign up for but will be the normal Christian life. ‘Worship’ will no longer be something we go to for an hour but a life lived in adoration to God and in response to his love. ‘Mission’ will no longer be something cringey that only the bravest and craziest of us do but the very foundation of our community life together.

And it is to this mission that we will begin to invite others to join us in. It is to this life that we will now invite people to commit to. It is to this ‘order’ that we will invite people to shape their life around. Instead of asking people to come to church we will be asking if they want to participate in the life we are living, centred on Jesus, focused on blessing our neighbourhood, and oriented around seeing the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

It is time to get the juice out, to step outside our church buildings and structures and services and to give ourselves away to people in need around us. And by our love for one another, for our neighbours and for our God perhaps at last many will again know us to be ‘Jesus’ disciples’ rather than just people ‘who go to church’.

Undoubtedly it will mean a few of the things we currently cherish will fall away or be less highly prioritised. So be it. May God help us as we start to peel away the orange skin and open ourselves to the reality of people’s life, letting go of our desire to be a church on that meets together and becoming a church that meets the needs of others.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for there is the kingdom of heaven.

We hope that St Michael’s is different. We are a growing community of people of all backgrounds and all ages and we are convinced that God wants to do great things here in Twerton. While we love to get together we don’t want to be known primarily for our ‘services’. We want to be known for other things – friendship, concern, authenticity, community, enthusiasm, joy, giving, life.

Over the last few years we have become increasingly convinced that the best way to live is to ‘seek first the Kingdom of God’ and then to trust him with everything else. In practice this means that we have decided to orientate our lives around what God is doing and to get together as a number of outward focussed communities. We call these ‘missional communities’, but another name would simply be ‘church’. These ‘churches’ are not primarily about worshipping together on Sunday, although for all of us worship means everything, but are focussed on mission – loving our neighbours, making a difference, and inviting others to join us in discipleship to Jesus.

If that sounds like what you would be into, then drop in on us or get in contact. We look forward to meeting you. It will be fun.