Church AGM
I often remark, sounding more like my late father each time, that the world is going mad. This week there has been a story in the paper about a rail company changing its first class passengers china teacups and saucers to mugs because the spoons make too much noise rattling in the saucers, economy class keep their cardboard cups, however.
Another item was about a fast food restaurant where the owner continued preparing kebabs with the body of a dead employee (not to mention rats and cockroaches) in the room and expressed surprise when the police closed down his business.
I think the story that really beats the lot, though, is the one about an American politician who tried to sue God for causing death and disaster with freak weather and forest fires. The judge threw out the case because God was of “no fixed abode” and the prosecution would not be able exercise its right to contact Him. The politician, a professed agnostic, responded by saying that the court obviously recognised God as demonstrated by witnesses swearing on the Bible, therefore, if He exists He is, it is claimed, omnipotent and omnipresent, thus He is always in the courtroom and could be addressed at anytime. An appeal is pending!
It is strange, is it not, that an agnostic understands that God is in everything and everywhere all the time? There is nothing in the world or in life that is not His, yet Christians seem to want to put God “on hold”, persuade themselves that they will fit in His work, pray or read His word, when it is convenient to them. They convince themselves that He cannot see them doing things of which they know He would disapprove. They rationalise, argue and debate without thinking He might be listening.
At the AGM on Wednesday, we reviewed what had happened in NMEFC, both spiritually and practically, over the last year and wondered how we should proceed. As usual there were as many opinions as there were people in the room; the consensus was that a lot had been achieved but that there was still a lot, of an even more exacting nature, to come.
Several members moved on to spread God’s Word in other areas during the past year. This church has a strong tradition of evangelism and mission and we pray that others will come to take their places, to be nurtured in the longstanding beliefs and practices, so that they too grow and mature, eventually going out with a mission, as so many have over the last century.
We hold fast to Bob M’s, oft repeated, prophetic words, “these bones shall rise again” (Ezekiel 37) and “the work of the church cannot be contained within the four walls”. To ensure fulfilment of this we must take the Word with us each time we go out. The work cannot be deferred to a time suited to us, God is always presenting opportunities for us to act and we must grab them.
