Easter Vestry 2008

Rectors Address

First, I’ll begin by showing you some facts and figures for 2007.

Then I’ll highlight some things to thank God for and pray for.

After that I would like to comment briefly on the theme of unity in gospel work.  Then on behalf of the Select Vestry,

Pat Morton will present a Summary of the Information Meetings to do with the Building Proposal.

Then it’s over to you for any comments or questions.

Facts and Figures for 2007 is something the Diocese request from us at this time each year.

So I’ll simply pass them onto to you without comment for your information.

Families inside parish boundary—569 (594)

Families outside parish boundary—152 (155)

Average morning attendance 2007—163 (150)

            Morning Prayer—157 (143)

            Family Service—184 (180)

            Holy Communion—157 (`126)

Average evening attendance 2007—62 (51)

Average midweek service attendance 2007—15 (22)

Baptisms—3 (6)

Confirmations—12

Weddings—5 (3)

Funerals—12 (16)

Number of Explorers—48 (52)

Registered Vestry Members Put On—18 (6)

Registered Vestry Members Taken Off—3 (12)

New FWO taken out in 2007—17 (9)

Total Income—£192,835 (£164,005)

Total Expenditure—£197,613 (£164,546)

So Thanksgiving and Prayer

Discerning how the Lord is at work is always a risky thing to do.

Because the things I mention may not be the things you would mention, and more importantly God’s work in peoples’ lives can often be gradual and discrete.

I think it was Luther who said:

When God ripens apples he takes his time and doesn’t make a noise.

But what we can be certain about and should not take for granted is the liberty we have to meet together under God’s word, whether corporately on Sundays.

Or in smaller groups—Explorers, SET, Fellowship Groups, Prayer Meetings, 1-1, Outreach events.

So at the level of the Bible being opened and taught there is a lot of activity, and evidence of fruit being borne from that.

Things like:

the interest in the bookstall,

the Training Nights with Col Marshall

Big Night Out

Ladies Lunches

Men’s Breakfasts

Christianity Explored

All of these initiatives and others as well can be traced back to the Word of God being opened, explained, understood and acted upon.

In this regard, there are many people who we could thank tonight for all the hard work they do behind the scenes.

I want to particularly mention Eric and Margaret Simpson who began and have since led the Elizabethans up to the beginning of this year.

Eric and Margaret now wish to stand down from doing this and feel that the time has come to bring the Elizabethans to an end.

So we want to thank God for all they have done down the years to serve in this way, and also to pray for our ministry as a church to the elderly—that we’ll know how to continue this effectively.

I also want to make mention of my staff colleagues and make acknowledgement of the work they are doing—JP, Kieron and Mark.

As a staff team we meet for 2 hours on a Tuesday afternoon to read the bible, to pray, to look back over the past week and to plan ahead and then for half an hour to read the bible and pray at 2.00pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

If there are particular matters you would like the staff team to pray for, then please let us know.

In connection with this is the Church Prayer Diary. We have not mentioned this for a while and this evening is an opportunity to do so.  It is a great way to pray specifically for one another.

If you haven’t got a prayer diary, then pick one up tonight on your way home, and if you’ve stopped using it, then tonight would be a good time to start again.

If you’re name is not in the Diary then speak to Kieron and we’ll arrange for it to be included at the next revision.

So what about the future?

On Sunday night Clive preached from Psalm 98—Sing to God new songs of worship. The word NEW jumped out at me.

The Lord is always doing new things and taking new initiatives for the cause of his gospel, and it behoves us to discern what they might be.

Let me mention some new things already happening or happening in the near future for our prayers.

The church w\e away at Newcastle

For many of us this is a brand new thing and we may therefore feel tentative and a bit apprehensive about it.

We can cope with a bit of fellowship at the end of a Sunday morning.

But a whole weekend. Surely that’s stretching it!

Well having been on abut 10 of these weekends before let me assure you they are great times.

I was very nervous when I went on my first one a few years ago before I was ordained.

Would people talk to me?

What would there be to do?

Would I get bored?

Whats the food like?

The rooms?

Could I go and do my own thing?

But every weekend I’ve been on has been great in terms of friendship with others and being taught the bible.

So speak to Margaret West. And please join us.

Changes to the Staff Team

Please pray for JP and Debbie, and Kieron and Esther as they continue to seek the Lord’s will in their future ministries.

JP is due to leave in June and Kieron in the middle of July.

And as we give thanks for their ministries please also remember Gary McMurray and his wife to be Lynsey as they prepare to join us at the beginning of August.

Leaving college; getting married; moving house; and both starting new jobs are a lot to happen within 2 months. They need our prayers.

New initiatives with Teenagers

Pray for Mark Smith and the team of youth leaders as they continue to adapt to the recent influx of teenagers on Sunday nights.

During some of the Information Meetings we have discussed how as a church we can serve the community with the gospel and it’s significant I think that as we’ve been doing this the Lord has brought some from our community to our very doorstep.

Culturally this has been demanding and yet at the same time is a great gospel opportunity.

Mark and the youth team are thinking through how to develop this aspect of the work. So please pray for them and talk with them to find out more.

New developments in the worldwide Anglican Church

This summer will prove decisive for the Anglican Church.

The Lambeth Conference of bishops in July will probably be a non event because of its lack of support by the theological conservatives.

It seems to me to lack any kind of biblical or moral force.

More significant will be the alternative Lambeth, GAFCON (Global Anglican Future Conference) in June when conservative bishops will be meeting to discern a way ahead.

I think that’s where our sights need to be set.

Their website is: www.gafcon.org

Now to all of us this may seem irrelevant.

But if the current realignment within Anglicanism is formalised in some way the CofI will need to decide which way it will fall—either joining those who reject the authority of the bible (liberalism) - or those who stand on the authority of the bible (conservatism).

If the CofI chooses the former—liberalism—and it would do that by simply doing nothing, then St. Elizabeth’s will have to decide what to do.

Which way will we fall?

With whom will we stand?

At the moment its all ahead of us.

But it may land on our doorstep sooner than we think.

Don Carson, with the New Word Alive happening next week in Wales, recently wrote an article on Christian unity

To finish I want to share with you his 10 observations.

Because I think that as we move forward together in the work of the gospel, unity is essential for the sake of mission and people being won for Christ.

First, important as it is, unity is not an ultimate goal.

So unity at all costs is not Christian.

There are limits to unity and those limits are set by God’s word and his gospel.

So Christians do not pursue unity outside of those limits. But we certainly do within them.

Second, the unity of believers is to reflect the unity of the Godhead.

Within the Godhead there is perfect equality.

Between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

But there is also genuine diversity and that unity cum diversity sit perfectly together and will be reflected to some degree in the people of God.

Third, this gospel unity brings together men and women from everywhere.

Every tribe. Every language. And every nation.

No church on earth will have that full breadth of unity.

But every church will have a taste of it as the Lord draws people from different backgrounds, cultures, ages, gender, nationalities to himself.

Fourth, Jesus’ prayer for unity in John 17 has been more deeply and fruitfully answered than many people think.

In that chapter Jesus is not praying for an organisational or denominational unity.

But for a spiritual/gospel unity that transcends such structures.

Fifth, Christian unity is not based on what mathematicians call the LCD—the Lowest Common Denominator where we forget our differences and unite on the things we can agree about.

Instead where there are differences we have the maturity and the faith to bring these different opinions to the bar of Scripture, to the test of God’s revelation in the bible and where appropriate the humility to change them.

Sixth, gospel unity is not achieved by cloning, but by celebrating the diversity of gifts, which God by his Spirit has poured out on his church.

The gifts that St. Elizabeth’s needs now to engage effectively in the work of mission to Dundonald are the gifts that we now have.

If the Lord sees fit to add to what we have, then he will do that.

Seventh, and Don Carson says this for him is the most important, Christian unity can only be enjoyed, experienced and understood by genuine Christians.

An unbeliever can never understand what glues Christians together until they are brought by God into that family of believers.

Only then can they understand the miracle of gospel togetherness.

So eighth, the ultimate test of unity is the test of the gospel and whether we believe it.

If anyone preaches or believes in another Jesus from that of Scripture we need the courage to lovingly say they are wrong and that we are not able to be in fellowship with them.

We live in an era that is making it more and more difficult to say that some things are wrong and false and others are right and true.

So when we do that for the sake of the gospel, we will be setting ourselves up for a drumming.

But our strength amidst such opposition is found in our gospel unity.

And ninth, following on from this, gospel unity therefore requires us to be inflexible on the essentials (the person and the work of Jesus Christ), and flexible on the non essentials (everything else).

In terms of practice—putting this into action—this requires ability and discernment.

We must be gentle and encouraging towards new believers who will know comparatively little of the Bible.

But by contrast we must rebuke and expose those who abandon the true faith and should know better.

And finally, we must commit ourselves to learning the skills of expressing a gospel unity within God’s church.

Unity is like guidance. Great to talk about.  But very difficult to do.

We are still sinners.

We are still prone to drive wedges between each other instead of first being marked by forbearance and love.

Its shocking to have to say it—but even within the constraints of gospel truth, pride and selfishness can still rule the roost.

So then, in the words of Scripture:

Speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in every way into him...into Christ (Ephesians 4.15).

How does all this connect into mission?

Listen to Jesus.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.