If you weren't able to make our Annual meeting on 23rd April, here's the highlights: 1. We elected Jayne Crispin and Sheree Drury to our Parish Church Council. 2. Dan launched our collective mission priorities. You can watch him talk about them below, and download the booklet which explains more, or pick up a copy on Sunday. 3. Our treasurer gave a report on the finances from 2017, encouraging us to think hard about how we change our income and spending in the coming years.
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A group from St James’ by the Park ran a ‘prayer for the world’ stall at FOSJP’s international family day a few days ago. Esther Clift writes …
I wonder how you define your mission community? Mine is complex and messy – a bit like my life, really. I have lots of communities - work, home, running, and church to name but a few, and they each hold more than a hundred people!! I’m not part of a formal Missional Community at St James’ by the Park, but I try to share the good news about Jesus’ love and salvation with anyone I come into contact with. St James by the Park was invited to have a presence at the Bringing Communities Together event at the International Family Day, in the Park. We had a space to pray for the world, with a large map, and stickies to note where and what to pray for. What a great opportunity to meet with folk on neutral space, and talk about what matters to them, and what matters to us too! I was struck by the amazing privilege it is to pray and listen to people. One old friend started telling me about their recent marriage break up, and I was able to pray with another of their concerns for the drug problem among youngsters in Shirley. Others prayed of their profound shock at seeing the Grenfell Towers and all the devastation it has brought to that community. We had people from other churches with specific hearts for ministries around the world, from the Community Church, from The Shirley Warren Action Church and some Jehovah’s Witnesses concerned for the loss of religious freedom in Russia. It was lovely to have students from St James’ by the Park, back for the summer, stopping and praying with others. We prayed for Morocco, for Pakistan, for children in Kenya, as well as Uganda and Myanmar. We prayed for Syria, again and again, and people wanted us to pray for peace in the whole world. So what were we really doing? And what is God doing? We say we’re wanting to turn our church community inside out; to be where people are at – not simply expecting people to come to us. This was one small way of doing that – meeting people from all over Shirley, some of whom would never set foot in a church building. We gave them space to connect with their spiritual side. The Park has been a huge part of our mission over the last 10 years. The last event like this was pretty much run by the team from St James’ by the Park who secured the lottery grant, designed and oversaw the developments and the building. But this is our community! These are people I have stood at the school gates with, worked along side, dug the park flowerbeds with, and now started running with. These are people we share life with, the highs and the lows. This is were the nitty gritty of living out ‘community’ really takes place I’m reminded of the Hillsong chorus ‘touching heaven changing earth’, because that’s exactly what we do when we pray - asking God’s Kingdom to come here on earth, and bring healing and wholeness. And what a privilege to be touching heaven with people we love, and in our own neighbourhood. As the academic year draws to a close, we spent time on Sunday 2nd July celebrating all that God had been doing in us and through us over the last year - in much the same way as Paul & Barnabas reported back to their sending church at the end of their first missionary journey (Acts 14.26-28). This video shows some (not all!) of what's happened in the last 12 months. In our services we made prayer bunting - prayers of thanks to God which will be in St James' by the Park over the summer to remind us of God's faithfulness to us.
In his brief talk, Dan shared 4 things with the congregation: 1. Thank you to everyone who has joined in by giving their time, talents or treasures over the last year - and especially to those who've prayed. 2. The need to be realistic - that mission in our culture is often slow and difficult work - "We must go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God" (Acts 14.22). So we must persevere when the going gets tough! 3. We should be encouraged - God is definitely at work (Acts 14.27). Here's some highlights:
4. We need to keep building community. Jesus wants us to fish with nets (ie together) not lines (individually). It's as we build community that the gospel is shared and received. That's why Paul & Barnabas risked their lives to return to the cities they'd already evangelised - so they could make sure good Christian communities were being established (Acts 14.23). And after all that, we headed out to Anderwood for a great BBQ / picnic to continue the celebrations! So you love Jesus and you're keen to serve him - but how? How does what you hear on a Sunday or in your cell group link to your workplace? How can reading the Bible each day help you chat with your friends and colleagues and answer their objections to faith? How can your cell group or mission group make more of an impact for the Kingdom of God?
'Formation School' is a great course, run here in Southampton, which helps answer all of those questions. It's a course which will take you deeper into the Bible, grow your love for God and help you work out how you can serve God - at home, at work, in the community, in church. Why settle for staying as you are now - when you could be making more of an impact for God. It runs from September to July on term-time Tuesday evenings - plus a couple of Saturdays each term. There is a charge for the course - but I'd see that as a fantastic investment in the Kingdom which will reap rich rewards. St James' by the Park may be able to contribute towards the costs if that would help. I really cannot recommend it highly enough - it's the sort of course I'd love to have done when I was younger. There's lots more information about it on the Formation School website. Better still, go along to one of the Tuesday evening sessions in June to get a feel for what it's like. You can contact Ruth, the administrator to get details of venue and time. |