Skip to main content

April Message from the Ministry Team.

Dear friends,

In January, I had to go for my annual appraisal with the circuit. I had a ten-page appraisal form to fill in before I went. This covered all aspects of my employment. How was my work/life balance? Had I been given enough resources to help me in my work? Am I happy with my working life?

This provoked a reaction within me: When did I last do an appraisal of where I stand with Jesus? Has my faith in Jesus strengthened or backslidden over the years? What am I doing to grow in my knowledge and love of the Lord?

I had gone to church all my life, and was a church member. However in April 1974 I was at a meeting in St. George’s Hall when I realised that I knew about Jesus, but I did not know him in a personal way. I began to look back and ask where I was now with Jesus.

You should go to the doctor for a medical check up on a regular basis, but do you come to Christ and examine yourself, and where you are, before him?

There is a little pamphlet by Dr. W.E. Sangster called ‘A spiritual Check up’, it asks Christians to examine their lives. Published by Epworth Press originally 6d (2½ p) though a second-hand (or now known as pre-owned) copy cost me 25p. It asks us to look at our lives in all sorts of areas:-

In the world, do I speak the truth?
Where I work, am I known as a Christian?
In the home, do I think of the home as mine or God’s?
At the altar, do I find time every day for Bible study, and prayer?
At the cross, never higher than Thy feet.

These are questions that pierce us. They call for an examination of each of our spiritual lives with God. It is very easy to coast along, blindly accepting that everything in the garden is rosy in our lives. I realise that to STOP and THINK where we are with God is often scary.

God wants us to grow in the Spirit and faith, both as an individual, as church and as circuit. He wants each one of us to use our time to take stock of where we are with Jesus and see how we can grow.

We have a golden opportunity to prepare our personal and corporate faith, as we look to go forward at this time. Life is a learning curve, and in following Jesus, we should always be learning and growing. As we do this then, we become a more Christ-centred person and church. Don’t be afraid to examine your faith; God will bless you through it.

John
Circuit Pastoral Co-ordinator

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Message from the Link

D ISSUE 16 OCTOBER 2012 ear Friends How many times have you heard people say in your church ‘Well, I didn’t know about that!’  Quickly followed by, ‘Well, if you read the notices …’ Communication within churches can be wonderful, it can be a little frustrating and it can be never quite what we had hoped.  The same is true across the Circuit, and very soon we will be reviewing methods and means of communication.  Part of this review may include looking at ‘The Link’ and ‘Outlook’ in the light of our focus upon Mission.  For example, it may be that we move more towards what has happened and how it worked to encourage churches to think about the stories that they have to share, rather than being a notice sheet of things to come. Which leads me to ask, have we ever wondered about who it is we are trying to communicate to, and about what?  For example, there have been many adverts in ‘ The Link’ about coffee mornings and cake....

Fairtrade Summer Fair - 31 May 2014

Did you know that it is Fairtrade ’s 20th birthday this year? Yes, 2014 marks 20 years since the first Fairtrade product was sold in the UK. In that time, Fairtrade supporters have helped make huge progress, so that millions of farmers, workers and their families now have a brighter future. To celebrate this milestone, we will be having a: Fairtrade Summer Fair at Calverley Methodist Church on Saturday 31st May from 10 a.m. to 12 noon.  Please come along and give your support. There will be refreshments, Fairtrade tasting, a quiz with prize and lots of lovely Fairtrade products for sale.

The Spirit of the Christmas Truce of WW1 Relived

The Spirit of the Christmas Truce of WW1 Relived During the 1st World War on Christmas Day1914 an amazing thing happened. There was a truce just for that day. Germans and the British stopped fighting and started singing carols. They came out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy. Photographs of families were shown to each other, small gifts were exchanged. Then they played a game of FOOTBALL! Just for that day it was PLAY not WAR! In remembrance of those men, and, their hopes for the Peace to come: Football Match 1.30 pm - 4.00 pm Sunday 10 November 2013 Bradford's Centenary Square Reflections, Poetry and Music on the theme of peace and war 7.30 pm - 9.00 pm The Delius Centre, Great Horton Road Come and join us!