Skip to main content

October message from the ministry team

Dear Friends,



Autumn is the time of mists and mellow fruitfulness. It is a time of harvest and cropping. It is also the precursor to preparing for winter. After the harvest, comes the shedding of leaves and plants returning to their basic condition.

This made me think about our lives in Jesus Christ. Have we had a harvest in our lives? Has each of us shown the ripe fruits of Jesus Christ to everyone we meet? Have we been laden with the fruits of the Spirit, to attract people to Jesus, as creatures are drawn to the fruit trees and plants? This is a wonderful time of year to share Jesus with people. (As well as the rest of the year.)

Also, at this time of year, nature is preparing for the onset of winter, and plants and trees are shedding leaves and retreating back into bulbs, so they can survive the winter. Are we as Christians doing the same? Have we parts of our personal lives and church lives cluttered up, so that we need to get rid of things? Do we allow Jesus, the gardener, to prune our lives?

In our garden, we have a clematis climber that would not flower. It was 9 feet tall. A gardener asked if we ever pruned it. I said “No.” and he said: “Take it back to 10 inches tall”. Well, very scared, I did as he told me. The next year we had an abundance of flowers.


I know that, within my own life, there are areas that I have to look at and see if I really need that. Perhaps I have got into a rut of routine and not realized it. Maybe there are things that I do or see as important, but now I know that I have to let it go. Is Jesus asking me to look at fresh areas of development and ministry, but I cannot do that, until I have shed this?

I think of the hermit crab who, every so often, has to get rid of its shell and find a different one, so it can grow. Do we need to do this?

As an individual, church and circuit, we can become overladen with familiarities, comfortableness, and security. We need to have a dropping off of our personal, church and circuit clutter and see where Jesus wants us to be.
Jesus stripped himself of everything to save us. By this, he allowed the faith of people and the Church to grow.

I realise that all this is scary, as it means we have to let go of areas in our lives or attitudes, but we need to do this to grow.

We also have, in our garden, a Comus (that’s posh) often known as a Dogwood. In summer, it is a green, leafy bush. In winter, it drops its leaves and the stalks become a vivid scarlet. What a transformation!

I pray that each of us in Bradford North will allow Jesus to transform us into something new and glorious for Him.

Bless you all

John W
Pastoral Co-ordinator

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Holy Saturday

Read John 19.31-42 Near to the place of crucifixion is a garden, where the body of Jesus is taken to be buried. Gardens play a significant role in the telling of scripture. In Genesis, the garden is celebration of God’s creation and a place of harmony between God and humanity. It is also the place of broken relationships, showing human limitations and failure.  In the New Testament, the garden of Gethsemane is a place where burdens are brought, and tears are shed. And the garden of Jesus’ burial is, of course, also the setting for resurrection, where the risen Christ is himself mistaken for a gardener.  At this time of year, many of us will be venturing out into our gardens once more. In the strange circumstances of our current crisis, the garden may be one of the few places where we can enjoy being outside and exercise. The garden in springtime is a place of new life – with buds showing and plants growing. This picture of new life can illustrate for us the truth ...

Virtual Worship - Easter Sunday 12 April 2020

Today’s the day - everything is changed. Death’s cave is empty, save linen cloth as calling card for Love. That life has won, and hope’s made whole, thank God! Alleluia! Christ is risen. He is risen indeed, Alleluia! Holy and risen Lord, we come to worship you on this special Easter Day. We thank you for all you have done for us. We lift our eyes to honour you, living Lord Jesus. You have overcome death; fill us with your joy and new life. Amen You might like to read, sing or listen to an Easter hymn. Perhaps  Christ the Lord is risen today, or Low in the grave he lay (H&P 193/202, StF 298/305). This is perhaps the strangest Easter Sunday we have experienced in most of our lifetimes. Not able to gather as God’s people on this holiest of days. Not able to spend time with family and friends. Not able to visit dale or coast. Yet even as restrictions bite, we affirm God’s love in Christ Jesus, and seek to help each other hear the Easter message. We gather in ...

Rock Solid

Rock Solid is the new youth club for 9-13 year olds at Wilsden Trinity Church . It aims to provide a group for older children to follow on from Wilsden Trinity’s other youth club, Friends and Heroes. Every Tuesday we meet for games, Bible stories, sweets, crafts and chats. Highlights so far include wrapping people up as mummies, making ice cream sundaes, playing Zip Zap Boing (which is as confusing as it sounds), building Easter gardens and making lava lamps. We set aside a good amount of time just for chatting, and each week we have a “Millstone, Milestone” section – each person can say if they’ve had a difficult week (millstone) or a brilliant week (milestone) and why. This has been a platform for many entertaining anecdotes and tales that the group has shared together. Rock Solid started in March 2017, and so far numbers are low. Our small group has fun, but we would love to welcome some new members! All children and young people between the ages of 9-13 can join. It is £2 on the ...