Sadly, the summer holidays are drawing to a close and the new term will be starting shortly. Before then, we are having a cleaning day at church (tidying the stage area and cleaning the toys, ready for the re-start of the Monday Night Youth Club on 5th September and the Parent & Toddler Group on 9th September) on Friday 2nd September at 2.30 p.m. Please note the change of time.

Saturday 17th September will be the next ‘Churches Together’ meeting at Market Street. Come along at 6 p.m. to think about thanksgiving, to give thanks and to join with Christians from other local churches for worship, prayer, Bible study and fun activities. Refreshments will be served after the service.

On Saturday 24th September we’ll be holding our Macmillan Coffee Morning from 10 a.m. until 12 noon. Come along to support this worthy cause and enjoy time out from the busyness. Also on 24th September (time to be confirmed), there will be a men’s DVD & takeaway evening at church. A great opportunity for men to invite their friends over and spend time relaxing together.

Forgive me for hating statistics. I know they are useful at times, but as someone who struggles with numbers and who faces a week of staring at these numbers representing the sum total of people’s work over at least two years (GCSE results come out on Thursday), I am particularly averse to them at the moment. One mark separates one grade boundary from another (and sometimes this represents ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in terms of what a pupil can do next.) Numbers are coldly clinical. They do not tell an employer if a pupil has worked or shirked; they do not indicate the struggles behind a particular subject or even the joy a pupil has found in a subject. They are translated into charts: line graphs plotting where you are in relation to someone else, bar charts which can be coloured to show where the school stands in comparison to other schools, pie charts which indicate percentages of A* grades and so on. But these charts, beautiful in their visual representation of numbers, do not capture joy or heartache, nor do they actually explain the numbers. They simply sit there, capable of multiple interpretations, depending on one’s perspective.

Some love the coldly clinical fact of numbers. Statistics don’t lie, they say. 2 plus 2 will always be 4. You know where you are with numbers. They don’t lie.

I beg to differ. Oh, not from the mathematical point of view. I agree that 2 + 2 =4 and I even acknowledge that there is something rather reassuring about maths. But not when it comes to defining people or measuring worth.

That’s not what maths, what numbers, are designed to do. But in our society, that’s what we want them to do.

Teachers are judged on the numbers. This year, schools will be ‘measured’ by the Government by a complex formula known as ‘Attainment 8’ and ‘Progress 8’, adding up points and using algorithms and formulae to decide who has made sufficient ‘progress’ to determine a school’s funding. Pupils will be judged according to their grades (which are about to be re-jigged in examination reform, leaving next year’s pupils to wonder what their numbers rather than letters mean!) Young people will experience elation or despair (some even believing that suicide is preferable to failure) based on statistics which measure a particular written response on particular days.

I think this is a sad misuse of numbers. And I long for young people, teachers, managers, employers and Government officials to realise that people are not quantifiable in the same way that a machine can be measured. We are more than the sum total of our exam results.

People cannot be measured by such things. We cannot be identified by numbers, no matter how many of these things we are assigned (National insurance numbers, NHS numbers, pension numbers, bank account numbers and so on.) We can only be identified by our humanity in relation to God: ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Ps 139:14), made in God’s image (Gen 1:27), chosen and loved before the foundation of the world. (Eph 1:4-5)

Your exam days may well be long behind you. But whatever your age or status, numbers will be there to try to identify you. Blood test results. Hospital test results. Bank balance figures. The number on the bottom of your wage slip. When the numbers look good, we are tempted to believe life is good because of our health, our wealth or our business acumen. When the numbers don’t look so good, we are tempted to believe we are worthless, because that’s what the numbers say.

Let’s refuse to be identified by the numbers and let’s choose to step into our identity as God’s children: loved, chosen, special, equipped, valued and precious because God says so. No matter what the numbers say. Let’s measure success or failure in a different way and know that neither success nor failure can separate us from God’s love.

1 Cor 12 and Romans 12 remind us that the body of Christ is made up of different members, each individual forming an important part of the whole. People come, as they say, in all shapes and sizes.

So do parsnips!

This was Stephen’s first attempt at growing parsnips, and certainly did not look like the conventionally sized, uniformly shaped parsnips supermarkets churn out. But I can confirm that it tasted like a parsnip and was perfectly edible!

It’s good to remember that God values us all as individuals and doesn’t make us conform to a particular mould. J. B. Phillips paraphrases Rom 12:2 in this way: ‘Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.‘

There is room in God’s kingdom for all kinds of people, all different personalities, shapes, sizes and giftings. We may look askance at some people because they look ‘different’ or because they act in ways we personally don’t understand, but God has put each part of the body where He wants it (1 Cor 12:18). Let’s be welcoming to all and considerate of all.

We had another August birthday to celebrate last night!

Mark spoke tonight on ‘TETIC’ – ‘taking every thought into captivity’, based on 2 Cor 10:5. This way of thinking can transform how we live and needs to be applied to every area of our lives (friendships, marriage, work life, home life, spiritual life.) It’s easy for us to be distracted in our thoughts (even during church services!) and our thoughts often reveal our hearts. We need to accept that God knows all our thoughts, but our part is to exercise control over our thought life, for it is out of this that all actions spring.

God’s Word has to be the guide as to what we should think (see Phil 4:8). We have to train ourselves to think according to God’s Word, refusing to entertain thoughts which are contrary to this. Doubt and disobedience must be reined in; we have to take these thoughts captive before they can develop into stubborn disobedience and wilful rejection of God’s Word. Rom 12:1-2 reminds us that our thinking must be transformed; we must not be conformed to the world, thinking in the way that it says is acceptable. We must get rid of the old way of thinking and adapt to a new way of thinking.

Thinking is not just something theoretical that has no effect on our everyday lives. Thinking dictates how we live, what we say, what we do. It’s worthwhile to take every thought captive to Christ!

Dave spoke this morning on gentleness and self-control, two of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23). The word translated ‘gentleness’ is from the same root as that translated ‘meek’ in Matt 5:5; meekness and gentleness are synonymous and are qualities often overlooked in a world where over-achievers and loudness tend to be noticed more.

Jesus’ words that the meek will inherit the earth often seem incongruous, because meekness is, for so many, equated with weakness: it’s seen as being spineless, gutless, ‘as meek as a mouse.’ Meekness is, however, ‘strength under control’, and we need to see the connection beteween gentleness and self-control if we are to cultivate these fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

1. Be understanding and not demanding to those who serve us. (Phil 2:4-5) So often, we can be rude and demanding to those we meet in our daily lives (waitresses, receptionists, shop assistants, cashiers etc.) Gentleness helps us to deal with people as individuals, forcing our egos out of the way.
2. Be gentle, not judgmental, with people when they let us down. (Rom 14:1) Some of Jesus’s harshest words were for those who were self-righteous and judgmental. Forgiveness and kindness are qualities we need to show others, for there will be many occasions when we need these qualities to be shown to us!
3. Be tender without surrender with those who disagree with us. How we handle those who irritate us and rub us up matters enormously. We can either retreat in fear, attack in anger or respond in love. Prov 15:1 reminds us that a gentle answer turns away wrather; Js 3:16-17 reminds us of the importance of our speech in dealing with people. We have to learn to walk hand in hand with people even when we don’t see eye to eye. 2 Tim 2:24-25 reminds us that spiritual leaders must not be quarrelsome but must learn to gently instruct those who disagree, giving God room to work in these situations. This is good advice for us all!
4. Be teachable, not unteachable, when we are corrected. Meek people aren’t know-it-alls; they are quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. (Js 1:19) We need to be willing to learn from everyone, valuing and appreciating our differences.
5. Be someone who ‘acts’ rather than ‘reacts’ when you are hurt. Rom 12:12 reminds us that retaliation is not God’s way. Prov 16:32 reminds us that a man who controls his temper is better than one who takes a city. So often, we talk about people ‘making’ us do things, but we have to learn that we have the power to choose how we act rather than always reacting to others. God has given us a spirit of power, love and self-discipline (2 Tim 1:7); the patterns of reacitng in the same old way we always have can be broken by God’s Spirit, so that we have the power to react in love. Jesus shows us this example by praying for forgiveness for those whose actions had led to His crucifixion; He was not flustered by the situation but showed gentleness and self-control even in the midst of great suffering.