As we reach the end of another year, not only do we look back retrospectively, assessing all we have experienced and learnt in that year, we also look forward with anticipation to what God is going to do in the New Year. Dave was talking about this in the prayer meeting last night: how we combine hindsight with faith to look forward to what God is going to do. Isaiah’s words always seem very relevant at this time of year: ‘See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland’ (Is 43:19 TNIV – perhaps even more in the context of winter, for we see desolation and barrenness all around us in the natural world but by faith we look forward to spring and the new life that brings. As Matt Redman sings:

‘Just like the desert needs the blessing of the rain
Just like the winter, waiting for the sun again
I need you now
Just like a river as it reaches for the sea
Just like a song, it needs the sound of melody
I need you now.’ (‘I Need You Now’, Matt Redman)
‘I Need You Now’, Matt Redman

So, what is ahead in the New Year? Well, we start, as always, with the New Year’s Day party at 4 p.m., an opportunity for fun, fellowship, food and silly party games. It’s a great opportunity to bring friends who might be wary about attending church. Everything is very low key and informal and it’s great to be able to ‘catch up’ with our wider circle of family and friends. All are welcome.

On Saturday 4th January, we will be formally recognising the change of leadership. The church will be open for its first coffee morning of 2014 as usual (10 a.m. until 12 noon) and then will stay open for prayer from 12-4 p.m. This is not a fixed meeting as such, more of an informal drop-in where members can come and pray for the leadership and for the future, for God to pour out His Spirit on us and give us the direction, strengthening, vision and wisdom which we need. Without Him we can do nothing; with Him, the sky’s the limit! Come along for whatever time you can spare; it’s vital that in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we take time whenever possible to seek God’s face and to set apart time for Him.

The celebration service will start at 6 p.m., but come early to get a seat! We are expecting friends from far and wide to attend, so this will be a great way to start the year. It is good to recognise all Mark and Diane have given to the church and to thank them formally for their leadership as their roles change. It is also good to formally recognise Garry and Julie as new leaders and to pray for all involved in the church.

Other changes on the horizon include further building developments as we install a custom-made notice board in the foyer area (bearing all those wonderful team photos taken the other Sunday evening!) and as we wait for the new gas meter to be fitted (a task that is proving more strenuous than originally anticipated!) The notice board not only will proclaim God’s light shining invincibly in the darkness (John 1:5 TNIV) but also gives some indication of how we see ourselves: ‘With God in the community, with God for the community.’ We are definitely glad to be ‘Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church’ and look for that community development to continue in 2014.

The other big thing on the horizon is the church’s Big Birthday Bash! 2014 is the 50th anniversary of the church moving into premises in Goldthorpe; Beever Street became its first home in 1964. To celebrate God’s faithfulness over these 50 years, we are holding a special celebration weekend of events on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th June. Keep those dates free as we are hoping to hold a community day on the Saturday (10 a.m. until 2 p.m.) with an evening meeting and special meetings on the Sunday.

So let’s look ahead to the future with confidence and faith in God, for He never changes and never leaves us or forsakes us!

At the end of every year, I usually get a selection of photos printed off to go in the church’s photo album (one of our ‘archives’ or means of keeping records.) It is always interesting to go through the collection of photos from the previous twelve months and see what the church has been up to!

January started with a month of prayer and fasting and a series of prayer walks every Saturday. The walks around Goldthorpe resulted in photographs being displayed in church and a prayer map being constructed so that we can continue to visualise where the places are for which we are praying. The prayer map was also used to record the topics for prayer throughout the year and prayer requests have been pinned to this throughout the year.

Each month we have prayed for a different topic, including healing, political influence, schools, churches, regeneration and boldness. In our last service of the year on 29th January we will be hearing testimonies of how God has answered prayer throughout the year and recording these answers on the prayer map.

Each month we have also been involved with a family service on the first Sunday evening of the month. Themes this year have been:
1) Spiritual clothing (robes of righteousness and garments of salvation)
2) Never been unloved
3) The Valley of Dry Bones
4) Faith, Hope & Love
5) Cool or Fool?
6) Chains
7) Healing
8) Home & Away
9) Harvest
10) Passing on the baton
11) All Things Work Together for Good
12) Time Travel: Jesus, the Lord of Time

We have had a whole range of games and quizzes to test our skills on these themes! The upside down skeletons in March were particular favourites of mine:

Packing suitcases, racing with batons, wordsearches on ice-creams and difficult quizzes on time travel films have all featured in these services which are great fun.

The outreaches of the church continue to flourish, with the children’s work on Monday nights being attended by up to 60 children a night! Not surprisingly, the sound-proofing on the community room has been really appreciated by all the children’s workers as it reduces the shrillness of all those yelling voices. The Parent & Toddler group also continues to flourish and the coffee mornings are steadily busy each week, with market stall holders appreciative of the hot drinks taken to them in this weather! Those who like to keep fit also regularly play badminton on Friday evenings: a good time of fellowship as well as of exercise!

The food distribution work and alliance with the Salvation Army church continues to flourish, though it is sad that there is such a need for this work. The boxes never seem to be empty, testimony of God’s overflowing provision:

We are grateful for Mark and Debbie for all their coordination of this work and to all who give so generously, especially this month with the sponsored half-beard project!

Midweek meetings continue to alternate between Bible studies and prayer meetings. We finished studying the book of James and looked at various topics (including the renewal of our thinking) before starting on our most recent study of 1 John. It is good to dig deeper into God’s Word and to have the opportunity to pray collectively on a regular basis.

Mundane though it may seem, keeping up with refurbishment and repairs continues to take time, thought and effort. The kitchen has been completely refurbished this year and the new boiler and cooker are particularly useful. We are in the process of upgrading the second boiler, having had a new boiler for the Worship Room fitted and re-housed. New blinds in the Community Hall and the kitchen help to keep heating costs down.

Most exciting of all to see – but much less easy to quantify – is the spiritual growth within individual members of the church as they have sought God and taken steps of faith into new ministries and new adventures. Change is around the corner with Mark’s resignation as pastor taking effect from the New Year, but we are confident that the God who does not change will guide us and lead us through all changes and will continue to pour out His Spirit on each one of us, for He is faithful to do all He has promised.

I doubt we can do it quite like this, but ‘Sing and Shout’ is definitely something we want to do at Goldthorpe! (I love all the drums…!) Matt Redman and Christy Nockels (both on the video) will be in Bradford on Wednesday 26th February as part of the ‘Big Church Night In’ tour. Tickets are still available here.
‘Sing and Shout’ live, Matt Redman

One of the most striking things I have learnt this year is the connection between the visible and the invisible and how, by faith, the invisible actually becomes visible. This was articulated for me in the Aaron Shust song ‘Rushing Waters’ where he sings ‘There’s only one desire in the heart of Your redeemed, to step deeper in the place where earth and heaven meet.’ There is so much which goes on in the spiritual realm of which we are largely unaware, but we need our spiritual eyes opening to see all that God is doing ‘behind-the-scenes’, so to speak.

In the book ‘Unveiled Hope’ which accompanies the album of the same name, Michael Card writes with Scotty Smith about the ‘unveiled hope’ revealed in this last book of the Bible. Revelation is a difficult book to fathom and often leaves us more baffled than ever when we reach the end of it. There can be so many eschatological interpretations of it that we feel bogged down in theory and can end up feeling fearful of these ‘end times’ which seem so dramatic and terrifying. The book starts with the premise that Revelation is a view of the Christian life from God’s perspective. I am convinced we need God’s perspective on things to survive in this confusing and often frightening world.

In the book, we read ‘God has utterly convinced me of the necessity, freedom, and joy of an ongoing surrender to His vantage point and purposes.’ (‘Unveiled Hope’, P 149) In Revelation 12-14, it is as if God pushes back the curtains of human history and lets us peer backstage to know what is really going on behind the scenes. The backstage glimpse into human history is not meant to spoil the show, but to give us ‘hope as we assume our role in His sovereign plans and purposes.’ (ibid. P 150)

Revelation 12 has three main characters: the dragon, the Son and the woman (understood generally to represent not only Mary but the church, the people of God throughout history.) ‘The entire period between the two comings of Christ will be full of conflict in an evil world. But God will protect and provide for His people and safeguard them against all ultimate harm.’ (ibid. P 152)

The imagery in Revelation 12 is of a ‘war in heaven’, representing Satan’s hatred of God and His purposes. The dragon and his allies are not strong enough, however, to prevail against the host of heaven. Satan was hurled down by King Jesus and he, along with the angels who followed him, is en route to eternal fire. (see Luke 10: 17 TNIV, John 12:31 TNIV, Matt 25:41 TNIV, Rev 20:10 TNIV).

Satan does not go down without a fight, represented here by the dragon’s tail swinging wildly and destructively for he is enraged. (Rev 12:17 TNIV) Having failed to destroy Jesus, his wrath is now turned towards those whom Jesus loves – God’s people. Though we have been warned to expect trouble in this world (John 16:33 TNIV), Jesus reminds us of His triumph and we can be confident He will never leave us or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5 TNIV) Such promises allow us to see with unveiled eyes the hope to which He has called us and the ultimate victory He has gained. Christmas truly is a time for rejoicing, for we have a Saviour who has defeated the dragon and God’s people will triumph by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. (Rev 12:11 TNIV)

I might never have seen a dragon in a nativity play (and am seriously considering remedying that myself for next year!), but I know a song based on Revelation 12 which will have to do for now! This one is from Michael Card’s album ‘Unveiled Hope’ which is based on a study of the whole book of Revelation. Obviously the apocalyptic imagery and use of metaphor in this book is fertile soil for the creative artist, as this song and the pictures below show.

‘A vile, enormous dragon
With heads and horns and crowns
And a tail that swept the stars from heaven
And cruelly cast them down
He lurked before the woman about to bear her Son
The One who’ll rule the nations with a rod of iron

Rejoice then, oh ye heavens
But woe to the earth and sky
For he is filled, filled with fury
He knows his time is brief
Cause he knows his time is brief.’ (‘The Dragon’, Michael Card)
‘The Dragon’, Michael Card

Christmas seems inevitably associated in our minds with small children, usually influenced as we are in the UK by pupils of primary school age ‘doing the Nativity’ in school plays. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this and it is indeed wonderful to see the Christmas story re-enacted in this way, even if there is something faintly incongruous about the make-do costumes created from curtains and haloes made from tinsel. The buzz of excitement as children learn lines and sing songs; the many frustrations of teachers (captured in the film ‘Nativity’!) as they try to direct a production that has a role for everyone; the tear-jerking moments as the simplicity of the Christmas message is conveyed with innocence and faith are all wonderful to behold. I was fortunate to witness such a production yesterday: entitled ‘The Midwife Crisis‘, the play looked at the story from the perspective of a busy midwife trying to help at the birth of a king but being misguided enough to think that that would be at Bethlehem Palace, only to discover that there was no such place and the baby Jesus was born in a stable. As the midwife held the baby at the end, the play closed with the lines ‘I thought this baby needed me, but now I realise I need Him’ which conveyed the whole point of Christmas – our desperate need for a Saviour – so clearly.

Yet tucked away at the end of the Bible in Revelation 12, we see Christmas from a more cosmic perspective. Here, the main characters are a dragon, a woman and a child. I’ve never seen a Christmas production yet which featured the dragon!

Commentators generally believe the dragon represents Satan and this chapter shows the angelic battle to prevent the arrival of the Saviour on earth. Revelation is famous for its allegory and symbolic nature, but certainly, Christmas is a story played out on two levels: the natural and the supernatural; the visible and the invisible. Angels appear frequently in this story, appearing with dazzling brightness and ultimately bringing life-changing messages to people, be they Mary or Joseph, wise men or shepherds. The obscurity and the insignificance of the stable at Bethlehem are one obviously unexpected twist in the story, but Revelation 12 gives us a glimpse into the cosmic scale that is also involved. This plan of salvation would ruin the devil’s plans; the prophecy in Genesis 3 would be fulfilled; the serpent’s head would be crushed.

Our challenge is to integrate these two aspects of the story, to understand that our lives are not simply the random, insignificant event that we often see from the natural perspective but are part of God’s eternal plans. We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world and are destined to be with Him for ever (see Eph 1.) May we grasp both the humility and grandeur of this Christmas story as we reflect on the birth of our wonderful Saviour!