In recent weeks, God has been speaking to us as a church about His plans for moving and doing a new thing and about the need for growth and development in the church. With this growing anticipation have come frustrations and opposition: the church building was broken into recently and some equipment stolen; the boiler for the main room failed last week as we were about to host a funeral; the roof has developed a leak. It’s easy to be distracted by these practical things from the primary task we have of preaching the Gospel, but we need to avoid complacency and remain focussed on seeking God and finding out what we need to do to ensure that God’s church grows.

Jesus’s ministry shows us that He attracted crowds, that people flocked to listen to Him, even travelling great distances to hear Him. Dave looked at some of the reasons for the success of His ministry:

1) He loved people
Jesus loved spending time with ordinary people; he was known as the ‘friend of sinners’, which infuriated the religious people of His day. We need the same passion for the lost that Jesus had. 1 John 4:8 reminds us that God is love and that our love for God is shown in our love for people. Love needs to be reaching out to others, not just comfortable with fellow believers. We need to be hospitable to visitors and strangers (see Heb 13:2) and understand that ‘growing curches love and loving churches grow.’

Love is not just a feeling. It is behaviour. Our behaviour towards people who come into church needs to be welcoming, accepting and caring. Acceptance is not the same as approval, but we need to understand that it is unreasonable to expect those who do not yet believe in Christ to act like believers until they actually become believers! When we truly welcome and accept people into our midst as Jesus did, then we create an atmosphere of love in which God becomes visible to people.

2) He met their needs
Jesus is seen in the Gospels meeting people’s needs, whether these needs were physical, emotional, spiritual or financial. Jesus often asked people ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ It does not really matter why people come to Christ, we are thankful when they do! At our church, our desire to meet local needs has resulted in the Mother ‘n’ Toddler group, in the coffee morning and in the youth group, for example: community outreaches which may not seem directly spiritual, but which allow us to get to know people we might not otherwise meet and which allow us to provide a service for those who need company and help.

3) He taught people in an interesting and practical way.
Jesus often used parables to teach people, teaching deep truths in a simple manner. He responded to questions, often using examples from everyday life to illustrate His answers. He taught ‘according to their needs’ (see Eph 4:29). His intention was to transform, not inform.

Dave challenged us to avoid ‘churchy’ language and to prepare ourselves for sharing the Gospel by writing out an explanation of the Gospel, including a ‘sinner’s prayer’ which avoided language which would not readily be understood by someone who does not regularly attend church.

How do we learn from the example of Jesus, therefore? Dave urged us to ask God (see James 4:2) – to ask God to give us His love for people, to ask God to give us strategies for meeting people’s needs and to give us the words to use to teach people in interesting and practical, relevant ways. What part will you play? Will YOU serve the Lord?

We have a new birthday hat!

A birthday hat is nothing without people, however, so it was good to celebrate two birthdays (with two hats!) yesterday:

Stephen spoke about courage this morning. The lion in the ‘Wizard of Oz’ lacked courage; he wasn’t at all brave or fearsome like we would expect a lion to be, but was little more than a pussycat! For him, courage was ‘over the rainbow’, something in the distant future.

In the Bible, some characters seem very courageous (think of David, the little lad, taking on the big giant, Goliath). Others don’t seem very brave at all (think of Jonah, who preferred to turn tail and run in the opposite direction when facing something daunting.) Nonetheless, courage can be found and is available to us because God is always with us.

Genesis 26:24 says ‘Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant, Abraham.’ Ultimately, it is God’s presence with us that is the source of our courage. Joshua was told ‘Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Josh 1:9) God is with us ‘wherever we go’. Because of this we can do amazing things (Ps 18:29), such as scaling a wall or advancing against the enemy! Life situations may vary, but God’s help is versatile, able to reach into whatever situations we may face.

Psalm 46:1 tells us that ‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble’. Whatever befalls us and comes against us will not prevail (see Is 54:7), because we can call on God – a God who is near, not distant, one who is willing to help us in all circumstances.

A special night of worship is being held on Saturday 1st December at 7.30 p.m. at the Chantry Chapel (off St Mary in the Bridge) in Wakefield. This is called ‘There Is A Light’ and is intended to be a prophetic statement about Jesus being the Light of the world. Many of you will remember Ant and Sarah Lee who were with us in Goldthorpe while Ant was a student at Mattersey Bible College. They will be leading this worship night and we are all invited to join in!

We are also involved in a joint churches’ carol service on Friday 21st December at 7 p.m. Local churches in Goldthorpe will be joining together to celebrate Christ outdoors (the service will be held, weather permitting, in the grounds of Goldthorpe Parish Church on Lockwood Road). Do come along and join in this service – children from local schools will also be joining us for this occasion.

Our own carol service will be held at church on Sunday 23rd December, starting at 6 p.m. That will be a mix of the traditional and the not-so-traditional and will definitely be an interactive service!

This is a tremendous time to speak to our friends, colleagues and neighbours of the ‘reason for the season’ and we would encourage you to invite people to these services and to make every effort to attend local services where we can join together in lifting up Jesus Christ.

Last Sunday we had a belated birthday to celebrate!

What does making ropes have to do with waiting?

Well, when researching the sermon on waiting, I came across an interesting fact. The Hebrew word often translated ‘wait upon’ is ‘qavah’. It is also often translated as ‘hope.’ In Isaiah 40:31, for example, in the KJV it is translated ‘those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength’ and in the NIV as ‘those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.’

‘Qavah’ is from a root meaning to bind together strands as in making a rope. One of my favourite places is the ropemakers’ shop, Outhwaites, in Hawes.

They have been ropemakers in this lovely village since 1725 and you can learn about the history of ropemaking there, as well as see how ropes are made nowadays. In the past, though, making ropes was a long and painstaking process that took time, with all the individual strands having to be bound together to make a strong rope – such as is used in bell-ringing. Individual threads were twisted together on a hand-powered machine which resembled a large spinning wheel. It’s not difficult to see how this job took time and couldn’t be rushed and how the Hebrew word, therefore, came to have secondary meanings such as “look patiently”, “tarry or wait,” and “hope, expect, look eagerly” – hence the different translations in our Bibles.