Church

Sometimes words can mean different things to different people. Church is one such word.

Just a few days ago now we issued a press release explaining that our St Johns Church in Stone had taken the decision to put its premises up for sale. Though there is deep sadness because there are so many memories tied up in those bricks and mortar, there is also a real sense of relief and excitement.

We know that God is with us and is leading us to a place where we will be able at last to live out our Christian faith without feeling like we are using all our energy to prop up a building that is beyond economic repair; a building which will never be able to meet our needs for this and future generations.

You see we know that Church premises are there only to serve the purpose of the Church, and when they stop doing that and become a huge obstacle to us being Church we know the time has come to move away.

The problem with this word Church is that we use it to describe the people of God while others think it only means the building!

One person came to me having heard our news and said they were very sad that St John’s Church was closing down; I tried to explain that we were moving not closing but I am not sure they understood because for them this word Church was tied so completely to one suite of buildings.

St John’s you see is not closing it is growing!  We are seeing new people come and join us, our worship is vibrant, our fellowship alive, caring and loving, our passion for Jesus and our community burning strong.

For us Church is not a building or tradition or music or leadership, though all of those can be good things, but you could take all of them away and Church will still be there; Church is the people of God gathered in His name to worship and seeking to live out His life in the world.

At St Johns we are following in the footsteps of all of God’s pilgrim people, called to leave behind that which might hold us back and press on towards the goal.

God has a mission for us at St Johns and I know that He does for all of you reading this now in your various communities. It is a simple yet vital plan, to plug into what God is doing in a Church community, to be part of a small group where your faith will grow, and then to live out that faith with your passions and gifts driving you on as you share your faith and live for God. Our communities need us to take seriously that calling, when we do we really are being Church.

I wish everyone could see St Johns in the way we do – not as a town landmark, or a Church building with a history, but as a vibrant growing fellowship with a future because we travelling on this pilgrim journey with a mission from God!

St Johns Newsletter March 2012

During Lent we focus our minds on the journey Jesus made through his ministry towards the cross and eventually the empty tomb of Easter. It is a journey that begins on Ash Wednesday where we confess that we fail and fall short and that we rely completely upon God's grace. That humility is a prerequisite for true faith; you cannot believe you know everything about God and still worship Him, if you could that would make you by definition bigger than God which wont do at all!

Humility and openness to new revelation was sorely lacking amongst most of the religious people in Jesus day. They thought they had their knowledge of who God was and what He was like all nailed down. They knew quite clearly whose side God was on and who He rejected. 

So when Jesus came along and ate with sinners and called tax collectors to follow Him and embraced lepers and welcomed women with questionable pasts to touch Him they didnt know what to do with Him. His behaviour and ministry challenged their assumptions about God's character and love, and He was rejected as mad bad and dangerous to know. 

Today we live in the light of God's revelation of grace and love in and through Jesus; we know that God has revealed that none are beyond the scope of His redemptive love, but please lets not get to think we have all the information we need to understand God. That of course is exactly the sin of those religious folk that first Easter time, who rejected God in Jesus because He didnt look or sound anything like they thought God should. 

In our Lent course looking at Julian of Norwich we have been challenged to think more deeply about the nature of this God who constantly is at work amongst us. We have thought long and hard about how little we truly can ever understand or nail down about the nature of this God who creates women and men in His image. We have recognised that all the titles we use to describe God are limited and in a way unsatisfactory.  

So lets continue to be stretched and challenged; please allow God to constantly be about His business of recreation and revelation within you, or else you too will fall away from the new thing God might need to be doing in your life just like those religious folk were when Jesus came. 

God bless you this Easter time

Revd Neil

New Mission Statement for St John's Stone

Sharing the love of Jesus

Shaped by God’s presence

Making a difference in our community

We believe God’s undeserved favour and love has been poured out on us and our world; so we want to share that love with those we meet.  

We seek to see our lives shaped by God’s Spirit so that we grow in faith hope and love; so we meet regularly to share our lives with one another.

We know God cares for our neighbourhood and especially that His heart is for families, the poor, widowed, lonely and the bereaved; so our premises are here for our community not just us.

St John’s Stone is a United Church which shares the values and traditions of our parent denominations (Methodist and United Reformed Churches).

Our worship is broadly informal, often led by lay people and usually has those of all ages present.

Our Church government and organisational structures reflect those found in our parent denominations.

Mission Statement

St John’s Church Stone

26^th September 2011