Summer 24 Message

Dear Church Family,

 

Summer is finally here, and I don’t know about you but I need to slow down and breathe in after the busyness of the last few months. 

The Church Wardens, Will and myself met last night to touch base before we dispersed for the summer and to assure ourselves that we had preparations in place for the summer activities across the life of the church. It was good to reflect on all that God is doing in our midst. It might not seem much, but there are green shoots of God’s work across the church and community. And we give thanks to Him for that, and it spurs me on to pray that God will bring about fruit.

 

Thank you to everyone that stepped up to volunteer fo serving in various capacities on a Sunday morning. It was greatly appreciated and we find ourselves in a better place with making Sunday gatherings happen each week. There are still however some ministries/activities where we find ourselves perilously short of people to make them happen. Recognising this, and also because we want to be a church that is effective in its mission and ministry, we’ll be reviewing the various ministry activities across the life of the church, and discerning whether they are things we’re still called to do, or something that we’re called to prune back. This is always a hard process, but it is one that we see Jesus allude to in John 15 with his image of the Vine and the Branches. At the end of the day we need to prioritise where we invest our time and energy to the spaces and activities we believe God is directing us to. After this, we’ll then communicate to you all about where we need your help in delivering these essential ministries and activities.

 

Over the summer, starting this week, we’ll be gathering for a single service at 10am each Sunday. This gathering will endeavour to reflect both the 9am and 11am gathering containing elements from both. Just a reminder that this means it won’t be exactly what we personally want or like in worship, but it is about sacrificing our preferences in order to gather together and worship in unity. Hopefully we’ll all get something we like and have to endure bits that might not be to our preference.

 

On 4th August, at our Sunday gathering, we’ll be formally welcoming Megan Bishop, our new Children and School’s Minister, and commissioning her as she starts her new role with us. After the service we’ll be having a celebratory bring and share bbq at the Parish Centre. It would be fantastic to have as many of us as possible there for the morning to support Megan, Jack and Caleb as they arrive. Please do think about who else you could invite to join us as we start on this new era for us as a church.

 

Please can we ask everyone who is able, to assist with the delivery of the bbq through the contribution of food, and through helping with the practical logistics? Please do let Tina in the office know, especially if you can help with setting up, bbqing, clearing and washing up. The more of us that pitch in, the less each of us has to do, and we can then free the usual suspects up to engage with the social element rather than be stuck in the kitchen throughout.

 

We’re really excited to be welcoming Megan to be on the staff team. Whilst many of us will be excited and expectant about what she will bring, I want to sound a note of caution for us all. We will not serve her well if we place a weight of expectation on her shoulders. I fully expect her to start slowly, spending time to get to know us, build relationships with the existing teams and to prayerfully discern how God is leading her to shape the ministry to children and families within BFPC. It may be that no changes are made until 2025. And that’s okay. It’s also worth noting that Megan will be spending half her time working as a chaplain in the two primary schools. This is a great opportunity for building relationships with the majority of children in Blandford Forum, an essential element to growing this ministry, but it does mean her capacity within church will be limited. We’re looking for long term growth above immediate activity and busyness – and so I urge us all to be patient, and prayerful as we start this journey of building on the foundations of ministry to children and families from the last few years.

 

We’re excited to be running Alpha again in the Autumn. Will, Stuart and the team are making preparations as I type, and we already have a number of individuals signed up to attend. Please do be thinking and praying about who you could invite? There will be some invitations at the back of church from this Sunday, and people can sign up via www.bfpc.org.uk/alpha. In the meantime, as with everything, do be praying for this course, that we would see people open to attending, and that we would see people coming to faith and freedom in Jesus Christ.

 

As I’ve mentioned previously in these messages, we’re at a point in our growth where we’ve noticed the configuration of our church building is severely curtailing the worship, activities and ministries that we’d like to do as a church. Although we’ve seen growth in ministry to families and children, the building makes it hard for them to access worship – often pushing them to the refreshments area which can cause a disconnection with what’s happening at the front. All Together At 11 is constrained by the lack of flexible space for the various activities it involves. We’d love to run Little Peas in church and see it grow further in it’s impact. Wouldn’t it also be great to be able to host community engagement events, such as Senior’s Tea Parties, in the church building? There is so much potential in the building that could be released if we were able to reconfigure it to be more flexible in its use.

 

The PCC have agreed to press ahead with seeing what we can do with the church building to enable it’s future use and to support mission and ministry. We’re calling this initiative the “Building for the Future” project. We’ve recently appointed a new architect , St Anne’s Gate, who have considerable experience with Grade 1 listed buildings, to assist us with this. We’re also working with another firm called SNUG, to help us do some extensive and rigorous consultation with the wider public to see what their views and opinions of the building and any proposed changes might be. So in the Autumn there will be a series of events within the church community and beyond it to start the conversation of why we’re wanting to make changes to the building, what that might entail, and how people think and feel about that. The ultimate goal is to see the building’s use as a gathering place for Christian worship maintained for the next 2 and half centuries and beyond. I know that some of you will struggle with the thought of the changes we’re proposing, but we want to hear what you think, and invite you to consider what the changes may enable in the lives of those in our community and for future members of BFPC.

 

As always, everyone of you is in my prayers, and I hope that you will find time this summer to relax, to be refreshed, to connect with God, and to connect with those around you. The summer provides the perfect opportunity to have a go at Blessing and Eating. Give it a go and see what happens.

 

Blessings to you all.

 

Chris