Monthly Message from Rev Ben Haslam

Friends

I heard a saying recently which caught my attention and is still reverberating around my head. It was this: “Don’t pray that God will bless what you are doing. Pray instead to be a part of what God is blessing”. Such apt words for the present time, a time when the country is cautiously edging its way towards the lifting of all restrictions and we in the Church look forward to being able to sing again! Many are asking whether churches should just go back to being exactly what they were before the pandemic, or whether this might be an opportunity to do things differently. I have a couple of thoughts on this. Firstly, there are risks involved in seizing this opportunity to ‘do things differently’. We can simply end up pursuing our own agenda, or a passing fad, rather than genuinely seeking where God might be leading us. This leads me to my second thought, which in turn brings us back to the quote I started with. Perhaps this is a good time to make a priority of what was lacking in the life of the Church generally, namely a genuine and radical seeking after God, inviting the Holy Spirit to lead us forward whilst placing our gifts and graces at His disposal.

We can all too easily treat God like a member of the Royal Family, inviting Him to ‘cut the ribbon’ on our own projects and ideas. In other words, we decide what we are going to do, then we ask God to bless it. What if we instead made spiritual discernment an integral part of our life together, bringing our church constantly before God, with the words ‘Thy will be done’ always at the forefront of our minds, our hearts, and our lips? Just imagine what could happen if more and more churches took up this challenge!

God bless, Ben