In 1961, Rev Arnold Walker, a Methodist minister based in Pietermaritzburg, wanted to help his congregation by encouraging them in the midst of the challenges of every day life. So, he began to produce a little booklet of daily devotions for them, with each day including a Bible passage, a prayer and a practical word for the day. Over 60 years later, Faith for Daily Living is read by some 150 000 people in 80 countries worldwide
I overhead a conversation in the office this week: a lady came in to say thank you for letting her organisation use one of our rooms for a meeting. She said it was the first time she had been here, but she was blown away by all the facilities we have at WMC. She's right! We have often commented on this incredible space that our church calls home and the opportunities it creates for us to connect with our wider community.
Our Exec meeting this week began with a time of prayer for our church. Often the opening prayer of a meeting is brief so that we can then dive into the agenda, but this week, it was good to spend longer listening, giving thanks, and asking for God's help and direction. There followed a conversation on our collective longing to be a more prayerful people. It's not a peripheral issue - the journey of prayer is in many ways at the very heart of the journey of discipleship. For my part, I came away challenged to be more intentional during Sunday services to invite our people to participate (in a non-threatening way) in the work of prayer, so that we don't just end up spectating while the preacher prays on our behalf!
We have a sad moment coming up at the end of this year as Laura Heale leaves us in December after over 16 years working in the WMC office. Laura and Alan are relocating to the UK early next year and so, with all the sad goodbyes comes the excitement of new adventures for their family, and especially the joy of being close to their two children who are both based in Europe.
Our discipleship commission met this week and much of our conversation centred on life-changing small groups. All of us in the meeting had experiences to share of learning and growing and being cared for in these amazing little communities that for centuries have been the engine of growth and maturity in the Church.
You have heard me quote Trevor Hudson's observation that every person we meet stands beside "a pool of tears". Every person you will ever encounter - including people who seem to have it altogether - has known sorrow and has been wounded by their pain.
Our family attended a celebratory service last Sunday at Umhlali Methodist to mark the centenary of their church building (Kym and I served the Umhlali community for ten years before moving here). It was lovely reconnecting with people and a reminder of how important it is to make the effort to mark and celebrate key days like this. Rev Mark Wiemers (who many of you will know from his time here) invited us and several other past ministers to be a part of the service.
I had a meeting this week with the regional representative of a global missionary organisation. Henry works with Operation Mobilisation and his passion for people groups around the world who have had little or no exposure to the gospel of Jesus was a helpful reminder for me that there is more to the Church than just our pressing local concerns.
Margaret Silf tells the story of attending a welcome service for a new vicar in an Anglican church. After the service, everyone was helping themselves to food spread out on tables in the hall. The food was getting polished off at high speed, except for one bowl which remained completely untried. The bowl contained a delicious looking rice salad, but it was being ignored and stood untouched at the end of the feast. Silf wondered why this was (and felt terrible for the person who had brought it!) Then she saw what the problem was - the salad didn't have a serving spoon - there was no way for people to serve themselves a helping.
We are starting a short sermon series this week that will dip into the book of Revelation, specifically the letters written to the seven churches in Asia. As we started preparing for this first week in the series, someone asked the question, "if God were to write a letter to Westville Methodist Church, what would He say?" Brilliant question!