Blog
St Catherine of Sienna once heard God say to her that she was to "walk with two feet; love of God and love of all that God loves". Similarly, John Wesley said that if we want to grow in grace and maturity, we need to practice acts of piety (devotion to God) and acts of mercy (love of neighbour). We need both - we can walk on one foot, but two is much better if we want to get anywhere!
Our district synod met this week and over the course of three days together, we heard many accounts of struggle and brokenness from our people as we acknowledged the challenges presently facing the Methodist Church. At many levels we are in a difficult place - showing signs of decline in numbers, finances and impact across our District.
Members from churches all around Westville gathered together at Home Ground Church this week to pray for our community. There is something so healthy about Christians being together in prayer, notwithstanding our differences in tradition, practice and belief. As the psalmist says, "How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along! It’s like the dew on Mount Hermon flowing down the slopes of Zion. Yes, that’s where God commands the blessing!" (Ps 133:1,3 MSG)
At our leaders meeting this week we reflected on the picture of the early church in Acts 2:42ff - a community who built relationships by eating together and meeting regularly for worship and prayer. There is something deeply attractive about that picture and it is no surprise to read at the end of that passage that "every day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved."
We have been in conversation recently with a company who provide mentoring and training for students in the built environment (ie: engineers, land surveyors, contract managers etc). These students are required to do periods of in-service training as part of their academic qualifications. Most of that training happens on construction sites but there are also blocks of classroom time and we have been approached to be a site for that classroom training.
Charles Wesley wrote this hymn in the late 1730's to express our hope and joy on Easter Sunday. To give you an idea of his passion for the subject, the original hymn contains 11 verses! Notice how the followers of Jesus are caught up in the resurrection of Christ in verse 4 - this is Jesus' story, but it is also ours.
In the penultimate session of our course this week we heard the encouraging truth that, notwithstanding our bad experiences with New Years Resolutions :), it is absolutely possible for God to renew and change us. We need not be stuck - we can be changed!
How long have you been a part of the Westville Methodist community? I've been here just over three years and feel very much at home :) But this weekend marks an amazing milestone for our caretaker, Samson Shezi, who has now worked at WMC for 40 years!
"God created people in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27)
Author and pastor A W Tozer once made the bold claim that the "most important thing about us is what comes into our mind when we think about God". Why? Well, as we learned in our Lent course session this week, we become like the God we worship. In other words, if our picture of God is warped - if we see God as angry, neglectful or disinterested - this will directly shape what kind of people we become. Our Lent course is focused on spiritual formation - being intentional about our role in the process of becoming like the God we worship.