Minister’s Letter – May 2017

“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

(Revelation 2:7, 11, 17 & 29; 3:6, 13 & 22 NIVUK)

As you can see from the number of verse references, this verse appears in all the letters to the churches in Revelation.

It is a call from Jesus to each church to hear what it is He has to say to them. This is, of course, different depending on the circumstances of each church. We began exploring each of these letters at the end of April, so in our Sunday worship, we will learn exactly what Jesus said to each church, and why He said it.

As God’s church in the present, we don’t have specific letters written to us, telling us exactly what Jesus would say to us. That’s part of the reason we need to look back to God’s Word: by studying and applying Scripture, we get a sense of what Jesus would say to us today.

I would, however, suggest that Jesus does still speak specifically to His people today, through the power and prompting of the Holy Spirit (although, any personal message from God should be measured against His message in Scripture, because sometimes we can make mistakes! God would not call us to do something which contradicts Scripture, for example).

We have been listening to what the Spirit is saying to our church for the past 6 months, and I think we are making progress! There is a sense that God’s Spirit has been leading our church in a direction which requires us to be more missional in our outlook and ministry.

What does being “more missional” look like? Well, that’s the challenge for the next 6 months: we need to keep listening for what the Spirit is saying to our church, and trust He will lead us to the kind of ministry we need to exercise, in order for our church to flourish for God.

There are exciting times ahead: so, let’s keep listening!

God bless you,

Stuart