Thoughts from last Sunday (by Seamus O’Brien)

"Our churches have be to places of welcome."

I have just come back from holiday and somebody lent me a book to read while I was away about the life of the famous evangelist George Whitefield (pictured, right).

He spent most of his life telling people about Jesus both in England and America in the early- to-mid part of the eighteenth century. What struck me about that period (nearly 300 years ago) was that you had a generation of people who had grown up who knew nothing about church or the life of Jesus. We live in similar times now, where the influence of the church on people’s lives is not as strong as it once was.

People are growing up in this country not knowing anything about the church or who Jesus was. Our challenge as a church is to present Christianity in a way that people will understand. Our churches have be to places of welcome.

Colin said on Sunday that it is very easy for Christians to become judgmental towards those who are newcomers in the Church and we try sometimes to mould them and make them like us. It is not our job to be making carbon copy Christians. Colin went on to say that it should only be the gospel itself that judges or causes people to change their lives.

I am very excited about the programme ahead, the season of praying in September and the new Eden team that will be starting in January but none of this will work unless we have a personal relationship with Jesus.

It is very easy as Christians to be busy in church with all the preparations but the most important thing is that we have a loving relationship with our Father because that is what matters.

George Whitefield had an incredible anointing and when he preached (through the power of Jesus Christ) lives were changed and people were healed. But the key to his anointing was his love for Jesus he loved to go away on his own and pray.

Waiting for the Spirit

"The modern church can easily get caught in the trap of ploughing ahead with programmes without waiting for the Holy Spirit"

We need to constantly remind ourselves about the fundamentals.

A fundamental for Christ Church Manchester is that we believe the Holy Spirit is vital to everything we do and everything that we are. In Acts 1 and 2 Jesus makes it very clear to the disciples that they need the Holy Spirit and that they must wait for the Holy Spirit before they attempt to do anything. When the Spirit turns up amazing things happen.

The events of Acts 1 and 2 are revolutionary. The Holy Spirit turned a scared, aimless and not particularly bright group of people into world changers. They started the church, saw incredible miracles, and reached Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and (eventually) the ends of the earth with the gospel.

We need to follow their example and wait for the Holy Spirit before we attempt to do anything. The modern church can easily get caught in the trap of ploughing ahead with programmes, events and strategies without waiting for the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirits prompting and anointing the church quickly becomes formulaic and irrelevant.

In short the church needs to wait for the Holy Spirit to anoint us like the disciples and then we need to follow his prompting as we try to take the gospel to Greater Manchester.

This is a brief summary of Tim Simmonds’ preach from Sunday 16 August.