Looking Back & Looking Forward
0 comments | Posted by Steven Layson on 06 Mar 2011 in From Steve's Study ::
Today is our Annual Vestry Meeting (or church AGM). It provides a perfect opportunity for us to look back at the past 12 months, to give thanks for the blessings we have received from God’s hand & to learn from the mistakes we have made. It also is a chance to look forward to the year ahead and to make plans for how we might serve Him.
Looking back, there were many things to give thanks for in 2010. Possibly the biggest change we experienced last year was in welcoming Peter and Laura Swann to our church family. It has been a great blessing to see how God has helped them to fit in to our church & the way they have both impacted the lives of individuals. The Youth ministry in 2011 (particularly amongst the years 7-9) has kicked off really well and we do look forward to seeing where God takes us in the year ahead.
One of the other successful new initiatives last year was the introduction of the Parenting and Marriage courses. All those who attended found them most helpful and I want to encourage as many as possible to get on board when they run again this year.
Once again, however, as we look back there are two areas that stand out for me as areas where we need to lift our game, and that is in prayer and evangelism. There are some things we do really well as a church, but we have always struggled to commit solid time to prayer. Perhaps this is because we are so busy “doing”, that we struggle to make time to simply “being” in God’s presence.
The other aspect of our church that could do with some “tweaking” is our evangelism. It is a great gift from God that we have so many wonderful connections in our community through school, sports groups, playgroup & through natural friendships. However, it is easy for us to become “comfortable” in these relationships and lose the urgency for these people we know and love to get to know Jesus. He is, after all, the only hope for our world & so this year, let’s consider how we can take the good news to those we meet.
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