Church as it Should Be - but mostly isn't

Church as it Should Be

Today was interesting to say the very least. We are moving home next Wednesday so the apartment is overflowing with boxes. Large boxes, small boxes, medium sized boxes, long boxes, square boxes, boxes of all kinds. Most are full of 67 years worth of memories – most recent memories of course. So what did we do today? We went to give thanks to God of course !!

Our church did us proud. They prayed over us and a couple of people prophesied over us. We sang together and we worshipped God together. I got all un-necessary and emotional – my wife stayed calm and smiled through it all. The Lord even gave me a word for the church we are leaving. It was all a wonderful loving send off – capped by a sumptuous lunch – prepared with great love and affection by our small church family of around 35 wonderful souls.

Sad farewells and “see you again soon”s – very true as we have a new grandchild due in about 2 weeks or so we will be back sooner than most people think. We returned home overflowing with love, food, and blessings and we began to assess our church.

We have been most fortunate to have been a part of a loving, growing church. When I arrived in January 2008 there were just 6 people present. Today we had about 38 – kids were everywhere and I lost all real count. We now have a small outreach team in the town centre every Friday and Saturday night from around 9pm sometimes to about 3am. The young people are actually coming and asking them about Christianity. Some of the enquirers are perhaps the worse for a drink or three, but nevertheless most are quite serious. They had one young man last Friday enquiring because “life has to be more and better than this !!” We have other growing ministries which perhaps I’ll tell you about another time. All this from a small “alive” church of just 30-40 people.

As we analysed all this, we came to a fairly stunning conclusion of something we have actually suspected for a long time. We have grown into an outgoing, out reaching, loving church because of two reasons and one of them is Jesus. The other reason is the faith and loving obedience of our wonderful pastors. We have never experienced love like theirs in a church before. It is totally undeserved, unconditional, Christ-like love. Add to that their servant hearts and you have the earthly reason for our church being there.

At our last Christmas lunch, one lady – quite new to us then – remarked that she had never experienced such unconditional loving acceptance from every member in the church. Its true – we have never heard grumbling, or gossip, or disagreeable talk of any kind in that place. It has been the one place we could go and expect to be loved just for who we are and not because we do or bring something special to their party.

So, Pastors Richard and Joyce, we salute you and thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You are building a church of true disciples there at Calvary AoG in Woking and it is such a good place to be. We are just so sad to be leaving but, as you know, we feel God is moving us on again. God Bless you ALL – and we mean ALL of you.