Newsletter
BLACKHEATH AND HALESOWEN CIRCUIT
NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2021
Title: Being Catalysts of transformation in God’s Mission
The challenges of the current pandemic have shaken the very core of our social, political, and economic system, unseated bold convictions, shattered hopes and dreams and overturned many of our comfortable illusions.
What should be the church’s missional response to these unprecedented challenges in these unpredictable times? Is there a divine protocol, a roadmap, to enable us to navigate this crisis and to effectively engage with our people spiritually and culturally and to emerge from this crisis as agents of change and transformation?
In response to the great challenges of our time, the church needs to adopt a leadership posture of vision, spiritual fortitude, empathy, and a commitment to robust, practical, and deeply sensitive pastoral care for our people. We need to show the character of our faith and thus prove the faithfulness of our covenant keeping who keeps his promises. Further, we need to demonstrate an acumen and ability of managing well in a crisis and to resist being drawn into a culture of fear, panic, and crisis management. We need faith for the present and the future.
In response to the crisis and challenges of our time, God is calling his people to act as catalysts to mobilize the Body of Christ to bless the nations through the transformation of churches, culture, and people. It is time for the church to see herself as a midwife of change in the emerging epoch and to see its mission imperative as a multigenerational engagement of transformation in all spheres of our social, cultural, and national life.
This is consistent with the model prayer that Jesus prayed, “Your kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt.6:10). And thus it become necessary as followers of Christ not only to pray this prayer but to “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Matt.6:33a). It is in seeking the Kingdom of God that we will experience personal and cultural transformation as we pursue Missio Dei – the Mission of God.
While mission is what God does, missions consist of the activity that the church does in the community where it is found in obedience to God the founder of mission. David Bosch, the influential missiologist said, “Mission is a movement from God to the world; the Church is viewed as an instrument for that mission. There is a Church because there is mission, not vice versa. To participate in mission is to participate in the movement of God’s love toward people…” We need to recapture that vision of the church as a movement of God’s people on mission in response to his call to serve the world that he has created and loves. As Bosch further elucidates, “God is a fountain of sending love. This is the deepest source of mission. It is impossible to penetrate deeper still; there is mission because God loves people.”
My fervent prayer is that the church will emerge from this crisis imbued with a passion for God and a renewed vision and mandate for social and spiritual transformation. We need a clear sense of mission that is rooted in a deep love for our missionary God who sends us to be servant catalysts in his mission of transformation.
What does that transformed community and world look like? A transformed world is a place where the power, presence, and the peace of God are experienced by all. The power of God is unleashed. The peace of God rules. The presence of God fills the earth. “Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven” (Psa. 85:10-11).
How does this happen in practice in a given nation or culture? The historian Arnold Toynbee who noted that history is a vision of God on the move, articulated a number of challenge-response factors that are responsible for creating the dynamic for social-spiritual transformation. Prominent among these critical factors is what he called the catalytic or Kairos moment where challenge and opportunity becomes a divine appointment. Os Guinness describes Kairos as “The hour which is the God-given moment of destiny not to be shrunk from but seized with decisiveness, the floodtide of opportunity and demand in which the unseen waters of the future surge down to the present.”
We are living at a Kairos moment in in our history when God is raising up Christ-followers with a missional heart who will become his catalysts and tributaries of grace in communities around the world. For too long the church in the West has been shackled by a culture of maintenance instead of mission. We need to recover and restore at the heart of our discipleship and theological convictions a missional vision for the church. We have long endured a culture of decline that has made us fearful, doubtful and cynical of what we can achieve.
These are serious times which demand leaders who will lead God’s people into their Kingdom destiny, to incarnate the gospel into the cracks and crevices of our society as catalysts of transformation; leaders who will put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more towards the hope of a better future by leading the Church of God in His mission of rescuing and redeeming the world knowing that with God all things are possible.
Every blessing in Christ Jesus,
Peter & Joseph.
Central Methodist Church Hope & Fellowship Magazine.
A PDF Version can be downloaded here: CNL
“You may speak but a word to a child, and in that child there may be slumbering a noble heart which shall stir the Christian Church in years to come” – Charles Spurgeon
Weekly Reflection
What a funny couple of weeks it has been, we safely re-opened Central and it was obvious how much we had all missed and needed it. We then unfortunately have had to close again due to the new lockdown.
The lockdown worry’s me and scares me for many reasons. A lot of people myself included struggled during the first one. Our communities will no doubt be struggling yet again to remain positive and safe. This has again challenged me as to what can we do as the Church to provide hope and compassion to those who are really struggling. In a time where many of us are not leaving the home other than work or shopping, we are cut off from friends and family.
It made me think a phone call has never been more valued and pivotal than it is today, who knows ringing someone just for a chat will make a huge difference and put smiles back on peoples faces.
Stay safe and God bless
Adam Hadley
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.
What does this prayer actually mean for our daily lives?
When I needed a neighbour,
Were you there, were you there?
When I needed a neighbour, were you there?
And the creed and the colour
And the name won't matter,
Were you there?
I was hungry and thirsty,
Were you there, were you there?
I was hungry and thirsty, were you there?
And the creed and the colour
And the name won't matter,
Were you there?
I was cold, I was naked,
Were you there, were you there?
I was cold, I was naked, were you there?
And the creed and the colour
And the name won't matter,
Were you there?
When I needed a shelter
Were you there, were you there?
When I needed a shelter were you there?
And the creed and the colour
And the name won't matter,
Were you there?
When I needed a healer,
Were you there, were you there?
When I needed a healer, were you there?
And the creed and the colour
And the name won't matter,
Were you there?
Wherever you travel,
I'll be there, I'll be there.
Wherever you travel, I'll be there.
And the creed and the colour
And the name won't matter,
I'll be there.
Does this song reflect our Churches?
What is the message you take from this song?
Here’s a poem that I wrote in 2017. It is called Reach out to God
When your days are long and friends too few
Reach out to God, he’s right next to you
When your heart is heavy and life gets too much
Reach out to God for His loving touch
When there’s no one there and you feel alone
Reach out to God he’ll make you His own
When you’re feeling lost and close to tears
Reach out to God He’ll remove your fears
So, at any time, throughout your day
Reach out to God, He’s just a prayer away
Poem by Judy
Well, after cancelling our June wedding in Gretna Green and the honeymoon in Jersey, due to Coronavirus, we didn’t expect to get married until next year. But, God had other ideas. Our plans may have gone for a burton, but....His plans never fail.
We have a huge thank you to say to Joseph, without whose support, we wouldn’t have got married in our own church. Also, Sharon and Laura, two ladies from West Bromwich Registry Office, who pulled out all the stops for our interviews and necessary paperwork, to enable us to get married on Saturday 15th August 2020.
That day was fantastic! My brother Tom was able to give me away, my friend Brenda was our ring bearer and Terry’s daughter Michelle and her husband Tim were our witnesses.
Plus, we were able to have family and friends there too, so that we could share our special day with some of the people who matter to us. We couldn’t invite all of the friends that we wanted to be there, due to the restrictions, but the day went better than we could ever have hoped for.
God is good and He never lets us down and we got married on the day that HE had chosen all along.
God bless
Terry & Judith
Further information
We will continue to produce these newsletters in the hope that it unites us in fellowship and prayer. As a team we would love input from all who read this, and feel free to pass it on or let us know of people who would like it and we will gladly facilitate that.
If anyone would like to submit anything to the next newsletters, please email us –
Adamldhadley@gmail.com or Tony.frate@bip.co.uk
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