Message from Tim

Working for the Kingdom

‘Jesus announced the kingdom, and it is the Church that came’ (Alfred Loisy)

If Jesus is Lord, then he calls me to a life of active service, working for his kingdom. Notice that I talk about ‘working for his kingdom’ and not ‘working for his church.’ The two are not one and the same. God’s kingdom is bigger than the church, and not everything the church does is focused on the kingdom…

Suppose we the think of the kingdom as the sphere of God’s operation, then that extends throughout the world and we, as his church, are called to be the people through whom God works in the world. Wherever we go in Jesus’ name, we are church, and whatever we do in Jesus’ name we do as church. When God works through us, as his church, in the world, then the liberating, transforming power of his kingdom is released into people’s lives. That is God’s agenda – but is it ours?

The problem with church is that gathering for worship takes a huge quantity of human resources to make it happen. Remember all those rotas? Do you miss them? Sunday mornings could be pretty labour-intensive for lots of people. That brings the attendant danger that those involved can end up feeling exhausted by the amount of emotional energy expended in ‘making church happen’. If that happens, then church on a Sunday morning runs the risk of no longer empowering people to live for God in the world, and instead becomes a drain on their resources. In that case, church effectively ceases to be an operational arm of God’s kingdom.

Perhaps we should just stop talking about ‘going to church’: the very phrase smacks of a religious observance which is an end in itself. At Easter let’s say instead that we hope to recommence ‘gathering for worship’ – God is the focal point of our gathering and he calls us together in order to send us back out again to live our lives in his service in the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. So as we gather for worship, we discover God’s life-giving presence within us and God’s life-giving power working through us.

But – let me be realistic and practical here – when we start to gather for worship again, that will still mean a lot of work for a lot of people. So let me ask you now – what is God calling you to do? What gifts has he given you that he wants you to use for him? Where and how is he calling you to serve him? Is it ‘in church’ – welcoming people of all ages to worship which glorifies God and resources and equips them to live for him at work, or at school or college, or at home? If so, now is the time to bring those gifts out of storage and dust them down ready for use, or maybe unwrap new gifts that God wants you to develop going forward. Or maybe God is calling you to ‘be church’ in the world, to use your gifts in his service for the rest of the week? If so, I hope we will see you on Sundays as well, so that God can resource you for this through our worship, and we can support and encourage you in your vocation. God wants Brighton Road to be a church where all of us together are called and equipped to live and work in partnership with each other and with him, to his praise and glory.