Why do the Lord's Supper online

There are those of us who quite enjoy the experience of doing church online. It’s convenient, you can wear your ugg boots and trackies for example. I’ll be honest. I’m not one of them. I’m learning to make the most of it, and there are things we do as a family to make it work for us.  I’d love to hear how you are making it work. 

One of my bugbears with streamed services is the lack of participation. As an aside, this is something I and the staff team are wanting to lift where we can (through things like psalms of call and response, times of reflection and prayer in households etc). 

Some people are really not comfortable sharing the Lord’s Supper online, and I get that. One of the most convincing reasons not to do it is that in the New Testament, the Lord’s Supper is instructed for churches when they gather. You can see this in 1 Corinthians 11.17-34 where Paul uses the phrase ‘when you gather’ five times. 

However to use this as a reason not to share the Lord’s Supper online, seems to me, an argument from silence. Paul is not addressing a situation when Christian's are unable to gather because of illness, or persecution….or a pandemic. He is simply stating what any of us would - when you gather for worship and share the Lord’s Supper do it this way…

I have found that those who tend to hold this view also hold a view that the Lord’s Supper is not an essential element of Christian worship. 

For me, it comes down to two convictions. 

First, the Lord’s Supper is an important element of our worship. 

One of Jesus’ last acts before his crucifixion was to gather his disciples and institute this meal.

‘On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?” So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.” The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover….

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them.  “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Mark 14.12-16, 22-26

That the early church understood this as an institution from Jesus is seen, I think, in how Paul quotes Jesus’s words here in 1 Corinthians 11. And what is fascinating here is that Paul’s letter was probably written before the gospels. This means that there was an oral tradition of Jesus’ words (later recorded in the gospels as the generation of eyewitnesses neared death) that Paul and the early church knew and practiced when they gathered. 

Our reformed, evangelical, Anglican tradition has, for the most part, understood that the Lord’s Supper is an ordinarily essential element of corporate worship. 

John Calvin put it like this: 

Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to Christ’s institution, there, it is not to be doubted, a church of God exists

This is important, because for Calvin, and the reformers of the church, what they thought about Lord’s Supper was connected to the question ‘where is the church?’

The reformers were trying to answer the question: ‘where is a true church?’ And their answer was: where the word of God is preached and the sacraments (baptism and the Lord’s Supper) are duly administered. 

This is reflected in Article 19 of the Anglican Thirty-nine Articles of Religion:

‘The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful people, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered.’

Second, even when we’re not physically present we are still the church of God at St Paul’s Canterbury. 

We are the people of God, and we are his people gathered in Christ at St Paul’s. There is something spiritually significant about walking into the church hall on a Sunday and worshipping God together. Gathering together online just simply isn’t the same.

But it's not just that we meet in a hall together that makes us a church family. 

God has bound us together in Christ and when you chose to make St Paul’s your home you chose to be one with his people here. While we don’t have a formal membership course at St Paul’s like some churches do, if St Paul’s is your church home you are spiritually bound with his people here. The fact that we can’t meet as one family in person doesn’t change your oneness with Jesus’ people here.

Sharing the Lord’s Supper (even from our homes) is one way we express that.

Like I said at the beginning, I really don’t like doing church online….and I’m learning to make the most of it. Whatever ways I can suck some joy and authenticity out of this I will. Last year when we shared the Lord’s Supper while in lockdown was one small, but spiritually significant way I could participate in the service and remember that I’m one with Jesus and one with his people. 

A Planner's Reflection: Two sides of the same city

Sydney is a beautiful city, but its inequities run deep. The pandemic only shines a light on the deepening socio-economic divide across the city.  

In the last few weeks as Sydney deals with an ongoing lockdown, we have seen an elite private school in the Eastern Suburbs receive dispensation to take students on a trip to Kangaroo Valley and accidental vaccinations at a private school in Sydney’s lower north shore. Meanwhile, teachers in Western Sydney prepare resource packs to be sent home to families that struggle with connectivity issues and sharing devices between family members. 

We’ve also seen different narratives around responses to the outbreak of Covid in south-west Sydney, compared to those in the Eastern Suburbs or the previous Northern Beaches cluster. As one article has put it, “Rich, white, wealthy and middle-class Sydneysiders are treated with care and compassion. Multicultural and working class Sydney is a problem to be policed.” 

Sydney’s ‘latte line’ 

This divide is nothing new. It’s known as the ‘latte line’, the ‘Goats cheese line’ or the ‘Red Rooster line’. This line represents a huge socioeconomic disparity across Sydney. It’s a concept that sees a divide between things like income, housing affordability, amount of tree canopy, distance to public open space, NAPLAN and HSC results and even life expectancy. According to the economic commissioner of the Greater Sydney Commission, this line generally separates the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’. Depending on which side of the line you live on, life can look very different. 

Source: Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue

The pandemic only highlights this even more. Above the line, people are generally more likely to have access to white-collar jobs that can be undertaken from home, easy access to great open space like coastal walks and harbour parklands and be predominantly English speaking, which can make understanding health advice easier. 

Below the line, people are more likely to have blue-collar jobs which, under current restrictions, many people in South Western Sydney can’t leave their LGA for. There is less accessibility to high quality public open space. Large or multigenerational households in small apartments. Opportunities for adequate outdoor play and exercise are more limited and often just include the same small local playground. You also have single or struggling parents with no option but to rely on family members for babysitting. There are significant cultural and language barriers. Life in lockdown is complicated for the ‘have nots’ and may not be as straightforward as it might be for those above the latte line. 

Even just being able to watch Gladys at the 11am press conference, and be able to understand it, is a privilege (though, it can be confusing even for those who predominantly speak English!) 

The messaging around the current crackdown in South Western Sydney is also not the same as the messaging a few weeks ago when this all began in other parts of Sydney. This is likely to be for a number of reasons which I won’t go into, but this sadly leads to ‘othering’ and subtle (and not so subtle) opportunities for racism and classism. 

What can we do? 

From a planning perspective, there are many ways that this socio-economic divide could be addressed. Open space is a great place to start. An equitable distribution of quality, accessible and large public open space is key for planning across Greater Sydney, particularly in areas that are seeing high population growth and housing targets. Currently, open space is dealt with on a site-by-site basis, which is missing the mark. We need government intervention, consideration of open space at the zoning stage and need to ensure that future planning proposals on private and public land achieve positive long term social outcomes (Canterbury Racecourse is an example). 

What does this mean for St Pauls? 

When you look at the map above, Canterbury is right on the latte line. This presents us with some pretty unique opportunities as a church.

Our church vision, being a church for all people, comes to mind. This should include, amongst other things, the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’. 

We have an opportunity in Canterbury to live out what it looks like for all people, regardless of social or economic status, to be part of one body. We can aim to personally get to know and welcome all people, regardless of where they are from. We can get around and support those who might be struggling to make ends meet. We can share life and pray together. And when we engage in conversation around Sydney’s lockdown, we can look on Western Sydney with compassion, not judgement. 

Jesus is deeply concerned that all people hear the good news of his kingdom. Our unique geographical location is an opportunity for our church to be a true reflection of God’s diverse kingdom. 

Samantha Kruize

Sam is a member of our 5pm congregation. She has a degree in City Planning and has worked as a Planner in the public sector for the last 5 years.

A confession...

For a long time I have not been convinced that planting congregations targeting particular language groups is a good idea. In fact my thesis in my final year at theological college was an argument against such practices!

For me this has been based on two major concerns.

First, a theological concern. when I read the New Testament, increasingly I see Jesus and the Apostle’s bending over backwards to communicate that now in Christ, there is one body made up of many parts. In the last post I quoted Ephesians 2 where Paul speaks about the gospel tearing down the dividing wall of hostility that existed between two racial groups - Jews and Gentiles. This is reinforced by John’s vision in Revelation 7 of a multi-ethnic community gathered around the throne of Jesus in worship. The church, it seems to me, is called to be a foretaste of that future multi-ethnic worship service gathered around the throne of Jesus. We’ll see a glimpse of this, this coming Sunday as we look at 2 Corinthians 5.16-21. A passage that speaks of the present church in these kinds of terms.

My second major concern with this approach to church planting is a strategic concern. Congregations targeting particular language groups often are very effective at reaching first generation immigrants, but the second generation don’t identify as first generation immigrants as their parents did. They have been raised speaking both English and their heart language. I’ve found they often don’t feel entirely at home in their heart language church. By the time the third generation of immigrants come around (i.e. the grandkids of those who begin a service in a particular language group) they almost always never identify with that cultural group. They often only speak English and have very little desire to identify with their grandparents cultural group. I

In Sydney in the late 90’s and early 00’s there was a push to plant churches reaching out to the many SE Asian immigrants moving to the city. Twenty years on, many of these churches are now reporting how difficult it is to keep the emerging young adults in their churches. Many of them are leaving those home churches to join English speaking congregations, or sadly disconnecting from church all together. This is the third generation moment.

Because of these concerns, from the time we begun reaching out to the Mongolian community (in 2018) I have not been convinced that we should consider planting a Mongolian speaking service…until late 2020.

What changed for me was not my theological convictions, or my concerns about long-term strategy. I hold these perhaps stronger than ever, what changed for me was reflecting on our Anglican ecclesiology (this is going to get pretty nerdy for a little while) and how well suited it is to incorporate targeted ministry with certain parameters in place to ensure our oneness in Christ is not compromised. To put it simply, we are already one church with targeted ministry taking place. In the next post I will tease out some more detail about how we target ministry and express our oneness in christ, and our oneness as a church, St Paul’s Canterbury.

Some thoughts on multi-ethnic planting

As a church, we are fundamentally convinced that our fellowship needs to be an expression of our oneness with Christ. In Ephesians 2 Paul writes of a diverse community (Jew and Gentile) whose spiritual reconciliation with the Father, through the cross of Christ, is experienced and expressed in the oneness of the church community by the power of the Holy Spirit:

But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. 

Ephesians 2.13-18

A local newsagent stocks a range of newspapers in languages that reflect the area.

Our commitment is to express our unity in Christ despite our age, gender, or racial background. This is important theologically, for God has made one new humanity. And this is also important given our particular context. The parish of Canterbury and Hurlstone Park is one of the most culturally diverse parishes in the city of Sydney. We need to be a church for all people because all sorts of people call our parish home and the Lord Jesus has commanded us to make disciples of all people.

What this means is that we have a commitment to gathering together in multi-ethnic and multi-generational congregations. This has been our approach with both our 9.30 am and 5.00 pm congregations. Out of this desire came about our easy english service which we planted in 2020 and recently brought back to run alongside our 9.30 am service.

Because our commitment is to multi-ethnic and multi-generational congregations we think its important to have a long-term strategy of making disciples of people from different cultural backgrounds. What this looks like in practice is a particular focus on the second and third generation of immigrants. So wherever possible we want to encourage the children to gather together in shared kids and youth programs, rather than starting a separate Nepali speaking youth ministry, or a Mongolian speaking youth ministry.

However, what we’ve experienced over the last few years, particularly as we began reaching out to the Mongolian community, is the acute challenge in reaching the first generation of immigrants. Since 2018 we have had around 30 Mongolians regularly attending our services, but very few stay connected with us. There are lots of reasons why this is the case but a huge factor has been language.

Over the next few posts, I will share some more thoughts about how our thinking has developed and offer a confession of sorts…

We have a problem

Over the last week the news has shifted slightly away from COVID-19 to another crisis in America. Last week George Floyd was killed in custody. His tragic death, captured on video, has fanned a flame of protest after a number of African American people have been killed in police custody. Floyd’s death has rightly affected many people around the world. 

We are coming to the end of reconciliation week here in Australia. I didn’t realise this until earlier in the week, but reconciliation week can trace its origins back to a Christian movement of prayer for our nation. 

The 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody made 339 recommendations to the government, most of which have never been implemented. The final recommendation was this: 

Initiate a formal process of reconciliation between Aboriginal people and the wider community.

Interestingly it was a movement of Christians who picked up on this recommendation and in 1993 called for a ‘week of prayer for reconciliation’. Three years later, a wider societal movement began, National Reconciliation Week. 

The events in the US this last week have shown us two things. First, and sadly, that racial tension and injustice is a prolific problem across the globe. But secondly, it has put the spotlight on our own nation and the need to tread carefully here. Many people have condemned the crisis in the US without reflecting on the continuing crisis in our own land. 

Since 1991, and despite a Royal Commission, another four hundred and thirty Aboriginal people have died in police custody. No police officers have been convicted. In fact, since 1991 things have actually become worse. The rate of incarceration of Aboriginal people has doubled and a 2019 study found Aboriginal Australians are more likely to be imprisoned than African Americans. 

The Australian Law Reform Commission reports that ‘Although Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults make up around 2% of the national population, they constitute 27% of the national prison population’. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women it is 34%.

There’s a huge problem in our country. Whatever you think about the reasons for this problem, or what solutions are at our disposal, we need to acknowledge that this is a huge problem. 

Since the early days of the church the gospel has been applied vertically (between us and God), and horizontally (between each other). And so Paul wrote to a fractured church in Ephesus: 

For he himself (Jesus) is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. (Ephesians 2.14–18)

Our context in Australia is very different. But it’s interesting to note that every time Paul spoke of the new, free, justified stance of the Christians before God he also related this to the relationship between Jews and Gentiles. The vertical gospel must be applied horizontally.

We might disagree about what we can actually do, or what part we play in this problem, but can you imagine if the church had kept leading society in prayer over this? At the very least let us draw near to God in prayer for our nation. Below is a prayer we’ve often used at church written by the Wontulp Bi-Buya Indigenous Theology Working Group:

Holy Father, God of Love,

You are the Creator of all things.

We acknowledge the pain and shame of our history

and the sufferings of Our peoples,

and we ask your forgiveness.

We thank you for the survival of Indigenous cultures

Our hope is in you because you gave your Son Jesus

to reconcile the world to you.

We pray for your strength and grace to forgive, accept and love one another, as you love us and forgive and accept us in the sacrifice of your Son.

Give us the courage to accept the realities of our history so that we may build a better

future for our Nation.

Teach us to respect all cultures.

Teach us to care for our land and waters.

Help us to share justly the resources of this land. Help us to bring about spiritual and social change to improve the quality of life for all groups in our communities, especially the disadvantaged.

Help young people to find true dignity and self-esteem by your Spirit.

May your power and love be the foundations on which we build our families, our communities and our Nation, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Wontulp Bi-Buya Indigenous Theology Working Group 13 March 1997 Brisbane, Qld).

All you need to know about doing church online

The below is a letter that was sent out to our church regarding how to make the most of our streamed church services.

I hope you are holding up ok given the circumstances. I wanted to share with you all that you need to know about accessing our services this coming Sunday. But firstly I wanted to ask, how can we best be serving you right now? 

The ministry team is very keen to hear your thoughts about how we can make this situation work. We would particularly like to know how we can be serving you and feeding you at the moment. If you have ideas, or if there are things we've overlooked please reply to this and let us know. 

Below are some FAQ's

1. HOW CAN I ACCESS THE SERVICES?
From this Sunday our two services will be streamed on Facebook Live, Youtube and our church website. If you're unsure of where to go just go to www.stpaulscanterbury.com and you won't be able to miss it. 
The stream will be running from 9.00AM for a 9.30AM start AND 4.30PM for a 5PM start. 
We will also send out a text to the congregation before the services begin.

2. WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE WHO CAN'T ACCESS THE INTERNET?
Of our regular attendees there are very few people who don't have access to the internet. Those we know of have been invited to join others at their homes. If you know someone who might have slipped through the cracks, please reply to this. 

3. WHAT SHOULD I EXPECT?
Firstly it's important to be realistic. This won't be the same as meeting in person and there's a real grief there. 
Some things will be the same - there will be singing, prayers, notices, bible readings and a sermon
But some things will be different. The services will intentionally be shorter than a regular Sunday (about 40mins). This is for two main reasons.
First, keeping engaged on a computer screen is much harder than in person. So we need to be realistic about what we can achieve online. Second, we want to give space for people to continue other elements of church in their homes in smaller groups.

In the coming weeks we will send out 'home worship' guides for you to use (prayers, questions to dig deeper into the bible etc). 
For this Sunday Luke has prepared a kids activity guide for this Sunday which has gone out in a separate email to parents and care givers.

Michael and Luke have been working tirelessly to adapt to this situation and are trying to redeem as much good out of a situation we wouldn't have chosen. Expect the services to improve as we learn how to adapt. 


4. HOW CAN I MAKE THE MOST OF THIS EXPERIENCE?
If it is safe for you to do so I would encourage you to gather at one another's homes in groups of 4-6 to keep up some face to face fellowship and to enable people to engage with the content together. 
If you would like to join other people but don't know who to ask please reply to this and lets see if we can work something out. Some people have already offered their homes as venues to gather. 

Engage with the service. We will be singing and praying and reading God's word like we normally do. Sing, pray and read from home. Perhaps log on to our Facebook group (if you have it), or use a WhatsApp group to communicate with other church members during and after the service. 


I would cherish your prayers as we do this. Again, there's been a small team who have been working very hard to pull this off. Pray that any technical hitches will be sorted out tomorrow when we do a 'dress rehearsal.' Pray that in God's kindness this would come together for the good of his people and the multiplication of the gospel. Pray that our fellowship with one another would continue as we still meet up (in smaller number) to pray with and for one another and to spur each other on in the faith.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Steve

Ancient Words

In the last two years since coming to St Paul’s, I’ve said the Apostles’ Creed more than I ever have. I still don’t know it off by heart but I’m hoping that one day soon I will. While it’s important for me to become more familiar with it, what I really want to know is: who wrote it and where did it come from?

With the name the Apostles’ Creed it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to think that it was written by the apostles. And although there were once legends that this was indeed the case, that the apostles each wrote one of the clauses, this is no longer a popular idea.

So, if the apostles didn’t write it, who did? It is thought that the words for this creed were first put together by the early church around the year 150 AD, most likely in Rome, in response to the alternate doctrines being presented at the time by Christian Gnostics (those who believed that knowledge could lead them to salvation) and by Marcion, an infamous teacher and heretic. The earliest version was therefore known as the Roman Creed. The most common use for it initially was as a series of questions during baptism, as a way of asking people what they believed. It was a means of identifying true believers, because those who were prepared to affirm the beliefs stated in the creed were unlikely to have been negatively influenced by the false teachers around them.

The earliest written form that we have of the Roman Creed is in a letter from Marcellus of Ancyra to Julius, the bishop of Rome, and was written in Greek around 341 AD. There are also slightly later versions of the creed that can be found in Latin. The form of the Apostles’ Creed that we now use is most closely linked to a Latin tract that was written by a monk called Priminius in the early eighth century.

It’s amazing to think that what we say together regularly on a Sunday could have been written so long ago, by people in a very different time and place. But rather than focusing on all of the reasons why such an ancient creed might be relevant to us today, as I think it is, I’d like to encourage you with just one simple thought.

Over the many, many generations since the creed was first written Christians have chosen to hold onto this set of core beliefs, ones that they have not been willing to compromise on. For generations people have continued to gather together to profess their beliefs before each other, thereby helping to strengthen their own faith and encouraging those around them.

In light of the uncertainty around us at the moment I’d suggest that the Apostles’ Creed serves as a reminder that we are bound together in faith not only with those near to us but with Christian brothers and sisters from all over the globe, including those from different times. And just like the early Christians, I believe that we can be an example of a body of Christ that does not give into fear, but instead stands united in faith, love and hope.

The historical information used in this post came from the following sources: 

Apostles’ Creed, Marcion. Lexham Bible Dictionary (Logos Edition). app.logos.com.

González, Justo L. The Story of Christianity. Volume 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation, pp. 58–66, 368. New York: Harper Collins, 1984.

Being an adaptable church

There’s a fascinating book that has been doing the rounds recently called The Spider and the Starfish. It’s all about how decentralised organisations can adapt much quicker to changing situations than highly centralised organisations.

The author likens centralised organisations to spiders. Spiders are controlled by their head (like most of us!). If the head is cut off then very quickly the spider dies. Starfish are different. They have no head. And its major organs are replicated throughout each arm. Cut it in half and instead of killing the starfish you now have two starfish. 

Starfish organisations don’t have headquarters.

For those from St Paul’s you might recall in our recent sermon series in Acts we reflected on the adaptability of the early church. This is one of the hall marks of the church. It is a dynamic, decentralised movement that can easily adapt to ever changing situations because our Head is not human authority but the Lord Jesus, whose headship is permanently affixed to every part of his body, the church  

We’ve seen this in Acts as persecution was applied to where the gospel movement first broke out, Jerusalem. The very centralised opposition - the pharisees and saducees - tried to lock down Jerusalem. This resulted in a scattering of the early christians and a decentralisation of the church. Now it was no longer just the apostles who were preaching the gospel, it was everyone. And new gospel outbreaks popped up in unlikely places like Samaria (see Acts 8). 

There are no two ways about it, COVID 19 is a crisis, and one that is rapidly changing the way society functions for the time being. This includes the church. 

Friends I want to remind you that this won’t defeat our church. We know that. We sing about that every week, and we read endless promises in the scriptures that God will never leave us nor forsake us (Matthew 28.20); That our help will come from God, the Maker of heaven and earth. The One who doesn’t slumber nor sleep (Psalm 121.1-3); That Jesus is the bread of life and those who come to him will not go hungry (John 6.35)

And I want to encourage you to be like a starfish. To already begin thinking, how can we adapt to this crisis? 

This is our spiritual strength - something up our sleeve that will help us get through this. Here are some thoughts to get us started:

Creating community online

A small team of helpers is preparing to move our Sunday services online. They will be streamed at the usual times of 9.30AM and 5PM. This Sunday will be a dress rehearsal and from the following Sunday we expect to have our services running completely online. 

It is not the same, by any means. There’s a real grief in not being able to greet one another with a hug and sit and pray to our Father in heaven together as a beautifully diverse congregation of people. 

But there’s an opportunity here too. We can also adapt to share our church community with the broader community. Doing short, for example, devotions online that speak into the felt needs of millions of people right now.

God, in his common grace, has connected people together online in a way that empowers our capacity of sharing our hope - those promises I just reminded you of - with a world that is right now devoid of hope. 

A recent video we put on Facebook was seen by more than 5,000 people. 5,000 people reached with quite minimal effort! We couldn’t fit 500 people into our hall. It’s not the same, but it is an opportunity for us to bless the city we live in right now with the good news of Jesus. 

Decentralising pastoral care - a care network

Crises force you to reassess what’s really important. As a pastor these last two weeks have reminded me that the beating heart of my vocation is the ministry of the word of God and of prayer. To pastor God’s people by reminding them of his promises, by praying with them and for them, and by caring for the flock of Jesus I have the privilege of serving.

Another opportunity before us is to maximise this care by decentralising it.

You may have seen that just yesterday I invited everyone in the congregation to sign up to a care network. The idea is simple. A network of church members who will commit to receiving, and distributing prayer points for those in need. A network who will also be up for helping those most vulnerable and isolated - that may mean a daily phone call to an elderly friend from church, or dropping off some groceries to someone unable to get to the shops. Adapting to this crisis enables us to come back to the basics of what the church does - pray for one another and care for one another. 

The analogy of the spider and the starfish falls over at one point though. We have a head, the Lord Jesus. The one who sits enthroned in heaven. And that’s the key. As long as our head is in heaven he cannot be defeated, and neither can we. In fact his ascension - empowers him to be more present over all the earth through the witness of his body, the church.

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Colossians 1.15-20

We Believe Sermon Series

Over nine weeks we are going to be exploring one of the ancient creeds of the Christian church, the Apostle’s Creed. These words are vitally important because they connect modern Christians to our ancient heritage. Sometimes it’s said that the creed is a summary of everything Christians believe in. This isn’t quite right, as there are lots of really important things missing in the creed. For example, the creed doesn’t say anything about what it means to be justified by faith in Jesus Christ. This was something that was hugely important at the time of the Reformation and divided the church. So it’s not quite right to say that the creed explains everything we believe in.

The Apostle’s Creed is more concerned in stating who we believe in rather than what we believe. This creed has a very Trinitarian shape. It articulates the God who Christians have worshipped throughout the ages as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This will be an important series for us as a church because our story is rooted into the story of God as we hear it in the words of the Apostle’s Creed.

These sermons will be slightly different in style from our regular sermons, and that’s ok as we need a wide-ranging diet of sermons at church. Most of the time we work through a book of the Bible section by section (e.g. our recent series in Acts) and from time to time we also preach on topical issues that our culture is already talking about. Sometimes we have a series like this one that is more doctrinal in nature, that is trying to teach Christian theology and say why it’s important. Each sermon in this series will focus on a line of the Apostle’s Creed and will seek to explain both what it means and also why it’s important.

15.03.20 Introduction to the creed
22.03.20 We believe in God the Father
29.03.20 We believe in God the creator
05.04.20 We believe in Jesus’ humanity
10.04.20 GOOD FRIDAY We believe in Jesus’ suffering
12.04.20 EASTER DAY We believe in Jesus’ resurrection
19.04.20 We believe in judgement
26.04.20 We believe in the Holy Spirit
03.05.20 We believe in the transformed life