Looking Out – 27 February 2022

For many months we have not been able to meet for face-to-face worship.  However, this all changes next Sunday (6 March) when we resume worshipping our God in the church rather the sanctuary in our homes.

Obviously, we need to be sensible and responsible in our behaviour regarding face masks (optional but encouraged), hand sanitising and appropriate distancing etc.

But perhaps more importantly we need to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit as a Working Group comprising representatives from West Epping, Marsden Road and our own church explores the appropriate mission activities in our mission field. 

There is agreement that the high-rise developments surrounding our church needs to be the focus of our churches’ mission activity.  Hard discussions are in progress as to how this mission field, together with existing mission fields      (eg mainly music and Women on Wednesday) currently being serviced, are resourced.  Significantly, there is general agreement that the high-rise mission field be the subject of a church plant.  This means that a ministry agent be called specifically for this task with the aim of establishing a totally new congregation which would be based at Carlingford church. 

This does not mean that the current congregation will be removed from the site.  It is entirely plausible that the new congregation will meet on a day other than Sunday or at another time on Sunday such as the afternoon or evening.  These decisions are still ahead of us.

In the meantime, we need to be looking to the future and listening to God’s leading as to the way He wants us to proceed in serving Him.  And then be bold in responding.  Yes, there are changes ahead, but God is a dynamic God who needs us to be similarly dynamic in bringing His love to all local residents.

NRM