Superintendent’s Letter January 2012

Dear Friends,

Recently, I temporarily lost the control of my email account and many of you reading this will have had a scam email saying that Ali and I had been held up at gunpoint in Madrid, Spain; robbed and would you please send £1500 to help us fly back to the UK. All a bit embarrassing and annoying! Of course it was not true. We were not in Madrid; we were safe in Shirrell Heath. However, ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ and I will share with you

how this is so.

On the Friday it happened, the ‘phone began ringing from 07.30am with people letting us know about the email they had received and also checking that we were all right and this went on all day. People even said to us that if we had been in trouble, and it had been a genuine email, they would have given us the money. That is very kind. Over the next five days we continued to get telephone calls, emails and texts from people we know from all over the world, from Cuba to the Meon Valley, most people being from the Church. With the wonder of technology the world church became smaller. Ali and I really felt cared for. Thank you.

Although I don’t want to suggest that we create email scams in order to make ministers feel loved, I do want to suggest that we should consider how well we grow the relationships we have in church. Church means more than the local church. The Greek word used in the New Testament is ekklesia and describes a gathering of people.

The late Revd David Watson’s description of the church is something I have found helpful:

‘Turning to the New Testament, ekklesia is used in four different ways. First, it is used for the universal church, the entire company of believers, both living and dead. God has made Christ ‘the head over all things for the church’; it is ‘through the church’ that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known; and God’s glory is to be ‘in the church’. Second, it is often used of a particular local church, such as the church at Cenchreae, Corinth, Thessalonica, or Laodicea. Third, it can mean the actual assembly of believers in any place, as they meet together for worship. Fourth, it can apply to a small house church, the regular meeting place for a small group of believers in any one town or city. However, whatever the size, it always speaks of the coming together of God’s people in answer to his call, in order to meet with God in the company of each other and to meet each other in the presence of God.’

Relationships are vital for the church. According to Professor John Drane, the new spirituality emerging in our society is characterised by people intentionally building community.

That is, people want to create and belong to a network of spiritual relationships. It is what we might call ‘church’. The desire is there we only need to bring people into our loving communities.

The Cuban Methodist Church plants new churches all the time through intentionally building communities; they call them ‘House Groups’. This is done by local church members, some of whom are Local Preachers. The pattern is: they visit homes two miles from the Chapel; and invite the people they meet to a House Group where the Gospel is explained, people are Born Again; the House Group then becomes a ‘Mission’ of the local church,

meeting on the weekdays, but joining with the local church on the Sunday; the ‘Mission’ becomes called a ‘House Church’ once it is financially and spiritually self-supporting.

Anyone who feels called to be a minister, first needs to become a Local Preacher and plant a house church before they candidate and start to train as a Presbyter.

This approach is not a lot different from how the Meon Valley Primitive Methodist Circuit was formed! Yet, what are we doing now about growth? How do we grow the relationships we have in church? Also, what can we do to plant new churches? I suggest that we can do a couple of things: Firstly ring up or visit people in the church and wider, who we do not know very well and get to know them; Secondly, either start a new house group

and invite people to come along or using an existing group invite people who are on a faith journey or not yet believers to come along. If you feel the Lord is leading you to do the latter, then beware you will need to change the content of the group to match the new people’s needs.

This is all basic mission stuff, but it has been forgotten! Let me know how you are getting on and if you are planning to do something such as I have suggested have a chat with me, I will be able to encourage you. Of course we can only serve in the power of the Holy Spirit, which is why He has been given!

God Bless,

David

Revd David Moss, Superintendent