With this magazine you will receive a leaflet with an appeal from the PCC to help us increase our regular income to resource our work as a Church. This is part of our initiative to Build a Strong Parish Community, and follows on from my letters, and other articles, in the January and February Magazines. May I repeat what I wrote in January, that, unlike the Restoration Appeal, this appeal is only directed to those who regard themselves as members of St James. If you are not a member of St James then please disregard the leaflet, and forgive the intrusion. Although the appeal is specifically to encourage every member of St James to consider their regular giving, it is in the wider context of our whole Christian discipleship. The only value of Church finance is what it enables us to do as a Church. So each Sunday morning of Lent, sermons will take up different aspects of Building a Strong Parish Community (Lent Programmes are available from Church). These themes are as follows:-
Personal discipleship: Lent is a time when, remembering Jesus’ time in the wilderness, preparing for his ministry and mission, we examine, and seek to deepen, our own discipleship. The effectiveness of the Church depends on the discipleship of each individual baptised into the ministry and mission of Jesus Christ. Each of us is at a different stage of our Christian pilgrimage, but when did you last consider what Jesus Christ is calling you to be doing now, as his disciple? There are opportunities in the Lent programme, and we can follow our own discipline, to seek to deepen our commitment. I would love to hear from any adults who would like to consider Confirmation, or to respond in any particular way.
Mission: Our Christian discipleship is to be ‘fishers of people’. To be effective in building a Strong Parish Community, we need to reach out to welcome others into our Church fellowship. We also need to recognise, and celebrate, our belonging to the world Church. I commend to you all the visit of Dorothy Haile on Wednesday 17 March at 7.45 pm at St James. Dorothy is in touch, and in tune, with the worldwide Church, and will help us to a deeper appreciation of the globalisation of the Church. We also have the usual USPG leaflets and boxes for personal study of, and giving to, the mission of the world Church.
Giving: I commend the appeal leaflet to you, but ask you to read it in the context of the wider appeal to Build a Strong Parish Community. I also commend the article “Giving for the Future of the Church” in this magazine.
Ministry and Fellowship: Appropriately, we shall consider this on Mothering Sunday as we come together to thank God for ‘Mother Church’ and his wonderful gift of family life. I hope and pray we can increasingly welcome new people so they feel they belong in the fellowship of St James and become involved in our shared ministry. There is so much we could do in reaching out as, and from, the Church. We are also pursuing the possibility of appointing a ‘Light Team Worker’ to join us this year. This person would share in our work with young people especially, as we seek to deepen and broaden our fellowship.
Worship: Worship is the heartbeat of our Parish Community. On Sunday evening through Lent we shall share different and reflective forms of worship, giving opportunity for quiet space as we engage with God, and seek to find his presence and peace in our lives, and the life of his world. The more we make worship a priority, and share in it together week by week, the stronger we shall become as the Body of Christ.
God’s Kingdom: Jesus said: “Seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness.” A Strong Parish Community is one which hungers and thirsts to see righteousness prevail, by word and deed. The money we give back to God is to resource his work in the world. One of the greatest compliments we have received as a Church recently came in a ‘thank you’ letter for money we had given to Chester Fourgate Club from our Christmas Fair:- “This is truly an example of Christianity working within the community.” May we, more and more, be recognised as a Strong Parish Community by helping to build God’s Kingdom.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Lee
