‘Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!’ Psalm 96:2-3 (ESV)

At the end of this month we will have our Mission Sunday service where we will focus on the theme of mission and consider the mission work we support and how we as a congregation can be mission minded. Some of the mission fields we will hear updates on are many miles away in places we will never visit and people we will never meet and it is great that we can support these works but we must also remember that there is a mission field all around us. This might be in our homes, it is certainly within our community, it might be with the young, for some it is amongst the elderly and housebound all hugely important. A church that is inwardly focused has lost its way for the Lord calls us to reach out with the good news of the gospel to those around us. Gone are the days (if there ever were) of expecting people to come through our doors without an invitation, or being accompanied by someone in the church or without the establishment of a relationship first. We need a new mindset as we seek to do mission in our communities and in our culture. It is a task that every member of the congregation needs to be involved in because to each God gives their own mission field. You may have a relationship with, or access to people, that others won’t have the opportunity to witness too. How wonderfully the verses of the Psalm above reminds us that there is not a day goes by that we should not speak of our Lord or that there are people that should not hear the Good News of the gospel. As we reshape for mission as a church we seek that it is not the focus of merely one Sunday but that it is intrinsic in every aspect of our life as a fellowship. We are making some very practical changes around our buildings but these too need to be tools to help us engage with those around us. We look forward with anticipation to see what the likes of new kitchen will allow us to do as we invite people in to share in fellowship. May the Lord use you mightily in His service.

Every blessing
Gordon