Should faith be something kept quietly to ourselves, or practiced in private? Read our latest blog post from Rev. Andy Humm, Vicar at St George & St Paul, Tiverton
Two weeks ago, I began to outline the new challenge ahead of us in first ensuring that our budget was on track with our giving as a church, and then secondly talking about the opportunity we have to be part of something in the raising of money to transform the church rooms. If you haven’t heard it, let me encourage you to watch the service back on our YouTube channel.
However, the challenge is not so much the raising of funds (although important), it is the continuing desire to see more people experience the love of God through Jesus Christ.
In an age when the words of the Bible are ridiculed, when Christians are often disregarded, when prayer is seen as quaint, the deep need of something other than oneself is still felt, still yearned for by many, even if ‘it’ cannot be named or quantified.
Faith is not private and cannot be worked out on our own. The outworking of an inner faith is public and done in community. It is not a once and forgotten moment or choice to follow Jesus, it is a continuing journey to learn about Jesus, to get to know Him more and to discover the story of our Creator God through the words of the Bible and their relevance to us each day. Our weekly worship is a small part, yet in community, we discover how Jesus works through us and, from the Bible, we learn how we are called to serve one another and tell others about this Jesus whom we call Lord and Saviour.
I was visiting one of our congregation in the hospital last week and before I got to them I was called out to by someone else on the ward. As I responded, they wanted a prayer said and a reassurance of the mercy of God. As I travelled in 2 cars last week, two different people poured out their life situation and I had the privilege to listen and now to pray. A friend from my childhood recently lost his father. Although not having spoken with him for over 5 years, he called me and wanted to talk, and he wanted me to pray! Each of us can find ourselves in different situations where the relationship we have with Jesus marks us out as different, what is our response?
Let us be bold, not coy, let us be confident in the person of Jesus and the truth we see in the Bible and let us pray! Let us pray for interactions and opportunities, space for us to just listen, perhaps sit in silence, perhaps offer support, to try and speak about what Jesus means to you and how faith in Him has strengthened you.
We are the Church – let's build His kingdom together.
Blessings
Andy (Vicar) As we head into November we will be looking at what it means to speak of our faith with our friends