Share Life - GO!
As I was out walking the dog in the last two weeks, I was overwhelmed by the reality that St Ives is once again covered in building works. There are building works at the shops, there are building works on the main roads, there are building works on the back roads; indeed sometimes it feels like there are more STOP-GO signs than people around here.
In most cases, small homes are replaced by larger ones or even larger blocks of units and there are still lots of smaller homes in St Ives so STOP-GO signs are here to stay.
Now that can be frustrating if you are running late to church or just making a quick trip to the shops for milk, but I want to encourage you to use every STOP-GO sign you see, and every green traffic light you see, to remind you to Share Life GO!
Share Life is how we describe our shared evangelistic mission here at Christ Church. So when we talk about Share Life, we are talking about all of us Sharing Jesus with friends and family, colleagues and neighbours who don’t yet know him. We are talking about all of us Sharing Life to the full that Jesus promises. We are talking about all of us Sharing Life as we are designed to live it - in relationship with God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. We are talking about all of us Sharing Jesus with those we know and love.
It is what we try to do all year around not as an extra but as an integrated part of life. We don’t want you to do more. We want you to just reshape the things you are already doing with a Godward perspective. Every year we gave some focus moments to enthuse, encourage and equip us in the work and one of those is coming up next week.
Elliot Temple is running a series of events that are designed to give you a boost in your passion and enthusiasm for reaching people with the life Jesus offers. This year we will specifically be focussing on getting to Jesus in conversation and helping people think deeply about Jesus without feeling awkward or becoming someone you're not.
We will diagnose our own personal areas for growth, and pray for God's strength. We are reminded in 2 Timothy 1:6 that “the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”
So, this coming Tuesday at 11am and 7.30pm, Wednesday at 7.30pm and Thursday at 9.30am in the upper hall, Elliot will be running these interactive seminars to help us move forward in our own personal efforts at Sharing Life.
By move forward, I mean this: if you are completely paralysed by the idea of Sharing Life with a friend, these events are for you to help you build courage. If you are keen but don’t know the next steps, these events are for you to get enthused. If you have 28 friends you are already talking to, these events are for you to get further equipped. They are for everyone to help us get going with Sharing Life no matter where we are at.
Everyone is doing some version of life. But as Christians, we know how life is meant to be lived, at its best, and that’s the news we want to share. When you trust in Jesus you find hope, purpose and a future that can never perish, spoil or fade.
We Christians have the words of eternal life and the solution to the existential yearnings of the world and that solution is Jesus. I am praying that you will come to one of the Share Life Go events and be encouraged, enthused and equipped to pray and to have a GO at sharing life.
At the very least, let us all be those who are calling on our Heavenly Father to change lives through the preaching of the Gospel so we may rejoice together at his grace and kindness to our friends and family as they come to find Life through Christ.
In Christ
Nigel
