10^th February 2011

  

         The church must be alert today to listen, and to heed 
              the many cries of human hearts, of people in their need.
               The danger is that we become an inward-looking church 
                      that tends to leave the folk out there completely in the lurch.

                            Society has changed so much; the church must face change too, 
               not in the Gospel we proclaim, but how to get it through.
             The church must never be remote, or critics may accuse
                that we're so heavenly minded we are just no earthly use.

 

                                Some have attended church for years as changes there have been -
of ministers, activities, and population scene. 
                         Let's all be sure that we're in tune with God's heartbeat above, 
      and be his instruments below to mediate his love.

              In our new ways of ‘being church', whatever else we do, 
                    our aim must be that others might discover God's love too. 
                       It's Jesus whom we seek to serve, it's him we ought to show. 
                 However young, however old, it's him they need to know.

                      Let's aim to reach each phase of life as God planned it to be: 
      from little ones to older ones, drawn to his family. 
                     Encourage new folk to the church, with hunger in the heart, 
                            to find what faith in Christ can mean and then make a new start.

             Let everything be bathed in prayer, together and alone,
                    to lift their many needs to God, the way we use the phone. 
                   There's someone at the other end who's ready to respond. 
                     so be assured that God will hear, it's such a precious bond.

              The Gospel really comes to this, that life is incomplete, 
                          that Christ our Saviour lived and died, for us and God to meet. 
                      The meeting-place is at the Cross where Jesus bore our sin. 
              Forgiveness now is possible, when he's at work within.

                 He rose again on Easter Day, and if you crown him Lord, 
               eternal life is yours in him, as promised in God's Word. 
                So here's a vision for our church: let God's love overflow
                                  through our lives as his channels, then his church will surely grow.

Rev. Perry Smith, Belmont (NSW)