Ideas ...

from the Joint Meeting earlier this year to help us translate our good intentions into actions...

http://www.chichesterbaptist.org.uk/pages/downloads.html

If you've missed our priorities for 2007, where have you been?! Here they are again:

Praying and working towards...

• More conversions;
• More regular time alone with God to read the Bible and pray;
• Greater lifestyle integrity.

It's often the simplest ideas ...

Back in February many of us shared our thoughts in a Joint Meeting about how we could take forward our church's 3 priorities. We hope to make all of the ideas available shortly through the Download area of the web site, but in the meantime under the "conversions" heading the following 7 suggestions came out as ideas that we could indivually act on.

1. Pray for 2-3 people you know – for opportunities to share the gospel and for their conversion
2. Make friends with non-Christians
3. Commit to spending social time with non-Christians – missing the occasional Sunday if need be
4. “Practise” sharing your faith with a Christian friend
5. Learn to become comfortable about talking with Christians about spiritual things
6. Look out for “people of peace”
7. Pray for a “burden for the lost”

What strikes me about them is their simplicity, but that is not to knock their power. The "mere" act of starting to pray daily for conversions (idea 1) could have an incredible impact. One idea I find personally interesting is number 5 below, because it begs the question, "If I can't talk easily with other Christians about spiritual things, how easy will I find it trying to talk to unbelievers?"

Any way, if you are one of the ones that have covenanted to 'pray and work towards' our three priorities, then have a think about what you could be doing in this particular area, and maybe add a comment if you have a good idea of your own.

Recommended

I mentioned this book in last night's message. Vaughan Roberts - Battles Christians face.

It's quite recent and touches on a number of key subjects ... image ... lust... guilt... doubt... depression... pride... homosexuality... keeeping spiritually fresh.

I haven't read it all yet, but I have read is very good.

Start date

Looking back to 15 May 2006 my diary simply states 'start date'. This was, of course the day, a year ago today when the building work for the upstairs youth hall began.

Thanks to Peter Stockwell for reminding me.

Does it seem like a year?

How blessed we have been to get to the point where the money side is now sorted.

What could God do for us individually and together in the next 12 months if we consider today a start date on our journey with Him?

John 5:13 ....

The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

I was just thinking about this verse today.
I found myself wondering how many people receive God's healing touch and have no idea that it was God. How many of them will never know that it is God unless someone tells them?

The next verse says that Jesus then found him - not the other way around. I wonder if there is a challenge in that - namely that sometimes we are supposed to point out the ways in which God is already at work in the lives of our friends who don't yet accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

A sort of encouragement ...

According to the Baptist Times last Thursday (comment, p13) "only 27 per cent of Baptist churchgoers read the Bible for themselves at least once a week."

I went back to the results from our annual survey last December and was pleasantly surprised by the comparison which showed a 77% figure for CBC. If we were in the game of league tables we could get quite smug at this point.

But we're not, are we? Our standard is not the 'average' Baptist church in the UK, whatever an average Baptist church looks like. Our standard must be Jesus' standard, because our hope is that CBC will be full of people committed to following Jesus. Such people will be reading the Bible most days because they love their Lord and want to walk closely with him. When we look at the CBC figures for personal Bible reading 'most days' or 'every day' the number drops to 53%.

So we continue to pray that more people will take up the practice of regular personal Bible reading, not because it's a CBC priority, but because they love Jesus and want to walk more closely with him.

Stories of faith

"Church attendance may be in decline but people in the UK are still becoming Christians in their thousands. What can we learn from their stories?..."

I think there are some useful lessons for us here: http://www.licc.org.uk/node/321

I'm not on commission but ...

can I recommend two books which you may not have on your shelf?


Out of the Black Shadows is a book that made me depressed, excited, tearful and joyful at various points. It is an outstanding account of God's dealings with one man - Stephen Lungu. It's full of God's coincidences (aka "answers to prayer") and amazing grace. Incidentally, the action is centred around Zimbabwe and Malawi.

Unlocking the Bible has got to be at £0.015p per page one of the best bargains around at the moment! It is a hefty tome to carry, but a light read, and it gives an excellent introduction to each book of the Bible. Encouraging reading the Scriptures is a CBC priority at the moment, and this will help you to better understand what you're reading. I'm plugging it at a small group tonight, and it's required reading for CBC staff (!) ... so why not join the party!