Ministry Team Letter for the Month

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Dear Friends,

 

We are living in challenging times, having been through two years of a global pandemic, facing a climate crisis, severe financial pressures, and witnessing the horrors of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is easy to find ourselves despairing at all that is going on in our world.
 

Yet, as Christians, it is so important to remember that we live on this side of the cross and the empty tomb. Around 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ died and was raised to life again, and these events continue to be good news for us and for our world today, just as they were for the first disciples and the early followers of Jesus. Good news because at the cross Jesus overcame sin and death, so we have hope beyond the grave. Good news that God has not given up on his world, because the risen, ascended Jesus is interceding at the right hand of the Father. And good news that God is with us now, because he has sent his Holy Spirit to live in us, to comfort, guide and empower us.

In 1 Peter 1:3-4 we find this encouragement: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade.” So, in these challenging times, may we hold on to this living hope, and as a church may we seek to share this hope with others, through what we say and what we do.

One opportunity for this is our annual Mission Sunday service, taking place this year on Sunday 29th May at 10am at Lady St Mary Church. This will be an opportunity to support and encourage our mission partners through prayer and financial giving towards the work they are doing to share the gospel, locally and around the world.

In addition, our guest mission organisation for 2022 is A Rocha, a Christian charity which seeks to respond to the biblical mandate to care for the earth and to demonstrate the Christian hope for God’s world. On Mission Sunday we will have a guest speaker representing A Rocha, Jean Morgan, based locally in Wimborne. She will share with us more about the work of A Rocha, and why as Christians we should be involved caring for creation and tackling the climate crisis. There will also be the opportunity to give towards the work of A Rocha.

Mission Sunday gives us the opportunity to support our mission partners, but also to be reminded that we are all called to share in God’s mission to our broken, hurting world. So, in light of the cross and the empty tomb, may we be people of resurrection hope in a troubled world, sharing and showing the good news of Jesus through our words and actions.  Amen.

Every blessing,                    

                                         Stuart