Wider Church Mission

 

We’ll be thinking in Sunday’s sermon, led by Erna, on what it means, amongst other things, to live not just as individual disciples, but as part of his Body, the wider Church of Jesus Christ.

At Amersham Free Church one of the ways we express our commitment to being part of something which is bigger than just the ‘local’ is through the mission contribution of £20,000 we make to our parent denominations from our General Fund offering.

It’s a delight for us to be able to help support the work of the Baptist Missionary Society with £5000, especially taking a prayerful interest in our Link Missionaries, Liz and Sergio Vilela, based in the port city of Bira in Mozambique.

Liz and Sergio, like us, are now in their fifth month of quarantine.  All the pre-schools that Liz worked with are now closed and will probably remain so until the end of the year.  However, she is doing some Play Therapy work with individual families.  She tells us that, even in quarantine, children regularly play together in the streets and are left at home on a daily basis because their parents simply have no option but to continue to go out to work even if the schools are not meeting.

Over recent weeks Liz and Sergio have helped to distribute 500 food parcels to folk in the community who are in need. 

Closer to home we are also delighted that £5000 of the denominational contributions goes directly towards the work of The Baptist Home Mission Fund.  This is a central fund that helps support smaller churches meet ministerial costs.  One such church is down the road from us, Bovingdon Baptist Church.  This year Margaret Howard and I were their Home Mission Visitors.  Unlike previous years, this year we visited via email!  We heard of all they were doing in LockDown to keep together as a church community.  I spoke to The Revd Mary Moody, the Minister on the phone.  And then we put together a report recommending that they receive another grant next year from the Home Mission Fund.  I’m delighted that this was accepted.  Along with other grants being made available to smaller churches in our area, Home Mission also funds the Baptist Chaplains at both Luton Airport (The Revd Liz Hughes) and the Hertfordshire University.

£10,000 of our mission offering from AFC goes to the United Reformed Church.  And we are very conscious this a year of change at URC Church House in London.  The Revd John Proctor, whose been a Bible Teaching Day speaker here at AFC, retired this month as URC General Secretary and he’s been succeeded The Revd Dr John Bradbury, former Vice Principal of Westminster College, Cambridge – and many folk at AFC will have heard him lecture there at various courses they’ve attended.

Change is also in the air in our local Thames North Synod as we prepare for the retirement of our Moderator, The Revd Dr Andrew Prasad. We prayerfully remember those who will be appointing his successor.

Our United Reformed Church Area Group, here in the Chilterns, is putting together a Video Service for Sunday 30^th August.  The Ministers have been meeting regularly throughout LockDown via Zoom and the service next week will be another expression of our togetherness in the Body of Christ.

So, we thank God for these various expressions we have at AFC of belonging not just to the local, but to the wider Body of Christ.

Church Focus

…It’s quite a thought that this coming Sunday's Audio Service is the 23^rd one that has been produced since Lockdown started, and that this morning’s in service worship is the 8^th occasion we’ve been able to come together in this socially distanced way.  All our thanks go out to those who make these variety of worship styles and media available to us.

…We continue to hold Laura, our Church Administrator in our thoughts and prayers following her father’s death, as the family prepare for his funeral on the 1^st September.

…We are grateful to all our organists who have returned and are helping us with worship.  Once again Graham is with us this week, and Laurence Beard returns to play next Sunday.