The Citizen, 2012-01-19, Page 13THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2012. PAGE 13. By Pastor Tom Murray
Knox United, Belgrave
This past Sunday, our worship at
Knox focused on Bobby McFerrin’s
1989 overnight hit “Don’t Worry, Be
Happy!” Particularly as contrasted
with the gospel hymn-writer who
wrote “to be happy in Jesus” means
“to trust and obey.”
We’ve heard it said that “It is more
blessed to give than to receive.” But
the world’s wisdom would have us
believe the opposite. It invites us to
take, buy, accumulate, consume and
do so insatiably. Many scientists
believe that there is no shortage of
food in the world; there is plenty for
everyone. So there is no excuse for
hunger, or for the need of millions to
die of malnutrition or famine. There
isn’t a supply problem - our logistics
can get food where it needs to be.
What we have in our world is a
“greed” problem. We don’t want to
do without or simply give it away.
Instead of distributing justice, “we
distribute to just us!”
People think, “If I don’t grab now,
I won’t get any!” No government,
nor the UN, can solve this problem,
only people who fear God. People,
who have learned, that
“blessedness” comes not in having,
but in truly “giving.” That alone can
solve the world’s challenges.
Psalm 128, in the New Century
Version, begins “Happy are those
who respect the Lord and obey him.”
Now when we think of the word
“happy” today, we often think of the
word as what we have to do to “get”
happiness! However, the truth of the
matter is that there is nothing that
you or I can do to make ourselves
happy! In Hebrews 2:5-8, we clearly
hear that according to God’s Word
only God blesses life with
happiness!
In April of 1992 the Russian
Federation enjoyed its first free
Easter after the fall of the Iron
Curtain. Gorbachev’s sweeping
reforms had ended the Cold War and
allowed an openness of democratic
ideas. A large banner in Red Square
proclaimed “Christ has risen!” Its
irony eclipsed the tomb of the
Communist leader who had
previously declared the death of
God. Christ’s tomb was empty, yet
Lenin’s body lay entombed in a
granite and marble vault; his body
sealed in a glass sarcophagus,
cooled to 61°F with humidity at 80-
90 per cent. A team of fifteen people
charged with the task of preserving
his body, which has lain there since
1924. Why try to preserve what has
already died?
Indeed, many are the churches,
dumping equally vital resources into
assets that died decades ago! If we
are not reaching the lost and freeing
the least, then what, beside
irrelevancy to future generations, are
we about? Living things grow and
thrive! Your child or mine started out
as a single cell in the womb; and was
not born an eight-pound cell.
Likewise, healthy growing and
thriving churches are not called to
duplicate themselves, but to nurture
new churches. New life is the nature
of reproduction. In the latter
decades of the 20th century, church
growth tended to be about breaking
the barriers of 200, 400, 800, and
beyond! While the model of the NT
church, on the other hand, was
church-multiplication by division.
As Howard Snyder, in The
Community of the King, many years
ago stated: “Every believer is a
minister, servant and priest of God.
Every believer is called to ministry,
and all God’s people must be
equipped to minister.”
Luke’s gospel gives an insightful
account of Jesus’ call to the first
disciples in Luke’s gospel, Chap.
5:1-11: “Jesus was teaching the
crowds on the bank of the Sea of
Galilee. Two boats were sitting on
the water’s edge while the owners
cleaned their nets after a long,
tiresome night of fruitless labour.
Jesus enlisted the fishermen’s
assistance and used Peter’s boat for a
better vantage point in addressing
the amassing crowds. And when he
had finished speaking, he said to
Simon, ‘Put out into deep water, and
let down the nets for a catch.’”
In other words, do something that
you haven’t yet tried. Take new
risks. Act out of the box of your
traditional experience. Go to new
places and try new things. Our
United Church is committed to
creating “new places for new
people” in today’s culture.
This is an honourable and
agreeable goal, but the
denomination’s ingrained
institutional model is stuck! We
continue to pour resources into
revamping our organization and
polity of governing! Missing the
whole point of our context; right
practices need to be aligned with
Jesus’ mission!
We need to focus our best
strategies and practices on new
church places where the majority of
people live and work! We can’t cast
our kingdom work from only one
place; we need to cast our kingdom
vision into multi-site locations.
Networks of supportive partners in
working together are the way of
practising and planting ministry in
the future!
Experience reveals that the most
successful new church starts and
restarts come from healthy local
churches. Life-giving movement
begins and continues in passion! We
must birth new communities of hope
and life that multiply the unity of the
whole, while respecting uniqueness
and diversity!
Think of this in the same way that
you see your children! They share
your DNA but are unique in their
personalities. As a group of friends
and colleagues in ministry
collectively shared one afternoon,
“It is our collective belief that there
are no ‘dead’ churches, as some
would label them, only ones that
have lost their sense of mission and
focus.”
Jointly and individually, our role is
to get back on mission! With the
goal of all our work to connect
people, to the liberating love of
Jesus in relationship! Next it should,
and ought to, empower individuals
to rise out of their restlessness!
Finally, it must plan its affinity in
ministry, with and for others!
At this point, you might well be
feeling, as they say, in the Scottish
vernacular, “A wee bit’ o’er-
whelmed!” It’s true, starting new
places of ministry or restarting
THE CATHOLIC PARISHES OF NORTH HURON AND NORTH PERTH
CORDIALLY INVITE YOU TO ATTEND HOLY MASS.
OUR SUNDAY LITURGIES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
Brussels:
St. Ambrose
Saturday
6:00 p.m.
17 Flora Street
Wingham:
Sacred Heart
Sunday
9:00 a.m.
220 Carling Terrace
Listowel:
St. Joseph
Sunday
11:00 a.m.
1025 Wallace Avenue N.
Youre Invited
to come worship
with us
Sunday, January 22
Brussels Public School
at 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Sunday School for children
4 to 11 years of age (mornings only)
Childcare provided for infants and toddlers
Coffee & cookies after the morning service
For additional details please contact Pastor Andrew Versteeg 519.887.8621
Steve Klumpenhower 519.887.8651 Rick Packer 519.527.0173
Chris McMichael 519.482.1644
BRUSSELS - ETHEL PASTORAL CHARGE
UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA
Sandra Cable, Worship Leader
Church Office 519-887-6259 E-mail - bepc@wightman.ca
Sunday, January 22
Ethel United Church
Worship Service and Sunday School - 9:30 a.m.
Brussels United Church
Worship Service and Sunday School - 11:00 a.m.
Celebrating our Christian Faith together in worship
MELVILLE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
BRUSSELS
Rev. Elwin Garland
SUNDAY, JANUARY 22
Wheelchair accessible ~ Nursery care available
519-887-2664
10:00 am - Sunday Morning Worship
- Sunday School
getlivingwater.org
Pastor: Ernest Dow ~ 519-523-4848
Living Water
Christian Fellowship
January 22: Romans 12: 1-8
“Discovering
Our Varied
Gifts”
Part 2
10:30 a.m. ~ Worship & Sunday School
at Blyth Public School,
corner of King & Mill
Tuesdays 7:30 pm - Wingham Bible Study
1st & 3rd Wednesdays 7:30 pm - Women At The Well
Evangelical Missionary Church
Faith-In-Song Concert Feb. 17 - Get your tickets!
Worship Service & Sunday School at 11 a.m.
CORNER OF DINSLEY & MILL STREETS
MINISTER
Rev. Gary Clark, BA, M. Div.
All Welcome
MUSIC DIRECTOR
Floyd Herman, BA, M. Ed.OFFICE: 519-523-4224
JANUARY 22
Free Health Care Tips
JANUARY 29
Every Step Counts
THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA
Welcomes you to come and worship with us
Trinity, Blyth
9:15 a.m.
Church Office: 519-357-4883
St. John's, Brussels
11:15 a.m.
519-887-6862
Sunday, January 22
Rev. Perry Chuipka
www.nabcom.ca/church
You’re Invited To Join Us In Worship
Hwy. 4, Blyth 519-523-4743
www.blythcrc.ca
SUNDAYS
Morning Service 10:00 am
Evening Service 7:30 pm
BLYTH CHRISTIAN
REFORMED CHURCH
119 John’s Ave., Auburn
519-526-1131
www.huronchapel.org
Rev. Mark Royall, Sr. Pastor
9:25 a.m.
Sunday School for all ages
10:30 a.m
Morning Worship Service
What To
Do When
Life Hurts
Begins this Sunday
New Year,
New Sermon Series
From the Minister’s StudyWhoever is happy, make others happy too
Continued on page 19