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Greetings!
I hope you all had a good Easter! One of my favourite Easter bible stories is the encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). I just love the thought of the expression on Cleopas' and his friend's faces when the penny finally drops! The passage also ties in with several themes that I would share with you this month.
Firstly there is the theme of explanation. "Beginning with Jesus and all the prophets Jesus explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself". Would you like to understand more? Perhaps you watched "The Passion" on the television this Easter, and it raised questions in your mind. For those who would like to understand better, I would commend to you the ALPHA course that is starting on 15 May. For those who have been Christians a while, and would like to go deeper, then I would recommend the Certificate in Christian Discipleship Course that we will be starting in September. If neither of those are appropriate for you, why not ask one of the clergy to recommend a book?
Then there is the theme of journeying with Jesus. The two disciples walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus. I believe that one aspect of the road that Jesus is calling us as a congregation to walk along is to build the extension. The next stage in making that happen will be our congregational launch of the project on 27 April when we are asking our congregation to pledge the amount that we will give. We will prepare for this by sending a letter to those who are on the electoral roll or church directory, and by teaching about giving in the weeks before that Sunday. Having heard how generous the church core membership are prepared to be it will be easier to approach others who would support us later in the year, and also to approach trust funds, businesses and other charitable institutions. Incidentally, we will also be raising funds in other ways; I believe that God has inspired us with a wonderful idea – more of this next month when the details are more worked out!
After meeting with Jesus, Cleopas and his friend rushed back to be with the other disciples. From this moment on the early church is characterised by their wanting to be together and the strength of their fellowship. This is something that we too need to strive to improve. One aspect of this is our service pattern, which we will be considering at our A.G.M. It has been suggested that we move the "@7" service to the second Sunday, which would both move it away from being adjacent to other youth services at South Normanton and Chesterfield and enable the band to help at the Family Service. I mention this here since I am conscious that the timings and content of our services are important. I would appreciate your prayers, thoughts and contribution at the A.G.M.
I hope that you too will know something of the joy and wonder of those two disciples nearly 2000 years ago.
Philip Brooks
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