Christ Church Moreton Hall

The church is about receiving, understanding, responding and sending.  What do I mean by that?  At Christ Church, Moreton Hall we are receiving from God because He is speaking to us.  He has spoken to some of our young people in a very powerful way and on 30 January they were baptised by immersion.  This was a wonderful occasion when family and friends came together, the church being packed as usual, to watch people in their teenage years make an adult response to the call of Christ on their lives. 

These young people have looked at the world, seen its failings, realised that there is a God and are seeking to follow Him with all their lives and all their hearts from now on.  Our thanks go out to all those who have worked with them and prayed for them and helped them find this true path.   The church is also about understanding.  As God speaks to us we need to take time to pray and reflect and find out what He is asking us to do and how He wants to change our lives. 

To that end we will be holding our Annual General Meeting on 28 February when, after months of hard work and prayer we will be coming together to elect new leaders, including a Church Warden, and to discuss our plans not just for 2011, but also 2012 and 2013.   As we discuss and decide we are, of course, responding.  Part of our response is to install new heaters to keep our church warm.  There will be redecoration going on and refurbishment.  There will be a commitment to reach out to the community through various forms of youth work and other activities, including quizzes and concerts, and a new website. 

By the way, have you checked out the website for people who have been encouraged to blog in to say how they have come to faith and how Christ has changed their lives.  It is a fascinating read.   Having understood, we are responding to Christ in a very special way.  This is not just for the church as a whole, it is also for individuals and one in particular, Alex T, has heard God speak to him and he is preparing to go out on to the mission field.  He has a passion for bringing the gospel to South East Asian communities and he is going to serve them by being a physiotherapy specialist and an English teacher.  If you read your Bible you will find it is full of stories of people hearing from God, understanding what He says, and responding by offering their lives to Him in an exciting way.  

Which leads us neatly into the last point – sending.  Christ Church, Moreton Hall, will be getting fully behind Alex in this work as we seek to raise money to send him out and support him in prayer and other practical ways.  God sent His Son, Jesus, into the world to seek and save the lost, according to Luke’s gospel.  We respond to Him by doing the same thing as He did.  Christ Church is here to seek and save the lost on the Moreton Hall estate.  Now we are moving to a new phase where we are sending people across the world to seek and save the lost in other cultures.   So that you can hear God for yourselves, we are introducing a new Service on the first Sunday of each month, called Worship Together, which we hope you will come to and enjoy.  If you wish to see people baptised or to have a family member, including a child, baptised for yourself, we will be holding very special services to do baptisms on the fifth Sunday of the month.  This is part of our reaching out and also part of our service for you.  

With every blessing for this New Year, 

Revd. Canon Jonathan Ford.