Looking Back, Looking Forward

This article was the editorial in our parish magaazine for December 2008.

It’s now been ten years since I became the editor of the magazine in 1998 and during that time there's been so many different things that have happened to us as a congregation, so many hopes and fears that have come and gone, so many subjects that I've tried to tackle in these little editorials. Always my aim has been to challenge our readers to think and to try to build them up in the Christian faith.

I look back on these ten years with a lot of affection and satisfaction if I'm honest. I am also aware that I am far from being the only person who could say this of their work in our congregation. There are many people who could do the same: who could look back over ten, twenty, thirty, in some cases fifty or sixty years of service in Bridgeton St Francis-in-the-East. And they could also look back with affection and a lot of satisfaction. Sometimes, it’s no bad thing to do that.

We always have to strike a balance between taking enough satisfaction in our work that we are encouraged to go on with it and keep on labouring for Christ, in what can sometimes be a difficult and unappreciative world; and on the other hand, we have to make sure we are not getting so proud of ourselves that we take our eyes off Jesus and pride in ourselves.

This year has been the most significant year in my time as magazine editor. Not only in my personal life, but also in the church's life, I feel 2008 has been a significant year. We are beginning, as a congregation, to look at how we need to do things differently in the future, how we might need to change, in order to have a future as a congregation at all.

I know that by nature I am not particularly comfortable with change, with doing things in new ways. That takes me out of my comfort zone. So when someone like me realises that we need to change, I am convinced that is the Holy Spirit at work - because embracing change does not come naturally to me at all.

You know what the Bible says about God sometimes really makes us have to think hard. On the one hand, the Bible teaches that God does not change. In James 1:17 it says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” He can be relied on, because he never changes - he is always truthful, faithful, loving and so forth. But on the other hand, the Bible also teaches that God does "new things". In Isaiah 43:19 – “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”

As we come up to Christmas, aren't we glad that the unchangeable God does do new things? Though promised for centuries to his people Israel, it wasn't until that first Christmas, that God did a new thing and sent his Son, his chosen Redeemer King, the Messiah to come to earth to save us. The true meaning of Christmas is that has come to us – has become a human being in Jesus, and has come to save us.

In 2009, I pray that we will rely on God who does not change and also look to him to do new and exciting things with us and through us. I know that 2009 is going to see big changes for me personally as I get married in January. But I also pray that it will be a year in which we as a congregation embrace and celebrate change and welcome the opportunity to do things differently and to grow in maturity, spirituality and in numbers.

I also pray that if you do not know him already, that this Christmas will be a time of God doing new things in your life and that you will come to accept that the baby born in Bethlehem is indeed “your Saviour…Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10).