[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 14/Aug/2022]
‘…make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.’ Romans 14:13
I recently had the pleasure of preaching at Trafalgar Road Baptist Church in Horsham, where they had spent the previous 2 and a half years without a minister. Fortunately that changes this August, and the entire community is excited to move forward into a new chapter after what has been a difficult time during Covid.
Whilst I was there I preached on a chapter from Paul’s letter to the church in Rome – a church that was split down the middle ethnically, with a battle taking place between the Gentile (non-Jewish) believers, and the Jewish Jesus followers who were returning to Rome after 5 years of exile.
Paul’s purpose therefore in writing his letter was to remind the church of the good news of Jesus, and to encourage them to put their differences to one side for the sake of the gospel. He also urged those believers to stop judging, and make up their mind to not put any stumbling block in the way of people coming to Jesus. In other words, individuals and the church should put the needs of others before their own, making changes to the way they live out their faith so as not to make it hard for people to access the good news.
Unfortunately there are plenty of stumbling blocks, created by society, that make it incredibly difficult for people to know about Jesus, let alone come to follow him. At HBC how can we ensure we don’t add to those blocks?
Can we think carefully, and make the necessary changes and sacrifices to the way we ‘do church’ so that those with little or no experience of church will find what we do accessible and yet totally different to anything they have experienced before? Can we create a space for them to experience God’s presence and be moved by His Holy Spirit?
In this country we have more churches than supermarkets. We don’t need more churches, we need different churches. My challenge to TRBC and my challenge to this church is, are we willing to be different, even if it means making changes and sacrifices?
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Contributed by Martin Shorey; © the Author
