The Biblical reflections of St Matthew's Insight since records begun, is unquestionably community based. I am very much aware that the principle and the content have raised some very interesting indirect questions that has been discussed in the corridors of faith at St Matthew's during our services, at question time and outside the perimeter in the community. Some of the questions have reminded me of my personal life and walk with the Lord and in this Insight I would like to begin with a prayer.

O Father, give us the humility, which Realises its ignorance, Admits its mistakes, Recognises its need, Welcomes advice, and Accepts rebuke. Father helps us always: To praise rather than criticise, to sympathise rather than to condemn, to encourage rather than to discourage, to build rather than to destroy. And to think of people at their best rather than at their worst. This we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

As you read this Insight, please remember that many great Christian thinkers have read, written and testified about the experience, the influence and the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives, families, and community and far beyond. This Insight of "What is the Holy Spirit doing in our community?" is just a snapshot.




I have no doubt in my mind that the power of prayer for the local community is the simple answer. In our May Insight, I mentioned that it is imperative for a believer to grasp how the Holy Spirit works to bring about the validity of our faith in God. I summarized it in a short prayer:

O God, wean me from the idea that prayer is simply asking for things. And help me understand that when You say 'No' to my prayers it is because You know best. Teach me to pray, to really pray, dear Father. In Jesus' name. Amen.


I know that we have a monthly prayer fellowship here at st Matthew's every last Thursday of the month. That's great. I am also very much aware that many of our ideas concerning prayer differs from person to person and many find it difficult to pray, even when no problems are crowding into their lives.

A story is told of a lady who told her pastor that she was leaving the church and never returning. When she was asked why, she said that she and her daughter had sat for a scholarship and although she and her little girl had prayed hard, she had not passed. Indeed, not only had she failed to pass but she had come bottom of the list. That proved, the mother claimed, that there was nothing in prayer and therefore she was not attending church any more. The pastor concluded, 'It struck me as I listened to her that I had not taught her much about prayer.' The pastor knew the family and the daughter very well and realised that the little girl could not have passed a scholarship if her life had depended on it. She was a beautiful girl and would go on to fulfil a satisfying role in life. However, she didn't have the ability to pass this kind of scholarship.

Think about of a mother losing faith in prayer because of that. Even though this lady's experience of prayer may differ from your experience of prayer and mind, how can our Church prayer life in the community help believers and none believers grasp the power of prayer?



The distinctiveness of the Early Church prayer life is the best example I can think of. The believers prayer lives were rooted in a deep sense of community and fellowship. Immediately after Pentecost we read in Acts 2:42, 'They devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching and to the fellowship.'

As you may already know, the Greek word for 'fellowship' is 'koinonia'. This word can also be translated 'community.' It emphasizes the importance of living together as one family and having things in common.

The coming of the Holy Spirit produced in the lives of the early Christians a spirit of oneness and unity that was quite remarkable. Prior to Pentecost there was no real sense of fellowship among God's people. There was friendship, consideration, even love, but no deep sense of unity and oneness. Only when the Holy Spirit was living in them could they be drawn together into the kind of fellowship that can be achieved in no other way. Once we belong to Christ then we belong to everyone else who belongs to Christ.

Christians are Christ's people in the community. Christians are called to be in a community where lives are changed and where people learn to live well. We are to create communities where people keep their word and promises, where men and women are set free from sexualisation of relationships, where we do not insult or dismiss one another with cruel words, which distort lives.

Through Scripture and sacrament, through shared lives and the Spirit's gentle work, there should be a steady growth in grace and goodness. That process will be more intense and measurable during the early years of a person's Christian journey as there is a putting right and remaking in the image of Christ, particular teaching and support will be needed. However, that steady growth in learning how and when to pray in the paradigm of our Lord Jesus Christ will be something that for all of us continues until we are with the Lord.



St Matthew's Community Church? Community life for Christians needs to be deep enough and real enough such that we encounter one another and encourage one another in this journey. Who would not want to join a community where, through God's grace and the support of others, we learn to be more loving, more patient, more joyful and better able to control and direct our lives from within?

What is happening in our Community now? In different places, I have witnessed both traditional churches and fresh expressions of church taking steps in becoming a community of Jesus' people in prayer, witnessing, building new blocks of concepts of worship and outreach.

Here at St Matthew's Church we are motivated by encouraging a healthy church filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and our five biblical purposes are:

1. Knowing Christ
   
   
2. Growing in Christ
   
   
3. Serving Christ
   
   
4. Sharing Christ and
   
   
5. Worshipping through Christ.

Modicum



Churches and other Christian groups will be forced to employ practising homosexuals, transsexuals and civil partners under the Government's new Equality Bill.

The Bill aims to sweep all of the existing law on equality into one Act of Parliament and to eliminate more forms of discrimination than are currently covered.

While Christians believe in the innate worth of every human being, the Bill undermines basic Christian freedoms to adhere to biblical values in the area of employment. Churches and other Christian groups will not be able to discriminate on the basis of sexual practice which contravenes biblical values or gender reassignment when employing staff. Only roles which mainly involve teaching, promoting, or leading worship services will be exempt from the provisions of the Government's new Equality Bill. Far from simplifying the law which the Equality Bill promised to do. The Bill places even more complex requirements above and beyond those already within the existing law and states in the Explanatory notes to the Bill that "the specific exception applies to a very narrow range of circumstances".

This means that churches could be sued for not employing practising homosexuals for jobs including a church youth worker, secretary or accountant.

This is made clear in the Explanatory notes that accompany the bill: 'This exception would not apply to a requirement that a church youth worker or accountant be heterosexual'.

Equalities Minister Maria Eagle has recently addressed a UK conference on Faith, Homophobia, Transphobia and Human Rights and stated that "The circumstances in which religious institutions can practice anything less than full equality are few and far between...". This sort of so-called equality leads to censorship and discrimination.

Andrea Williams, Director of Christian Concern for our Nation commented, 'This is a new attempt to impose the State's secularist agenda on the Church and gag Christians from teaching and living out what the Bible says about sexual ethics. The Government thrust is that Christians should largely be free to follow Christ in private, as long as it doesn't affect their working life'.

Recent Christian Legal Centre cases illustrate the point. Kwabena Peat, a Christian teacher spoke out against homosexual propaganda on a school training day and found himself suspended.

©Andrea Minichiello Williams
Christian Concern for our Nation
Andrea can be contacted at andrea@ccfon.org