Generosity and a contracting Church
A number of things have happened in the past few weeks that have caused, and are causing, me to think about Church and what it means to be The Church in these villages, and indeed what it means to be The Church. We had, a couple of weeks ago, a thought provoking and successful Mission Community Away Day which contained a Bible Study on Ephesians 4 and some discussions of the marks of a healthy Church (the Natural Church Development (NCD) version rather than the somewhat narrow and negative Reformed Church version, but that's a discussion for another time and one I really can't be bothered with as I disagree so very much with the nine point plan put forward by some more conservative commentators). It came out on that day, and has come out in meetings since, that we are called to be a generous Church, not a penny pinching, number crunching, self referential body obsessed with attendance and whether or not we want to pay for the ministry we receive. The reason for saying that is ...
