After attending church at St Peter’s Tamworth, it was a strange experience to go home to bed and wake up for… church (again). For a small moment we were like the first century believers who “every day devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex” (Acts 2:46, is in-text referencing ok? where’s zotero?).
We met just after sunrise to pray with some godly women from the 8:15am service.
Then Ross brought us a powerful word from John 17, encouraging us towards unity and prayerful dependence for God’s glory. Half the team had brunch with those saints, while the other half turned around into the 10:15am family servce.
This time Marty preached John 17 to us, emphasising that Jesus’ relationship with: the Father, His disciples, and us are each about bringing God glory.
Tom P supervised the team as they prepared dinner for later that night and we were reminded that mission can take many forms. Cutting carrots is, in its own way, an act of practical love which the gospel has produced in our lives.
Our first major team meeting was in the afternoon. We surveyed the landscape of the week ahead (“Everything the light touches…”) and prayed for God’s help and strength. Keith reminded us from 1 Corinthians 3 that we have the privilege of being Christ’s fellow workers, but that God is the one who gives the growth.
Then on to 6pm church, this time Anton preached from John 17. He urged us that at the heart of our lives and prayers should be the cross of Jesus and the glory of God. Afterwards we shared a meal with new friends (and familiar pieces of carrot).
And as day 2 came to a close – and we returned to the hospitable homes of relative strangers – we couldn’t help but reflect on the all that we had seen and heard at church this weekend.
We had seen more than 400 people come through the doors of St Peter’s. We had sung praises to Jesus alongside them, heard the word of God read and proclaimed. We had knelt beside them in communion, pointing each other back to the cross, and had come before our Father in prayer. We had shared meals, encouraged one another with old truths, and heard new stories of God’s work in their lives.
It all amounted to a humbling reminder that we are “those who will believe in Jesus through the apostles’ word”. We are those Jesus prayed for the night before He died, and those brought to unity becuause He died. All glory be to God!
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