COMMUNITY

Today I visited a family who are about to bury their mother- they have little connection with the church apart from the fact that their mother paid into weekly envelopes. Then I went to see a lady who has been very committed to both the church and to Jesus Christ and she and her family are coming to terms with the fact that she will not recover from cancer and will die before very long. Then I heard of the terrible news that a boy of 4 was killed on one of those mini scrambler bikes. It was not a good day, from a human point of view. At the home of the family who are burying their mother tomorrow I discovered that they were closely connected wioth another family whose mother I burried a few months ago. I have been at Crumlin Road for a little less than two years but I have had many funerals. I was amazed at just how well I have been accepted in this and many other homes at such a time as this. Even though this first family have had so little contact with the church they appreciate someone praying with and for them. At the momenet I am asking myself and the congregation is also asking how we can build an indigionious congregation of believers which will really cut the ice. This community has seen and personally experienced much suffering over the last 30 years. We are sitting ina community which is an inter-face between Roman Catholics and Protestants in urban Belfast- within 100 yards from the front door of the church we have "the other side" and even though we are separated by walls and other barriers we are really evry close. This community is a community of poverty and yet there is much richness, honesty and closeness often missing from thenmore prosperous communities. yet we also have to say that within this community there is also division and mistrust and even hatred between thre two major communities and between the other sub-set communities. How will God build His church in a community which is often thought of as "God forsaken" and where so mnay of the Christians have left for the subberbs? This community is ranked number one in the top ten of the most deprived in Northern Ireland and that means- teenage pregnancies, broken marriages, unemployment, gang warfare, low educational standards. How can we empower the community or play our part in it with so little by way of human resources? In this community the para militaries will supply the community with cheap, counterfeit, goods such - cigarettes to smoke, DVDs to watch, and drugs to lift the mind of what is going on in the real world and they can even supply the odd loan at extortionate rates, of course. Jesus and the whole Judeao Christian ethic places a lot of emphasis upon freeing those under bondage and empowering the poor and down trodden. We will not make the kind of impact upon our society until we, the Chriatians, begin to live and serve as He did. HERE ARE A FEW THOUGHTS INCARNATIONAL THEOLOGY Like many other urban areas Belfast does not have the best reputation and yet there are people living in these streets who, beneath the rough, loud and straight exterior, there lies a warm-hearted people who want to love and be loved. There are people who will not be found in our churches but who are remarkably normal for people living in an abnormal situation. We need to love these people as Jesus loves them and as he loves us. For too long the Christians have fled the city- this has to stop. Are there people who will take the risk and move back into the city and into inter-face areas? Are the Christians in our churches prepared to get our hands dirty for the sake of Christ and His mission? If we are happy to stay pure we will be able to stand back and not get involved in the dirty work of associating with the publicana dn sinners but that was not the way of Jesus. Can we stand back and leave the para military war lords to rule the community? How do we show even these men and women that Christ died for them because He loved, loves, them? Why is it that the churches in the subburbs are so wealthy? Why is it so difficult for inner city churches to find ministers who are "called" to serve in them while the subburbs have little problem? In this area we have some churches which have been looking for ministers for several years and why is it that the body of christ is prepared to allow some churh bodies to pay twice as much to their minister than churches in the uraban congregations? How much are we prepared to give for mission in the city? How creative are we prepared to be in reaching out with the gospel in the city? Our congregation have begun a process whereby we will take a long look at the community in which we live and at the congregation to see if we can minister the whole gospel to the whole person but at the end of the process we will need much more resources - that translates on the ground to mean more money, more manpower, more creativity and much more patience and endurance-but with God all things are possible. The church is not a building nor is it a denomination it is a people and we must be people orientated while remaining God centred. Our prayer is that God will show us how to be a light in the darkness and how to be salt in our society- Belfast is the place where God has placed us for this time and these streets are our streets, these people are our people and we must persuade men to turn to Christ but do so in a way which is as real people- we can be very doctrinally sound and chose our words and actons very carefully butb if we do not love the people God has given us then we are in trouble and thr trouble with this is that all the people in our area are not nice people- they smoke and they drink and they swear and they fight but then so do we, if we would but be honest. We need help. I wonder if there are those out there who are ready and willing to help us for the sake of Christ?