Category Archives: Christ Church

Imagine Life on Earth from a Heavenly Perspective

On 25th May 1961, President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech before a joint session of Congress entitled, “Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs,”. Facing growing tension with Russia, JFK insisted the United States should set as a goal the “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth” by the end of the decade. Kennedy urged the U.S. to work diligently to lead the achievements of space travel because “in many ways [it] may hold the key to our future on earth.”

As the 1960s wore on scientists struggled with the enormity and complexity of delivering on that promise. But someone suggested they imagine they had already achieved their goal, and were standing on the moon looking back at earth. Then ask ‘how did we do it?’ And work backward instead of forward to achieve their goal. On 21st July 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon.

Our aim is not the moon but heaven. How are we going to get there? One of the Bible passages that has driven me in my ministry for 35 years is Ephesians 4:11-16. But yesterday for the first time the Lord  challenged me to imagine we had already attained that goal and change the tense from future to past.

“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so… the body of Christ has been built up. We have all reached unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and we have become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ. Now we are no longer infants… instead, speaking the truth in love, we have in all things grown up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, has grown and built itself up in love, as each part did its work.” (Ephesians 4:11-16).

What difference does the tense make to the passage? Everything. You know, when we get to heaven it will be past tense. So what does being mature look like? Feel like? That simple change from future aspiration to past achievement changes everything. Instead of seeing our 2020 Vision and Five Year Plan as aspirational, let us meditate on what it will be like, God willing, to have achieved the goals God has for us. Then lets look back from the vantage point of heaven with a renewed determination to help one another become what we already are in Christ.

As we look back and give thanks for what the Lord has achieved among us last year, I can look forward to the exciting adventures God has in store for the year ahead and above all, look up to my Lord and Saviour who equips us with everything we need to do his will.

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Our ultimate vision is, that “we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature.” (Ephesians 4:13)

 In 2014, my prayer for you is that you will indeed become mature, serving one another willingly, joyfully and wholeheartedly, investing all the gifts and talents God has entrusted to you, to build up his church in and beyond Virginia Water, to his praise and glory.

Let us never forget, the Church is the only hope for the world. This Easter I invite you to renew your commitment to Jesus Christ and to his church family here and be part of this exciting adventure in the coming year. May the Lord bless you and those you love.

The Stones Cry Out: Saturday 8th February: Garth Hewitt and Yasmine Perni

Stones Cry Out 8 February

The film, “The Stones Cry Out” is being shown at Christ Church, Virginia Water, on Saturday 8th February at 7:30pm. Refreshments will be served from 7:00pm.

christian-singer-songwriter-garth-hewitt-652377482-2491467Yasmine Perni, the producer, will be with us and answer questions after the film is shown and Troubedor, singer and song writer, Garth Hewitt will be singing songs of Palestine.

The Stones Cry Out gives a detailed account of the historical, cultural, and political place occupied by Christians in the recent history of the Palestinian nation, and in its struggle against colonialism.

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Covering a broad sweep of history, from 1948 to the present day, Yasmine’s documentary includes interviews with preeminent leaders, scholars, and activists, and conveys some of the very specific challenges faced by Christians living in Palestine today.

DID-YOU-KNOW

Check out the website The Stones Cry Out and on Facebook

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Watch the trailer with Archbishop Elias Chacour here

There is no charge or tickets, but a retiring collection will be taken to help cover Yasmine’s travel expenses.

Christ Church, Christchurch Road, Virginia Water, GU25 4LD

A Time for Everything

You cannot see it, smell it, hear it or feel it but its all around us. We live by it. Some have more, some have less. Some do more with it, some do less. Some are passionate about squeezing the very last drop out of it, while for others it is a living death sentence. Its fresh every day but we can use it only once. What is it? Time. When we are young, (and especially in a boring lesson at school) time can seem to drag so slowly. As we grow older, we never seem to have enough. We mark time with birthdays, anniversaries, centuries, millenniums, light years and of course grey hairs – a sign that time is running out. Time is ticking away all the time and we are all growing older because of it. The Bible says

The length of our days is seventy years– or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.” (Psalm 90:10).

The older we get the more this verse seems to makes sense, or at least it does for me. Average life expectancy in some parts of the world is only in the 30’s, while in Western Europe it is in the upper 70’s. This week I read that baby girls born in Britain today could expect an average life expectancy of 100.

If the average life expectancy in the UK is presently 75, that means we have on average 52×75 weeks on earth = 3,900 weeks. Some of us will have less, some will have more. If you are aged 10 you have on average 3,380 weeks left; 20 = 2,860; 30 = 2,340; 40 = 1,820; 50 = 1,300; 60 = 780; 70 = 260; If you are over 75 you have beaten the average!

A Time for Everything from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.

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Richard Bewes Joins Christ Church Team

Richard_Pam_BewesWe are delighted to announce that Richard Bewes OBE, the former Rector of All Souls, Langham Place, will be joining the preaching team at Christ Church. Richard and his wife Pam, moved to Virginia Water in December and have joined Christ Church family.

Following the fruitful ministry of John Stott and Michael Baughen, as leader of All Souls, the international nature of the congregation (embracing some 70 nationalities) continued to develop with some 2,500 attending every Sunday. During Richard’s time, the facility to listen to sermons online was achieved, and a ‘virtual weekly global internet congregation’ stands as one of the many legacies of his time in post.

He chaired the Church of England Evangelical Council throughout the 1990s. Stepping down from All Souls in November 2004, Richard was awarded the OBE by the Queen in the New Year of 2005.

Richard has been strongly involved with the evangelistic and humanitarian work of African Enterprise, and is also on the British Board of The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and its sister work of Samaritan’s Purse.

Visit Richard’s website here and sermon website here

On Being a Good Neighbour

 

the-good-samaritan-after-delacroix-1890-Vincent-van-Gogh-1920x840Did you realise that once broadcast, TV signals begin an endless journey outward into the cosmos at the speed of light?  That means our earliest TV broadcasts are probably travelling through star systems more than 400 trillion miles from earth. Do you realise that our neighbours living 60 light years away are watching the first episodes of the Lone Ranger in black and white. 50 light years away they are now watching Bonanza. 40 light years away they have moved on to the original Star Trek series. 30 light years away they are able to watch the Dukes of Hazzard. Just 20 light years away it’s the Sopranos. Those only 10 light years away are being blessed by countless episodes of Lost. Scientists tell us that the further away your neighbours live, the more likely they are to hold outdated, inaccurate and stereotypical views of you.

Does it worry you what your neighbours think about you? What impression do you give them? Is it accurate or a distortion? When they see you coming, are they welcoming or do they lock the door and hide? Does it matter what impression you give? What about the people next door? Over the road? Down the street?

The people you meet every day on the train? The people you work with? It may have been questions like this that prompted a certain lawyer to ask Jesus the question, “who is my neighbour?” meaning, “who do I bear some responsibility for and who can I ignore?” We answer this question all the time whether we consciously think about it or not. We answer this question by the way we treat other people. In reply to the lawyers question, Jesus told a story, a parable.

A parable is simply a story with a kick in the tail, a story in which we find ourselves an active if unwitting participant rather than an objective observer or innocent passerby. This parable of Jesus is as topical and controversial today as it was to those who first heard him. Jesus’ audience would have been very familiar with news of hapless victims, robbed or murdered on that very road. Even today the road from Jerusalem down to Jericho isn’t the kind of place to take the family on a Sunday afternoon picnic. So Jesus had their attention. Christ talked about violence and danger – and we certainly have plenty of that today. He talked about crime, racial discrimination, fear and hatred. In this parable we also see neglect and concern, we see love and mercy. We know very well what the parable says, but what does it mean?

The key to understanding the parable is in the wounded traveller’s condition. It is not a curious incidental. Jesus says he was unconscious and naked.  These details are skillfully woven into the story to create the tension that is at the heart of the drama.  The Middle Eastern world was made up of various ethnic-religious communities.

You could identify a stranger coming toward you in two ways. By their accent and their clothing. In the 1st Century the various ethnic communities within Palestine used an amazing array of dialects and languages. In addition to Hebrew, one could find settled communities using Aramaic, Greek, Samaritan, Phoenician, Arabic, Nabatean, and Latin. Not without reason was the north known as the Galilee of the Gentiles. No one travelling a major highway in Palestine could be sure that the stranger he might meet would be a fellow Jew. But a short greeting would reveal their language if their clothing had not already given away their nationality. But what of the man in this story? Jesus tells us he is stripped of his outer clothes and is unconscious. He is thereby reduced to a mere human being. It was such a person that the robbers left beside the road. So who will turn aside to offer aid?

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Sexual Ethics in the 21st Century: Canon Dr Chris Sugden

Does the Church have anything useful to say on this controversial topic? Canon Dr Chris Sugden is an ordained minister of the Church of England. After an assistant pastorship in Leeds, where he also worked in the BBC, Chris and his wife, Elaine, spent 6 years with their children in India. In 1983 they returned to England and helped establish the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. (OCMS).

He is Executive Secretary of Anglican Mainstream, a network of evangelical and orthodox networks in the United Kingdom, which is part of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) and Global Anglican Future (GAFCON).