{"id":1550,"date":"2020-06-16T10:28:13","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T09:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1550"},"modified":"2020-07-15T13:03:36","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T12:03:36","slug":"message-from-the-minister-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/?p=1550","title":{"rendered":"Message from the Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Sunday 14<sup>th<\/sup> June 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dear all,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hope and pray that this letter finds you\nwell and in good spirits.&nbsp; The gospel\nreading for this coming Sunday is Matthew 9: 35 \u2013 10: 8 and always takes me\nback to quite a number of years ago now when I was preparing for a job\ninterview.&nbsp; I saw an advert in the\nMethodist Recorder for a Lay Worker post in the Doncaster Circuit and applied.&nbsp; What is remarkable is I managed to even\nthough there was no contact telephone number or email address on the original\nadvert but that is another story!&nbsp; I also\nlater found out they already had someone in mind for the post and wanted to\ndiscourage applications.&nbsp;&nbsp; This was part\nof their plan but God had other ideas!&nbsp;\nAfter being shortlisted for an interview, I was informed that as a part\nof it, I would have to do a presentation on the verses 37 to 38 in Matthew\nchapter 9.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The wider context to the reading is that\nJesus has assembled a team of people to work with Him to help take His mission\nforward.&nbsp; We read that Jesus had been\nmoving through the towns and villages proclaiming the good news and healing the\nsick but he noticed that the people were like a sheep without a shepherd.&nbsp; He then informs the disciples:&nbsp; \u2018the harvest is plentiful but the workers are\nfew.&nbsp; Ask the Lord of the harvest,\ntherefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.\u2019&nbsp; Matthew then goes on to list the twelve\ndisciples and Jesus instructs His disciples what to do.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Focussing on verses 38 to 38, what do we\nlearn for our own context?&nbsp; Well firstly,\nnotice that we are instructed to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out\nworkers.&nbsp; Therefore our mission and\nministry as a church should be rooted and grounded in prayer thus guided and\nguarded by the Holy Spirit.&nbsp; Secondly,\nthis notion that the potential harvest is rich but the workers are few.&nbsp; We all know what that feels like!&nbsp; But at the same time, we must not lose heart\nand keep giving our concerns to God and looking to Him for inspiration.&nbsp; One thing which I have been really struck by\nduring this pandemic is as a church we do a lot but how much is directly\nrelated to what we are meant to be doing and second how does it fit into our\nwider mission strategy.&nbsp; If after this is\nall over, we simply revert back to doing everything how we used to, I think it\nwill be a great opportunity wasted.&nbsp; We\nare now at a crossroads as we begin to ease out of lockdown, we have an\nopportunity to re-imagine the church and how we move forwards, let us grasp it\nand embrace it.&nbsp;&nbsp; But why do we need to\ndo it because as the scripture said people are like a \u2018sheep without a\nshepherd\u2019 and one thing which the current crisis has brought to the fore is how\nmuch people are searching for answers and fulfilment in life.&nbsp; The presentation was a success and I got the\njob, but the work continues.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May the Lord of the Harvest bless you as\nyou labour in His harvest field,&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every blessing, Andrew.&nbsp; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sunday 14th June 2020 Dear all, I hope and pray that this letter finds you well and in good spirits.&nbsp; The gospel reading for this coming Sunday is Matthew 9: 35 \u2013 10: 8 and always takes me back to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1551,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550\/revisions\/1551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northwoodmethodistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}