[Friday's Devotional] - Releasing Life

Today we complete our look at the 8 Essential Qualities found in healthy churches, we have considered Empowering Leadership, Gift-Based Ministry, Passionate Spirituality, Inspiring Worship, Holistic Small Groups, Need-Oriented Outreach and Loving Relationships. Finally we come to Effective Structures.

The bible doesn't give a model or blueprint for church structures and an historical church like the Church of England has some pretty rigid and inflexible structures that we can do nothing about. But within those limitations a healthy church will have Effective Structures that enable it to fulfil all its functions and responsibilities well. Structures that will also be flexible and ready to change as circumstances change. Too often structures and old ways of doing things can become a barrier to growth so we need to be constantly asking ourselves if these structures are relevant to today and how might things be done better and more effectively.

Is there something in your life which needs to change? Are you still doing the same things but hoping for a different result? If we can see areas in our lives where there needs to be improvement or something different, we need to change what we are doing or how we are doing it. Is God prompting you right now about an area in your life? What will you do about it with His help?

When a church is healthy in these 8 areas we have been considering it can only grow. Just as a plant with the right environment – with water, heat, light and nutrients - it can only grow. In my new role I will be coming alongside church leaders and leaderships and helping them address these issues in their churches.

Please pray that God will continue to prepare me for this new role and pray for the family of m2o as it goes on seeking to be faithful to God's calling upon each member – to live the life, share the faith and build the body.

Martin Saxby

[Thursday's Devotional] - Expressing Love

We have nearly finished our look at the 8 Essential Qualities found in healthy churches, we have considered Empowering Leadership, Gift-Based Ministry, Passionate Spirituality, Inspiring Worship and Holistic Small Groups. Today we consider Need-Oriented Outreach and Loving Relationships.

We are not all called to be Billy Grahams or J Johns but we are all called to share the love of Jesus. This is Need-Oriented Outreach. The world is tired of being told what to do and what to believe but people never tire of being loved and Need-Oriented Outreach is expressing the love of Jesus by meeting the needs of the people in our communities. Healthy churches have all been found to be doing this in some way or another and it is demonstrated in much of what we do on Overslade and through ministries such as Hope4, Foodbank, Healing on the Streets, CAP, Street Pastors and so on.

We can all play a part in something, using our gifts and passion to express the love of Jesus. What is it that you do?

In healthy churches there is a high level of fun and laughter evident and these are outwards signs of the next quality characteristic, Loving Relationships. Authentic love endows a church with a much greater magnetic power, real love spreads a scent that few can resist. Jesus encouraged us to make sure we were in a right relationship with each other, and maybe right now he is reminding you of someone you need to say sorry to and inject a bit of laughter back into your relationship with them. He will help you to do it!

Martin Saxby

[Wednesday's Devotional] - Experiencing God and Life

As we have been looking at the 8 Essential Qualities found in healthy churches we have thought about Empowering Leadership, Gift-Based Ministry and Passionate Spirituality. Today we move on to Inspiring Worship and Holistic Small Groups.

There is no right or wrong style of worship, what is seen in healthy churches is that those who attend, find the worship an inspiring or uplifting experience. So the next quality is Inspiring Worship. Rather than being an obligation or spiritual duty, worship is something they would not miss. When we did a survey on this at m2o a few years ago we discovered that a significant proportion of people did not prepare themselves internally for worship and so arrived in church in a hurried and distracted frame of mind.

Very often what we get out of worship is in direct proportion to what we put into it. Try to find space to prepare yourself for your encounter with God each week.

We have had home groups or small groups at m2o for longer than most people can remember but for some it can be a mixed experience. Research has shown that healthy churches have Holistic Small Groups where people not only discuss the bible and learn from books or the leader but actually apply the biblical lessons to the questions members have about everyday lives. And more than that, they do all the church does but on a smaller scale – pastoral support, prayer, worship, outreach and using one another's gifts.

What could you bring to your Small Group to help it become more holistic, or how could you help other groups become as good as yours?

Martin Saxby

[Tuesday's Devotional] - Passion at Work and Worship

Today I'm going to continue our look at the 8 Essential Qualities found in healthy churches.

Yesterday we thought about Empowering Leadership, today we move on to Gift-Based Ministry and Passionate Spirituality.

Gift-Based Ministry is at the centre of the Network Course that many of you have done over the years. Getting to understand the way that God has made us, recognising not only our spiritual gifts but the things we really care about and our personality and using them to make sure we are fulfilled in our service in church and making a difference in people's lives. It's no good someone with a passion for older people helping in the children's groups or for someone gifted in administration to have to teach a group of teenagers. Churches grow when people are doing what God has called and equipped them for.

What ministry are you involved in? Is it fulfilling, using your gifts? If not, don't just jack it in, but talk to one of the church leaders about how you might be better used. If it is fulfilling, tell someone how great it is to be doing what you are doing!

We can get all sorts of ideas about what is meant by Passionate Spirituality but it doesn't mean someone swinging from the chandeliers in exuberant worship. Passion is not necessarily shown in an outward display, it is something going on inside us, something we care deeply about. In healthy churches people are passionate about their faith, about Jesus and about living for him.

How would you rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10? Pray today that the Holy Spirit would re-ignite your desire for Jesus and for serving Him.

Martin Saxby

[Monday's Devotional] - Healthy Churches

I was almost as surprised three weeks ago to be announcing my departure from m2o as everyone else was to hear the announcement! From March next year I shall be working across the whole Diocese of Coventry as Healthy Churches Mentor. What is a healthy church?

A lot of research has been undertaken to establish what is the best environment for a church to grow in, to discern what makes for a healthy church. My new role will be sharing those insights and helping churches develop the 8 Essential Qualities found in healthy churches. And over the next 5 days we'll be looking together at these.

The first quality found in healthy churches is Empowering Leadership, that's not about the Vicar but about whether all those in leadership positions within the church empower others to fulfil their roles – to equip, support, motivate and work with others to help them become all that God wants them to be.

There are great examples of this in the bible – John the Baptist who prepared the way for Jesus (as we are remembering this week in Advent); Barnabas the encourager who enabled and supported Paul in his ministry, and of course we see it in Jesus in the way he chose his disciples, trained them up and then released them as the first leaders of the fledgling church.

Who can you empower by getting alongside them, supporting them, encouraging them and helping them to believe in themselves, so that they can become all God wants them to be? Pray for them now and how you can do that.

Martin Saxby

[Friday's Devotional] - Choosing the right pathway

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous

but the way of the wicked will perish. [Psalm 1: 6]

There really are only two paths: the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. This is a thread which ruins through the whole of the Bible: the narrow gate and the wide gate (Matthew 7: 13 – 14), the house built on the rock or on the sand (Matthew 7: 24 – 27), the life lived according to the sinful nature or by the Spirit (Romans 8: 13).

John Stott, commenting on Romans 8: 13, writes

Here is a verse which draws a clear contrast between life and death. It affirms that there is a kind of life which actually leads to death, and there is a kind of death which actually leads to life. So if we want to live a life of true fulfilment, we must put to death (radically reject) all evil.

Psalm 1 has contrasted the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. It is as if we have a choice between two pathways, one leading to life and one to death. Whatever we do, whatever decisions we make will lead us down one path or the other. But we will be moving – the Christian life is about accepting the invitation to follow Jesus, it is a journey. And moment by moment we will be making decisions which either keep us on the righteous path or lead us away from it.

Jesus said: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it." (Luke 9: 23, 24)

There are the two paths again. Jesus invites us all to die to ourselves and to follow him along the pathway of the righteous. It is the only way to be saved. Will you follow him?

Lord, give me strength for the journey. Help me, day by day, to follow Jesus.

David Long

[Thursday's Devotional] - Chaff that the wind blows away

Not so the wicked!

They are like chaff that the wind blows away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement,

nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. [Psalm 1: 4, 5]

Having described the righteous as a fruitful tree planted by streams of water, the psalmist now directs his attention to the wicked. The contrast could not be clearer.

To illustrate the plight of the wicked, the psalmist uses a picture from farming. After wheat had been harvested, the grain was separated from the straw by threshing – beating the wheat with a wooden flail on a hard floor. This also separated the edible grain from the inedible chaff. Finally, the grain and chaff were thrown into the air, and the wind carried off the chaff away.

While the righteous are fruitful and prosperous, drawing on God's provision, the psalmist describes the wicked as chaff – unwanted waste, rootless and useless.

And for those who set themselves up against God, who mock and who will not repent, those words – harsh as they are – describe what they ultimately become.

And judgement will be the time when the differences between the righteous and the wicked will become clear. The righteous will be condemned and will have no place among God's people.

Many people make no conscious decision to walk away from God and all he offers. Their condemnation will happen as the result of thousands of small decisions about ordinary things which they take over the course of their lives.

Lord, is there anything in my life that you see as chaff? Help me to repent.

David Long

[Wednesday's Devotional] - Water of Life

He is like a tree planted by streams of water,

which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither.

Whatever he does prospers. [Psalm 1: 3]

The psalmist continues to speak about the person of faith. In verse 3 he is compared to a tree, planted by streams of water.

The tree isn't just growing near a stream; it has been planted by streams of water, and from them it gets its life. The picture is of the Christian who has been put in exactly the right place to receive the spiritual food needed. And for us the water is the Holy Spirit who was given when we first believed in Christ and who lives in us.

I was reminded of these words from John 4:

Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

The well-watered tree is fruitful and its leaves do not wither – because its roots can absorb the water it needs.

How are you doing? Are you fruitful? Are your leaves withering? Many of us go through times when life is hard and when we produce very little fruit. Yet the source of our lives as Christians – the water, the Holy Spirit – is still readily available.

Lord, fill me with your Spirit. Help me to be fruitful.

David Long

[Tuesday's Devotional] - Delight in the Law

But his delight is in the law of the Lord

and on his law he meditates day and night. [Psalm 1: 2]

Yesterday we looked at one of the two paths through life: the path taken by the wicked, by sinners and by mockers. Today, the psalmist turns his attention to the path of life and those who follow it.

In contrast to those who live their lives by listening to the counsel of the wicked (v1), those who walk the path of life delight in the law of the Lord.

God's law is his direction and instruction. It is written down for us in the Bible. And it should be our absolute delight! The Message translates verse 2:

Instead you thrill to God's Word,

you chew on Scripture day and night.

The Lord reveals himself through his Word, so reading and studying it are the best ways we have of getting to know him better. Indeed if we are committed to living the Christian life we will want to take it seriously: for the Word to be our constant companion.

Might this be a wake up call for some of us? How often do we pick up the Bible and allow God to speak to us? How often have we studied a passage in depth or learned a passage by heart?

Lord, help me to give God's Word the attention it deserves. Help me to listen to you speaking.

David Long

[Monday's Devotional] - Blessed is the man...

Blessed is the man

who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

or stand in the way of sinners,

or sit in the seat of mockers;  Psalm 1: 1 [NIV]

This week we are going to look at Psalm 1. In some ways, Psalm 1 provides an introduction to the book of Psalms. It highlights the two different paths through life which it is possible for us to take.

The psalm begins with the word blessed or, in some translations, happy. It is the Hebrew equivalent of the word Jesus uses in the Beatitudes at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. How are we blessed? The rest of the psalm tells us: we find delight in God's word, we lead fruitful lives and we prosper. A better translation of blessed might be O the bliss!

The psalmist will say more about the positive aspects of faith in the next few verses, but for now, he concentrates on what the life of faith is not about. This is the path of life lived rebelling against God. By definition, the path of faith has no dealings with evil.

Notice the way in which we can become more and more engaged with evil unless we are wary. We might start by walking in the counsel of the wicked – thinking about doing evil things and listening to those who do evil. And this can lead to standing in the way of sinners – stopping our walk of faith and behaving in an evil way. And finally we can find ourselves sitting in the seat of mockers – belonging to those who practice evil and who ridicule faith and becoming comfortable in their presence.

Don't imagine that evil is always elsewhere, always somebody else's problem. The temptation to wander from the path of faith is always present. The poet W H Auden wrote,

Evil is unspectacular and always human,

And shares our bed and eats at our own table.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world wrote Paul [Romans 12: 2].

Lord, help me to walk the path of faith. Forgive me when I have listened to the voice of the wicked.

David Long