Page 5 - Contact Autumn 2020

One thing I have noticed is that on Sunday
mornings there are still runners on the streets,
the McDonald’s drive through will always have
people queued. Not that we are surprised;
when people want something, they will find a
way to go do it. If I can ask a direct question, do
you want to come back to church? Perhaps you
would love to come back but feel it’s unsafe.
I can say with all honesty that the environment
is as safe, if not more, as any that I have
experienced. You perhaps feel a little more
exposed in a distanced environment. You say ‘I
can’t sing’. We can all sing, some are just slightly
better than others (what’s more, the face
coverings mean that it will probably be
kept between you and the Lord for the
foreseeable). So, sing away and lose any idea
that your standard of performance hinders
your praise being acceptable to the God you
love when you come to him in true faith. You
maybe say I’m not that fussed on coming back.
I can find what I want online from various
sources and I can pick and choose what I like.
It’s comfy, it’s easier. It’s less hassle.
Before we actually returned to church as a
I will leave the implications of that answer to family I had been part of the Welcome Team at
you, save to say that the gathered church is the the service and HK Kids so had some idea what
body and the bride of Christ. If we don’t want to it would be like for Kara in the McCaughey Hall
meet, we need to ask whether we are actually and for the rest of us in the service.
in the body at all.
We had made the most of lockdown and the
I truly believe that the church is the hope of our online services as family time so it was
town, our nation, and beyond; where the Word, important for us for our return to the church
song, prayer, community and fellowship come building to be a family event too even if we
together in response to the grace lavished on weren’t all going to be in the same room at
us. We are undone and put back together by it. the same time anymore.
Christ held nothing back from us. He came to
the cliff edge as a sinless man, and walked over It is not, cannot and will not (at least for the
the edge, sacrificed for our sin. What efforts he foreseeable future) be the same as it was
went to, to come down to us and bring us back before lockdown but now that we have been
to him. There is nothing more He could have back several times it is surprising how much
done to buy us and bring us to him. And he we have missed corporate worship.
gives us the honour, the privilege, the charge
of being his bride and witness on this earth. It feels safe, like being part of a different kind
Do we view the church as essential? Can we of family again – our church family.
spare an hour on a Sunday morning? To put it
another way, do you prefer your coffee and As the former doors now the wall covering in
scones at home, or do you want to come and the vestibule says “I was glad when they said
partake in the more nourishing banquet with unto me ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord’”.
the body of Christ?
Peter Brown
Andrew Dickson