Richard Dawson, 3 September 2015

Whatever we do in church it will always be, or at least seem, a little artificial. Whenever we gather and do something organised or structured it is, to a certain extent, artificial. But this needn’t mean that it is either meaningless or wrong. Sports, games, music, so much that we do appears artificial to a certain extent and yet it has great value and meaning. Some of what we do at church may appeal to me and some may not but the key to it is the goal. What is the goal of meeting this way each week? I think the goal is to establish key values in our live both individually and as a community. Christian faith though it centres on certain beliefs is a practical faith in that it is worked out through how we live. We live in certain ways, believing that love is our highest goal, that grace is the fundamental way love is expressed and that forgiveness is a duty not just a choice. We live by virtue of a gift and therefore our lives must be fundamentally about giving, about generosity and we grow through our connection with the spiritual community which is church. This means we grow through relationship and so developing relational skills and confidence is another fundamental practice for us. Finally we believe that the true nature of our community is defined by God, a God who longs to draw close to us. Thus we set aside this time weekly as a sign that we believe we must set aside time in our own lives to allow ourselves to know this God. How we live our lives is a key to this part of our faith for there are practices which help us to know God. Things like slowing down deliberately each day to let ourselves hear God; developing some time when we can be completely alone; for it is in this emptiness that God can most easily be heard. Finding out what context best suits us for sensing God’s presence is also important. How we live makes such a difference to our faith.