In the comparative safety of the Sunday morning gathering we can explore what we believe but if we're careful enough we probably don't need to worry too much about what it might mean in the wider world. But when I stand in the garden of the local pub, "We believe in the gospel" takes on a whole fresh dimension.
To begin with, if I don't really believe that God has something to say at that moment, I have nothing to say. If I do not believe that gospel offers the best context through which to process the emotions and questions about a young man's decision to take his own life, I have no context to offer.
The gospel has to be good news, not just in church, but everywhere I go. Nothing new there then, but there is something that nags away in the back of my mind. I guess I can't get away from the feeling that the afternoon was a more gospel-like event than the morning and I wonder how far we've sanitised Jesus and made faith safe for the few who know and inaccessible for the many who don't.
We will keep doing what we do on Sunday mornings, not because we always have, but because it serves the people of God. But Sunday mornings are not the goal of the church, Sunday afternoon is closer to the goal if that goal is to be a good news people in a bad news world.
I did church twice on Sunday. We may not have sung songs in the afternoon, we may not have used a clever piece of video to illustrate a point and in the afternoon I don't think anyone would have suggested we were a congregation gathered to worship God. But we prayed, we invited God to touch hearts and lives.
Maybe I'm crazy or confused or both, but I can't help thinking about these things.
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