For all of the horrible things this Covid19 pandemic has brought us, including premature death, fear, economic impact including losing jobs and businesses, most people have been able to identify something positive in the midst of this lockdown. Whilst I understand that many people will face plenty of challenges, one of the gifts that many people are aware of is the gift of time this has given. Time and space to stop and reflect. (Caveat of course for those working in health, care and other vital services in the battle against the virus, and especially those parents with younger children - we salute all of you and recognise you don’t have much time to stop and reflect!)

However, whether you feel hard pressed on every side, or you have more space than ever before, I hope you are making space to try and stop and reflect. Especially for those with more time than normal, I hope and pray you aren’t just filling your time up with more Netflix, cooking, social media to drown out the sound of silence, but that in the silence you are pausing, resting, thinking, contemplating, and through all of this hearing the voice of God. (Btw nothing wrong with a bit of diversion therapy obviously!) If so, I’d be very keen to know what it is he is saying to you.

For me, I’m thoroughly embracing this time, especially in seeking God for what he has for us as a church. When I stepped into this role, one of the things I felt God speak to me about was not rushing, but taking time to hear his voice for the future of the church. I’m not brilliant at patience, nor am I brilliant at hearing God’s voice in a crystal clear manner. I tend to be a ‘have an idea and get on with it’ kind of guy. But this, well this has forced me to do exactly what God has asked me to do, and I, for one, am glad of the help.

I wonder if you might join me in asking him what he has in store for us as a church? What are your hopes and dreams for the Light church? What are your hopes and dreams for the church across Bradford? I don’t believe I’ve been called to this role simply to maintain the status quo. I don’t want to big myself up, but I’ve never been a status quo kind of guy (though you have to admit ‘Rockin all over the world’ is a classic.) I believe God has so much more he wants to do in this city. I believe there are disciples to be made, churches to planted, lives to be turned around and transformed. I also know there will be no magic bullet, and no overnight success.

So, for my part, I’m spending time connecting with other church leaders that I know to try and learn from some of the best I know and discover what has worked for them, and also what else have they seen working elsewhere, here in the UK or beyond. I’m spending time listening to an awful lot (If you’d like to join me, then I’d highly recommend a podcast called ‘This Cultural Moment.’) I’m reading lots too, but most importantly I’m also pausing. Being still and making space to see what the spirit might be saying to us as a church. Thinking, praying, journalling.

I don’t think it was chance that I started off this year by calling us to focus on growing a strong family. I never imagined it would take not meeting together to, in many ways, bring us closer, but I sense it has. Weird. I don’t think it was an accident that one of my final preaches before all of this was the value of meeting in homes versus large gatherings - as I expect we’ll have quite a lot of months of that coming up. I also said, we’d take time this year to focus on discipleship, and really when I ask - ‘what do you want the church to become’ the question I’m really asking is ‘what kind of disciples should we as a church become?’

So, in the same way that you are hopefully stopping, praying and considering what life might look for you post Covid - please do the same for our church. Then either drop me an email, or wait for some upcoming chances to to talk about it online and process it together.

Matt

P.S. Do be in prayer for me as well as I process all that God is saying through my reading, conversations and prayer.

Well, life as we know it is being put on pause, as we respond, as a nation, to ensure those most at risk are protected from Covid-19 and the Health Service has the best chance of handling all that lies ahead.

Be a people of irrepressible hope and unexplainable peace

Let's be brutally honest about it, this is a crisis that is going to cause huge uncertainty for so many, a big rise in anxiety, be that around health, finances or just sheer social isolation. I do believe there is much that God can and will teach us through this time, I believe there are opportunities for his spirit to move, but let's not be blasé about it. It will be tough, it will be a trial, but let's rise up, let's be the church and be a people of irrepressible hope and unexplainable peace.

Justin Welby wrote the following in a statement today - “Our life is going to be less characterised by attendance at church on Sunday, and more characterised by the prayer and service we offer each day." Yes! Come on! About time! Maybe this is exactly what we need?

However, I am truly impacted by the thought of so much isolation. Maybe because I'm such an extrovert, but I am not looking forward to this one bit. I can't imagine what it must be like for those who are already alone, or for whom going to work, or to a coffee morning, or church on a Sunday is the main time they get human contact. For those of you familiar with CS Lewis's book 'The Great Divorce' he paints hell as a place where people become more and more isolated from each other, because of their sin and selfishness. Isolation is a scheme of the evil one, and we already live in a world more isolated than ever before. More people live alone, more people only engage on line rather than face to face, and it's about to get worse. My fear is that this isolation we are all about to experience becomes the norm for the future. My irrepressible hope and my faith filled prayer, however, is that we all realise more than ever just how much we need each other, and this isolation makes us work harder than ever in the future to build community and pull down the chains of isolation. 

So, what lies in store for us as the Light church? 

Church gatherings

Well, it is very clear that the most loving thing to do is to stop meeting together and government guidance is beyond clear. All of the government stats show that isolating ourselves will potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives. This has to be worth it. So, in line with pretty much the whole of the UK church, we have postponed all church meetings until further notice, which includes all of our small groups, kids, youth etc in line with the government's mandate on 'non-essential' contact. 

What we will be doing:

• This Sunday 22nd March - 7pm - Light a candle in your window and join an online prayer meeting as we join with our nation . I’d encourage Light groups to meet in smaller groups online to pray for our church, our city and our nation. Everyone else will be able to access an online prayer meeting led by me. Links etc to come nearer the time.
• From Monday 23rd March - 1pm, as you sit down for lunch, every weekday, join me and others on line to pray - feel free to drop in and out. Again links etc to come.
• From Sunday 29th March - 10:30am - we will have a Facebook live gathering, some worship, a short message, some prayer, to keep us uniting as a church.

Pastoral care of the church

Please email me your prayer needs and practical needs that have come about as a result of Covid-19. Tarzan and I will be working closely to coordinate the pastoral response and care of our church family. We will do all we can to see that needs are met from within the family of the church.

I especially want to hear from you if:

1. You are self employed or on zero hour contracts and your business is going to be badly affected. We have means to help you, so please tell us.
2. Your work is looking very shaky and you fear for your job. 
3. You are already in self isolation and would like some support
4. You are already feeling the anxiety and would like someone to chat to.

Foodbank

Foodbank is offering a reduced service of just food parcels with no wrap around care of signposting, hot meal etc. We have made a decision as a church to not only do our best to keep Foodbank open, but truly step up our capacity to deliver, to meet what is going to be an ever increasing need. We’ll be sending more information out on this very soon. 

Debt Centre and Job Club

Our Debt Centre has rightly been advised by CAP to make no home visits for the forseeable future, and our Job Club has also been advised to close until further notice. Gaz, Eilidh and team will be doing what they can to support existing clients and members from afar - please do pray for the team and those they are helping.

TLG School

Along with all schools they will be closing from this Friday. The team will be remaining in contact with the young people and supporting them to learn from home. Please pray for the team and the students.

Inn Churches

The Inn Churches team will end the winter night shelter this weekend, which means our week will no longer be needed. Juli gave me an encouraging update that they’ve managed to house most people already, with just a few more to go. Praise God!

I am absolutely convinced that with the right heart and attitude, this overwhelming challenge can be turned into an opportunity. We pray ‘your kingdom come’ and all over the place we see good deeds and selfless acts springing up everywhere. Sure, the darkness of panic buying and selfish acts make the headlines too, but personally I think the that goodness and kindness (fruits of the spirit) are what is truly hitting home. Let’s thank God for that and do all we can, where possible, to contribute the one thing that we have more than anyone - irrepressible hope and unexplainable peace.

Matt

P.S. Here's that video link for you again.... https://vimeo.com/398805170

P.P.S. I thought this article was really thought provoking.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/opinion/coronavirus-church-close.html?fbclid=IwAR0i1_wgZBC1bRWsNCUhCrcDeMnc7v3VipE_HV_dfSNZp5G41PhqvhfGcC8

Dear church,

Well, no one is talking about Brexit anymore are they? As the Coronavirus dominates the headlines, we have seen stock markets crash, and a whole country of 60m people quarantined and not allowed to meet in public. (Quite a remarkable decision, given that it is in response to 10,000 people having the virus, roughly 0.017% of the population.) I can’t imagine what it must be like to be in government and have to make those sorts of decisions, with all the possible consequences that go along with it.

In the UK there are currently 382 known cases, that’s about 1 in 157,000 people. So, clearly there is no need to be too worried now, but it makes sense to take precautions, and it seems pretty clear that the number of cases will rise dramatically over the coming weeks. Let’s be in prayer that the rise is not as dramatic as it has been elsewhere. Let’s also pray for those countries less equipped to deal with the virus.

As a church we want to be both full of faith whilst being sensible and respecting all of the advice coming from the government. It is also an amazing opportunity to be selfless and show compassion to those who need it.

For now, nothing much will change as we meet on Sundays. It has been so encouraging seeing the church still packed full on a Sunday, especially having spoken to a pastor friend who told me that his church was half full on Sunday! We will however do a few practical things to reduce risk such as:

• No hugs or handshakes on the door! I know, some of you will miss it, some of you won’t, but it’s a simple thing. It will just be smiles and the odd elbow bump. One thing to say on this, is please respect this. I was in a cafe this morning, and happened to know the owner, he offered me his hand, I politely suggested an elbow bump, to which he responded ‘Don’t be silly’ and went on to shake my hand. Thankfully I’m not that bothered, but some people are, so please, even if you think it’s over the top, do respect other people’s right to protect themselves.
• You will likely see some difference in how we serve tea and coffee, so as to reduce the number of mutual contact points, e.g. we normally all use the same teaspoons, milk jugs etc.
• Hosting teams and refreshment teams will be taking extra care to wash hands over and above normal.

I guess, all we’d ask you to do, is follow all of the normal advice coming from the government. Wash your hands well. If you’re feeling unwell, stay at home. Don’t cough over people etc.

If, over time, it does get worse, then we will of course re-visit whether large Sunday gatherings are appropriate, and if not, well we’ll just have to take it as a sign from God that home church is the way forward ???? And, if you feel you don’t want to risk it and come to Sunday church meetings, then do go onto facebook live and continue to journey with our ‘Love one another’ series.

As well as seeing this as a national challenge we all need to respond to, let’s also see it as a brilliant chance to demonstrate our faith. The early Christians were famous for being the only ones who would help the sick in early plagues that were 100 times worse than this. So, why not ask God if there is a neighbour who needs your help, someone elderly or infirm, who could do with some shopping getting in? And if you are fearful, Psalm 91 is always a cracker to meditate on.

Stay safe out there Light Church!!

Matt