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Topic: Start (01/16/06)
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TITLE: Reflections | Previous Challenge Entry
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01/20/06 -
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Gradually though my thoughts travelled back some fifty years to when an adult neighbour called to ask my mum if I’d like to go to Sunday School. And so I felt led to simply share my personal testimony.
I had already been going to church with my dad for a while, but I felt I had ‘failed’ him somewhat by not managing to get in the choir with him and somehow, even to my childish mind, his church seemed to be about joining in with things – things that I was simply not equipped for or couldn’t understand.
At the time I suppose I was just responding to a neighbour’s interest and parental consent; it is only in retrospect that I can see what a tremendous journey was started that day when, somewhat nervously I walked with the lady in the ‘strange’ costume to the hall. That hall is, I understand, now due for demolition, but it will always be my spiritual home. The walls may fall or the place no longer be considered a suitable venue for modern worship, but the faith that was born there is still going strong.
The church I belong to has changed over the years too, and not always for the best perhaps; local authorities and government have interfered and changed or restricted the nature of the services it used to provide; internal pressures have modified some of the values I was taught. Now it’s fine for members to go to cinemas, watch TV and go dancing, while female members wear make-up and jewellery; things unthinkable in my youth, and many have abandoned the distinctive clothing we once wore for more fashionable attire.
Since that first day my own journey has taken me into the ministry of my church (and out again) and to a lifelong commitment to service and sharing the Gospel; but none of it would have happened without that start…
Even today I recall that the first thing we did at that Sunday school was to read the Bible, the second thing was to pray and only then did we get into singing, talking and so on (and the signing was fun – noisy and ‘gutsy’ perhaps some would call it, certainly not as ‘technical’ as at dad’s more ‘traditional’ church).
Anyway, the priorities given to Scripture and prayer were set from the start and I am glad they were. Music may change, forms of worship alter and theological positions develop, but it is important to put God’s word first and to get into the habit of talking to God – those have to be the constants in our spiritual journey, wherever it takes us.
I thank God for that life-changing start; for those who, under God, made it possible and for the unfading knowledge that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. “ John 3:16 (NIV)
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