Transforming Disciples - Followers of Jesus making a difference

It feels as if there is quite a ‘buzz’ around PMC at present:

• the short ‘Introduction to PMC’ course was well received, and we welcomed eight new members on 27 July;
• the ‘older’ young people of youth church are taking more active roles in the 10h00 services and the younger ones seem eager as they set off  for their own learning each Sunday;
• support is growing for our partnership with U-Turn in working with Street Dwellers;
• new groups for Bible Study and Fellowship are being formed.

Over the past two months in our Sunday worship, we have looked at the set readings each Sunday through the lens of ‘Transformation’: we have asked about the insights they offer into the process of transformation and how they apply to our situation here at PMC.  This approach has been part of our response to the challenge that Bishop Zipho Siwa (the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa) offered to the whole Church, calling us to be “Together a Transforming Discipleship Movement”.  

We have come to recognise that being and building the Church that Jesus prayed for is demanding: it requires long-term commitment that can be quite costly; but we are totally convinced that there is nothing that offers more fulfilment, or that will make a more lasting difference to our world. So we continue to pray for and work for that transforming.

The changes that we are seeing might not seem very significant when we consider the great needs that surround us, but we believe that they are steps in the right direction and that more and more we are becoming part of God’s work of transforming people.

So we will not get ‘weary of doing the right thing’, but will encourage and support one another in our life-giving, transforming work. If you want to be part of that work, but you are not clear what your role might be, a pastoral caller or the minister would be glad to talk with you. [See ‘Contact us’ on Website pages.]

 

 

Connecting and Growing

May and June were busy months! As soon as we had completed the Wesley Day celebrations, we were plunged into the meeting of the Synod of the Cape of Good Hope District, which this year was held in our neighbouring circuit, Wynberg. It brought together lay people and ministers from all around the District including Namaqualand, Beaufort West and Outeniqua. Two members of the Plumstead Church, Joeline McKerry and Peter Merrington, were elected as representatives to Synod by the Victoria Road Circuit.

The business of the Synod covers a wide range of topics: ministry; current affairs (such as the abduction of the school girls in Nigeria); Church discipline; finance; the work of the ‘organizations’ of the MCSA and among children and young people. It is a time of worship, reflection, fellowship, information-sharing, planning, and deciding. The days are long and the work intense.

By tradition, on the concluding Sunday of Synod, there is an ‘exchange of pulpits’ and ministers are sent to circuits other than their home circuits, within roughly a 50-kilometere radius of the place in which Synod was held. At PMC the services on Synod Sunday, 1^st June, were led by Rev Vincent Harry, Superintendent of the Wynberg Circuit and Secretary of the Synod.

Sunday 8 June was Pentecost Sunday and the day when it was agreed that there would be the Confirmation of the young people from around the Circuit who had satisfactorily completed the preparation course that began in July 2013. Two of these, Daniel Paulsen and Temba Mettler, were welcomed into membership at PMC during a moving service at which they were supported by many members of their respective families.  Look out for photos of these newest members of PMC – one of the things they have in common is that they each have a grandfather who was an ordained minister!

May 24th: Challenges and Celebrations

For Methodists around the world, 24 May has special significance, as the day on which in 1738 John Wesley experienced a spiritual renewal that led to the start of the Methodist movement.
 
This year, the World Methodist Council encouraged the world-wide Methodist community to mark the end of the 275^th Anniversary year by gathering to bear witness to our continued commitment to spreading  ‘Scriptural Holiness’; and to mark the moment of John Wesley’s transforming experience (a quarter before nine in the evening) by singing one of the most celebrated hymns written by his brother, Charles Wesley, “O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise!”

The plans of the Victoria Road Circuit to take this opportunity to bear witness and celebrate were impeded by different challenges:

• We wanted to gather in the open air, so that our witness could be more public – and that required getting permission from the Municipality;
• One of the locations at which we wanted to gather was the Taxi terminus in Vrygrond – but that week there was a continuation of the shootings that had begun a week earlier and we were advised that it would not be safe to gather there;
• Co-ordinating the preparation of singers and the movement of attenders from around the Circuit required special attention;
• And the one thing we could not predict was the weather – on that Saturday it was cold, windy and raining…

In spite of these challenges, members of the Circuit did gather (in-doors instead of out in the cold) and we heard again the moving words of the conversion experience of the Wesleys. [See Below.]
 
We sang, not only the hymn that Charles wrote to mark that occasion, “Where shall my wondering soul begin?” but also other classics of Wesleyan hymnody, including “And can it be”; “Love Divine, all loves excelling”; “All hail the power of Jesus’ name”; and, of course, “O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise”.  Those who attended were inspired and felt that there had been a connecting, not only with our historic roots, but with the world-wide fellowship of Methodists today.

We look forward to the gathering planned for later this year, when members of the Circuit will gather for a festival of music and mission on 26 October 2014 in the afternoon.

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In 1738, the month of May was not a ‘merry’ month for John or Charles Wesley. They were consumed with doubts and uncertainties about their relationship with God and their eternal destiny. They spent time praying, studying the Bible and reading various books, and sought counsel from other preachers and friends, but nothing helped.

The Moravian Peter Bohler was leading a regular meeting in London’s Fetter Lane and Charles and John were in almost daily contact with Bohler. He asked Charles ‘Do you hope to be saved?’ and Charles replied, ‘I do!’

‘For what reason do you hope it?’ ‘Because I have used my best endeavours to serve God.’ Charles reports, ‘He shook his head, and said no more. I thought him very uncharitable, saying in my heart, ‘What, are not my endeavours sufficient ground of hope? Would he rob me of my endeavours? I have nothing else to trust to.’

But all of that was to change dramatically for the two brothers in the period between 21 and 24 May 1738: 21 May was Pentecost Sunday…[and] the day of Charles Wesley’s conversion. Charles said he felt the Spirit of God striving with his spirit ‘till by degrees He chased away the darkness of my unbelief. I found myself convinced…I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ.’

John, in his Journal records on that day, ‘I received the surprising news that my brother had found rest to his soul.’

Three days later, at one of the Moravian meetings in Aldersgate Street, John Wesley got his breakthrough.  He had already discussed Justification by faith with Peter Bohler, but this was different. He wrote in his journal:

‘In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans.  About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed.

I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given to me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.’ (John Wesley Journal, May 24th 1738).

Real Church

On Sunday 11 May, one of the Lectionary readings was Acts 2: 42 – 47. In those verses we are given a picture of the life of the Early Church, and while we should not necessarily treat it as a ‘blue-print’, I’m sure that there are several features that we should do well to apply in the life of our church today.

 

·         We are told that the first believers spent time learning what the Apostles had to teach them: the study of God’s Word and of Christian Doctrine remains important for the Church in every age;
·         They devoted themselves to prayer: conversing with God is a privilege and a life-saver, and we are called to give priority to our personal devotions and the prayers shared with other believers;
·         They shared in fellowship meals in one another’s homes: breaking bread with other Christians is an unequalled way of building relationships with them;
·         They pooled their resources and distributed the proceeds according to people’s needs: offering practical care will be shown in different ways at different times, but the principle remains.

These four features of the Early Church are summed up in the word KOINONIA, which some versions of the Bible translate as ‘Fellowship’, but which also means Communion, Community, Distribution, Intercourse, and Participation. It is what I regard as Real Church and it is our prayer that it will be increasingly the description of PMC.

 

 

Last Sunday (18 May) there was one of those magic moments in the early service at PMC. The sermon was based on the Lectionary reading from 1 Peter 2: 1 -10, and I said that perhaps one of the ways that we could give meaning to being part of the 'holy priesthood' was by being 'connectors and adaptors' helping to make sure that people who were not (yet) part of our church fellowship could still 'plug into' the flow of power that was transforming our lives.

Someone was listening! Because in the time of sharing news that followed, there was an immediate comment that maybe one of the 'adaptors' we needed at PMC was a profile in the social media. Less than one week on, and what do we have...? So now it's over to you - Let's Chat!