A great church

I want to welcome you personally this morning. You may not realise it but you have walked into a great church. You probably won't see how great it is because what will go on here in the next hour or so is only a veneer of it's greatness, like the paint on a car or the icing on a cake.This isn't a great church because we do great Sunday mornings, it's a great church because of what you cannot see. What you cannot see is such a labyrinth of love and care, generousity and reaching out, taking risks and trying hard, prayer and learning, brokenness and healing, and on and on I could go....It's not a great church because we all get on so well, or because we all like each other so much, or because we all agree, or because we do things well, or because we never let each other down, or are so well organised. No, we are only ever one act or decision away from being a lousy church.  It's a great church when we know we need God in Christ, when we know we see Him in each others' messy lives, when we apologise, make up, reach out, and take time to bother.The world is changing fast... too fast. But that's just too bad. Next year this church will have existed formally for 100 years. For some of us that matters a great deal. Others couldn't care two hoots. That is the reality of life in a great church. We are who we are; it's not about you or me, it's about "us" dying to self and rising with Christ.St Philips only has one chance of being here in another hundred years, in my opinion. That chance is that we stay committed to the invisible things that make this church great. If they stop happening we won't stay great for long. If we think it's about putting all our energy into the externals we won't last long. If we become inflexible and ungracious we won't last long.  If we think its all about "my thing" (because it's so great) we won't last long. It's the invisible things that must keep happening, they are the best thing about us; when we, as one, love God and set about loving one another. This is the stuff of a great church. God's call on us is to sail but we never arrive. We just keep going, doing our bit and building others up in love - great to sail with you.In the AdventureMalcolm