New Things and a New Adventure

Tonight our home will be filled again with the hum of conversation and the clink of coffee cups. Something new is starting. God is moving and I am not sure what will happen next.

God has always been at work in these northern Yorkshire Dales. After all, he is the one who created this land in the first place, who fills it with life and sustains it each moment. Across these valleys an abundance of buildings have been dedicated to his worship and service and stand as a testament to the many folk who have followed him and have seen him at work in these dales through the centuries. But now he is doing something new.

I have always loved this part of the world, both the place and the people and I am convinced that God does too, with a passion that we cannot complement or comprehend. The Bible speaks of God’s coming kingdom, that will transform this world, where heaven and earth will become one, and where once again God will live with his people. And yet our scriptures also reveal that this process has already begun, with each life lived in the pattern of his son, and the transformation of people and places through the power of his Spirit. As I read his word and see him at work, I am ever more certain that God is moving again in these Dales’ valleys, villages and market towns. He has not finished with us yet, because even today, he is doing something new.

Though God does speak to us individually, he calls us into community. He is at work as we interact, care, share and support each other, our neighbours and the wider community, and as we discern together the path he is leading us along. It is exciting to meet with other local people, who have recognised that life makes most sense if we take the teachings of Jesus seriously, but as we do this, new challenges are becoming clear.

As I listen to the lives of the people God is calling to be a part of this new thing, common themes emerge. The need for community, for people to do life with, for a space to express our hopes and fears, and a place to belong. We brandish our bumps and bruises and carry our hidden hurts and disappointments from difficult life circumstances and past experiences of when church has not been what we hoped it would be, and life has let us down. And we hold onto our expectations of how we think Christian community should really be. And yet we all hope for something new.

It has been so encouraging over the last couple of months to see our growing group begin to develop friendships and find a new space to feel at home. It warms my heart to see people begin to care for others who were strangers only a few weeks ago.  We sense Jesus’ presence with us as we break bread, and remember his sacrifice and his promises to us. Yet I am a conscious that God is leading us into something new, that is different from what we might expect and greater than what we may imagine.

It is very tempting to try and create our own vision of what Dales Faith Community could be like. We all have ideas and expectations about what our own ‘perfect church’ should look like. A medley of our best experiences from the past perhaps. Yet God is doing something new. New, I believe, is not necessarily something that has never been done before, but its new for this place, at this time, and in this culture.

Jesus asked his friends to follow him, and to go on a journey with him, to new places, to new people, to seeing and doing life differently. He called them to be his disciples, whose role it was to make other disciples, and to share with them the good news about Jesus and to join in their shared journey with him. While they did this they experienced friendship, community, the love and care of the other people who were on this voyage with them. They loved and served each other, and ministered to the broken people and places around them, and Jesus invites us today, to join in this same adventure.

For me, this is very different to much of my experience of church, and I suspect it will be too, for many of our new friends who are journeying with us. This is not to criticise any of the many expressions of Christian community that gather in this area, but simply to recognise that if God is doing something new, then we should expect it to be different to what we are used to. In other parts of the world today, God’s church is growing rapidly. If it is God’s will that, that should happen here, then I too would love to be a part of it.

My hope is that some of you reading this will share our excitement for what God has planned for these northern dales. You may already be connected with other Christian communities in and around this area, or you may have faith but have not found a community to belong to yet. You may have moved away from the faith of your younger days, or you may have had no time for faith. Whatever your situation or circumstances, we would love to hear from you.

And if what I have shared resonates with you, and you would like to join in with this new thing that God is doing in and around these northern Yorkshire Dales, then please, do get in touch.

These are exciting times! Be encouraged.

“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
For I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself
so that they might declare my praise.”

Isaiah 43:18-21

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