I’ve come to the end of my two years as a Ministry Trainee at St Mary’s and perhaps more significantly my twenty-three years as a member of the church family. In the last two it has been a great joy for me to be involved in so many different ministries all around the church. Working at a church is often a strange job, but particularly in that loving the people who you are serving, and serving with, is an important part of the job. It has been a great joy to feel the Lord growing me in the love that I have for the people in his church in Maidenhead. Feeling the love that the church family has so clearly shown me has been one of the key ways that our Lord has been growing this in my heart. From the oldest to the youngest people I have served or served alongside I have felt real genuine love. He has also grown me in his love as I have been taught by his word in the various ministries I have served in. There really is no community in all the world like the one that loves God and listens to his word, and I have really found St Mary’s to be a community like this.
In the last twenty-three years as a member of the church family, it is hard to distil every way that the Lord has worked in me. When I was confirmed, I made the joke that I was a product of the St Mary’s youth academy because the fact that I am following the Lord is a testament of the Lord’s work through the church. In regard to this there isn’t really anything I can say, but Hallelujah. For all the people who patiently taught me in Sunday school as I grew up, Hallelujah. For all the people who graciously ministered to me in the youth work, Hallelujah. For everyone who made up the church which taught me to love the Lord who bought us by his blood, Hallelujah. Let God be praised.
So now as I move on to serve the Lord as youth worker at St James in Gerrards Cross, my ask for all those who know him in Maidenhead is to pray for me. Pray the Lord will be at work in my ministry, otherwise there is no point to it.
‘Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labour in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.’
Psalm 127:1