Thanksgiving Evening and Annual Church Meeting
I want to start this Vicar’s Address by reading some words of Jesus, spoken to his disciples in Matthew chapter 5 verse 14: “You are the light of the world.” Those are famous words. And they are astonishing. Jesus says that together as his people we are the light of the world.
That speaks of the great change that God has worked in us. Once we were darkness. We were dead in our sins. We did not know God or the truth about him. But now, through faith, we have been made alive with Christ. We know Jesus Christ. His Spirit lives in us. Once we were darkness. Now thanks to Jesus, together we are light.
These words speak of the great change God has worked in us. They also speak of the great responsibility we share. We live in a world of darkness where people do not know Christ or have life in him. Our job together is to let the light of Jesus shine out from us, so that people can come to know Jesus and have life in him.
Wonderfully that is what God intends to do through us together as his people. Jesus says to his people: “You are the light of the world”. God has changed us. Now he wants to use us – to bring light to those around us.
I am going to come back to that in a moment. But first let me say that as I look back over the last twelve months, I am conscious of so much to give thanks to God for.
Thankfulness for the last twelve months
I thank God for how he has taught us and grown us through his word. Particular highlights for me have been learning from Romans 1-7 and Mark 12-16 in the 9.15am, 11am and 4pm congregations, and Ephesians in the 8am and 6.30pm congregations.
Our focus over these last twelve months has been growing in love together. I feel we have grown in love for each other, for our neighbours and for the Lord. We look to the Lord to keep growing us in these ways.
I’m thankful for how God continues to bring new people through the doors most weeks. I’m thankful for people doing Christianity Explored, for people coming to faith and for people committing to join our fellowship. It’s been wonderful to see eight adults and older teenagers baptised across our congregations through the year.
The situation in the wider Church of England remains very concerning and sad as many continue to move away from biblical truth. I am grateful to God for how our changed relationship with the Diocese of Oxford has worked out over the last year. We now make payments to the Diocese only to cover our costs. This has allowed us to ensure that money given to St Mary’s is not used to fund teaching which denies God’s word. And it has enabled us to support faithful ministry elsewhere including the appointment of a Children, Youth and Families Worker at St Paul’s in Slough.
Last of all looking back, I have felt extremely well supported as Vicar. It is a privilege to lead a staff team where each member is godly, servant hearted and gifted. I want to say a huge thank you to all my colleagues, and to the whole church family. To all of you. We are a church where literally hundreds of people are serving the Lord in gospel ministry in a wide variety of roles. That is a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, and a beautiful thing.
Those are some of the many things I give thanks to God for as we look back at the last twelve months.
Our focus for the next twelve months
As we look to the year ahead I want to share a focus for us together as a church. An aim I’d love us to have over the next twelve months.
At St Mary’s we have a wonderful mission statement: to know Jesus and to make Jesus known. Nothing could be better than that. Nothing is more important than knowing Jesus and making Jesus known. Over the next year I’d like us to keep this our aim. And in particular to focus on working together to make Jesus known.
We live in an area of growing population. This graph shows how the population of Maidenhead has grown over the last twenty years and how it is projected to keep growing.
This gives us a responsibility and an opportunity. We are surrounded by tens of thousands of men and women and boys and girls who do not know God, who have no hope in the face of God’s judgement, who urgently need Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, we together are the light of the world. God has entrusted to us the message of forgiveness and new life in Christ. God’s purpose is to work through us to bring light to others. So, in the year ahead I’d like us all to pray, and plan and work together to make Jesus known.
Please can we all be thinking about our own lives: how together can we build relationships with those who don’t currently know Jesus? And how can we share Christ in those relationships? And please can we all be thinking about our church: How can we make our existing services, events and courses as attractive as possible for people to come and learn about Jesus? Are there new or different events we should run? And how can we work together to bring people to our services, events and courses so that they can engage with the gospel?
This is deliberately very broad. We want to make Jesus known to all kinds of people we are in contact with.
There are three groups I’d especially like to highlight. One is the residents of the new blocks of flats. You only have to look to see that hundreds of new flats are being completed. Almost all these flats are in our parish, the area for which we have particular responsibility. There are challenges to reaching those who live in tower-blocks. The front doors are hard to get to. The sense of community can be less. Let’s all be thinking: how can we connect with the residents of these new blocks of flats and make Jesus known to them?
The second group I’d like to highlight is families with pre-school and school aged children. The number of children in churches across the Church of England has slumped since the pandemic. Our children and youth ministry remains healthy, but we too have seen a reduction in the number of children and youth at St Mary’s. We live in an area with many children around. The Bishop of Oxford has launched a Diocese wide focus on children and youth ministry. When the Diocese has a good initiative it’s good for us to support it. I think the programmes we have for children and youth on Sundays, midweek with 7UP, X and Shift, Holiday Club and Summer Camps are simply excellent. In this year ahead, let’s work together to bring more children and parents into the great activities that are happening.
The final group I’d like to highlight is those from minority ethnic backgrounds. I have been so encouraged by the growing diversity of our church family over the last few years. And by the growth of our International Ministry. But there is more for us to do. The proportion of Maidenhead residents who are from a minority ethnic background is increasing. Let’s pray about how we can be the best possible church for people from all backgrounds.
So here is our focus for the year ahead. It’s not new, but it is vital, and wonderful. Working together to make Jesus known. I’d love us all to pray about this, to think about how we do it, and to work together in this great purpose. I’d love to receive suggestions and ideas. I’d love to see us trying new things. And strengthening the things we are doing at the moment.
Jesus said of us his people: “You are the light of the world.” God has worked a great change in us. He us given us a great responsibility. In God’s strength let us work together to make Jesus known.