Let Your Light Shine 

As I write this, we are just a week or so away from a very exciting event – EBC’s Church Weekend!

The theme of the weekend is “Your Kingdom Come” and we are going to have an amazing time. I am really looking forward to seeing our church family getting together on Friday evening and Saturday - and then throwing our doors open on Sunday to welcome all comers!

The plan is that we will get together at our church home in South Hill Road at 7.00pm on the Friday and start things off in the traditional EBC way…. by eating together! We will be joined by the wise and wonderful teacher Jonathan Edwards, who will set the scene for the teaching he will be giving us, with Colin Boyle leading us in some sung worship until around 8.30pm.

We get together again on Saturday for a warm welcome and refreshments at 9.30am and then Jonathan will lead us, again with Colin providing music, in two morning sessions of teaching. After a bring-your-own lunch, we have some free time for breakout activities including sports, walks and crafts, before our third and final session with Jonathan, 4pm – 5.15pm.

After all that spiritual nourishment, it’ll be time to fill our tummies! We have a delicious hog roast lined up to enjoy together to end what will I am sure be a wonderful day. Hopefully by then we should be fully refuelled both spiritually and physically, ready to let our light shine to those who come and join us for our Funday Sunday!

This runs from 11.00am to 3.00pm and will be an action-packed day suitable for all the family, with a whole host of fun activities going on. Food will be very much to the fore of things, with the BBQ fired up and endless sausages and burgers on the go!

I shared with the church a little while back that one of the most compelling instructions in the bible for me as a church pastor is the instruction that the apostle Paul gave to Timothy, whom Paul left in charge of the early church at Ephesus. Paul instructed Timothy to “correct, rebuke and encourage” (2 Timothy 4:2) the church - and this is a moment when I want to encourage you to take part in this Church Weekend and correct you if you think it’s not important!

We agreed as a church family that this would be a great event to run this year – a way to celebrate and learn together, to worship God and spend time with one another and to show God’s love to our neighbours by inviting them in for a party!

So, with everything else in place, we just need one more thing… YOU!

We need lots of people to come and we need YOU to do your part in inviting them! Remember, inviting people to church is just another part of being a disciple – a follower of Jesus. Here we have a golden opportunity to invite people to a wonderful event – and our measure of success is NOT whether they come or not (that’s between them and God!) but simply whether we ASK them or not.

Jesus said to his followers:
 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5: 14 – 16).

Come on church – it’s time to shine!

God bless,

Simon