It is a privilege to be able to serve alongside you as a community of believers in Jesus our Lord and Saviour. I have met some of you at the coffee shop and I am very much looking forward to meeting
everyone during the next few months, (COVID permitting of course).

As I have been reading through 1 Corinthians at the moment, chapter 12, verses 12-14 struck me as being very appropriate in this day and age. It says, “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.” (NIV)

As I pondered on this verse, I was aware of the fact that, even when we are apart, or in lockdown as we have been recently, we are still a part of the one body of Christ, connected in a way that the world
does not understand. One of the beautiful parts of a life in Christ is this type of community. A community whose blueprint is God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Greek word, “Perichoresis”, refers to the relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and is sometimes referred to as ‘the dance of love.’ This is the relationship Jesus desires with us, and for us to have in our communities with each other, and with Him.

Each one of us has our own unique gifts and talents, given by God, to be the person He intended us to be, and to have the purpose He intended us to fulfil. As a community of believers we are all a part of a bigger whole. No one person is less valuable, and no one talent is less needed. Without each of us, the community is weakened.

God intended His family to live in community. To do life together. Of course we are all different and these differences enrich us all, but we are better together. Together we strengthen and uplift each other, we encourage each other in faith and worship and strengthen each other!

As we move together into this new season, let’s all celebrate our community, our differences and our shared faith in Jesus, the one who made it all possible in the first place!

Blessings,

Justin