Get ready to get plastered in paint as we explore the themes surrounding discipleship and doing life in the style of Jesus Christ. How to become like Jesus is obviously a life long adventure but I hope that Thursday evening will help people unpack the role of the Holy Spirit in bringing about God’s re creative life in us.
I have been sensing for the past few weeks that Sanctuary is entering a new phase in our evolution. I wrote an e-mail and sent it out on our distribution list. I thought I would share it with you.
Firstly for interest sake. If you want to know my views on giving see the end.
Secondly, for comment.
Thirdly, if you want to support us here by recommending us to friends you know or perhaps giving a financial gift or just as importantly keeping us in your prayers!
Dear friends,
I write to you regarding The Sanctuary. As many of you know, we started the congregation back in October 2005. During that time we have grown and become established having made a very real difference to people’s lives and in the community.
Recently I have felt that God wants to take us into a new phase as a community and grow in new ways.
Here are two challenges that I want to share with you and ask you to consider helping us realise. Please read on!
Grow numerically
I sense that we should aim to grow to 60 people on any one evening by the end of this year.
We easily get 60-70 different people joining us during the course of a month, there is no doubt about that! However, we would like to gather 60 individuals into a community week after week. We sense that we have the structures and the leaders to cope with this kind of growth. Effectively it means that we are looking to grow by 50% in 3 months. Can it be done? I think so! How can we do this? Read on…
Firstly, you can commit to coming along to our meetings as regularly as you can. I hope they become compelling for you. If you haven’t been for a while then know that the community continues to evolve and include more and more people in ministry.
Secondly, invite your friends, colleagues and family members along. I cannot make this kind of growth happen alone! It is something we all get to do together. It is better that way!
Thirdly, you can join us in prayer for this kind of growth.
Grow financially
The fact is that we will always have more vision than money! I think this is healthy. There are some very real things we would like to do this year but cannot afford to do.
Last year we received around £10,000 in offerings. Thank you to all who have given! This is amazing for our first year but the congregation is growing and our needs are changing as well as a responsibilities to pay salaries now.
This year we are aiming to raise £25,000 from the members of the congregation and friends.
What we would like to do:
We would like to: Give 25% of the £25,000 to other charities and organisations, around £6000 given as a community.
We would like to be able to continue to provide good quality food for the congregation every Thursday. Cost: Nearer £2000 as the congregation grows.
We would like to be able to pay for extra administrative assistance: Cost approx. £1500 per year.
We have committed to offering £5000 to the wider church at Methodist Central Hall, following 2 years of generous grants to us.
We would like to: Create 10,000 smaller values booklets which are more concise and cheaper to produce to leave around our building and send to universities. Cost: £2500
We would like to: Reprint 1000 values booklets for people who come along and want to find out more. Cost: £1000
We would like to resource our artists and musicians with good equipment, training at worship central and printed music.
We would like to be able to invest in a weekend away at a larger venue and be able to make it available at a reasonable price.
We would like to be able to give each small group a budget for resources.
We would like to be able to never exclude someone from an activity because they cannot afford it now.
We would like to invest more in resourcing the congregation through excellent books, CD’s and DVD’s.
We would like to save towards a 5 year birthday celebration to honour all that God has done over the years. Date, October 2010! Put it in your diaries.
We would like to invest in technology that will aid Sanctuary to run brilliantly.
One day we would like to be able to take on other staff members to help pastor, administer and lead the work here.
You get the idea… There are lots of things we would love to do and it all costs money. Thankfully the community is full of generous supporters and we would love you to be able to join them in resourcing the ministry.
How can you do this?
Commit to regular, tax efficient (if you pay tax then take advantage of the gift aid scheme) administratively savvy (standing order) giving.
Ideally (!) set up a standing order:
Account Name: MCH Sanctuary Account
Sort Code: 40-07-13
Account Number: 81738585
You should be able to do this on the internet or by telephone. It only takes a couple of minutes.
Or, send a Cheque made out to MCH Sanctuary Account to:
Jonathan Green
The Church Office
Methodist Central Hall
Westminster
SW1H 9NH
Gift Aid:
To maximise your gift to us you can also fill out a gift aid declaration that means that we can currently claim back 28 pence in every pound you give to us!
Download a Sanctuary Giving Envelope with Gift Aid Declaration.
This will help us to plan and budget better.
You know, I don’t believe in tithing… Jesus turns things upside down and says that all we have belongs to God. It is not a case of 10% for God and the rest for me. Jesus teaches radical generosity. We must learn to trust God to provide for our daily needs.
Now if you pin me down on the issue I will say that 10% of you income before tax is a good starting point. However if you cannot do that then start with 1% and go from there. Should it all go to the local church? Good question, I think that you are free to give where you want to. However, people often assume that everyone else gives to the local church so I can give elsewhere. The truth is that the majority of the money we receive at The Sanctuary comes from about 7 people. The shocking thing is that this is true of most local churches I know of. So I ask you to commit to the vision if you believe in the vision. If not, give your money to things you believe in! If you don’t believe in the vision of The Sanctuary then please let me know where we fall short and we will try and correct things! Or maybe our visions are just different and that is okay too!
Thank you for taking the time to read this and pray about this. If you want to talk more then feel free to get in touch.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Green.
Pastor at Methodist Central Hall, Westminster.
In a time when we are seeing less gift bags on the high street, perhaps this is a good time for the church to look at the gifts that God gives freely to the church in order to be able to heal the world. This week we are exploring God’s boutique. Opening hours, 7-9.15pm this Thursday at Methodist Central Hall, Westminster.
This week we are hosting Sanctuary Space. Our ‘anything goes’ service… well, within reason anyway.
We wanted to tie the meeting in with our series on the Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts and putting on the character of Christ. So this week we are investigating the Holy Spirit in the Celtic Traditions and their representation of the Holy Spirit as a Wild Goose.
I am personally really looking forward to this time together!
Last week we looked at the more exotic gifts of the Holy Spirit and had an honest and interesting time together. No crazy preacher at the front hyping the crowd, just a very gentle evening of prayer and worship and questions with a panel and conversations in groups… oh yes, and a tea break in the middle of the meeting. All very British you know.
I can’t actually believe that 7 days have gone since I last posted! I’m not sure if I can officially call myself a blogger anymore!
This morning I had 2 of those experiences when you realise that London isn’t that big after all. I see people I know quite frequently on the tube and this morning was no exception. I bumped into an old friend from Bible College at Pimlico Tube station and then later that morning ran into someone I met at my cousins wedding a couple of months back. We passed on the escalator at Westminster tube and for the first time in my life I ran down an escalator going up (I’ve always wanted to do it and I got my chance, it was only a few steps though!) The world really is a rather small place, or perhaps it’s something else! Maybe things are less random than we think!?!?!
Anyhow, I am looking forward to today. Having just had a great meeting with a friend from Christian Aid about the future of the world as we know it and how it all ties into the harvest service we are leading in 2 weeks I now look forward to doing gift aid returns and then later on Church Council with a mad dash to Shepherds Bush to support Tim Hughes as he does a live recording tonight. Do pray for him and the recording!
Meanwhile, Sanctuary this week focuses on the more exotic gifts of the Holy Spirit.
We are getting stuck into our new series on the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts and being clothed with the character of Christ this Thursday! I really can’t wait to explore this subject. It promises to be both innovative and community transforming.
The picture above is inspired a little bit by the book The Shack. My way of transforming our image of the Holy Spirit as a gray oblong blur or a white pigeon into something a little more dynamic.
Interestingly, our Space gathering in a few weeks will be exploring the Celtic symbol of the Holy Spirit as a wild goose… should be interesting!!!
What is it with me at the moment…
This morning I was writing the season opener for Sanctuary which is happening tonight. All of a sudden I smell burning rubber and my power cord to my macbook pro is melting. Anyway, I unplugged it from the power source and ended up getting slightly distracted. I needed to finish the talk in good time and this was a spanner in the works…
In the midst of this I promptly forgot my lunch appointment (sorry Jo) and instead had to do a detour to the Apple Store on Regents Street. To Apple’s credit they had me fixed with a new power supply within 15 mins and now I am in my office picking up where I left off. But still, losing a couple of hours when you have a talk to deliver is a nuisance.
Now, I am not trying to read to much into this stuff… apart from to say that life is very much a spiritual battle and talks like the one I am giving tonight are dangerous. Bringing vision to the church is my job, co-labouring with God in a church plant is an incredible privilege but also a dangerous pastime.
If you think of it, please do keep us in your prayers here along with other Church leaders. I am not trying to put too much weight on floods and near fires but they do have the potential to throw your focus and that is not good.
Thanks for keeping reading and I will try and write some topical and less biographical material soon.
No its not the latest blockbuster movie. It is my third flood in one year! Firstly, lounge and kitchen at home last December, 4 months of builders later and our home is lovely. Then 3 weeks after the builders left our second bedroom leaked.
This morning my office developed a leaky ceiling. Yes, at around 9.30 am, maintenance were pressure washing the Central Hall roof not realizing that the felt roof was compromised. The water rushed through the world vision office above me and into a corner of my office.
Thankfully I have a large office so it hasn’t disrupted me too much. The water fell on some old (vintage!) books and music and my safe and filing cabinets etc.
What is it with me and water?
September 1st is always a significant day for me as it not only marks the day on which Felicity and I wed but also marks the day I started working 3 years ago today for Methodist Central Hall, Westminster and it marks the new Methodist year which also indicates a new season for Sanctuary.
Sanctuary season 4 launches on Thursday and I can’t wait. We are going to be thinking about The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts and growing in the character of Christ over the next few months. It will be a fairly innovative time for us as a community and I think it will be very good for us as we continue to grow and evolve.
Today my wife and I celebrate 7 years of marriage. Marriage doesn’t get the best press these days but I for one want to stand up for it. Someone to witness your life through changing seasons is a gift from God. Marriage can get better and better and if you love consistently then both partners will become more lovely. I’ve seen that in many couples and am inspired. So here’s to marriage!
We were young when we got married, 20 and 22, we were both students with little money. Many people thought we should ‘live a bit’ before we got married, which is a ridiculous notion. I know what they mean but it is a false perception. People didn’t want us to rush into it, as if nearly 4 years of courtship is rushing it. We didn’t rush into it and it was the right time for us.
If you are reading this and are young and feel ready to get married then go for it with your heart, many people are well intentioned but sometimes it really is right to get married young. For others it isn’t. I’ve seen some who were married around the same time as us struggle.
Now, I pastor many people who really want to get married but haven’t found someone yet. I don’t want to come across as smug. I sense the pain. Again I would say, don’t be fooled by false perceptions forced upon us by a badly thought out popular opinion. You could get married for the first time in your fifties and still be married for a long long time. You should never feel hurried!
Anyhow, Felicity and I celebrated this week by spending a few days together in the City of Bath and had a lovely time. Bath is a fantastic place to visit.
Random? Possibly. Has it ever been done before at Methodist Central Hall? Unlikely, since it’s against the rules. But who even said we would be playing bingo at Sanctuary!?!?! Maybe it’s just a play on words. Or it could be Bible Bingo for all you know! 2 Chronicles, 25 v 1 which also mentions the number 29 in the verse. Bible Bingo, I win! Perhaps Bible Bingo is acceptable in a Methodist Church…
Anyway, enough twitter twotter! Its just a title and Thursday night will be much fun and it is also the last meeting of series three. Join us if you can for Sanctuary on 4th September when we will be launching Sanctuary series 4 and a brand new teaching series on The Holy Spirit and Spiritual gifts and the character of Christ. I cannot wait.
This week is the last in our 2 year series called ‘The Story We Find Ourselves In’ which was inspired by but not based upon Brian McLaren’s book of the same title. It has been an inspiring journey since we started back in September 2006 during which the world we live in has changed in some pretty significant ways.
This week I will be rounding the series off and looking at how much more we need a sense of story to ground our lives in these changing and often uncertain times (has it ever been different?) I will be keying in on some unifying themes as I speak from my big leather chair sipping a good glass of red wine.
Looking ahead to September I am really excited about our new series which will be exploring the Holy Spirit and Spiritual gifts and the character of Christ. It is going to be ace, not least because we are working on a mega rota at the moment which will see our communication team take a prominent role in delivering the material as well as more people than ever being involved in the evenings, leading worship, hosting, welcoming, feeding people, setting up, mixing sound, displaying images and a whole bunch more. It is exciting to see us move on into our forth year together, stronger than ever and with a very clear sense of direction and purpose!
We have some great things in store and pray that we will really grow in depth of spirituality, community and number too as we progress into 2009. Do keep us in your thoughts and prayers!
I had a great time speaking on the text Zephaniah 3.17 on Sunday and also the previous Sunday too! I span on my back within the first minute and I’m not sure the congregation quite knew what to do with themselves. Anyway, beyond the moonwalking and running man examples are some important metaphors for our life in God. I hope you enjoy engaging with some interesting teaching. It has certainly challenged me!
We are on the penultimate talk of our ‘Story we find ourselves in’ series. We are thinking about the continuity with life everlasting… how, who we are becoming now has a bearing upon the kind of people we will be when heaven comes to earth in its fullness.
Its that time of the year again for the Methodist Recorder Student World edition… below is this years ad.
If you know anyone traveling to London and looking for a church that will love and support them while here as well as challenge and stimulate, then do pass on our details. The advert was not designed for the demographic that we reach, rather for ministers and aunties who might just flick onto the article just long enough to note our URL!
