Sowing God's love

Throughout my church life, I have been involved in things which, I suppose, could be described as "Missional." They've included Summer Mission, holiday clubs, youth groups, coffee mornings (oh yes, they are), soup lunches, student feeds, etc, etc. In all of them, I, nor none of the others involved, have pushed Christianity or religion or faith down anyone's throats. We have, we hoped, tried to let our actions speak, build up relationships and show something of the love of God in and through our actions.

Through all of those experiences, I know I have been asked some very deep and probing questions about life, the universe and everything (which, of course, the answer to is 42). I also know, especially when I helped at a youth club, there would be puzzlement that we leaders would give up our Friday nights for it. Through those conversations, I hope to have sown the seeds of God's love in the lives of those I have met. I hope I have not been careful where and how I have sown, but sown with gleeful abandon. Who, but God, will know how the seed will grow?

At the end of the day, my primary concern is people get to see God's love for them. That God is love. That God wants to show them love. That love can only be shown through the actions of flawed people like me (no wonder it sometimes goes pear-shaped). But seeds, I hope are sown. They may take weeks, months, years, even to start to grow, but who cares?

One thing I have noticed is that some places seem to have a real concern about doing 'Mission.' What's the point if there's no more bums on pews on a Sunday morning? Why go to all that effort if church attendance goes up? Co-operate with other churches doing something - but people might start going there rather than here? Frankly, I don't care where people go, so long as they get to know God loves them.

So, I want to work with my colleagues of every flavour, be they the Kirk, the Free Kirk, the SPC, the Catholic, the independents, etc. If we can do stuff together, it might, just might, make a greater impact on parish that 3 or 4 different churches almost working like supermarkets, touting for business. And, if once we've done stuff people want to go to church, but don't come to the Kirk, fine. So long as people can get to know God's love, I really don't care.

With all this in mind, I'm increasingly seeing that attitude as being important to me. How I get a congregation who don't already, generally, have that mindset over to it, I don't know. I do know I will want them to, one way or another, have it.