Here's what Anthony Rose has written for St. George's July Magazine.....

Dear friends,

Like many people who use a computer I'm constantly concerned about security, fraud, spam emails, and so on. At the moment one of my email addresses is flooded with spams, trying to advertise all sorts from Viagra to cheap holidays. Occasionally I'll get an email from someone in Africa telling me they want to deposit huge sums of money and can I help by making my bank account available. Yeah, right! Crooks are always looking for new ways of conning people out of their money. That last one is pretty old hat now. The latest scam I've heard about is about people buying cars online and taking up the offer for someone to 'look after' their money while awaiting the vehicle. You can guess what happens.

We're often reminded that if something seems too good to be true then it probably is. Good advice very often. When it comes to the Gospel that we proclaim as Christians it can seem to many to be 'too good to be true'. The fact is, we claim that Jesus Christ gives us new and eternal life as a free gift, paid for when he died on the cross. Millions of people over the centuries, and alive today, can testify how their lives have been completely changed for the good by receiving him as Saviour. People have been set free from guilt, addictions, relationship difficulties and a whole host of things, by putting their trust in him and discovering that the power of his Spirit is very real. They then find that they want to share the good news with others and tell them that it's free.

As Christians, both individually and as churches, I believe that we should be seeking all the time to give away what we've discovered. And I mean 'give away'. It bothers me that many people have the attitude that the church is always after your money. Years of church fêtes and jumble sales have instilled in people the notion that contact with a church means parting with your readies. Don't get me wrong; fêtes and bazaars can be a good thing, making contacts with the community and, in many cases, helping the income for a church. In my last parishes we had two ancient buildings to maintain. People who lived there wanted the buildings to look nice even if they never attended services. Why shouldn't the community be asked to help maintain them?

However, if all we ever do as a church is fundraise, then I believe we give completely the wrong message. At St George's we seek to be a blessing to the community around us. Of course our deepest desire is that people should come to know Christ as Saviour, but we don't want all our activities to be overtly evangelistic. We want people to be able to trust us that the events we lay on are without strings attached. If people want to know more about what makes us tick then we'll always answer them, but we won't have any hidden agendas. And we won't expect them to pay if we're running something like the Fun Day we held recently, for example. Apart from the burgers people ate there was no charge. We sought to bless children, young people and whole families with what was on offer. Volunteers gave up their time and St George's and Legacy provided games and facilities for nothing. It was a great day!

There are implications for us as a church financially. What I've said means that the bulk of our income to meet our regular outgoings as a church comes from within the worshipping community of believers. I don't mind admitting that it's a struggle at times. We're not a mega-sized church. We're asked to pay a share of money to the Chelmsford Diocese every year that is more than our own needs, to help other parishes. This is an issue for us, but if we can we'll try to meet the requirements. We're going to look at our stewardship and giving over the next year or so to see how we can improve. One piece of misinformation that people have is that because we're part of the Church of England we're somehow subsidised by a wealthy central body. This simply is not the case!

Jesus spoke about his followers being both 'salt' and 'light' to others. To his listeners, salt was to do with keeping things fresh. Metaphorically, that meant being a blessing, as with light shining in the darkness. I hope St George's can keep up being salt and light to the community with things like the Fun Day and the Healing Room where, again, we offer something for nothing. Some people might think that what we do sounds 'too good to be true', but I'm glad to say there are plenty who don't.

With best wishes,

Anthony

Dragonslayers

 

On 13th January 2008, something brand new began. It is called Dragonslayers and is the new Sunday School for 5-11 year-olds at St. George’s Church. It runs at the same time as the 11 o’clock service (namely 11 am through to around 12.15 pm) and is free to attend.

It is full of fun and games and, most importantly, God. There is a quiz or competition, songs, games and star appearances from Harriett the Hedgehog, St George the knight and a very naughty green (NOT red) dragon that is intent on wanting to eat Harriett. Thankfully, he has not done so… yet. These activities are to help us to ‘slay’ any ‘dragons’ in our lives that try to stop us having a proper relationship with God and Jesus. So far, in the first three weeks, we have looked at Sin, Suffering and Doubt. There is a memory verse that we learn each week that is connected to the theme that we are examining to re-enforce the theme. We are also raising money for a charity in an orange jelly baby guitarist money box called Giltrap, a name suggested by Judy Wilson. During the first Dragonslayers, when names were being suggested, he nearly became a namesake of mine (“Dave”!).

If you want to know more, please just get in contact with Jane Rose. As a famous tiger said more than once, “It’s greeeaaattt…”