In my previous two articles “Christian Unity and Hot Potatoes; how I see it and how to reconcile the two” and “When Christians stop going to church and some of the reasons why” my big concern was for dedicated Christians who know and live according to what the Bible teaches who typically once were active in church life but now no longer so since, for one reason or another, they had been put off from being actively being involved, and often stopping attending church altogether.

Looking back over my life, I have taken less interest in music than I might have and if I had my life might have been more enriched. I am now finding in my dotage that music is playing a much greater part (especially that which draws me closer to God) when it comes to calming the spirit and getting my priorities right and I share here what could be seen as a playlist of that which I have found uplifting in recent days (just click on the links below to play along).

In my recent blog, “When Christians stop going to church and some of the reasons why” (see here), I reflected on and lamented the fact that some Christians of the more dedicated and earnest variety often leave churches and stop regularly attending church with a small “c” and yet remain part of Church with a big “C”. While I concluded that doctrinal differences were not necessarily the main reasons, there were a number of doctrinal fall-outs that I have witnessed over the years playing out that were contributory reasons, but on that occasion not sharing my take on doctrine.

Before I begin, let’s get definitions out of the way. In this article, when I refer to “church” it is usually with a small ‘c’ and represents an organisation to which one belongs or a building where one attends and meets with other church goers for the purpose of religious devotion and often as a social club with religious trappings. A more meaningful definition is from the Greek word  “ekklesia”, when in Matthew 16:18 it is the word Jesus used for “church”. It is so translated in the KJV 115 times. It means “an assembly” or “a group of people who are called together for a purpose.” In NT times, it came to represent the collective people of God, followers of Jesus, often in a specified geographical location but it was sometimes used in the universal sense. Used in that context, I tend to highlight such an understanding by referring to Church with a big ‘C’.

I recently attended what had been labelled as a Counties Connect Event and was a celebration of 125 years of Gospel related activities and which featured reports from some those who have been involved in the work of Counties in recent years. It was a productive meeting and it was encouraging to listen to reports from some of today’s evangelists. I was glad to have attended.

We have moved! It was on Thursday 7^th November 2024, and we only knew the date for certain the day before, to elsewhere in the City of Southend-on-Sea, England. Big deal (NOT) I hear some say, but for us it was a huge deal and in many ways we can see the hand of God behind it and have been touched by many acts of kindness.