Pastor Chris' Letter January 2018

Dear Trinity,
Wow! It seems like 2017 has just flown by but as we drift into 2018 my mind is drawn to what this New Year will bring for me, my family, and the church. As I do this I reflect on all that has happened this last year, the good and the bad, and look forward to the possibilities that God has for all of this next year. As I do this mental practice, I remember our denominational tradition that in the years past has slipped our memory.

In the early Methodist societies, especially those in London, they participated in a Covenant Renewal Service. This service was usually celebrated on New Year’s Eve or Day. This service revolves around the understanding that our membership or discipleship revolves around a covenant we have made with God. This covenant is seen in the words of our baptism, rehearsed in the celebration of communion, and sits at the heart of all of the ministry of the church. I know sometimes we have trouble with this word covenant as it is not common language to us. A covenant is an agreement or better a binding of two parties particularly our binding with the Lord Jesus Christ to follow Him more closely and to continue His work on Earth. The most common covenant you may be aware of is marriage. Marriage is a covenant of two people in the eyes of the Lord.

So these Wesleyan (Methodist) societies would take time to renew this covenant to agree again to recommit themselves to the covenant that they had made with God both in their personal walk with God but also as a body of believers (they as yet were not formal churches but more like intense small groups.) This service revolved around a prayer that John Wesley had modified from an older tradition (its true source is greatly debated). So as we reflect on last year and look to a new year I encourage you to read this prayer and to listen to its words and how you may live them out in your walk of faith and how our church may live these out over the next year.

The modern language version of Wesley’s prayer reads:
“I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you, exalted for you, or brought low for you; let me be full, let me be empty, let me have all things, let me have nothing: I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. And now, glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.”

I hope these words touch you as you begin a new year in your walk with God. I know that as I look forward to a new year at Trinity I am excited for all that God will do in you and through this church.


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