I’m going to take a break from the life of David for just for one blog. This is my 50th blog and when I started out I never intended to write this many but here we are. If it was cricket then you would raise your bat after 50 runs. The 51st blog will be back on the life of David.

I have learnt to write (some may disagree with that) but it’s true. I did write sermons, but only I read the notes. I haven’t put pen to paper since I was at Bible college and before that whilst studying engineering, and before that it would have been at Pool Hayes School. I have had to learn new skills. It’s been interesting because it’s given me discipline to my week. Three times in the week I have to sit down with a pen and paper and my Bible and ask God about the passage I am looking at. 

I do wonder whether spiritual disciplines have just gone out of fashion. Doing our daily devotions, setting aside time to pray. In today’s fast moving church it all looks out of date but is it?

I was watching a pastor and his wife on Facebook recently where they sat and acknowledged texts as they were coming in. To me there was no substance but people were thrilled when the pastor said “hi so and so, good to hear from you” that was it, probably five words in less than 10 seconds.  A few years back one of our older members was dying. The family sat with him for hours as did I. In hospital we read scripture, we cried, we prayed. I was there for hours and hours. If I’m honest I feel like a dinosaur, an outdated pastor, thinking, why did I lose so much for restoring the church when it’s now become “hi so and so good to hear from you” and that on a screen! Do we need a restoration of the church and spiritual disciplines?

Anyway back to writing a blog. I have found it interesting looking at how other church leaders have reacted in lockdown. At the outset of the lockdown I can clearly remember God speaking to me about writing a blog and contacting folk by phone or letter. Keep it simple, keep it relational rang in my ears. Volunteer in the community, serve where you can was loud and clear.

I settled into it with great zeal until I chatted with other pastors who had now moved on to creating a ‘Star Wars’ production style Sunday service. Again ‘dinosaur’ came up in my thinking, time to give it all up Nigel. Several of those guys, in asking what I was doing, listened and then there was that ‘never mind pause’ before launching into, us bigger churches are doing this, and we are doing that, and we are doing… Hours spent on production. One church leader even suggested that I considered joining in with the bigger churches. I suppose I could have, and then just sat at home doing a jigsaw or reading a book, my life would have been much easier.

There are some real questions here. Is a bigger church better than a smaller church? Does the smaller church have anything to offer the bigger church? Are the smaller church leaders inferior in their gifting than those at the bigger church? We say not yet we practice something else!

If we are God’s s body on earth, then Gateway Church Wrexham has a unique place in the wider body of Christ and that means we have something to offer and something that bigger churches can learn from. We are a foot or an eye you can’t walk properly or see without us.

I can remember once being told that if I made a move from Wrexham to lead another church and if no one could be found to lead our little church then those, who were then in a position of serving apostolically, would consider closing the church. No absolutely not! This group of people who are not large in numbers are valuable to God and to me. I could not do that to them. They make up a number that he calls his bride, that he loves and gave himself up for. Why oh why is the small church dispensable?

Whilst I am on the subject (which was started when engaging in conversations about writing blogs and becoming an internet star) I have pastored three churches, in three different places. I was saved into a very reformed background have been to Bible college and yet am perceived as slightly lesser of a leader than those leading bigger churches. This is the rub, I have in my church three pastors including myself, I have at least three people, that I know to, that have taken time out to study theology. I have professional people full of wisdom and experience. I have folk who work hard for not much money. I have people that have moved house to be in Wrexham because they felt God speak to them. I have all ages from eighty six to little ones. Why oh why do you think they have nothing to offer?

It still, really is, all about size! After all why would you invite the guy that leads a church of 30 to speak in your large church, what has he got to offer? If you’ve got 50 then you invite those who lead 100, if  you have 100 then you invite those that lead 200 and so on. Our ‘pulpits’ portray our belief that size matters.

So, is a small church just a small church and will only become useful when it gets larger? Is a pastor of a small church just a small church pastor and will only become something of use when his congregation grows?

I am glad I started a blog, because God had taught me so much, and I hope there has been something in there for you. I am glad you rang me and told me what you are doing and what I should do because I have learnt so much about you.

Let me close by saying this. The church I lead is small but it’s God’s church.

Several years ago John Stott wrote a book on the seven letters in Revelation 2-3, entitled, “What Christ thinks of the Church.” Sad to say, there are some today who claim to be either church growth experts or skilled church analysts and/or consultants, who honestly don’t seem to care much about what Christ thinks of the church.

When I say that certain folk don’t appear to care much about what Christ thinks of the church, I have in my mind the way in which they elevate sociological trends and marketing surveys and demographic studies, together with the “felt needs” of the congregation, above the principles and truths of Scripture itself. That’s not to say we can’t learn from these things but rather that an undue focus on them often leads to the neglect of Scripture and even to the abandonment of the clear biblical guidelines of what is the Church.

Please open the word! It tells you what Church is.

Revelation 2:1 says, “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.’”

Are you as moved as I am by the fact that these are the “words” of Christ himself to the church, it’s personal? 

These seven letters are the direct address of the risen Christ to his people. He addresses his Church in words, statements, assertions, propositional utterances, theological concepts, doctrinal truths, ethical demands, etc. He is speaking to not the select church but to THE church. Which includes my small church.

The letter to the church in Ephesus says that Christ  “holds” the seven stars in his right hand and that he “walks” in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. In Revelation the lampstands represent the church. The church is to serve as a light to the world. In the middle of these lampstands is the risen Christ. Part of Christ’s priestly role is to tend the lampstands. The Old Testament priest would trim the lamps, remove the wick and old oil, refill the lamps with fresh oil, and relight those that had gone out. Likewise, Christ tends the ecclesial lampstands by commending, correcting, exhorting, and warning…in order to secure the churches’ fitness for service as light-bearers in a dark world. This includes my small church, don’t tell me otherwise!

He not only “stands” in the midst of the lampstands, he “walks” among them! The Lordship of Christ over his people is not passive, distant, or indifferent it is active. Our Lord patrols the churches with an intense and ever present awareness of all thoughts, deeds, and activities. He says “I know your deeds”. He is in my small  church.

The move from “has” to “holds” and from “stands” to “walks” is designed to highlight both the sovereignty of Christ over the church and his loving presence and unfailing presence within it.

He “holds” the church because it belongs to him. He owns it. He has redeemed it by his blood. At no time does the church slip from his grasp or elude his grip or operate under its own authority. As difficult as church life often becomes, Christ never ceases to be its sovereign. He is sovereign over my small church.

He is present in and among his people. He guards and protects and preserves the church. He is never, ever absent! No service is conducted at which he fails to show up. No meal is served for which he does not sit down. No sermon is preached that he does not evaluate. No sin is committed of which he is unaware. No individual enters an auditorium of whom he fails to take notice. No tear is shed that escapes his eye. No pain is felt that his heart does not share. No decision is made that he does not judge. No song is sung that he does not hear even in my small church.

Do you care “What Christ thinks of the Church”? Or are you more attuned to the latest trend in worship, the most innovative strategy for growth, the most “relevant” way in which to engage the surrounding culture? Yes, Jesus cares deeply about worship. Of course he wants the church to grow whatever its name, denomination, or size. It matters to him and so does my small church.

Now back to David.