Everything has it's time

‘For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted’. Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 RSV

Many of you will know of the decision that the Cornwell Leadership team has taken. I was going to put ‘difficult decision’ there but in the end it wasn’t a ‘difficult decision’, yes it was hard to make but after a long period of discernment we felt it was the right thing to do; that as a separate church ‘Cornwell Community Church’ would cease, but that as a congregation we would continue, albeit worshipping in a different building.

Gill has outlined in her article on page 7 the challenges we had faced and the steps we took as a result.

During the interregnum and discussions, a question was asked and not fully resolved, were we a church or a congregation? In a sense, there is no difference; both the words ‘church’ and ‘congregation’ have their roots in the Greek word ‘Ecclesia’ which is used 114 times in the New Testament. The literal translation is ‘a gathering of those summoned’. The word is used in four senses:

1. It represents the body of Christ worldwide, over which the Lord functions as head.

2. The expression can refer to God’s people in a given region.

3. Frequently, it depicted a local congregation of Christians.

4. It could also signify a group of the Lord’s people assembled for worship.

When Jesus referred to ‘building His church’ he did not have a building in mind (Matthew 16:18); he was thinking of people, the family or household of God. Today, however, we associate the word ‘church’ with a building.

Cornwell Community Church never owned a building and we were therefore able to stress that our church was the people not the building. We were free from the worries of property maintenance, but with the disadvantages of having no base, limited access and a building that was not ours to change.

Church buildings are visible outposts of the kingdom and for worshippers, they provide a physical space for our otherwise ‘spiritual’ encounters with God. A place where the church (gathered people) can be found. Our worship spaces are a means, not the end.

There are examples across Reading where congregations that for years have met in hired buildings, have now bought buildings that enable them to have a presence 7 days a week and offer more than simply an hour on a Sunday morning. For the Cornwell Congregation, the move to St Catherine’s offers us a greatly enlarged Harvest Field and a base available 7 days a week, working in partnership with the various congregations at St Catherine’s to further God’s kingdom; let’s embrace the opportunities with enthusiasm!

Tony