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2001
9th September (am) - Thanksgiving and Celebration for Opening of the Halls
The End of the Beginning!
Acts 1:1-2

When one of Harland and Wolf's great ships started to roll down the slipway at its official launch - what a sense of achievement and excitement there must have been among the whole workforce, from the management right down to the most junior employee.
Maybe we feel like them this week-end, with the official opening of our halls.
I've just been reading Ken Folliet's novel, ' Code to Zero', based on the events leading up the lift-off of one of the very early America space launches that led eventually to putting men on the moon .. and again the atmosphere was one of achievement and excitement when they finally overcame all the obstacles and saw the rocket lift off.
I think we feel a bit as they did!
And it is good and right that we should enjoy this week-end and celebrate our new halls with pleasure and the proper sort of pride.

But you know, in another way, when those great ocean going liners were launched, or those complex space missions lifted off, it was really only the beginning of the real business - those craft had been built for a purpose, and now that purpose was beginning - now they could begin to carry passengers all over the world, now they could begin the scientific exploration of the universe.

Launch and lift-off was but the end of the beginning.
And that is precisely how we need to see our wonderful new halls - and they are wonderful, and we ought to feel so thankful that it is possible, under God, for us to have these halls ..... and it would be inexcusable for us to underestimate the enormous commitment that so many people have put into this project. We have absolutely marvellous accommodation, but we must see their opening only as the end of the beginning. We are now ready to use these halls to their fullest possible potential - we are at the beginning of the journey, not the end - we are at the launch, the lift-off!
The purpose for which we undertook these new halls lies ahead of us. What is that purpose?
We have these halls so that we should play our part in helping as many people as we possibly can to join the journey of faith in Jesus Christ .
- the journey that goes so much further than any cruise liner that Harland's ever built, or any space craft NASA ever launched.
- the journey of faith in Jesus Christ, who is the only person who can give us safe and good passage this life, and the only Saviour who is able to bring us to that destination which is called heaven.
We want to be on that journey ourselves, we want our children and young people to be on it, and we want to persuade the people who live around us to join us on it too.
As Ps. 145 puts it: One generation will commend (the Lord's) works to another ....... so that all men may know of your mighty acts ...'
People matter to God - our building tells us that - they matter so much that it involved that cross set between the 2 t's in the word matter - we need to be gripped by that truth, and we need to care that others also are gripped by it.
So this week-end we have really reached the launch as far as these new halls are concerned - we must be very careful not to think that 'we've done it', but rather to see that we now have sparkling new facilities in which to get on with the task - this week-end is simply the end of the beginning. We are at an exciting new stage of our church's life and work - we look back with thankfulness to all who have gone before us and provided for us as a church, and now we see the challenge in our day, and set our hand to the plough.
We must not waste the opportunity - we must catch the vision - we must meet the challenge.

This is very much the mood at the beginning of the Book of Acts from which we read. Luke, the author, tells us that Jesus' life and ministry on earth had been completed by the suffering of the cross and the convincing resurrection appearances to the disciples. (vs.3) But he puts it in a most interesting and significant way: He says I've told you about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven (vs.1-2) - now, I'm going to tell you about what Jesus continued to do through his disciples and those who belonged to that early church of Christ's people.
The Cross and the Resurrection established the foundation of all faith and all hope, for all people, for all time - as Jesus had said on the cross, 'It is finished'. Now Jesus tells his disciples: You will receive power .... and you will be my witnesses - for you, this is just the end of the beginning - get on with it! All people matter to God - build a people for God on this solid rock of the cross and the resurrection.
And so Jesus has that same word for us at this important milestone in the life of the congregation. Catch the vision, hear the promise, rise to the challenge of being witnesses for me in your day and generation, among your family and friends, in your town and community - use these new halls to help you make an impact for Christ and the good news of the Gospel. With the help of these new halls that you have build, get on with the work of building a people for God.

We don't have to read too far into the book of Acts to see how the early church did that - how they built on that foundation - they show us how we must seek to do it too. In the first 3 or 4 chapters of Acts I have noticed 3 very simple lessons that maybe help us to catch the vision and set ourselves to the challenge.

The early Church were people of effective communication with their world.
They were able to communicate the message of faith in Jesus Christ to all sorts of people - they were able to get the message across, regardless of the age, language, or label that people around them presented. The Day of Pentecost in ch.2 is the supreme example, where enabled by the H. Spirit, Peter's effective communication led to 3000 being added to their number.
Now if we added 3000 we wouldn't just need new halls!
But it is a striking reminder to us about the challenge to communicate the message of faith in Jesus Christ, in the power of the Spirit, as effectively as possible to the people of our day and out into the society in which we live.
You and I need to be people who are able to say a word for our faith in Christ - a simple, but convincing word - a word that is not embarrassed to speak up for faith in Christ in a rather dismissive world - but rather genuinely glad and unashamedly enthusiastic - a word that speaks to the people we know - the people who matter to God - a word that crops up in our own conversations and friendships and contacts, as well as through everything that goes on here in our buildings.
This is an age in which many people are rather disinterested, even disillusioned with the Churches and all that they stand for e.g. both C. of E and RC Archbishops this week. Our challenge is to show people that not only is our building modern and contemporary, but that our message is most definitely for their contemporary lives and that it has the only word of eternal life.
That does, of course, without doubt or debate, mean that we must work hard at making our church life as relevant and contemporary as possible- on Sundays as well as during the week - holding on to what is so rich and good in our traditional ways of doing things, but communicating the unchanging message as effectively as we can to an ever changing world.
Have you caught that vision - are you ready for that challenge?

The second simple lesson that I notice at the beginning of Acts is that the early church were a people of Practical Community - they didn't just talk about the truth and love and hope of the Gospel, they lived it!.
The early church was characterised by a care and a concern for each other that really worked and made a difference (2:45, 4:34) ...... and they were a people who quickly won the respect of those outside the church. Acts 2:47 tells us that they enjoyed the favour of all the people.
They didn't come across as a bunch of holy joes who were only interested in themselves - anything but - they were seen as an attractive, practical movement of people who had something that made a difference to them, and who really did care for people outside their own membership.

We too need to be that kind of church - making that sort of mark in our community - whether as individuals who belong to the church, or as the church working corporately, we need to be seen as a practical, caring, welcoming, serving community. We will never convince people that they matter to God, if it doesn't look as if they matter to us! They will never hear the message, if they do not first see it in us.
So these lovely new buildings of ours need to have open doors .... but the people who are connected to these buildings need also to have open arms and warm hearts - really welcoming to all sorts of people, really caring that there are so many people who don't yet seem to see that there is anything in the Christian Gospel for them, really serving people in the name of Christ - with all that goes on within our buildings and as we go out from them in everyday life.
This vision requires us to be geared up to the multi facetted opportunities for service - it requires us to work these buildings as hard as we can - not to wrap them in cotton wool so that they don't get marked - it requires us to be constantly on the look-out for new ways of impacting our town. We want this to be a place where people know there is a listening ear, practical help and plenty going on that is more attractive and better than what goes on in so many other places in our communities.

So, like the early church, we are to be:
- a people of effective communication.
- a people of practical community.

Finally, the Christians of the early church wee a people of courageous commitment.
As the early church developed they won favour with many people, but because they had a distinctive message which required people to make a definite choice about their lives, they also faced misunderstanding, criticism and opposition. At times those Christian people had to show enormous courage, nearly all of the time they had to give immense commitment.
We probably won't often face the kind of opposition they faced - sometimes violent and life threatening - although we must understand that churches do get criticised when they try to make people really face the challenges of the gospel rather than simply offering superficial, and shortlived, easy words.
But whether or not we get that sort of criticism, we will most certainly need to show commitment that can be costly if we are really to be on board this journey of faith in, and for, Christ.
We have to be ready for a commitment of our time, our service, and, yes, our financial resources.
These brilliant buildings that we now have are only the walls within which the work will be done - it is through people like us that the work is done. We are very fortunate to have so many committed people who work in so many capacities every week - but more of us need to shoulder our share of the work - because, sometimes, some people are unfairly asked/expected to do too much.
There is something for every single person of faith in Jesus Christ - something you can and should be doing; something in the vast variety of jobs of every kind.
It's been wonderful to see so many people involved in getting the halls ready for opening - I think you enjoyed it - let's not loose that impetus and willingness - it's good for us to both work and worship together, and it's good for the work and witness of the church - so when we appeal for helpers for this or that activity, organisation, task - don't hang back, consider what you could do, and offer your help.
And so too with the financial challenge - we must not allow the financial commitment of these halls to be a millstone around our necks, inhibiting the work that we could and should be doing. Let's get these buildings paid off as quickly as possible - and remember, the quicker, the cheaper - for there will be less interest!

So, the end of the beginning - in a very significant sense, the real work starts from here.
Are we ready for it? Am I? Are you?
Have we caught the vision, are we ready for the challenge?
We can only say yes when we ourselves are caught up for our own lives in the truth and hope of Christ:
- the costly hope which comes from the forgiveness of the cross.
- the heavenly hope that comes from the victory of the resurrection.
This is the message that we need, this is the message that our families and our community needs.
Our challenge is to show and to share that hope.
We can only do it because of the promise Jesus gave to the early church, and which still stands for you and me in our church: You will receive power .... the gift my Father promised .... the Holy Spirit:
- who will make our lives more attractive with the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness etc
- who will make our faith stronger by the sword of the Spirit, the word of God - so that we can say a word for Christ as well as coping better ourselves with the battle of life.

Have we got the vision - Are we willing?
Are we ready to be a church which effectively communicates the message; which demonstrates, practically, the community of Christ's caring people; which commits itself courageously to being his workers and witnesses?