This was the phrase I picked up when I was at Cirencester on Sunday. It summed up what they felt the Lord was saying to them after a 24-hour prayer slot the previous week and the challenge was to be salt and light - where they were and who they were with. Obviously, I loved it because it resonates with so much of what we’re trying to nurture among our Churches today. However, hearing the Lord is one part of a process. The really big challenges come along when any Church gets serious about nurturing the environment which encourages something like this to become reality. Ensuring it’s a priority for leaders means not expecting them to be at the Church building for meetings X nights per week. Encouraging every member to build this kind of priority into their weekly rhythms doesn’t just happen – it needs both regular encouragement, but also enough space to be created to enable it to happen. When, for example, did you last send a message to the congregation that making friends with other people beyond the Church is valued, other than in a sermon? I hear testimonies and interviews about all sorts – what we choose to focus on sends the big message: ‘we value this around here’, so what do we value?
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