Chaplain’s Report
Dear bothers and sisters in Christ,
Let’s thank God for the many blessings we have received as a Church over the last year. And let’s pray that there will be many more to come. This year was our 20th Anniversary of meeting in Tervuren. Many of us were able to commence the celebrations with a weekend away at Massembre. Special thanks must go to the Keens, Ian Dalton and Martin Woodroofe for organising this weekend. We met up with some old friends and we heard from many more about the ways in which God had used his church to make disciples who are now living, working and worshipping in nations all over the world. We also marked the occasion with a special presentation to Fr. Jos Verstraeten during our Carols Service at Christmas. Without his support and gracious invitation to use Sint Paulus in Vossem as a meeting place we would have faced some real difficulties.
People
‘Change’ is a defining characteristic of our church. Over these twenty years there have been hundreds who have been part of our fellowship and who have now moved to ministry elsewhere. Significantly this year we saw Sean and Helen Riordan and their family move, Sian Cook, our Administrator, changed her role around church and Jan Hurley rejoined the team in the Church Centre. Roger Morgan handed the role of Treasurer to Nick Mendham after years of faithful work and Josephine Okal resigned as bookkeeper allowing Miriam Isaacs to move in. Peter Young completed service on the Church Council and, with the family, retired to Scotland. Keith Keen left the Council and, with Christine, headed for a term in Hong Kong working with Crossroads. At the St Paul’s British Primary School Katie Tyrie announced her resignation as Head Teacher. Brett Nielsen will be joining us later in 2009. And the changes haven’t finished yet. I know many of you are preparing right now for a move away from Belgium. One of the great joys here is meeting people from all over the world. One of the great sorrows is saying farewell.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank those who served alongside us and who have moved on. It has been a joyful privilege to serve the Lord together.
The Link
The past year was also a year of significant change at the Link. As mentioned, Sean, Helen, Anna and Joel made the move back to the UK and we are currently looking for a replacement to lead this work. In order for the ministry to continue we established a number of ‘milestones’ so we could monitor the health of the Link and support it as and where needed. An important aspect of this has been the establishment of a Church Committee. Variously known as the ‘Magnificent Seven’ or the ‘Seven Dwarves’, this group has been a real help to me while I take responsibility for the Link and as we all seek to continue the work in Kraainem. I am pleased to report that all the milestones for 2008 have been met and, in some cases, exceeded.
The challenge of location is ever present as are the issues of growth and having enough people involved to help with welcoming newcomers and leading in the programs for children and youth. It may be that you could afford some time on a short term basis or maybe by serving from time to time. If you would like to serve in any way, please don’t hesitate to ask about serving at the Link. We all look forward to having someone to lead the Link as their principal task but there are lots of opportunities to serve the Lord here. And there is so much to learn from some time spent serving in this way.
The Council
I am thankful for the hard work done by the Council. There is much that is done behind the scenes that is often unnoticed by the majority of us. I would especially like to express my thanks to the Wardens, Deborah Walker and Martin Woodroofe and I am glad they plan to continue to serve in this way in the coming year.
I would like to thank Martin Webber for his contribution to Council over the last few years. Martin will be leaving Council after our ACM and I would like to record here my thanks to him for his participation, commitment and hard work for the Lord. I know that he will continue to serve our community as a leader and I am thankful to God for him.
This year the Council tried hard to align our ministry activities with our church goals. The Mission Interest Group has provided us with a good model for how this can work. This team meet and pray for our Missionary contacts and they also challenge us all to consider how we can be involved in making disciples of Christ among the nations. In other words, they work to align what we do with our church’s vision.
Using this template a ‘Resources Team’, under the guidance of Jonathan Beynon, was established to help us to match our resources with our ministries here. As well as keeping us informed about financial needs this team reminded us that more than money is needed in a church like ours. God has graciously given us gifts and talents that are to be used for his glory and the Resources Team encouraged us to use whatever we had in his service so we could be involved in making disciples.
As already mentioned, Nick Mendham took on the role of Treasurer from Roger Morgan and has established a new ‘Finances Team’ and worked very hard to help us through a challenging year. John Hollows will take Nick Mendham's place as Treasurer and we welcome him warmly to the team. John's experience and wisdom will be a valuable "asset" to us. Of course we're sorry to say goodbye to Nick and Caroline and we certainly wish them well as they settle back into life in the UK.
In order to continue to improve the alignment of our church’s vision with our church’s ministries we are planning to alter the way the Council operates. In 2009 we will assign different members of the Council to various areas of ministry. Their role is to support and encourage those engaged in the Lord’s work here and especially to pray regularly for all those involved in it. Hopefully this will help us to be more prayerful in what we do and to work together more effectively. We plan to meet as a Council about five times a year and to spend the balance of the Council’s time meeting with ministry leaders.
The vision from the beginning of St Paul’s Tervuren was to make disciples among all nations. It is my hope this initiative will help us in this role.
What’s ahead?
I am aware that the coming year may be a difficult one for a number of people in our church. More than a few members have lost a loved one during the past year. Illnesses have invaded the lives of a number of us and affected almost all of our households in some way. Furthermore, there are a few in our church who have felt the effects of the global economic downturn firsthand. Within the wider community there is a growing sense of uncertainty about finances and employment. I know many who will be leaving us this Summer.
So how do we respond?
Firstly, don’t allow difficult times to curb your generosity. You probably thought of money immediately, didn’t you? Yes, money can be an expression of generosity, and we do need money, but I am speaking here also of generosity of spirit. God is more than generous to us. He is utterly extravagant with us. He sent us his Son and he gives us his Spirit. May his example to us help us to express our generosity. As we seek to grow as disciples and to be conformed to his likeness may we be generous with our time and talents as well as with our money.
Let’s grow together as disciples of Christ and let’s continue to make disciples of Christ. We may only be together for a short time. Let’s not waste a moment of it.
I would like to use this opportunity to launch a new challenge, call it the Chaplain’s Challenge. I would like to challenge everyone, in whatever ministry context and whatever age group, to think about how we might connect with the community around us so they might hear the good news of Christ. Let’s be generous in our plans and creative with our ideas. How can we connect so people around us can come to know about forgiveness and life?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours in Christ, and for his glory,
Chris Edwards.
Hoornzeelstraat 24
3080 Tervuren
