2011 Letter No 01

Each month Bill writes a pastor's letter for our monthly church magazine called 'The Messenger'. Here is the letter for January 2011:

2011 will be a year of change for us all. The church will need to adjust to life without Kerrion and myself. And my family will need to adjust to life and ministry elsewhere.

But the way ahead is not clear for any of us. It would be lovely to have a map and a timetable to answer all our questions. But here’s the thing ... a map and a timetable give us information, but they do not draw us deeper into relationship, and that is God’s heart for each of us. God is much more interested in being our guide than he is in merely giving us directions. He wants us to rely on him and to be continually turning to him for fresh insight and instruction.

A map might seem easier, but our God wants something better for us. He wants us to walk with him.

This reminds me of the words quoted by George VI at the end of 1939. They come from Marie Louise Haskins’ poem “The Desert”:

            And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

            “Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown!”

            And he replied:

            “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.

            That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

I sense that Proverbs 23:18-19 might also be an important text for us in the year ahead:

            “Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

            Hear, my child, and be wise, and direct your mind in the way.”