Lansdowne Life 13 April 2018

&
Pilgrims
Settlers
One of the things which in this Season of
Prayer we have been hearing God say to
us as a church can be phrased in a
question “What does it mean to be a
community of faith in a world of
unbelief?”
This was the essential issue for the Old
Testament exiles in Babylon. It was the
same challenge that Peter in his first
letter underlined “to God’s elect,
strangers in the world.”
There are two unhelpful positions a
minority group like ours can adopt in its
relationship to society and culture. We
can integrate but lose our identity and
relevance. This means we have an
audience but we have lost our distinctive
message. Or we can isolate ourselves as a
religious club for members only but in the
process, lose our purpose and mission.
We may have a message but there’s no
one listening to us.
The stance we are called to live out is a
third way. It’s what we might describe as
infiltrate.
In this model of being church we act as
salt and light in society. Involved yet
distinctive. Settling down as good
neighbours, tax payers, employees; yet
living with a dual nationality, as citizens
of heaven.
I have been impressed over and again
during the last few weeks by the strapline
with which we embarked on the
Regeneration Project and the new church
centre, “In Lansdowne for Good.”
That is our Christian calling. In a
paraphrase of Jeremiah’s letter to the
Exiles “to bless the city and pray for its
prosperity by settling down, building
houses, marrying, having children.”
Wouldn’t that be a great thing to say
among us at Lansdowne in Bournemouth,
Christchurch, Poole that we stay around,
commit to the area, invest in our
communities, jobs, streets.
As we celebrate this month the empty
tomb and the Resurrection of Jesus, the
victory of God in the world and the sign
post of a new world to come, the Risen
Jesus says to us “As the Father sent me,
so I am sending you.” His mission to the
world becomes ours. So don’t integrate or
isolate, infiltrate!
Peter Baker | Senior Minister