Keith’s Blog

A New Church is Born

Over these past 15 years of ‘ordained’ ministry, there haven’t been that many times when I have been almost overcome with emotion during a church service – at least not when the emotion has been joy! (Despair on the other hand, I think I could write a series of books on! ) Unlike some others in our congregation who must themselves form a line in the Kleenex (Ireland) sales reports, I am generally a typical bloke who likes to keep his emotions under guard and out of the public domain. But last night something within me just wouldn’t allow my pretence at calmness and self-control any longer. Watching as over 300 people gathered in a school sports hall to witness the birth of a new little church and appoint me as its pastor, standing alongside my partner in ministry, Kevin, who was also commissioned, it just struck me how truly amazing it is when we see what God can do through an ordinary group of people who are willing to follow his lead.

Twenty six years ago, I was just another in a long line of troubled teenagers in the midst of the troubled city of Derry. Living in a broken home, surrounded by a violent culture, struggling to make ends meet, with little hope of knowing anything else in my life. And then, through the most unexpected of avenues, everything was changed by the God I hadn’t even known existed. Discovering God’s love for me in the message of Jesus, and responding to it, was the most amazing and life changing experience of my life. But even then, as I began my journey as a follower of Jesus, I had no real idea just how much transformation God delights to bring. If you had asked me in my early days in church if I thought I would one day be kneeling before God in Maynooth, and in front of such an assembled group of people, at the beginning of the first new Presbyterian church in Ireland in decades, I would simply have laughed.

Yet, there I was, and as I watched as a new church was launched; as I listened as our worship team quietly sang the opening verses of the old Irish hymn ‘Be thou My Vision’ in our native tongue and then tried to take the roof off the building with the remaining ones! As I looked around and realised that many of those involved last night had known a very similar journey of discovery to my own, it was again so clear to me that the God who delighted to create out of nothing at the birth of our vast and incredible universe, has never once, even for a moment, lost that delight!

When local churches are functioning the way they ought to, even small ones like ours, that is what happens, that is what God continues to delight in doing and there is little else that can compare to it. Without doubt, we have large dreams for our church in the years to come. It may well be that God will swell our numbers. It may well be that God will provide us with wonderful new meeting facilities (those of us who do set-up each week will say a big ‘Amen!’ to that!). It may well be that we will eventually be able to build counselling and support facilities to offer help to lots of different people from all kinds of different backgrounds and traditions. It may well be. But I suppose my own great hope as we begin this journey together, and the thought that brought tears to my eyes last night, is that one day there might just be those who once thought of themselves as I did, who didn’t think their lives had any real value or purpose at all, who were once troubled teenagers or forty year olds or even pensioners but who through this little community, this new part of the body of Christ, discovered their lives changed forever by the people they met here and by the God they didn’t even know existed, who always delights in greatly using those who will simply follow his lead.