It was on my television about an hour ago and shouting ‘look at me, I will intrigue you; I will have you guessing my purpose; I was highly valued for what I did but I’m not revealing it, not yet’. I could feel the reverence being showered on it as the presenter fondled it almost caressing it as he turned it from hand to hand. It was a small object encrusted with dessicated leather, encasing rusty iron and about the size of a child’s foot. “It’s very early” he said “probably late 1600s or early 1700s but what it did? Well I’m stumped”
I can’t help feeling there’s a parable of the church of Jesus Christ here. If I’d never encountered church before I might look at it the same way. Intriguing, precious, admirable, but what is it here for? Why do we exist?
You might like to try this for fun. If you had just one sentence to describe what Victoria Baptist Church is here for, what would it be? While there are many as many different responses to this as there are people who read this article, here at Victoria we live by a sentence that that inspires all we do.
The purpose of Victoria Baptist Church is to transform people into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
Simples!
When Jesus asked his followers to ‘make disciples by going, teaching and baptising’ we follow in his footsteps by doing the same. It has always been the case that when we obey the scriptures, God invests our efforts with His power and blessing. So whether you’re new to Victoria or an old stager our reason for existing is the same – to transform people, including ourselves, into fully devoted disciples of Jesus. Day after day, week after week, year after year our aim is to be more and more like Jesus himself. There is no greater calling and my passion is to see this motive worked through everything that we are and we do at Victoria.
And the object? Like the BBC expert, I’m still stumped. So answers on a postcard please …
Ian
