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4. Minister’s Report 2023

Where do I begin? What do I say in my report that, primarily, though not completely, looks to what
has been? How do I sum-up the journey that we have been on together over the past twelve
months?

It is difficult to know what to say because the journey of the last year has, at times, been difficult.
It is a journey that has been punctuated by moments of struggle and challenge, of pain and hurt,
and there are still wounds being carried by some people that need to be given time and space to
heal.

Yet, not everything has been hardship. We have to remember that in life it is sometimes difficult
to see the joy through the pain, or the happiness through the tears, but there have been moments
of joy, and we must not forget that. There are still glimpses of where the Spirit is at work in this
place. And God has not finished with us yet. Indeed, God still has work for us to fulfil in building
his Kingdom.

So, while we acknowledge that not everything has been, nor is, perfect, let us give thanks for
those things that have been good and those things that are to be celebrated in our fellowship.

We should give thanks for:
· new people coming into contact with the church in various ways – for example the growth seen
in Coffee@112
· new members joining the church
· five people, who have not done so before, now offering themselves to the church for eldership,
and who are soon to be ordained (and as we welcome them, we thank those who are stepping
down)
· a regular new form of worship led by Lex on a Sunday evening, with a core group of a congre-
gation attending
· a core group of people who continue to meet together every Tuesday morning on Zoom to pray
· the ability to be able to continue to live-stream our worship every Sunday – with thanks to
those who facilitate this happening
· the willingness to make our building a place of warm welcome
· the restarting of church lunches
· the blossoming of a new relationship with Swanage Primary School, which has led to the joy of
seeing the staff and children, along with their parents and grandparents, here for both their
Harvest and Nativity productions

All these things are worth celebrating, all these things have God’s hand in them, and all of these
are things that we should give thanks for.

As we meet here for our AGM and consider the past year, I want to conclude my report by shar-
ing the first entry in my Lenten devotional. It is written by John Pavlovitz, some of whose Advent
writings I shared last year.

He writes,

Spoiler alert: the tomb was empty.

It might seem strange to begin with the end of the story, but I think it’s helpful in framing every
moment of the season. Starting in sunlit, tomb-side morning euphoria reminds us that the assur-
ance of the dawn’s arrival isn’t easily claimed in the lightless moments. In fact, it’s something that
we often imagine will never come.

When our struggles are in the windshield, when they are part of our present discomfort, it’s nearly
impossible to remember that they will one day be in our rearview mirror: that in one way or anoth-
er we will have passed through something and reached something else, and that it will yield a
stronger, wiser, more perceptive version of ourselves.

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