JourneyOnline
Last Sunday I had opportunity to visit Moggill Uniting Church for their 150th anniversary. It was the congregation that gave me tremendous opportunity in ministry, backed me, encouraged me and forgave me!
Uncle Des from the Yuggera peoples welcomed us with stories of European and Indigenous interaction.
My heart was warmed by the vitality of this congregation over the years. It has discipled so many people who are now leaders in the wider life of our church, and also in other churches and Scripture Union. This continues today.
This congregation’s charism over 150 years has been that the faith, hope and love of the gospel can be lived out in everyday life; that anyone and everyone can be enlivened by the spirit to fulfil God’s purposes for them.
The other deeply Christian charism the congregation at Moggill Uniting Church have lived out, and not without challenge, is that being the body of Christ and working together, is profoundly powerful.
There’s been strong personalities in lay and ordained leadership there, and at times there’s been conflict over direction and priorities, but the strength of that church, its vitality, most appropriately celebrated at Pentecost, has been a willingness to work things through, for people to be ready to see a bigger, and different, picture than the one they individually imagined.
The taking up of that virtue – humility – has born tremendous fruit, and I could see it today, the joy of being the church, in the shining faces of the current members, and those who returned for the celebrations.
