The Shore Community ChurchLife is full of big and important questions. We believe that church should be a safe space to ask questions and go about exploring some of the answers. We've grouped some biggies together here...
We are bombarded by messages (usually from people trying to sell us something!) telling us what to do, what to buy or what we should look like in order to be happy, healthy, successful or acceptable. Those messages tend to unravel pretty quickly, or even leave us in a worse state than before. We yearn for deeper wisdom about how we should make our way in the world, and what will ultimately satisfy and sustain us. People have wrestled with these issues since the dawn of time and the Bible contains much of this ancient wisdom, gleaned from generations of struggle, revelation and reflection. As a church we try to explore these mysteries to see how they might shed light on our own lives. We still have all the same problems as everyone else does - there aren’t necessarily any easy answers. But many of us can give testimony to peace, strength and grace that we have found to help navigate our way through life.
For the last few decades it seems like the emphasis has been on each of us living as individuals: 'look after number one'! But more and more people are realising that this is no way for human beings to thrive. We are social creatures... we need one another. We often only achieve our best when we are working with a team, sharing our problems and supporting one another so that one person's strengths can compensate for someone else's weaknesses. Most people live in fairly close proximity to one another, sharing the same spaces: Connecting with and helping one another can do a lot to make life better for everyone. However, our modern lifestyles can sometimes make it really difficult to connect with our community in authentic ways. Isolation is a massive problem. We are discovering that a church is an amazing way to form genuine and meaningful community with a diverse group of people, all with different experiences and viewpoints to offer. We grow as we share the journey of life together.
Some of the most profound moments and experiences of life can't just be boiled down to their objective and material factors. We are complex and mysterious creatures, moved in ways that often we don't fully understand ourselves. There's a lot that's mysterious about our own feelings, reactions, motivations and experiences. Throughout human history, people have struggled to describe this dimension of existence: They've often used words like 'spirit', but we don't need to get hung up on precise definitions of what that means. Many people, including those in healthcare and education, would acknowledge that nurturing our spiritual side seems to be beneficial to our general wellbeing. People in our church community have a wide range of experiences, beliefs and ideas when it comes to a healthy and fulfilling spiritual life. Although Christians naturally look to the Bible for guidance, over the centuries there has been a huge variety of opinions and practices, and many rich traditions have emerged. We believe church should be a place where we can safely explore these things together.
Life can sometimes seem pretty random, unfair or arbitrary: We all have moments when we wonder, "what is it all about?" It's become fashionable for some people to adopt a nihilistic attitude, claiming that life is meaningless. But in the long run, very few people can live well with this attitude. As human beings we're hardwired to live purposeful lives, to find meaning, to set out goals, make plans and try to achieve them. We are creators, builders, dreamers, artists, carers and problem solvers. Most people would probably agree that they would like to leave the world a slightly better place than how they found it (or at least not make it any worse!). As a church we want to participate in this great adventure and we are exploring how creativity, togetherness and sacrificial love can help to follow where we believe God is leading.
Everyone is welcome. Whoever you are - wherever you come from, wherever you've been and whatever you've done - you can be part of this community. Whether you have really clear ideas about all of this stuff or whether you're unsure and still working things out, that's fine - so long as we can treat one another with respect and acceptance. Most Christians believe that somehow Jesus is central to picking our way through these questions and having life 'in all its fullness' (as he put it!). Find out more about Jesus here.
