Rivertown United Reformed Church

Minister’s Letter – May 2012

“A place for everything – and everyone”

Have you been caught up with the enthusiasm of Antiques Roadshow and sold all your treasured possessions? If not, I guess you will have many treasures tucked away. The “ideal home” has a place for everything, and everything in its place. Some of us hoard more than others; some feel happier with lots and lots of memories on show. But as years pass, new experiences come, new friendships begin – and we displace long displayed treasures in favour of new ones.

And it’s not just in the home that we keep things on display. We do the same in our hearts. Loved ones who have passed on, long term friends who have moved too far away for us to visit; dear ones who are now too old or too infirm to travel. Even those with whom we may have had a serious fall-out, more years ago than we can now remember. Those who have helped us in our learning and growing.

In the coming weeks we will start a programme of sharing our stories during Sunday worship. Initially we will invite those who are bold enough to start us off and we hope this will encourage others to share their stories later on in the series. We will assess how this goes and then look for other ways we can encourage each other through sharing our faith journeys.

20th September

It is some months since we posted any news under this item - this is becaus we 'pressed the pause button' but now we are very keen to seek God's will for Rivertown and discover what it is we will do next. Part of this work is to conduct a local survey to determine:

• what the local people want from their community
• what Rivertown can offer in terms of resource
• what others' in the community can offer to meet needs

All this will help us determine how Rivertown can help meet community needs. At the same time we will pray for God's will for it is then we know progress will be made in faith. Subject to both answer to prayer and community needs we may progress to our next vision - to open up the front of the building, making it into a welcoming place and coffee area. Also, we may be looking at enhancing our worship area to make it a more comfortable place for worship and more flexible for other uses.