At All Saints Anglican Church we’re asking the question, “now what?”
We’ve blessed the new kitchen and accessible washroom, the automatic door opener to the church hall and bathroom – it’s all fancy and accessible … but now what?
As a community, our work is similar to those who first gathered as a Christian community. We try to work as first century followers of Jesus who “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42) However, like those first burgeoning communities, the work grew to include many more activities. There were gatherings for teaching and healing and there were needs that the original disciples could not manage… and the “twelve” soon were overwhelmed with the needs of Gods people.
So, they listened to God’s will and responded by expanding the ministry to include others who would share in proclaiming the Good News and still others who would feed God’s people. Stephen was one of the first called to serve in this fashion, and the church has continued this ordained ministry of service, called the Diaconate, or Deacons of the church (see Acts 6:1-7).
We are blessed with new resources and wish to respond as God would have us do in order to be faithful to our calling. Like the early prophets and apostles, we’re listening and discerning how our ministry may grow as the early church did so that, “the word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly…”
