needy people

"You know what you really need?"

You've probably had that said to you before. It's not really a question, it's more a warning.

Even if you say 'Yes', you're still going to get the advice that's coming your way.

It happened to me again today. I was chatting away with a friend and all of a sudden, out of the blue, it was this little line that came out.

Now there are really quite a lot of things I 'know I really need': I could have kept the guy there for hours as I ran through the list.

But I figured he was going to tell me anyway. And the sooner I let him the better.

So I simply said - tell me.

His answer was not what I'd really expected I have to say.

"You need to stop being a presbyterian church!"

In the current climate that's a pretty provocative guideline the guy was throwing to me. But he didn't exactly mean it the way that it sounded.

I think.

"I don't mean in terms of the way the church is governed," he said. "I mean you need to develop a praying community."

He must have seen my bemused and slightly incredulous look.

"I don't mean that you never pray" (referring to more than just me - he was talking about our corporate life): "but you need to become a praying community."

He'd known that sort of thing himself before. In a sort of former life.

And I guess he was simply stressing the fact that our growing to be a people uniting in prayer is the basis for any real progress, in terms of the purpose of God.

Prayer not an adjunct to our common life - one of the things that we do. But the absolute foundation. The thing on which the other things all rest. The thing from which the other things all flow.

Philippi came to mind. It's a town in northern Greece and how the church started in Philippi is told in some detail by the man who first wrote down the story of how the church grew.

In fact, it's about the only place where we're told in any detail how a church began.

And it started with ... well, a praying community. A small group of folk who simply got down to some praying.

After that a remarkable sequence of wonderful Jesus events began to unfold: the dramatic and life-changing work of the Spirit of God.

So, yes. My friend, of course, is right.

We need to become, more and more, an overtly praying community.

Which may seem obvious.

But something else happened as well today which highlighted well where much of the challenge now lies.

I came across a man today, a member of the congregation here, whose statement really shook me to the core. "I'm not a believer."

Now that's got to be a bit of a problem if the folk who make up the congregation here are not themselves believers!

And maybe that's the essence of the problem through the wider church across our land today. The absence of faith.

There's loads of love, I'm sure.

And not a little 'hope', I guess (the same sort of crazy Scottish optimism about the Church which leads folk to think it's only a matter of time before Scotland finally wins the World Cup).

But the absence of faith is a problem!

When the toughened old warden of Philippi's jail asked Paul "what must I do to be saved?" he wasn't told, 'love your neighbour': he wasn't told, 'hope for the best'.

He was told very simply, 'Believe. Believe in the Lord Jesus.'

And here we have a member of the church who says - "I'm not a believer."

This is 'Houston, we have a problem' stuff. There are folk within the Christian church who are .. well, basically not believers.

You know what I really need?