sioncommunity.org.uk

What image comes to me, when I ponder on my experience of membership of Sion Community? Surprisingly, my mind turns to the scene of a busy railway station: a place of arrival and departure, a place of hectic activity, a place of meeting up with fellow travellers. Many pass through but only few recognise the station to be a place of permanence and stability providing an essential service to the passengers.

In our contemporary western world, where rapid response and immediate return is the promise and expectation, we might understand a highly flexible and adaptable community to be exactly what is needed to update a rather lumbering Church. But whether such a community could be identified as a genuine fruit of the Spirit or another fruitless by-product of a burnt-out society would be questionable.

In a fast-moving world where, paradoxically, delay and frustration is the lived experience, the short-term contract and the temporary arrangement does have a certain attraction. The possibility of the next life-changing opportunity being just around the corner presents itself as a temptation to keeping all options open. The modern mindset, formed in a culture of seemingly endless change and boundless development, does not readily tune into the language of longer-term commitment.

Sion Community hopes to be a prophetic sign within the Church. We wish to keep an open mind as to what Christian community might look like as the new millennium gets underway. The contemporary concept of a network community held together by threads of email and internet connection can be part of the picture, but is not a substitute for persons meeting persons. The idea of a post-modern community being transient in its membership does challenge us to meet the aspirations of those who are searching for relationship and wanting to explore a deeper sense of belonging. However, the longer-term commitment of the few will continue to be the key element in providing a context in which others can learn and develop.

As I complete ten years of mission work in the context of life in community I give thanks to God for the longer-term relationships which have proved to be the most challenging and ultimately the most supportive. The journey from being a person ‘in’ community to a person ‘for’ community requires conversion and therefore grace. And grace is in itself an experience of God at work in our lives; an experience for which our hearts are always hungry.

In this letter please read into the information an invitation to become more involved with Sion Community and our work of mission and evangelisation. From fundraising to Core Membership we need those who can stay just a little bit longer. Are you prepared to miss your train for the Lord?

Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations.

Dear Friends,