If you’ve ever visited our church you’ll know that we love to include and integrate enquirers into every aspect of our church.

So, if someone wants to come and check out Jesus, then our everyday church is the perfect place to drop in and see what we’re on about.

This is also true of our home groups, as we love to have people along who might prefer the relaxed nature of meeting with a few others to talk about what Jesus has said and the real difference he makes in our lives.

Some people think that it’s too tricky to run a group that helps mature Christians grow stronger, whilst also being a place that helps visitors learn about the basics of what Christians believe.

But, the thing about the Bible is that as it helps us understand more about who God is and who we are, it ends up being a message that is for everyone, no matter what their place on their journey of faith.

This is what we see in the Apostle Paul’s second letter to his colleague Timothy, where he says:

“But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3:14-15)

The same things that enquirers are taught as they come to know Jesus for the first time are the same things that long-term followers of Jesus need to keep hearing and believing.

Which is why it makes so much sense to be integrating new believers into the everyday life of our church… so you’re very welcome, no matter where you are on your journey to know Jesus!

JODIE McNEILL

One of the most amazing things about being a Christian is that we are saved by God’s free gift of grace, and not by what we’ve done.

But the problem is that this clashes with our performance-based world, in which we love to reward achievement and success.

We love to be able to point to our wins and, ultimately, to justify ourselves by all the good things we’ve done.

Yet, if it was possible for us to achieve enough to save ourselves from God’s righteous anger, then Jesus wouldn’t have needed to die for us.

But Jesus had to die because we were helpless: and so that’s why we can only, ever, be saved by free grace—God’s rich mercy.

However it was only a short time after Jesus died that some of his redeemed people felt the need to reintroduce some of the Old Testament laws into the New Testament life.

The most obvious of these were related to the infamous Jewish customs of food laws (not eating with non-Jews) and circumcision (a physical ‘badge’ for men.)

But the Apostle Paul, who was converted to Christ after a life as a zealous Jew, saw that a return to this legalistic past was to deny the riches of the mercy of Jesus, and to instead return to the failed religion of the past.

Some did this because they wanted a clear way to show their own contribution to their faith, as some sort of visible guarantee or tangible achievement.

Yet, to do that was only to return to slavery, even though they had been freed by Jesus.

This is the message at the heart of Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia, and it’s a timely reminder to embrace the rich mercy of Christ and celebrate true freedom.

JODIE McNEILL