Stand Out

Send us Fan Mail Sunday 13 September 2026  In a community within a Western culture it is hard for the church to really stand out since the values of our culture are drawn from the Bible. The high value of a person created in God's own image, the responsibility those in power should have in using their authority to serve the good of all, the sacred gift of marriage for life and the raising of children, the treatment of the vulnerable as needing to be fair and just and compassionate are all there in our community and they do these things pretty well.  What do we do that is different? What is our unique gift to each other, friends, family and community? What allows us to create space to bear witness to the forgiveness and love of God for his world in a world that is not sure it really needs God?  I think Joseph of the Old Testament and Stephen of the New might tell us today. They might raise up the thing Jesus raised up as our unique and needed gift to the world. Forgiveness.  If this is our unique gift, that is hard even for the hardened sceptic to ignore or dismiss when it appears, then are we committed to it, learning it, doing it as we can and must?  We will ponder this gift and our living of it, and how we stand out enough amongst family, friends and community to bear full and faithful witness to the forgiveness and peace and reconciliation we ourselves enjoy from Jesus.  Pastor Adrian