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You had one job (12 January)

Don’t you love a good ‘You had one job’ meme?

If you are not familiar with them, they consist of photos of something that someone has done incorrectly which has resulted in a funny or ironic result, and this is often the exact opposite of what was intended. Having been given a simple task, the person has failed, like the person who wrote ‘turn left’ on the road in a right-hand lane with a right-hand arrow.

‘You had one job’ memes, always focus on things that are simple. A door handle on the wrong way around, a handrail that is out or reach or a block tiling pattern with one colour tile very obviously out of place. To see the sort of things that are out there, just type ‘you had one job’ into google images.

The sort of simple errors that are represented in these meme’s show that the person doing the work, either didn’t understand fully what the work was supposed to accomplish or if they did, that they weren’t focusing on completing their task to fulfil the purpose for which it was intended.

What is the one job of the Church?

Perhaps you can’t name one specific job, but in a nutshell what would you say is the job of the Church? (By Church here, I mean the one Church rather than a local congregation that we are a part of).

Having identified what you believe this is, and I hope you’ve thought beyond snappy and trendy slogans!!, the questions that follow are:

1. How can we help one another to understand that this is our one job, or main purpose?
2. How can we focus primarily on it and ensure our best efforts and energy go into it rather than being consumed by other things? (Or to put it another way, how do we keep the main thing, the main thing?)

You may be surprised that I haven’t told you what I think the answer is and the reason is that I would like to invite you to consider this for yourself.

As a part of the EBA Rhythm of Prayer this year, we are asking Which way Lord? Rather than coming to God and telling him what we think that He ought to do, we are coming to Him with questions and themes with the aim of hearing what He is saying to us, so that we will know what to do and which way to go.

The theme for our February Zoom prayer gathering will be What is the one job of the Church? Can I encourage you to prayerfully reflect on this question and to discuss and consider this with others in the church you serve?

We would then love to hear what you think God is saying to us and we hope you will join with us on Tuesday 1^st Feb at 9.30am on Zoom to share this and to pray together (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88201290903  Meeting ID: 882 0129 0903  Passcode: 794152 ).