The Archdeacon of Chester, Mike Gilbertson, reflects on the importance of living out our faith every day of the week. This was first published in February's CDN.
How many people do you encounter each day? People who live in your home, work in your workplace, shop where you shop, or pass you in the street. We are often so pre-occupied that we often just ignore others, intent on our own business. Yet Jesus said ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Part of our vocation as followers of Jesus is to try to see people as he sees them – as people God loves and cares for.
One of the real joys for me over the last few months has been working on something called ‘Setting God’s People Free’, or ‘Everyday Faith.’ This is an initiative to encourage all of us to develop a clearer sense of Christian identity in everyday life, and increased confidence to express our faith in everyday life. So far, we’ve been working with a group of around twenty pilot parishes and over the next few months, we will be looking to encourage as many other parishes as possible to join in.
The Lay Conference in May, ‘Not Just Sunday’, is all about this. Please do sign up, and watch out for more about ‘Everyday Faith’ very soon.
So much of living out our faith in everyday life is really about Jesus’ command to love our neighbour as ourselves. I was struck by the way that one of those twenty pilot parishes, St John’s Great Meols, had found that focusing on everyday faith had led to what they called ‘deeper kindness.’ Relationships within the church became deeper, and the congregation found new ways to show the love and grace of God to the local community, for example in caring for refugees.
Elsewhere in this CDN you can read inspiring accounts from two Christians in the diocese, Jenny McKay and Chris Jarvis, about how God has used them in everyday life to reach others with his love and really make a difference.
I wonder what ways God has in mind for you to live out your faith in everyday life? Why not ask him what that might look like?
Archdeacon Mike Gilbertson