Dear Friends

Celebrate

The church is not good at selling itself, yet we have (we feel) the most excellent of all products! What apparently set Bill Gates apart, the founder of Microsoft, in his early days, was not only his good product, but also he had a good marketing brain. Ten years ago I was once told by an archdeacon who was trying to promote the wide range of activities that happen in church that the most important asset for a church was the notice-board; it was the shop window. Nowadays, he would no doubt add the internet and other forms of modern communication.

The Christian gospel message is a precious, life changing, blessing-packed commodity – but it is a commodity under the stewardship of the church. Like the young Bill Gates the church knows it has an excellent product (far better than anything Bill Gates could muster) but unlike the young Bill Gates we are useless at marketing. However, if you want to get an idea of what sort of activities the church is involved with, I suggest you plan a trip to The Forum in Norwich for the event called “Celebrate” taking place over the weekend of the 11th to 13th June. You will find there up to 25 church leaders on stalls detailing their various activities and ministries. Outside, on the Millennium Plain, are various other organisations like YMCA, Matthew Project, Christian Motorcyclists, Alpha and Christian Aid. There is a continuous flow of events taking place including Riding Lights (a theatre group), Puppets, Choirs, African Choir, 150 young dancers, etc. Other events are also being held in neighbouring churches - like the Marriage Fayre at St Peter Mancroft Church (there will be a vintage car on the Plain), and various concerts are planned in other churches close by; "How to paint God" in the Norwich Christian Resource Centre; and a big football event in Open for the start of the World Cup.

But if none of that grabs your attention, you may well want to revert to watching the world cup. If you’re an England football fan their opening game takes place this same weekend on 12th June. But you may not be able to escape so easily from Christianity. It may surprise you to know how many Christians there are in football. Brazil, one of the favourites again to win the competition, fielded seven Christians in their last world cup team. They also got into trouble with some authorities for praying together on the pitch and displaying Christian slogans on T-shirts. When asked what they prayed for the answer they gave was this: “We’re not praying to win, but for God to be glorified through both sides putting on their best performances.” God wants you to put on your best performance for him, through what you do in your life; but none of us can genuinely achieve this without his help. It underlines for us the best marketing tool of all we have in the church: people. As the Christian faith is truly lived out and celebrated in any person’s life.

With every blessing
Robert