Dear Friends

‘All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin’.  It’s that time of year when the familiar songs of harvest start to ring around our local churches.  By the time you read this I will have shared in my first church harvest of the season up at Mottram St Andrew and also taken my first harvest school assembly.  There’s no escaping the fact that the summer is over and autumn is here.  The leaves on the trees have already begun to turn and the morning air has been decidedly crisp when I’ve been taking the boys to school over the last week or so.

In a rural area like our own, harvest is a busy time for the farmers, a time when any profit from the land is realised.  With our celebrations focused at the end of the harvest season we can too easily concentrate on the ‘safely gathered in’ bit.  Our aim can simply be to thank God not for provision but for the fact that we have got everything we need gathered in.  I believe Harvest is much more than that.  For me, it is a time of year when we remember God’s goodness to us in providing but also a time when we remember that there is work to be done.  Without the work of the farmers in the fields, there would be no harvest to celebrate.  Without the work of the people of this church in preparing for services, events etc, nothing would ever happen here.

We are a growing church and that is a message I believe we all need to hear.  We are seeing increased attendances at different services across each month from café church to our services of Holy Communion.  Our children’s work is continuing to grow - we now have three groups on the second Sunday with Seals, our new group for those aged 10 and above, joining our Little Fishes and Dolphins.  Messy Church continues to thrive and our Holiday Club over the summer saw 17 children hearing of God’s love for them.  Our Half Evening of Prayer during September was an amazing time of blessing with more people coming to pray than to our normal ‘Prayer and Praise’ and several people spoke to me about being unable to attend but wanting to come if we did another.  I will look ahead and plan another longer session beginning earlier in the afternoon at some point in the future. 

The work of the office, the work of the committees, the work of our pastoral team is all growing apace and there is a danger that we could run ourselves into the ground but I believe that the harvest of our lives and of our community is ripening.  My thoughts have focused though on the next line of that harvest hymn ‘God our maker doth provide’.  I believe that here at Alderley Edge Methodist Church, God has provided us with an amazing sense of community, and a group of Christians who are working hard to bring in the harvest that God has grown.  Just as with a physical harvest, we need to work to bring the harvest in; we need to ensure that we are sharing our faith, encouraging those who come to join in and to pray continually for the blessing of God to touch our community.  This harvest, as we bring our gifts of fruit and veg, of flowers and our bottles of water filled with cash, may we see all that God requires of us and may we know his presence walking the path and showering us with his blessings.
Yours in Christ
Ben