Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies….

Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

As we know in life there are times and seasons, and in churches too.
God brings some things to a close and does new things.

“Forget the former things do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it ?” Isaiah 43:18,19.

God is constantly working, shaping, changing, moving in His creation to bring about His purposes. We need to make sure we’re a part of that, cooperating with Him.
Taking hold of the new things He is doing, by faith. Walking by faith, not by sight.

When Jesus was arrested, tortured and crucified, things looked grim, the disciples despaired, but God was doing a new thing, bringing about His will through Christ’s suffering.
Bringing forgiveness and salvation to all who would receive it. Things are not always what they seem outwardly. We need to fix our eyes on what is unseen.

Read John 12:20-36.

From the falling to the ground, and apparent drying up and death of a seed, there comes new life, as we thought about last week.
Seeds, then shoots, and subsequently fruit.
Death is not the end. We have eternity with God, clothed in a new resurrection spiritual body, to look forward to.
But to receive that, we need to believe that Jesus Christ has died for our sin, that His death has brought us salvation and to put our trust in Him.
We need to die to ourselves, to our selfish and sinful nature, to live.
‘It’s no longer I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me’.
Life comes from God, and it comes through death.

As I said a few weeks ago, Isaiah 62 is God’s word to us here at present.
- God of the new thing, change, transformation, making us the people He wants us to be, something which glorifies God, indeed we will feed on the harvest that God will give, and a new name is given as part of that.
To those of you who have been seeking God and listening to what He has been saying over this past year, this may be a shock but won’t come as a big surprise.
We believe God is leading us to close The River Church.
Why ?
The history of churches in Lostwithiel is not very positive – splits in the Methodist church over buildings, many leaving and joining the Anglicans, revival breaking out under the ministry of a new vicar which is then quickly quenched, people then leaving the Anglicans to set us a new church, the AOG, people leaving the AOG because they weren’t happy and subsequently setting up the River Church. These splits were not amicable, and there has been much bitterness left as a result.
The Lord is cleansing the town of these spirits and healing the damage done. The freemasons moving out for example. Even the AOG, Lostwithiel Christian Fellowship, moving away and amalgamating with Bodmin I believe is part of God’s working in all this.
God wants to draw a line under all that has happened. There is a cleansing going on in Lostwithiel, and since judgement starts with the people of God, the church is being spiritually cleansed too.

How have we got to this point ?
My life calling is to prepare the way for the Lord, and that is the main way God has used me in whatever He has called me to, and here is no exception. But there has been more to do in that than I initially expected, and I have made mistakes….particularly in wanting to go ahead and move on, before everything had been done that God wanted in preparation.
– First there was the closing of the River Christian Centre, which came very clearly,
– I then felt God then say build the local church.
– At that point we were coming into Elim which I believe is of God, and they asked if we wanted to change the name, I made an error of not going away and praying about it, which I should have done, and so we kept the name of the River Church, which I now believe was wrong.
– Over the years we have struggled for vision for the church even though we had vision for the Lostwithiel area. It has not been disastrous and people have grown spiritually, but we have seen relatively little fruit, especially in terms of conversions. To start with you simply persevere, and many people who have been involved in rural ministry said to keep at it that it takes time, but we started to ask why we weren’t seeing more, when doing all the ‘right things’ ?
– About a year ago, independently, two people in the church suggested that perhaps the River Church needed to close. I was open to this possibility, and prayed that God would make it clear - something like this we needed to be very sure. Over the coming months as leaders we talked and prayed further.
– What God revealed is that the beginnings/foundation was wrong. When a building has wrong foundations, you don’t tinker around repairing it, you tear it down and start again with right foundations. God spoke to me through a Geoff Feasey book and subsequent meeting. It wasn’t just a case of repentance - something we had already started - but the church spiritually and in people’s perceptions, needed to die.
– Isaiah 62 was given as a Scripture – a very positive one I might add.
– We have had peace and inner witness over this, even though humanly wanting an easier path. God’s way is narrow.

It was not easy to see how we can get where we need to be from where we are, but that’s not the reason we’re closing River Church – we believe God has told us to and it’s because of the way it was conceived and born, and the history of the church in Lostwithiel.
As I have said God is dealing with the past, drawing a line under it, doing a new thing.
In preparing the way for what God wants to do, we have been praying about whether there are people effected by the past that we need to apologise to, and I have written some letters and so on, last year at the Pentecost service apologising publicly to the other churches. Clearing the way for God to move in the way He wants to.
This is something we all need to do personally as well, making sure that as far as possible we don’t have anything against others, or they of us.

The River Church will close, but God is not finished with Lostwithiel, by no means.
The vision for this place stands, a town known for Jesus Christ, where He is honoured and glorified, and Pam and I are convinced we are to play a part in that, but if any of us want to be a part of that, we need to change, and not just tinker with the old, but to die to it.
That goes for the church and for us individually.

We will be launching a new church. Learning from the past but not tied to it. Our experiments with the Crunch, creative and family services, were just beginning to scratch the surface.

The future new church will be as a church plant with a committed core of Christians, but with it’s focus on Jesus foremost, and on outreach into the community – a community church, in the community, for the community. It will exist for discipleship and mission.
Total commitment will be needed by the Christians called to this – to each other, to evangelism, discipleship, and a church with a radical and relevant culture.
Not a copy of something done elsewhere, something new, unique, created by God.

Timetable – after today it will start to become public knowledge.
The last service of the River Church will be Sunday 4th May. After that there will probably be 2 months of reflection, prayer and preparation – this time is very important, and you may want to fast as part of that.
Then the new church launched at the end of June, God willing.
You may have lots of questions, but there’s really little more at this point to tell you.
God will sort out the details as things progress – it’s important that this is His work.

God wants each of us to pray and seek Him – ask Him where does He want you, and in what state spiritually ?
This will not be something for the faint hearted, it will not be comfortable, this will not be the sort of church you can just attend as a Christian spectator, it will mean hard work and prayer.
You must go where God calls you and if the Lord leads you on elsewhere, so be it, go with our love, for I want you to be where you can grow, the right place for you.
But if you come to believe you should be a part of the new church here, then be 100% committed to it, or don’t come.
There is time to pray and seek the Lord, so that He can speak to you, …so that you can come to a point of being able to say a positive yes in faith.

The text of what I have said this morning will be going on the Church website under sermons, for anybody who couldn’t be here for whatever reason.

God has been saying for a while now, prepare the way – deal with sin, repent, clear away any rubbish, get a new heart from God and be filled with His Spirit. It’s happening.
If you love the Lord be encouraged.
Change can be uncomfortable, but God never promised us a comfortable life, in fact the opposite - Trouble, persecution, change, life in all it’s fullness.

God is at work, be in no doubt. Let’s make sure we’re where we are meant to be, and ready.

Take some time, pray over the coming weeks, but when it comes to it,… make a clear choice. ….And a clear commitment.
No-one should just drift into the new church.
Over the next month, services will continue and I will be sharing more as things develop.

For some of you the future of the church here is perhaps not relevant (as you’re only with us temporarily), …but the principles of what we have been looking at are.

Let Jesus be Lord of your life, …Jesus has bought you by His blood…..so die to your own desires and wants, listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying and be obedient to the One who loves you.
Don’t reject what God says because it means big changes, some of the best decisions of my life involved big changes, and look at the changes people went through in the Bible – God is creative, let God be God, He knows what’s best for you, you can trust Him completely.
Put your trust in the Lord.