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Lifelink is a relatively new ministry at St. John’s. The first formal committee meeting took place on January 11th, 2001, the proposal being to hold Christian oriented events at St. John’s, necessitating the writing of a Mission Statement, setting goals and forming a committee to oversee and facilitate events.
Life Link’s Mission statement is: To help people in the church and in the community at large to see how everything in life has to do with Christ and everything in Christ has to do with life. The above holds true because in order to celebrate life, people need to understand that life and Christianity are utterly connected.
Goals are to arrange events which help to show and celebrate how life and Christianity are connected and to identify the various St. John’s ministries which contribute already towards this mission.
Speakers and artists from St. John’s church community have contributed greatly to Life Link events. Guests have included eye surgeon, Dr. Hugh Parsons who has taught in Vietnam; the Rev. Richard Roberts who noted that in one year recently, more than thirteen thousand seafarers visited his Mission to Seafarers; Dr. Fred Metzger of the Biblical Museum of Canada who showed us how many great liberation movements were pioneered by Christians; Dr. John Conway who presented a film about priest Dietrich Bonhoeffer who defied and actively worked against the Hitler regime.
Some comments from committee about Life Link’s objectives: “How well it would bind us together with Christ if we all used the gifts ( and used all the gifts) that God has given to us.”….”the Life Link ministry is still in the ‘learning phase.’”…”God is also present in secular matters.” …. “There is a need for us to be able to see God’s message in seemingly commonplace happenings – to be able to probe beneath the surface in order to understand that a spiritual connection does exist.” (Terry McCaffery)
It should be noted that any member of the public is invited to all Lifelink functions.
Date: Sunday, October 21, 2007 3:34 PM
Revising the Bible to Suit the Demands of the Social Climate.
Dick Hunt, June 21st, 2004
I firmly stand with the majority agreement of the worlds
Christians as to the Word of God written, that both now and in the
past is clear as God would have us understand and believe it and act
as His People. The thought that came to me as a fresh breeze this
morning is that the revisionists could fairly be compared to an
egotistical purchaser of a highly technical item of equipment who
disagreed with the manufacturers detailed instruction manual. With
his high opinion of himself as a 'scientist', he might rewrite the
owners manual in order that he could get better service from the
equipment. In his mindset, he would not need to know anything about
the research and development of the machine or what the inventor
hoped it would accomplish in the workplace. He would not need to
have an understanding of metalurgy, electricity, physics , biology
and the like. And he would not need to have a knowledge of history,
climatology, astronomy. He would just need to have a vast ego.
That is what I think the revisionist leaders of our day and the
past have had as their springboard. That, coupled with a desire to
please the majority who want everything to be a 'level playing
field'. (Read, 'everyone IS aboard') The end result is that people
with felt wants and personal desires are demanding that the Manual
be rewritten. They are saying, as the devil did of old, "did God
really say………?" And in so doing they are robbing gullible people of
the leadership and witness, that they need to come to terms with the
living God of all creation for Eternal Life with Him. People are
being led astray by many of the leaders they have come to trust.
I totally believe that everything in creation belongs to God our
creator, including the bodies we inhabit while we are here on this
planet. Even our bodies are on loan to us while we are here and that
must be true of all the people of the earth in every age. Dr. Paul
Brand with Phillip Yancey wrote a fine book called "Fearfully and
Wonderfully Made" in which they reveal to the reader something of how
magnificent the human body is and how it functions. God is our
inventor and designer and He has done His work well. They draw
comparisons with the way Christ's Body, the living Church functions.
It is a captivating book, so much so that two of my friends who
borrowed my two copies are still holding them captive!
I totally believe that God is all knowing and that what is revealed
to us is from him in every realm of knowledge. He has made
everything from nothing and the Bible is His manual of instruction to
enable us to function as He knows we should. No-one in his right mind
would claim that it is a scientific book, medical treatise or
technical journal. But St. John has it right when he says," Jesus
did many other miraculous signs…………but these are written that we
might believe that Jesus is the Christ…………… and that we might have
life in His Name" (John 20:30-31). And see 2 Timothy 3:14 to 4:5
I totally believe that God's manual is trustworthy as it is and
that we are being highly presumptuous when we attempt to improve on
His Word. Years ago I wrote in one of my Bibles, "Happy shall you
be, when refusing to sit in judgement upon the Word of God, you yield
yourself up with humble spirit to it's mysterious searching power".
That is a far cry from searching for ways to revise the Bible to
meet the demands of a society which has nearly as many opinions as
there are people. There are absolutes and some are that God gave us
freedom of choice, a mind to think with, a conscience to guide us
and His Spirit to convict us and instruct us. Living for Him is the
way to real freedom. Go for it. (Him)
Rev. Dick Hunt.
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