By John Cole

WORSHIPPING - corporate recognition of the glory and ‘worth’ of God - including attending to God and being receptive and responsive to his presence. Worship is not the same as ‘Praise’.

PRAYING - properly describes any way in which we recognise our relationship with God moment by moment. Like worship, prayer is primarily an exercise in being attentive. It is certainly far more than merely trying to ‘bend God’s ear’.

MEDITATING - a style of praying by which we deepen our understanding of our relationship with God. Meditation, whether by individuals or in groups, is usually triggered by some external stimulus. The stimulus need not just be the Scriptures or other religious books. This is the purpose for which ikons were developed in the Orthodox tradition.

CONTEMPLATING - developing the ability to see God at work in every situation. Contemplative prayer is not just for folk who shut themselves away in monasteries. It is among the most valuable expressions of prayer in our contemporary world where easy rhythms have gone out of life and most of us are ruled by our diaries!

EDIFYING - ‘building up the Body of Christ’ is what educational work in the local church is all about -whether it is the Bible study group or the Sunday School. We’re not just learning things to make us more knowledgeable. Its purpose is to make us stronger to do what God wants us to do. The other name for this process is ‘nurture’ - nourishing in order to produce growth.

INSPIRING - filling with new breath or vitality. Although we associate this most readily with the work of the Holy Spirit. we ought not to think of it narrowly only in terms of charismatic renewal or speaking in tongues. We need to recognise that at whatever stage of our spiritual journey the Spirit is always inspiring us, individually and corporately, for something.

UNITING - when the church is living up to its calling, all sorts of unlikely groups of people will be seen to be united. ‘’See how these Christians love one another’’ was the cry of an astonished pagan world in ancient times. Today non-Christians ridicule our disunity. Perhaps we have been looking for church unity in too institutional or ‘political’ a way. Instead, unity is the work of the Holy Spirit moment by moment in the life of the local church and does not lead to uniformity but a generous appreciation of diversity. The converse of this is interesting: If there is no significant diversity of culture or perception within a congregation, something is wrong.

CALLING - a widely neglected feature of our local church life. Too easily we only apply the idea of a calling to individuals and to a limited number of professions. In fact, however, the Holy Spirit works to ‘call’ us individually and corporately to discover the next steps we should be taking to fulfil God’s purposes.

EVANGELISING - helping others to appreciate that what God has done and is doing is good news for them - pointing to the coming of God’s kingdom (see chapter five). Many church members opt for narrower definitions of evangelism (and compound their problems by trying to prescribe too precisely what kind of response they think God will find acceptable) - some because it justifies their style of church activity; most, however, because it enables them to excuse themselves from getting involved in something they don’t feel ready to cope with (see chapter four).

FORGIVING/RE-CREATING - this and the next two are essential pre-requisites for any credible evangelising. Secular society assumes that forgiving someone is a sign of weakness. A church which forgives is usually accused of lacking moral principle. But Jesus set the pace in the forgiving business, because forgiving is all about giving people a fresh start. The main job of the Holy Spirit, ‘the Lord, the Giver of Life’. is to re-create, to inspire new life, to enable new beginnings. Forgiving and making possible a new beginning are the same thing.

RECONCILING - almost the same process of making a fresh start, but in this case it applies to the relationships between individuals and groups. Reconciling and healing are the key ingredients in a broader process which is perhaps a particular task facing the church in Britain in this generation. The task is community-building.

HEALING - reconciling and making effective communication are just two ways in which the Holy Spirit works to make whole that which is broken. Making whole is the essence of what healing is about. It includes the possibility of physical healings and in the Gospels it almost invariably precedes the presentation of the Gospel message. It is on its record in these three areas of forgiving, reconciling and healing that the credibility of the local church will be tested.