A Word from one of our Ministers

Friends,

If you were at the Annual Church Meeting at the end of May, you heard me talk about tomato plants: I want to recap that somewhat for those who weren’t able to join us that evening. Gavin shared the reading from John 15 about the vine and the branches, but I wanted to make it a little more relevant to my back garden, and perhaps yours, where I grow a couple of tomato plants each summer. 
 
Tomato plants are great – they can grow vigorously and there are so many varieties that you can choose whether you prefer to grow cherry or beef tomatoes or anything in between! But tomato plants require particular care: one has to be careful to remove those pesky lateral shoots which grow so fast, and risk diverting the energy of the plant away from the fruit, which is what we want as gardeners.
 
Those laterals have to be cut out, just as the gardener pruned the vine in the Bible story. That which is not producing the right fruit, that which is diverting the energy of the plant away from fruiting, that which is just sideways growth without making true progress – all of that needs to be pruned out. 
 
We are in a season now where Cornerstone is invited to prune, to focus, to direct its energy. And remember, the energy that Cornerstone runs on is largely OUR energy, yours and mine. There is a hefty shot of the Holy Spirit at work too for sure, but we need to be mindful of what WE are doing in partnership with the Spirit.
 
Pruning and cutting back can be painful, I know, and I am repeatedly challenged to consider what I might stop doing personally in order to focus, in order to be fruitful for God and for the Kingdom. That is the key point for me: my own pain at experiencing the pruning is managed by remembering that whatever I am experiencing in this pruning, it is for God’s glory and for the Kingdom’s growth. We don’t do what we do at Cornerstone for ourselves or for our own glory but for God, every time and in every way. 
 
We are called to be fruitful for God: how can we increase our fruitfulness in this season? How can we work together to focus our energy, our intentions and our time, so that we are fruitful for the Kingdom in Horsham and Partridge Green? What is God asking of us in this season? What does that fruitfulness actually look like? How we will know if we are being fruitful? What have we got to prune out of our own lives and potentially out of our church life together in order to focus on God’s vision for us as Cornerstone in the years ahead? What difficult questions must we ask of ourselves in this moment? Lots to ponder and I invite you to pray about these questions in your own prayer times too, please. 
 
Finally, as Gavin and Angela move towards the end of their active ministry in Cornerstone and across the Dorking and Horsham circuit, I want to thank Gavin in particular for his patience and grace with the probationer deacon who landed here in 2021. We joke that I wasn’t exactly what he had been hoping for in stationing as he had looked for an ordained deacon, but nevertheless, Gavin gave me a great deal of help to get through probation and then shared in the joy of ordination in 2023. 
 
Gavin has been a tower of support and encouragement to me in this first appointment and I have been glad to have him as my collaborator at Cornerstone, and as my Superintendent. I am sure that you will all join with me in praying for Gavin and Angela as they sit down this summer, and for much joy in their next chapter together.

Blessings

Sarah