Ichthus Community Church

Following a joint "Unity" service at Holy Trinity, I realised that I have been unusually blessed with a diversity of experience of Church "flavours". Due to various house and occupational re-locations the list of congregations I have worshipped with includes Anglican, Baptist, Brethren, Evangelical Independent Roman Catholic and the House Church Movement. I have come to see why Jeus loves his church so much and how He expresses different aspects of Himself in the various streams of the Christian Church.

For a while my journey in search of a deeper relationship with Jesus took me into the Anglican Society of St Francsis as a Tertiary (lay member). Whilst this not fully satisfy my desires I did learn much not only of commitment and service but of communion with God through contemplative prayer, a gift much forgotten in many church contexts. The blessing for me is that I am as content at a four day silent retreat as in the most vibrant sung worship of New Wine or even Revival Fires in Dudley!.

With the Baptists and Brethren I learned the importance of the Word of God and how reliable it was to address today's issues. With the House Church movement I learned the value of small groups and that teaching isn't taught until it's learnt.

Now many evengelicals often raise an eyebrow when I mention Roman Catholics - well it was like this..
In the 80's I worked for an organisation called Open Doors (not to be confused with our local outreach to the disenfranchised). My wife and I had occasion to pass through Malta in the height of festival season where local patron saints are loudly venerated daily by the various villages which merge into the Maltese conurbations. Knowing no-one we took to praying for the local folk but very soon had a strong sense from the Lord that our prayers were judgemental and He wasn't that pleased. Obviously this took a side swipe at our preconceptions and silenced us - until months later when we returned to Malta this time with contacts to meet. We then realised what the Lord had been saying as we became immersed in a community of believers (and I stress believers) which knocked our previous experience of commitment and community into a cocked hat. Many of these people were also regulaly risking their lives and freedom to take the Gospel into neighbouring Islamic countries.

Some years later when relating this to a friend in our local Anglican church I was met with staunch misbelief and told that "Catholics had lost the plot". So it was with great joy I was later able to introduce one of these contacts from Malta to my friend who soon repented in "dust and ashes" (and they also became good friends)! Deeply intrenched preconceptions often resist argument until experience proves otherwise.

It's very easy to see each other's shortfalls - we all have so many of them - but when we explore the strengths we realise why indeed we need each other to comlete the task He left us. I am convinced that today that, in any given locality, no one stream fully expresses all of what God has for this troubled generation but together.. well that's a different story!

Kit Eglinton