“I have this sense of urgency deep down within me, and I don’t know whether it’s just because I’m getting old and getting lots of grey hair and failing eyesight and feel that time is running out. But actually I’ve always sensed this urgency since I’ve been a Christian. I don’t know whether it’s because I’m an impatient person, which I certainly am, but I hope it has something to do with the urgency that there is in the New Testament.

There’s such an urgent need for the message of Jesus for our society. It’s the only message of hope for our world. Somebody made the point that maybe we’re at a hinge moment in our world. You can think back at certain hinge moments in the last 30 years: 1989, the fall of communism, 2001, the Twin Towers, 2009, this economic crisis.  And who knows what’s going to emerge from the failure of capitalism? The world’s not going to be the same, we know that, but what kind of world is going to emerge?  What’s it going to look like? 

This is not the moment for the church to retrench and say “Oh dear, it’s all a bit difficult, there’s not much money around”, to lose confidence in the face of the onslaught.  No, this is an exciting time to be a Christian because we have the message that the world needs. And it’s interesting, it’s now that people are looking for faith.

We’re living at a time of social dislocation and people are desperate for community. Where are they going to find that community? Well, at best they will find it on Facebook, and at worst in things like drugs, alcohol and the worst aspects of the internet - to fill this gap that can actually only be filled by a relationship with Jesus and His community. God has given this message to you and to me. God has put all his eggs in one basket, he’s put it all in the hands of the Church.  So we have a responsibility, what does that mean?  What do we need to do? 

Four things, here’s the first one: The urgency of the personal.  2 Corinthians 8 verse 5, “they gave themselves first to the Lord.” This is not about human effort, this is about a relationship with God, about God’s love being poured into our hearts. It’s all about Jesus, it’s all about the Holy Spirit, it’s all about the experience of the ministry of the Holy Spirit; this is where it starts. It is so fascinating to me that the experience of the Spirit which we have here on every Alpha weekend is the same Holy Spirit who is changing people’s lives all over the world.

Secondly, the urgency of the needs of others. Saint Paul speaks of the privilege of sharing in the service of the needs of others. That’s why I don’t think we the Church can any longer expect people to come to us. Now is the time when we’ve got to go out into the community. So we need to get out there, we need to get out amongst the homeless, into the prisons, into the workplaces, into homes. It’s so exciting that Ken Costa’s ‘God at Work’ resources have come out for such a time as this. When has there been a greater need in the workplace for people to know about Jesus Christ, and to deal with the issues of unemployment, finances, disappointments, challenges, life choices, giving, all these kind of areas that are dealt with on the God at Work course?

Thirdly, the urgency of the Gospel.  There’s no better summary really of the Gospel than 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9.  St Paul says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor.  He died on a cross for you and for me, he became as poor as it’s possible to be so that you through his poverty might become rich”.  Not necessarily materially rich but spiritually rich, something even more important and even more urgent.

This is the message of the Gospel that we want to get out to as many people as possible, because we see this desperate need that people have for Jesus.  Alpha is not the only way of evangelism, it’s not necessarily the best way of evangelism, but we have found in our experience that it is one way that seems to be very effective. And that’s why we want as many people as possible to have the opportunity to go on an Alpha course.

Fourthly, the urgency of other nations.  Paul writes in verse 1, “we want you to know about the grace that God has given to the Macedonian Church... out of extreme poverty they gave generously”. Paul points to the Macedonian Church as a wonderful example of a nation that had a vision for other nations.  So here was a church that was really poor, but they saw that the church in Jerusalem was even poorer, so they said “We want to give, although we’re extremely poor, we want to give to help another nation”.