St Timothy's Church, Crookes

God’s New Society

Ask anyone who has lived in Crookes in the 1940’s & 50’s and they will tell you that we were a true community back then! People left their doors open, looked out for their neighbours, helped each other through hard times. Every-one knew everybody up and down the street – knew everybody’s business too! Maybe a little too close at times… But there was very little local crime – or loneliness.

Sadly the idea of a close-knit local community is pretty well a thing of the past in Sheffield, and indeed most cities in our Hi-Tech 21^st Century. It’s a lot easier to get on with people over the Internet than over the garden fence.

We are a materially-rich but community -poor society now, and a lot less happy with it, by most sociological indicators.

Ephesians gives us God’s blue-print for a new society, a new community, built on the foundations of God’s love. A community where all are included, everyone has a part to play, where all are loved and cared for, where justice and peace reign, where God’s will is done, where his Kingdom has come.

This letter, above all, helps us to understand how God wants to transform our broken society, indeed our broken church, to heal and restore us to become one family, united in Christ.

This Summer, as we learn from Ephesians how to become God’s New Society, we will not only experience great blessing and joy, but we will be a Sign of God’s Kingdom, helping others to find Christ as well.