The ART OF LIVING #end

It is fair to say that when you talk about 'church' to people you can get very mixed reactions.

 

Many see it as a place to hatch match and dispatch or births, marriages and deaths for those who have never heard the expression. Others see it as a place or building for those who are religiously inclined or for some a more negative place full of hypocrites. As with most things in life, all these impressions aren't always accurate.

 

Part of the ongoing service of Cross Rhythms Plymouth as a community radio station is to promote the faith and work of the Christian Church in Plymouth. This is a real privilege for us as a team at Cross Rhythms because we know that the Christian Church fulfills may vital roles within society.

 

First of all the Christian faith has provided the values which were the bedrock of our society, influencing our Nation since Celtic times almost 2,000 years ago. of course like everything in life which is common to us all, the church has progressed and regressed as the challenges of history have played its part.

 

The older Plymouth community members will remember as young adults or children the role that the church and faith played in the second world war as people flocked to church for prayer and deliverance from the Nazi's.

 

It worked too - prayer that is, as the miracles of Dunkirk, El Alamein and the Battle of Britain proved. But what about modern day Plymouth? Well things have changed as a wise man once said 'the only thing that is constant is change.'

 

Our new programme The Art of Living is a programme I presented up in

Stoke-on-Trent where our first community station was established.

 

At the time this programme was created to enable me to speak to church leaders about the strengths and weaknesses of the Christian faith within their local, regional and global communities. It isn't a programme to promote, necessarily, the social action and 'good works' of the church, but really to empower and hear the 'voices of those leaders who have vocationally responded to God and believe that their calling is to help the people of faith and those with no faith to combat some of the real struggles of life: illness; death; broken relationships; depression; questions about the meaning of life; is there an after life?

 

Christian leaders are people too. They also have their struggles. Many people talk to pastors or vicars about their personal problems, but few consider that church leadership is often under massive pressures themselves as motivated by love they enter into the emotional crisis of the people who seek them out. Often, they offer advice which is sound, but then people refuse the advice get into difficulty and still blame the church leadership for not answering the problems. People reject the message and then shoot the messenger. These church leaders and their families are real 'spiritual warriors' who are need our prayers and encouragement.

 

As your driving around in your car, listening at home or work on the radio or computer please listen in to The Art of Living and pray that something of the

values and wisdom which has governed us through generations will once again be appreciated through the these programmes.  

 

The following church leaders can be heard on The Art of Living on 96.3FM during June:  Nick McKinnel (St Andrews) June 1st; Stu Clarke (Hooe Baptist and Street Pasto co-ordinator June 8; Vjay Panandikar (Shekinah Mission) June 15; Geoff Lee (Plymouth Christian Centre) June 22; Paul Smith (Methodist Central Hall)June 29^th.

 

The programme is first broadcast on the Monday of the week shown and then repeated on Wednesday evening between 6pm and 7pm and Friday between 1pm and 2pm.