I don’t know about you, but I find it all too easy to overlook good things and focus on the matters that need to be addressed or fixed. Sundays come and go, weeks fly by, my mind quickly gets filled with all the stuff that we need to do to resolve this issue or improve that area. It is so easy to let the encouragements pass us by.

I suspect this happens because often the encouragements aren’t particularly outlandish things. They are encouraging when we think about them. But in the moment, they just kind of seem ordinary and unimpressive. And yet, when I reflect back, it is so often the ordinariness of God’s grace that is so very encouraging. And so, let me share with you some things that encouraged me this past Sunday.

Those who don’t yet belong

I was encouraged that we had a few unchurched unbelievers in the room on Sunday. At least one of them was somebody we know through one of the weekly outreach programmes of the church. We saw this person earlier in the week but for some reason (I still don’t know exactly what) they decided to venture in and come to the meeting on Sunday. It wasn’t the first Sunday they’ve ever been there, but it was the first in a long while. I was encouraged by that.

But it wasn’t only that person. Some others who have been before but hadn’t been recently were also there. These are people who took it upon themselves to go to a church and are willing to engage with us. We had assumed they maybe had grown weary and decided it was no longer for them. But there they were on Sunday morning. They even said they tried to watch the live stream when they weren’t there, which whilst not exactly a big deal, says something significant I think. I was encouraged by that too.

We had some believing visitors with us too. We frequently do. Some who were visiting family and have no intention of joining us longer term; others who are new in the area and are considering joining long term. But God’s people from elsewhere were with us and I was also encouraged by that.

Those who already belong

We also had some members who had been away from the church recently. The reasons vary and the situations are hard. In some cases hard conversations needed to be had; in other cases sympathetic conversations have been needed instead. I remain convinced, however, that some of the best discipleship that can ever take place often occurs in and through some of the hardest conversations that we need to have.

But this Sunday, two folks who have been away from us for a time came back. Both came back after we needed to have conversations. Those conversations were positive and useful. But one never knows whether they will necessarily be fruitful. But such discipleship, such conversations in the week, led to some who had been away from us coming back and being with us again on Sunday. I was especially encouraged by that.

Ordinary means of grace continue

One of the encouragements it is easy to overlook because they are so ordinary they happen every week is just the fact that the ordinary means of grace continue. I wrote in a recent prayer letter that I was convinced the Lord had work for us to continue doing and that he wants a strong gospel presence to continue in the heart of Oldham – and perhaps particularly our little corner or it in Glodwick – because he continues to uphold us. He continues to provide for our needs and he continues to give us ministry opportunities. The door remains open for us to reach out into our community and for us to build up the saints he has given us to care for.

And so, I think it is no small things for a small church, in a deprived neighbourhood, surrounded as we are by those ensnared in false religion and by both spiritual and material deprivation, that the ordinary means of grace continue. We stood up and we sang songs of praise, we read from the scriptures, we preached the gospel, we approached the throne of grace in prayer and we shared the Lord’s Support together. I was encouraged by that.