A couple of days ago, I wrote this post concerning those who move on from us. I’d encourage you to read that one first before continuing with this one. it provides the context for what I am going to say here.

As I mentioned in the previous post, it is a privilege to hear of people who have moved on to other churches who are continuing in the faith. This is, not least, because so often people move on and do not seem to be going on with the Lord. We aren’t surprised by this latter reality, this is precisely the parable of the sower stuff that Jesus told us to expect. We simply sow the seed and look to him to give the increase.

However, it does bear saying that whether it is people coming to faith and then moving on or it is people appearing to come to faith and later falling away, it leaves our ministry in a particular situation. To reach those who would press on, it requires a church of believers who are relatively mature and stable to remain here to reach them. But our ministry cannot simply grow by conversion and discipleship because a high proportion of people simply end up moving on (again, do read that previous post to understand what I am and am not saying here).

It is always a privilege to be involved in the work of bringing anybody to faith in Jesus and to have any hand in moving them on in their knowledge and understanding of him. But it doesn’t change the reality that we see people come, convert, grow and then leave with some regularity. Some leave us and move on in very positive ways, some for reasons beyond their control and others for less than excellent reasons. But the sum total is the same: we have a high turnover of people. We have a great deal of fruit and very few workers with any longevity or stability to reach them.

This means we are in real need of some mature believers – who understand the ministry we are involved in and have a heart to be here doing it over the long haul – to come and join with us. As much as a we want to grow by conversion, the reality is most the people who convert and get baptised into our church will not be here with us in five years time. Some of them will be going on with the Lord elsewhere for which we glorify God; others will fall away from the Lord altogether. Such things are not within our hands; we leave them with the Lord. But we nevertheless need some people to come, stay and work with us over the long term so that those whom the Lord has here and who will still be going on with him in years to come – even if they aren’t still with us in Oldham – might be reached in the first instance. The Lord has a people in Oldham and we need help to find them.

You don’t have to come and work for the church. There are plenty of secular jobs – probably in your particular field – in the area. Greater Manchester is a solid place to find work. If you could consider getting a job and moving into the town to serve alongside your work, we would be delighted to speak with you. We are in real need of some mature, godly believers to help us with the ministry we have here.

But we also have the option to take somebody on to work with us in the church. If you are interested in a ministry role, we would be glad to speak with you about it. We would love to talk about the ministry you are interested in and seeing if there may be scope to do that with us in Oldham.

I have said a number of times – and I don’t want to be crass about it – but fundamentally we need three things: Prayer, money and people. By God’s grace, we have a good number of prayer supporters (if you would like to be added to our prayer letter mailout, please get in touch and let me know). The Lord has been kind and his people have been generous to us and we are enabled to function with about 60% of our support coming from outside the church. We are so grateful for these means of support. But what we lack, and what we really need, is a few mature believers to come and join with us. Whether that is someone simply coming purposefully and seeking secular work so they can be an active member involved in the ministry with us or someone who is specifically looking into ministry. We need godly people to come, help and ultimately stay.

Could you pray and ask yourself whether that might be you?