Hope Vision: City of Refuge
Last Sunday at our church, the leadership team shared the vision of what we believe God has called us to. There are three elements to this condensed into these ‘headlines’ that we are seeking to be...
A City of Refuge
A Reprocessing Factory
Hope Carriers
The first is a ‘City of Refuge’. This phrase is found in the Old Testament in the Bible. When the Israelites settled in a new land God asked then to set aside six locations for the priests to live and they were to be called ‘Cities of Refuge’. God said...
“Select some towns to be your cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone accidentally may flee. They will be places of refuge from the avenger, so that anyone accused of murder may not die before they stand trial before the assembly.”
These cities were to be a safe place for perpetrators of unintentional manslaughter where they were protected from retribution of the avenging family until their case went to trial. This also meant that those avenged did not take things into their own hands!
For us as a church, we are not literally to do what happened then! However, we believe that God wants us to be a ‘safe place’ where anyone can come and, without judgement, experience God’s love, and meet Jesus.
We all need safe places and people where there is love and space for God to work, without external pressures, judgements or expectations. In my journey as a Christian, I am grateful for a church community of loving people who (still) have grace for my quirks, weaknesses and failures, giving me space to be changed at God’s pace! My prayer is that our church (collectively and individually) will be and to be known as a ‘City of Refuge’ even more!
Gary Bastin - Hope Community Church leader