Henry Pettinger od Airedale Church writes

Last week, a builder friend of mine who is not a church attender was talking with me about “church”.

What this person had noticed was the sense of community that there was within a particular church, and (he said) how good it had felt to be among that group of people. Some 20 years previously he had being doing work for a number of people within that church and this was his recollection. What a great testimony I thought; he had experienced something as non-church attender years before and still very much remembered it.

That scripture came to mind, while we were talking “taste and see that the Lord is good”. I think that my friend had in some way “tasted” of the goodness of the Lord, through his contact with that church community, and it had tasted good.

In some way, it had pointed him to God. God can be tasted and often, I suspect, we as Christians are the flavour. We may be the only God flavour some people taste. I wonder how good we “taste” to those around us both as individuals and as the church.

In Keighley there are many things that I’m sure do taste good in the wider community. Perhaps it’s the CLIKS school events; the Nightshift coffee house or the meals we as a Christian community serve to the needy via the Salvation Army, to name but a few.

As individuals as well we are out there, hopefully, tasting good and in that way directing people to the God of grace and mercy that we have found.

There are many things that point people to God but my feelings are that we, the church, are one of the big signposts that God uses to direct people to Him. May it be that we “taste” good individually and as the church community to those around us, so that we may be used to direct people to Him.