The Affinity Council sounds like a group of bureaucrats discussing obscure points of order of interest to no-one.
In reality it is a lively fellowship network of leaders representing over 1,000 churches and Christian organisations, encouraging one another, talking about issues facing the church today and praying together.
The world’s values
At our meeting this autumn Steve Timmis (Acts 29) challenged us to consider whether we are absorbing our culture’s values. People around us expect and pursue comfort, happiness and fulfilment. When Christians start to live by the world’s values they are never contented, community suffers, as does our relationship with God, and the Great Commission has to fall in line behind other, more life-affirming, activities. Steve’s observations from travelling across the world is that the church in the West can all too easily take on board society’s endless quest for happy, fulfilled lives. This can be seen in our priorities, in the way we spend our time and money, and can end up impoverishing our hospitality and undermining our concern for gospel work across the world.
