Stoke ferry methodist News

Matt shows a sound understanding of "young love" and hopes that we can all put this understanding to good use.

Stoke Ferry Methodist Chapel

4 June 11.00 Matt Finch

11 June 11.00 Church Fellowship Service

18 June 11.00 David Hollingsworth

25 June 11.00 Don Gates

Part of my job as a Methodist minister is working with young people, it is both a joy and pleasure, but sometimes a complete nightmare when at 27 years old I feel that I should be drawing my pension! However, the thing that surprises me about youthwork is the power of young love! You see in the eyes of the newly courting couple the passion, the hormones, the longing just to be together. Oblivious to the rest of the world they snuggle and snog and whisper loving comments to one another. The romance will last a lifetime so they think. Then a few weeks, maybe months, later there is the need comfort the broken hearted youngsters in coming to terms with what to them feels like the worst thing that will ever happen to them.

I am sure each of you can remember times with your own family or even way back when your heart was broken by a first love! It hurts a lot and one of the reasons for this is because a bubble has been burst that love just isn't simple. With the world telling us love is about romance, laughter and that it's easy, actually we forget that the real version is tough. In a world where people are people, warts and all, where we look bad first thing in the morning, when we are grump without enough sleep, when those mannerisms once so sweet are now, after 40yrs, frustrating.

If we truly understood what love was about, I wonder if we would cope better with the bigger issues in life. If we grasped that love is about sacrifice how would our communities look? If we fathomed that real love is about changing yourself so that others gain how would the world of politics look? If we consider that love is about finding beauty in the ugliness of our world who would we view those different to ourselves?

The challenge to us as Christians is that when we look at Christ's life and love for the world- he gave him very self that we might know God loves us in spite of our flaws and failings.

God Bless, Matt Finch