Each new issue of Ignite magazine seems to fly off the shelves like hot cakes! It’s encouraging seeing people quietly perusing a copy as they sit in the Link, or clutching the latest issue as they go home on Sundays. One constant prayer for Ignite is that it would be a source of encouragement for St Saviour’s family, so it is great to see it leaving the building in your hands!
Another prayer is that Ignite’s influence would also ‘leave the building’ and reach into our community, both with news of what’s on and also with stimulating features. Someone said to me recently, ‘It’s so exciting! Ignite is getting out into the community!’ and proceeded to recount how a particular article had inspired a friend to buy a Christian book. How exciting! Ignite is regularly delivered to people’s homes, but also to the local post office, and a big ‘thank you’ to Anne Alcock for her help. Then at Easter and Christmas, Frankie took copies to local businesses, just to get the word out there about what was going on at these special times of year – another ‘thank you’!
But we also pray that everyone at St Saviour’s might capture the vision and see Ignite as a voice in our community. With this in mind, we would like to encourage each of you to consider contributing to Ignite – at some time! It’s so good to have variety – both in terms of content and in terms of the ways that different writers express their faith or communicate news, thoughts and inspirations.
It’s marvellous how many of you have already felt inspired to write and we are grateful for all submissions – no editor wants empty pages! But we appreciate it’s easy to get nervous about putting things in writing – sometimes it is hard to find the right words and to feel confident that what we write is what we mean to say. We would encourage you all to have a go – be obedient to God’s promptings to put something down on paper, remembering that it’s not for ourselves, but to love our community and to God’s glory! Jesus himself said:
‘… the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve …’ Matthew 20 verse 28
So please be asking God if there is anything He would like you to share in Ignite, write it down, and send it to ignite@stsaviours.net The next deadline is Sunday 6 August.
Thank you so much for your support!
Clare Shearing (Co-editor)