St Paul’s Dorking Small Groups
Read: Matthew 5:13 -16: “You are the salt of the earth”
Introduction: We continue our advent series that seeks to “prepare the way” for the coming of the extension of God’s Kingdom – both in our
lives, and literally as our church extension comes to completion in 2014 - after 20 years of preparation! Last week Shona reminded us that it is
the presence of Christ within his community that will transform our physical building into a place where Jesus is experienced and discovered.
In short, we are transforming this place into a place that transforms!
This week we begin to look more closely at the vision of how that will actually happen. What characteristics will we need to enable us to use
bricks and mortar to facilitate love and salvation? We shall focus this week on Jesus’ declaration “You are the salt of the earth”. What lays
behind this phrase, and what were the lessons that Jesus was drawing out with this picture?
Properties of Salt: What are the parallels between the properties of salt and what Jesus expects of us in our behaviour and actions?
(a) Salt preserves - Salt has been used as a preservative since ancient times, to protect food against bacteria and decay. Salt dries out food by
absorbing water from it making the environment too dry to support harmful mould or bacteria. (b) Salt has value - Jesus confers great dignity
upon his disciples, as in ancient times salt had great value. The Romans often paid their soldiers an allowance of salt called a “salarium”, hence
the word “salary” and the phrase “worth one’s salt”. (c) Salt has great flavour - Although salt is odourless it has great taste and enhances and
brings other foods to life. (d) Salt is essential – It maintains the fluid in our blood cells and enables the uptake of certain nutrients from our small
intestines. The body cannot make salt so it has to be ingested. (e) Unsalty Salt? – Jesus says that if salt loses its flavour (v13b) it is “good for
nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot”. Technically speaking, salt cannot lose its saltiness; sodium chloride is a stable compound.
But in the part of the world where Jesus lived, salt was collected from the Dead Sea where the crystals were often contaminated by minerals.
These crystalized and formed impurities, and since the actual salt was more soluble than the impurities, the rain would wash out the salt, which
made it worthless. It looked like salt, but had lost it’s taste. The same is true of us, if the vitality of Jesus’ life is overtaken by the constant flow of
the world’s values in our lives, we become worthless. When Mahatma Gandhi was the spiritual leader of India, he was asked by some
missionaries “What is the greatest hindrance to Christianity in India?” His reply was “Christians!”.
In summary: Salt is essential, it adds life, flavour and vitality, it preserves and fights against decay and pushes back against harmful elements but
can be overtaken by other impurities and loose its value - sound familiar?
Principles of Vision: For many years St Paul’s Church has had at it’s heart the phrase “The beacon of light”. More recently we have come to
understand Christ’s calling for us to also be the “Salt of Dorking”. What might this mean and what imperatives might this place upon us as a
community? In short, we believe Christ is calling us to build His Kingdom in this place and to use our new facilities to better express and
demonstrate His presence to our community.
Salt means: SERVING, AFFIRMING, LIVING, AND TRAINING.
- SERVING: We are called to serve all in our community. A blessing to the disadvantaged, the hurting, the poor and those in need.
- AFFIRMING: We are called to be a church that affirms and welcomes all. It means open doors and open hearts to all.
- LIVING: To be a church that lives out its faith and is for those who have yet to become disciples of Christ.
- TRAINING: To be a church that equips all to be good news for the local community.
Pouring out the Saltshaker!
Not only is salt worthless if it loses its saltiness, it is also worthless if it is cooped up in a closed environment and contained in the saltshaker. It
has been great to see how Christ has been shaking up our lives as he has caused us to start shaking out the saltshaker over these last years. A
few examples, whether it’s our Pastoral Assistants bringing care and counsel, or our Street Pastors bringing lollipops and love, our Besom team
bringing life essentials, hampers and hope, or the many other unsung heroes of this church doing their bit to bring saltiness to our community,
we have begun to experience some of the shake-up.
But what new and exciting possibilities does Christ have in store for us? Two possible thoughts for our future agenda:Getting out there together: Jesus tells us later in this passage not to hide our light under a bushel. We are to get out of the Saltshaker. There is a
church in Sheffield where on one Sunday every month they meet for some short prayer and worship, but then the entire church moves out into
the community to make a difference - One month they pick up litter, one month they talk to shop keepers and hand out nibbles, one month they
undertake community projects. That’s a church that has got a saltshaker vision!
Meeting people where they are: It’s so encouraging to see the many people that come to our various events and to Café Church. There is a
warmth, a welcome and a sense of God’s presence here. But in our limited facilities we are unable to tailor our offering to really touch people
wherever they are at. Think of the day when at Café Church we can announce that in one of the seminar rooms there will be a open forum on;
Does God Exist?, What does being a Christian really mean?, Teenager challenges! or Managing debt.
Or think of what Ros Flanders was sharing the other night at our church meeting - the opportunity to set up a listening space where people
coming into our midst can find some space to share their hearts and receive new hope and counsel. Or think of the new possibilities that our
foyer will give us to create an open, welcoming space. We under-estimate how difficult it is for some people to enter church. They feel
threatened, vulnerable, and an intruder, but give them a cup of coffee and some soup and things change. Or think of a Friday lunchtime when
we invite local workers to Work Out in the new facilities - the whole dynamic changes. I can’t wait for us to be able to transform this place into
a place that transforms!
In summary: Our vision and our hope is that we will become the Salt of Dorking, a people that make a difference, are vital and enhance the
flavour of our community. Our new facilities will better enable us to be a serving, affirming, living, training church that propels us to get out of
the saltshaker and into the highways and byways of Dorking!
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Questions to discuss
1. Are you a sweet or savoury person? What’s your favourite guilty pleasure?
2. Looking at the Properties of salt. What lessons are implicit in Jesus’ declaration “You are the salt of the earth.”
3. What sort of church do we want to be? Does the acronym of S.A.L.T help tell the story? (We will add L.I.G.H.T next week!)
4. Which of the key (S.A.L.T) words and explanations do we live out best? Which one perhaps needs a bit more attention?
5. How do we loose our saltiness?
6. Pouring out the saltshaker: How are we currently, and how might we, get the salt out of the saltshaker better?
7. “We are transforming this place into a place that transforms!” Do we see a link between our new extended church
and us being able to live out our vision more effectively? What excites you most about this?