A few weeks ago I had the privilege of Preaching at the Aberdeen Street Baptist 157th anniversary. It was a great day because they also inducted two new pastors. Chris Herbert to minister to their existing congregation and Danny Krivan to create new Christian Communities in their local area. It is a great example of a church getting behind a vision of rebirth and new life. During the service in a video greeting to the church BUV President Geoff Leslie talked about how the church in its history had sent out one of their own members to plant churches in North Western Victoria, many of which are still active today. I did some quick maths and decided that when I was 77 years old I would return for the church’s 200th anniversary and talk about the ministries that had been birthed from the faithful church of Aberdeen Street today.

The day before my visit to Aberdeen Street I had been in Traralgon South delivering iPods to teenagers who had lost their homes in the bushfires. I was being driven around the area by Naomi the Traralgon Salvation Army Officer, who is up to her neck in relief work. I asked the question; “what did your church do before the fires?” her response was that she did not know. She and her family had only just been transferred from Western Australia the week before. My first thought was “What an amazing opportunity to make your mark on the community and birth a vital and connected new ministry in this town.”

A few days later I sat in my back yard watching my son on his trampoline and my baby in the swing when a very sad looking little tree caught my eye. It had not fared too well in the heat wave and looked totally dead. So I did the ‘scratch test’, scratching the smallest bit of bark off with my nail to see if there was any green to give me hope that there could be new life. There was a little green left although on the outside there was no evidence of life at all. The only thing I could do with my tree was to prune it back and give it a share of my boys bath water each evening. All I can do is create an environment for the rebirth to happen and wait till spring.

I wonder if we need to do a scratch test in areas that we think have no life; do a little investigating... ask a few questions. If we discover that indeed there is evidence of life then we must employ our efforts in nourishing that environment to encourage new life. If speaking in metaphor is not working for you then what I mean is looking to our community for evidence of Jesus at work and investing our time there. I was part of a community mum’s group when my first son was born and I remember telling them about his ‘dedication service’. The overwhelming response was that it was a lovely thing to do and that they liked the idea so much that they might to a similar thing. Perhaps that discussion was the scratch test and the nourishment should have come in the form of... “Would you like me to show you what we did in our dedication service?” From there we may have seen the shoots of new life.

A few years ago at Albury Baptist the conversation was centred on “should we close?” After doing a scratch test and nurturing the signs of life a massive rebirth occurred. They are now a thriving church community bursting at the seams of their building.

So in conclusion; scratch around a bit and share your bath water. You may be surprised at where the shoots of new life show up.