What was 2018 like for you?

First night back in Zac's last night after a long Christmas break. A large turn-out including some newbies and some old faces.

Sean led us looking back at the previous year and what was special about it for us. Or challenging.

For me it was seeing the way a couple of regulars have really come on in their faith, their confidence, their love. It was also the fact that we now have a quite consistent group of regulars from all walks of life, with views on what Christianity is about from opposite ends of the spectrum. Sometimes a person will start coming and I think, for one reason or another, 'He or she won't last long here,' but it turns out they fit in the mix. More than that they bring something new to the palette of colours that make up Zac's, sometimes complementing sometimes contrasting with the familiar shades.

We have people of strong faith and people whose views are more humanist but the foundations of Zac's remain firmly on Christ. We had a discussion last night about the word Christian, about the way it has come to mean a variety of things it was never meant to be from wishy-washy helplessness to extremes rightly derided by the media. A right-wing fundamentalist telling gays they'll go to hell. A priest abusing young boys. An evangelistic leader who 'needs his own private jet to do God's work'.

But the root of the word Christian is, of course, Christ. It only takes a quick flick through the gospels to see the reality, the words he said, and the way he lived out those words. Love, forgiveness, inclusion. Nothing about him was weak; nothing about him incited hate or exclusion - except against himself.

He also told us not to judge. That's difficult when some people in power claim to be Christian and yet act in a very un-Christian way. But that's going off the subject and a topic for another post maybe.

It was good to be back at Zac's last night.