Forgiven

How important that we realise that we are forgiven and all the implications of that!  As David Heywood says (in Reimagining Ministry), "Perhaps the secret of the church's attractiveness lies not in its being a community of the good but of the forgiven, not a group of people offering a standard to emulate but one whose members know their need of God."  It is not what we do that makes us effective, but what God does through us.  Like any group we have plenty that is wrong with us, and we do well to recognise that, but it is important to also recognise that we are loved and valued by God.  In the old parlance, we are sinners - but we are forgiven sinners!