Someone asked me last week, what 3 things should I be praying for that are on the heart of the church. I thought the answers I gave were worth sharing. We should pray .....
* Lord, keep me attentive to God (watchful) and help me to guard that sacred flame that is within me. And if it is extinguished help me not to be satisfied with just sitting in Church or the housegroup and letting things pass me. I want that flame rekindled. So firstly, restoring that piritual passion and for those who have that passion, to try and impart that to one another and see that flourish.
* Looking outwards. That we feel we are here for a purpose and have a mandate as a church to reach out and touch our neighbours. Praying, ‘who is my neighbour?
People I work with, our families, people we have close contact with and certainly people on Batemoor/Jordanthorpe. And if we haven’t got a heart for Batemoor/Jordanthorpe, we are still called to be light and salt and need to find a place of activating mission in this coming year. Opportunities are going to be given to us, even if not in our church there will be opportunities in the areas we live in Sheffield to be involved in local community mission and that will be great.
* How we respond to one another in the church. We are a diverse bunch and we are always under attack in our relationships. At times we are awkward and we can talk a good talk about this, sing the songs and pray the prayers, but it comes into practise when we have to live with people who irritate us and get under our skin and at times annoy us with what they say or do. We are human and are failing people at times but if we can’t accommodate one another and have grace for one another in that and find space for one another in that, and our only response is to be closed in on ourselves and hold tightly to what we have got, then we are going to lose ground. We have to say we will bless those we don’t get on well with and create the space for people to come forward and take part of what I feel is mine. The early church, at the time of the move of God’s Spirit had all things in common and that includes ministry. Ministry is to be held in common. God gives gifts for the common good, it is for sharing. It is not to feed our own egos or self-importance, but to create space and feed, bless and inspire others and, if we can do that as a church, we will punch much harder than our weight, and punch a lot of holes in the darkness.
Thursday, 11 October 2007
Linking Up for the mission
As a church we would like to try and produce a rolling programme that starts this Autumn through next year. This isn’t just part of our church Hope08 is a national initiative, the idea being for churches to work together in their communities, work together with one another and co-operate in making Jesus known. It is about transforming and redeeming communities. Also about partnership with community groups, the Police, other agencies and about seeing real change made in terms of regeneration. It isn’t however just a social project and those at the heart of it like Andy Hawthorne from the Eden Project would say we need the Holy Spirit. It is about the Word of God, discipleship, people coming to know Jesus, but it is also about sharing our faith in practical ways too. These things coming together is the emphasis of Hope08. We will begin the year with prayer. I am involved in the city wide initiatives and I feel that rather than do a city wide mission we are going to be looking at really supporting things in prayer, trying to support other churches and particularly the challenge will be for bigger churches and richer churches to look to places that do not have resources to reach their own area. We are particularly interested in the North East of the city as well as our own little corner in areas like Firth Park, Burngreave, etc. The feel in the city is not for a year of mission with everyone doing their own thing afterwards, but something sustainable and sustained and that is what I want for our church too. I will be urging caution that we are on a marathon and not on a sprint but I will be saying that a deliberate parity for our church next year is local mission.
There is an agreed plan to work with the churches in S8, particularly Greenhill, Bradway, Lowedges, Norton and ourselves, which is a very diverse group of Christians to see what we can do together. There are 3 things planned already for next year. One will be a night of prayer for Sheffield 8 which will be very interesting. Another will be some sort of march of witness on Palm Sunday. A third thing might be a big festival on Pentecost Sunday and try and get a high profile venue in the middle of that area, and try and put on an event with music, drama, arts, etc, just to get people in and share the love of Jesus with them. On a practical level there is an event coming up around Bonfire Night, but I think the important thing at the moment is keeping our zeal and our spiritual fervour.
There is an agreed plan to work with the churches in S8, particularly Greenhill, Bradway, Lowedges, Norton and ourselves, which is a very diverse group of Christians to see what we can do together. There are 3 things planned already for next year. One will be a night of prayer for Sheffield 8 which will be very interesting. Another will be some sort of march of witness on Palm Sunday. A third thing might be a big festival on Pentecost Sunday and try and get a high profile venue in the middle of that area, and try and put on an event with music, drama, arts, etc, just to get people in and share the love of Jesus with them. On a practical level there is an event coming up around Bonfire Night, but I think the important thing at the moment is keeping our zeal and our spiritual fervour.
It's time to give up (first part)
For those who have captured something, it really is important that we hold on to that impartation we have received. Not holding on tightly with closed fists but cherishing what God has given us and try and share it with one another.
Like an infection, let’s see if we can pass it on.
There is a passage in Zechariah which talks about people clinging on to others saying “I want to go with you to the temple”. This idea of ‘Can I come into the presence of God with you?’, ‘Will you help me get into the presence of God?’, ‘Will you pray for me and encourage me?’ Whether members of the young people’s group or whether we are older people doesn’t matter.
Our encounters of God are important and the more we capture things in the Spirit (and I know that sounds wishy-washy), but when something is in our heart, it is in us and lives in us, and then the project is secondary to the sense that I have caught it, I have caught the vision. This is about God when I am doing the washing up, it’s about God when I am laying hands on someone and praying for them to be healed. It’s all about God.
One week I might be praying with someone and the next week I might be cleaning the toilets, it doesn’t really matter because it is all prat of the same process. We have to get beyond the questioning ‘I wasn’t asked to do that!’ ‘They are always asked to do that!’. It’s beyond saying “It’s not fair’. We have put away childish things and come to maturity. I implore us all to get beyond that childishness to say ‘great!’ to what is happening.
Also, not to think that just because we prayed with someone this week, we are always the ones to do that. We might have to do some back up work too. It’s working together in a complementary way that will bless the church and bless the world and get the job done.
I can’t remember who it was (possibly Leonard Ravenhill) who said “unless things are more exciting in the church than in the world we will never see revival.”. I think we have got to get beyond misery and into life. Someone from my old church at Hollybush said that many Christians when they are going to church look as though they are going to the dentists, and when they come out they look as though they have been.
Like an infection, let’s see if we can pass it on.
There is a passage in Zechariah which talks about people clinging on to others saying “I want to go with you to the temple”. This idea of ‘Can I come into the presence of God with you?’, ‘Will you help me get into the presence of God?’, ‘Will you pray for me and encourage me?’ Whether members of the young people’s group or whether we are older people doesn’t matter.
Our encounters of God are important and the more we capture things in the Spirit (and I know that sounds wishy-washy), but when something is in our heart, it is in us and lives in us, and then the project is secondary to the sense that I have caught it, I have caught the vision. This is about God when I am doing the washing up, it’s about God when I am laying hands on someone and praying for them to be healed. It’s all about God.
One week I might be praying with someone and the next week I might be cleaning the toilets, it doesn’t really matter because it is all prat of the same process. We have to get beyond the questioning ‘I wasn’t asked to do that!’ ‘They are always asked to do that!’. It’s beyond saying “It’s not fair’. We have put away childish things and come to maturity. I implore us all to get beyond that childishness to say ‘great!’ to what is happening.
Also, not to think that just because we prayed with someone this week, we are always the ones to do that. We might have to do some back up work too. It’s working together in a complementary way that will bless the church and bless the world and get the job done.
I can’t remember who it was (possibly Leonard Ravenhill) who said “unless things are more exciting in the church than in the world we will never see revival.”. I think we have got to get beyond misery and into life. Someone from my old church at Hollybush said that many Christians when they are going to church look as though they are going to the dentists, and when they come out they look as though they have been.
It;s time to give up (second part)
We have got to have something more to offer the world we live in than that. Personally what has struck me is that I knew that kind of passion that I see in our young people in a big way and I have things to rekindle in me. We don’t want to be saying ‘isn’t it good God is doing something in the young people?’, that is a killer. We need to say ‘God, my hour, my day – for me, please rekindle the flame. The water is stirred, it is our opportunity, young and old to get into the water. Ask people to pray with you. I have had prayer and some words of knowledge – these are young Christians who are hearing God. I think we have just got to embrace that because there is a danger we say ‘that is great but it is just for the young people’, and it is like a prophet having no honour in their own country.
We have to respect and honour what God is doing.
It is humbling that some of these youngsters have only been Christians for months or a few years, they don’t know the Bible as well as some of us or they haven’t had the experience we have had, but actually they have heard God and encountered God which some of us, who consider ourselves ‘professionals’, long for in our lives. We have got to make the most of this time and be encouraged by what God is doing. There are some exciting things happening out there.
We have to respect and honour what God is doing.
It is humbling that some of these youngsters have only been Christians for months or a few years, they don’t know the Bible as well as some of us or they haven’t had the experience we have had, but actually they have heard God and encountered God which some of us, who consider ourselves ‘professionals’, long for in our lives. We have got to make the most of this time and be encouraged by what God is doing. There are some exciting things happening out there.
Our Survey - Why are we doing it?
Part of our initiatives is a survey being carried out on the estate and that has good and bad parts to it. The majority has been very positive and I understand there has been a lot of response. People have been invited into homes and had opportunity to share and pray with people. One lady asked for prayer for a family situation and 2 days later came into Unit 3 to say thank you and to tell us the situation had been resolved. Also, Dillon shared today that with his daughter they had spoken to a man who had lived on the estate for many years and said although he wasn’t particularly interested in going to church he had seen over those years a decline in the quality of life on the estate until we arrived and now he is seeing a shift, a slowing down or bottoming out of the decline. That is somebody outside of the church and outside of the faith saying those things and it is very positive feedback. It goes beyond these 2 examples.
We are trying to engage with people and say ‘hey, we are ordinary people but we have an extraordinary God’. We are hoping to set up a series of events. I would like us to think of next year as a year of mission. As charismatics we are all for experiencing God and the more we can hear God the better, but we can get introverted in the way we look at ourselves at times and our conversations can be all about what we can do about this or that problem, logistical problems with the building, noise, children’s rooms, etc and they are all real problems. But outside there are people who do not know Jesus. It doesn’t mean that we ignore these problems but it is getting the perspective right. I feel at times we are quite small in our view of life, what affects me now, my needs, my wants. And we have got to break away from a self-centered faith to a faith that is generous, giving space to one another and encouraging to do what God is asking us to do. God is big enough to embrace the world we live in. That might sound like apple-pie and motherhood and all good values but for me it is very important. The way we live our lives in society, our generosity, our willingness to give ourselves away in situations, speaks volumes to people.
We are trying to engage with people and say ‘hey, we are ordinary people but we have an extraordinary God’. We are hoping to set up a series of events. I would like us to think of next year as a year of mission. As charismatics we are all for experiencing God and the more we can hear God the better, but we can get introverted in the way we look at ourselves at times and our conversations can be all about what we can do about this or that problem, logistical problems with the building, noise, children’s rooms, etc and they are all real problems. But outside there are people who do not know Jesus. It doesn’t mean that we ignore these problems but it is getting the perspective right. I feel at times we are quite small in our view of life, what affects me now, my needs, my wants. And we have got to break away from a self-centered faith to a faith that is generous, giving space to one another and encouraging to do what God is asking us to do. God is big enough to embrace the world we live in. That might sound like apple-pie and motherhood and all good values but for me it is very important. The way we live our lives in society, our generosity, our willingness to give ourselves away in situations, speaks volumes to people.
Spring is in the air!
It’s late September and ……I really should be back at school – sorry, couldn’t resist that!
As I look back at August, it always seems to be a fairly dead time in most churches. If you look at churches in a seasonal kind of way everything seems to hibernate to some degree but September is like the Spring. You plant seeds and you start to see things sprout and grow, I suppose it is like the beginning of the church year really.
People tend to come back a bit sluggish but often with a great deal of enthusiasm and I think this year, particularly because of the influence of certain camps that people have been to, we have seen an influx and a surge of enthusiasm which has been great. Normally in September there is a sense of ‘let’s get back into the routine’, whereas this year there has been a feeling of ‘come on, let’s do it, let’s get into it’.
That has been a real encouragement to me.
Many people went to 2 main camps this year, Soul Survivor and Grapevine and there is a dynamic to being with so many other Christians. Just worshipping together with 12,000 other people at Soul Survivor – I know what an effect it has on my son who goes, and I know the enthusiasm is not just something that lasts a week. It lives in him still. Also at Grapevine, we saw the same enthusiasm. It reminds me a lot, through its ethos and the feel of the place, of Hollybush camps, that used to be held in a marquee when I was younger. Much bigger but it has that kind of inclusive feel about it. The enthusiasm of worshipping God together with those kinds of numbers is Heaven on Earth, and does us good. Also I think it frees us from the restraints of local church. It doesn’t feel rushed, time is not of the essence, you are there with your friends, you are there with the deliberate intention to hear God and worship Him – to have time together. And these kinds of things do make a difference. Again thinking back to my youth days at Hollybush as a 17 – 18 year old – we were deliberately anticipating church throughout the week, Monday to Thursday. I would get on buses and walk 5 miles sometimes just to get to these meetings, and they might last 3 hours but we knew we were going to meet with God. It was a real sense of anticipation and that is what has happened to people over the Summer.
Now we have to realize we don’t have to be at Grapevine or Soul Survivor or whatever to hear God. God is the God who speaks everywhere and we need to encourage each other in that.
As I look back at August, it always seems to be a fairly dead time in most churches. If you look at churches in a seasonal kind of way everything seems to hibernate to some degree but September is like the Spring. You plant seeds and you start to see things sprout and grow, I suppose it is like the beginning of the church year really.
People tend to come back a bit sluggish but often with a great deal of enthusiasm and I think this year, particularly because of the influence of certain camps that people have been to, we have seen an influx and a surge of enthusiasm which has been great. Normally in September there is a sense of ‘let’s get back into the routine’, whereas this year there has been a feeling of ‘come on, let’s do it, let’s get into it’.
That has been a real encouragement to me.
Many people went to 2 main camps this year, Soul Survivor and Grapevine and there is a dynamic to being with so many other Christians. Just worshipping together with 12,000 other people at Soul Survivor – I know what an effect it has on my son who goes, and I know the enthusiasm is not just something that lasts a week. It lives in him still. Also at Grapevine, we saw the same enthusiasm. It reminds me a lot, through its ethos and the feel of the place, of Hollybush camps, that used to be held in a marquee when I was younger. Much bigger but it has that kind of inclusive feel about it. The enthusiasm of worshipping God together with those kinds of numbers is Heaven on Earth, and does us good. Also I think it frees us from the restraints of local church. It doesn’t feel rushed, time is not of the essence, you are there with your friends, you are there with the deliberate intention to hear God and worship Him – to have time together. And these kinds of things do make a difference. Again thinking back to my youth days at Hollybush as a 17 – 18 year old – we were deliberately anticipating church throughout the week, Monday to Thursday. I would get on buses and walk 5 miles sometimes just to get to these meetings, and they might last 3 hours but we knew we were going to meet with God. It was a real sense of anticipation and that is what has happened to people over the Summer.
Now we have to realize we don’t have to be at Grapevine or Soul Survivor or whatever to hear God. God is the God who speaks everywhere and we need to encourage each other in that.
The waters are stirring - let's get in
I spoke one Sunday morning at the end of August on the passage where Jesus is by the pool where a paralysed man has been for 38 years.
The idea of waiting for an angel to stir the water and someone then jumping in, but having watched other people jump in over 38 years with no one to put him in the pool – such hopeless desperation.. However, something has got him back there, he wants to be there where the action is and see for himself but hasn’t the ability to get there himself. He encounters Jesus. And I have a sense in me that at the moment the water is stirred and we, as a church, have really got to help one another to get into the pool.
There are people who have actually got into the pool this Summer who want to help us. Through the prophetic that is coming out of our church at the moment, the surprise for some is that we have to get out of the box of our understanding as to who those people might be. They might not be our housegroup leaders, they might not be the elders or oversight team of the church, they might not be me. They might be members of the youth group or people who you might not naturally see at the front of church meetings – but they have encountered God and are saying ‘hey, come with me I have got something to show you’.
We have heard wonderful stories of people coming back to God and giving their lives back to God. I have listened to younger and older people who, having heard God, having had prophetic words, having prayed for one another, have laughed, cried, fallen on the floor, etc, they have experienced God and these things have a real effect on our lives and are like markers in our lives.
The experience itself might change but it is something to look back on. Like we heard this morning, ‘surely goodness and mercy will follow me’ – there is something behind me. I encountered God on the floor of a tent at Soul Survivor or, I met God with my arms around my brothers and sisters, laughing and crying, as a group where people are saying “you are a band of brothers”, or I met God a Grapevine and that has changed my life. These things are really, really important and we ought to be protecting one another and encouraging one another to tell and share those stories.
I
The idea of waiting for an angel to stir the water and someone then jumping in, but having watched other people jump in over 38 years with no one to put him in the pool – such hopeless desperation.. However, something has got him back there, he wants to be there where the action is and see for himself but hasn’t the ability to get there himself. He encounters Jesus. And I have a sense in me that at the moment the water is stirred and we, as a church, have really got to help one another to get into the pool.
There are people who have actually got into the pool this Summer who want to help us. Through the prophetic that is coming out of our church at the moment, the surprise for some is that we have to get out of the box of our understanding as to who those people might be. They might not be our housegroup leaders, they might not be the elders or oversight team of the church, they might not be me. They might be members of the youth group or people who you might not naturally see at the front of church meetings – but they have encountered God and are saying ‘hey, come with me I have got something to show you’.
We have heard wonderful stories of people coming back to God and giving their lives back to God. I have listened to younger and older people who, having heard God, having had prophetic words, having prayed for one another, have laughed, cried, fallen on the floor, etc, they have experienced God and these things have a real effect on our lives and are like markers in our lives.
The experience itself might change but it is something to look back on. Like we heard this morning, ‘surely goodness and mercy will follow me’ – there is something behind me. I encountered God on the floor of a tent at Soul Survivor or, I met God with my arms around my brothers and sisters, laughing and crying, as a group where people are saying “you are a band of brothers”, or I met God a Grapevine and that has changed my life. These things are really, really important and we ought to be protecting one another and encouraging one another to tell and share those stories.
I
WATCH and ACTION
t’s a good season and at the moment there are 2 things that I think we need to harness together. One is that God was speaking to us a few months ago about being ready for a move, being ready to anticipate what God is doing. It came out of a passage about David encountering his enemies and the sound of movement in the balsam trees or the mulberry trees, waiting, watching and hearing something. And again the stirring of the water – watching something and getting into what God is doing.
I think God is saying WATCH.
Even a few weeks ago, when Chris Simpson was speaking from Psalm 19 about the Heavens declaring God, watch. There is something in that watching which may require some dynamic of the Spirit which says ‘hey, it’s time for the lid to be taken off’. We had been given the presentation of the jumping fleas this morning and their conditioning to stay within a framework. They are conditioned by a stronghold that says ‘This is my life, it is always in this box. This is my faith, it is always in this box.’ God is saying it is time to spread out, time to transform your thinking, time to renew your mind, time to be expanded. So, that is the kind of thing to anticipate and watch for. We need to encourage each other whether it be at prayer meetings, the encounters meetings, the Sunday morning meetings – I am going to meet with God. I have something to contribute.
The second thing is ACTION
Earthing that in terms of our enthusiasm for God and the joy and life that can generate among us and of sharing this beyond the walls of our church. I had a picture a few weeks ago of us being in a blackout like in the Second World War. Everyone put their blackout curtains up – we were light inside but were blacked out from the terrible, scary world. I feel that partly, the breaking out, lifting the lid, breaking the walls involves taking down some of the blackout curtains and letting this light get out. That is where some of the Hope08 and mission initiative comes in. I really have faith that this is a time when we need to be pushing out in terms of sharing our faith and taking the warm contacts and the good feel we have got in the area around us beyond just ‘aren’t they nice people down at Unit 3’, to ‘these people have met something fundamentally life changing in relationship with the Living God, and we want that for ourselves’
Lets pray that this seed change can be in our hearts
I think God is saying WATCH.
Even a few weeks ago, when Chris Simpson was speaking from Psalm 19 about the Heavens declaring God, watch. There is something in that watching which may require some dynamic of the Spirit which says ‘hey, it’s time for the lid to be taken off’. We had been given the presentation of the jumping fleas this morning and their conditioning to stay within a framework. They are conditioned by a stronghold that says ‘This is my life, it is always in this box. This is my faith, it is always in this box.’ God is saying it is time to spread out, time to transform your thinking, time to renew your mind, time to be expanded. So, that is the kind of thing to anticipate and watch for. We need to encourage each other whether it be at prayer meetings, the encounters meetings, the Sunday morning meetings – I am going to meet with God. I have something to contribute.
The second thing is ACTION
Earthing that in terms of our enthusiasm for God and the joy and life that can generate among us and of sharing this beyond the walls of our church. I had a picture a few weeks ago of us being in a blackout like in the Second World War. Everyone put their blackout curtains up – we were light inside but were blacked out from the terrible, scary world. I feel that partly, the breaking out, lifting the lid, breaking the walls involves taking down some of the blackout curtains and letting this light get out. That is where some of the Hope08 and mission initiative comes in. I really have faith that this is a time when we need to be pushing out in terms of sharing our faith and taking the warm contacts and the good feel we have got in the area around us beyond just ‘aren’t they nice people down at Unit 3’, to ‘these people have met something fundamentally life changing in relationship with the Living God, and we want that for ourselves’
Lets pray that this seed change can be in our hearts
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