In keeping with my theme this week of self-examination, I thought I would highlight two things I found on Justin Taylor‘s blog.

The first was a post on self-promotion by Dane Ortlund. This really hits the mark and is a great provocation to us. Like many such pithy thoughts it is of course, however, one sided. There is nothing wrong with that as sometimes we do well to allow a truth, in this case “do not promote yourself” to hit us full in the face without nuancing it in that moment. If in every communication we make we try to be “balanced” we will never successfully communicate anything! So this is in no sense a criticism of Dane, who’s post I believe should be read by every Christian blogger, pastor, and well, probably every Christian.

The second item I want to highlight, however, does press us strongly on the other side of the equation. It is all too easy for humility to become false humility, and for a desire not to promote ourselves to become passivity and inaction. We are called to promote Jesus, however. We are called to be unashamedly influential for him. We are called to do everything we can to share his truth with a dying world in a way that they will accept it. We are called to let our light shine before men, to not hide our light under a bushel. In short we are told to go into all the world and with passionate energy push forward the truth of the gospel.

How can we avoid self-promotion but seek to be influential in a healthy way? John Piper says it better than anyone I have ever heard in this video clip from 2008:

During Adrian’s month away from the blog, he has hand-picked a selection of the most popular posts of the year so far to re-run.

Today we feature,  “PJ Smyth on suffering, sickness and healing.” PJ Smyth’s practical theology of healing and suffering came out of his personal experience of cancer. This was not just another TOAM talk.  Picked up within minutes of posting by Matt Chandler, who has had his own battle with brain cancer, this post is very helpful and has been read by many poeple.  One day you will face your own suffering.  Prepare yourself beforehand by reading this and/or listening to the sermon itself: PJ Smyth on suffering, sickness and healing

A pioneering woman, pt 1

By Claire Musters

I believe you met Terry at Bible college, and both had a strong desire to follow after God with all your hearts – did you ever imagine to what extent He would use your giftings?

You can visit Wendy Virgo’s blog here:  http://wendyvirgo.wordpress.com/

This evening during the worship we were encouraged to make the following prophetic declarations that are all part of our history together. Half of the room called out each promise to the other half who replied “We will!”

• Remember we can do more together than we can apart
• Remember we are called to change the expression of Christianity throughout the world
• Remember we are called to plant thousands churches and churches of thousands
• Remember there are no well worn paths ahead of us so keep pioneering
• Remember we are people of the word and the Spirit
• Remember God’s Lavish Grace
• Remember to build on an apostolic and prophetic foundation
• Remember it is too small a thing to restore the church, bring my salvation to the ends of the earth
• Remember the poor

This was a holy moment as we felt commissioned to go with these promises into the next phase of our life together as a people.

In the video that was shown about the future of Newfrontiers, there was a phrase Terry said that stood out for me: “I am praying that God goes on multiplying this so that what was once a single sapling becomes a mighty forest.”

PJ shared with us a kind of practical and systematic theology of suffering and healing.  There is no question in my mind that this is the best sermon on this subject I have ever heard.  Every Christian would do well to listen to this, study it, grasp it, and prepare themselves for the suffering that will inevitably come our way.  

You can download the audio, read my notes below, or download a briefer set of notes PJ kindly let me share here:

8 ways he has tried to live in response to his cancer this past year (Note that at times in these notes I refer to PJ as “I”!)

1. I reflected on the possible sources of sickness

a. The fall Genesis 3:3. You will surely die. The common pattern of this world is live, get sick, die. Romans 8 we are in bondage to decay. There are no 120 year old faith healers!
b. Foolish living. Sowing and reaping. If you crash your car don’t blame others. Poor diet, pollution, etc.
c. Satan (Luke 13, Acts 10:38) The default option of Jesus and the local church is to treat sickness as the work of Satan
d. Sin John 9 Jesus said “Neither this man nor his parents sinned…” He doesn’t say all sickness is caused by specific sin but it can be. Psalm 32 David is sick because of his sin. 1 Corinthians 11 they were sick because of abusing communion. Usually it is not a specific sin that leads to death but it can be. “Sin deserves death and it is because of God’s mercy that we are not each struck down whenever we sin” Carson
e. Direct from God. Actively instigated or actively permitted.

Knowing that God is in control of God’s sovereignty is very comforting. If it was outside of his rule it would mean he cant heal us. If he can’t prevent it how can he stop it. How can he use it for my good either? We would loose Romans 8. If you try and rescue God for responsibility for suffering then you rescue him from being God, and that is about as uncomforting as things can be.

Some say why pray to a sovereign God? But there is no point in praying to a non-sovereign God as he can’t answer! If suffering surprises God then he is no longer able to help us! He is your sovereign father. Jesus prays “My father” even when in the garden of gethseme. Those two words are precious. PJ said he is so glad that his cancer was not some random attack of the enemy that is uncontained. Rather it represents something God has allowed to happen and something he will work for good.

2. I reflected on the possible sources of healing

a. the power of the cross - the place of victory over sin and all its evil relations- sickness suffereing and death. Matthew 8 “This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah” Isaiah 53 is about the cross, so there is a clear link between the cross and healing. Some feel it is automatic. Some say that Christ purchased healing for us and by faith we apply for divine health now automatically. Others say the cross is the source of all healing power but if someone is not healed it is not a failure in the cross or faith because it is not automatic. Believing the automatic link is the primary source of confusion and dissilusionment when healing doesn’t happen. PJ believes completely that God heals today but he does not believe the automatic link. We can have success in healing without believing in this automatic link.

Why doesn’t he believe in “automatic healing” from the cross?

1. it undermines spiritual healing as so often believers are not healed now. Maybe by his stripes I am not actually spiritually healed now. Terrifying
2. It undermines common sense. Most Christians die fo a sicknessfrom which they don’t recover
3. It undermines the gift of healing why is it needed if it is just by faith in the cross?
4. It makes faith impossibly high as so many apparently high in faith don’t get healed
5. It contradicts how Paul dealt with sickness in his friends. Phil 2:27 linked healing to Gods mercy rather than man’s faith in the atonement. 1 Tim 5:23 He doesn’t say no need for medicine boy get your faith up, stop getting sick so often you are a pastor! Galatians 4:13-14 Despite Paul’s illness they didn’t treat him with contempt. If it was simply a case of having enough faith it would indeed by contemptuous. 2 Tim 4:20 he didn’t see it as a disastorous failure of the atonement. They all got sick at one time or another and he did not assume that divine health is our divine right.
6. Contradicts NT teaching on suffering. 1 Tim 3:11 he uses the word persecution and suffering next to each other must be both 1 Peter 1:6, James 1, James 5 shows multiple types of trials. Job is illustrated there, making clear that sickness is in this chatagory.
7. The lack of the use of the divine health now as a right being used in the NT. So seldom is it taught in anything like that way. We are told more about faith in Jesus.
8. Undermines the biblical commendation of physicians. It is Luke the beloved physician not that idiot who had to get another job when he got his theology right!
9. Contradicts now and not yet. Mark 1:14, Revelation 12:10. Here, but coming! 1 Corinthians 15:24 Christ reigns now but opposing authorities are in play. 1 Cor 15:52 death will be destroyed THEN. John 16:33 you will have trouble Rev 21:4 there will be no more trouble then. Romans 8:22. “pains of childbirth” There is definite new life NOW but it has not yet been fully delivered. Matthew 13:28. Wheat and weeds together. You are a soldier of Christ you are supposed to be surrounded. Jesus is leaving us in this place to shine like stars. “If you are looking for easy comfort look for a bottle of port not Christianity” C.S. Lewis

There are succusseful healing ministries that teach this automatic link. God loves faith. He blesses faith because he loves it. But it is possible to have great faith without this automatic link.

b. The power of the kingdom
The Kingdom is here now, not fully but the waves are breaking on the shore now! We have tasted of the power of the coming kingdom and we are authorized to dispense the future kingdom of God here now. The future kingdom can rush out on earth now. We are to pray that what happens on earth now is what happens in heaven. There is no sickness in heaven. Lay hold of the future kingdom and courageously dispense it now!

c. The power of the Spirit

Why would God place the gift of healing as one of the nine gifts? Because God is into healing now! James says “the prayer of faith will raise the sick person up!” It is part of an elder’s job description to pray and anoint with healing. Keep healing front and center, elders. We have a mighty theological basis for faith and action in healing now.

3. I relied on the church

At one of his lowest moments he couldn’t walk much and was feeling down. Said he felt he had nothing to offer. His wife said “stop trying to be superhero pastor dude lie still on your mat and enjoy others carrying you to Jesus.” She also remind him of Ephesians 6 and his need to stand.

4. I refused to doubt God’s goodness

It wasn’t heroic. Romans 8 says “he who did not spare his son…he will graciously give us all things” When God doesn’t answer your prayer for healing, in view of his previous gift to you of your salvation you know it is not because he doesn’t love you. In the really dark days he just could not bring himself to doubt God’s goodness because Jesus has already proved that to us!

5. I reached for both forms of God’s power:

• Power to be on display through my deliverance from the trial
• And power to be on display through my perseverance within the trial.

Power to bear up under a trial is not as evervesant as deliverance from it but it is no less potent. Paul pleads with God to remove a thorn in his flesh. God says “my power is made perfect in your weakness.” Paul says I will boast about my weakness.

Yes we want God to take us out of trials. Paul says “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection!” But the second half of the vers says “and the fellowship of his sufferings” We can embrace Gods power to get us out of suffering, but we must also embrace God’s power to persevere. What this means is that we get to stick it to the devil either way!

6. I resisted and requested

PJ resisted any Satanic element. The early church treated it that way. But he also requested healing from God. Resist hell and request from heaven. He cursed cancer, he welcomed healing, he was forceful and vigiliant. Yet wary of giving the devil more credit than he dserved and wary of shouting faith healing verses at heaven rather asking God to heal him and  listening to God.

7. I rested in the assurance of Romans 8:28. When everything is going wrong everyuthing is going right. This verse is a fortress. Some think of the resting as weakness. Resist and request and rest are two truths that are equally true. And they build each other up. Three men who face suffering (Dan 3:17) say “he will rescue us!” it is kicking. My God is willing and able and will rescue me from this trial. Full stop! But verse 18 says “even if he does not, we will not worship you!” V18 faith is a right hook to the devil! It is not just faith in God and the outcome you want, it is faith in God and the outcome I didn’t want. I don’t want you to think that it is a faith failure when verse 18 kicks in. If you die without receiving your healing it is not a failure. Don’t say “our faith didn’t work” In Hebrews 11 we read about believers who escaped death by faith and who died by faith. “We have a hope that goes beyond the grave…his name is Jesus!” If we only have hope for this life we are to be pitied more than all men. Death is not the end, it is just the end of the beginning.

PJ is convinced that his cancer will not return, he has been told it is in remission. But. if you were to get news that PJ has died, don’t say “Oh..he wasn’t healed!” Because the angels will be crying “Look at him he is completely healed!”

Heaven is the ultimate deliverance. It is the ultimate healing. Do your worst death, all you do is promote us! Death is not our executioner, he is our gardener thanks to the resurrection.

Listen, it is ALL true! God is true. The comfort of God is true. Healing now is true. Healing in heaven is true.

If he had to sum up his expereice of the last year he would say “Its all true!” Before I l knew it was true, now I KNOW it is true. Sometimes when you suffer it is like your voice breaks. It works things in you.

8. I really connected with Jesus One of the greatest thrills for suffers is that God is with us. The psalmist said “I fear no evil because God is with me” It isn’t just poetry. Daniel 3:23 There are four men there! The forth man was Jesus. O the privilege of standing shoulder to shoulder with the fourth man. When a furnace is rightly revived and God is with yo, the furnace doesn’t consume it refines. The furnace of suffering doesn’t shout out forsaken by God it shouts out loved by God!

Jesus came to them in the storm. God will not abandon you in your hour of greatest need. The forth man will come to you in the forth watch. If you feel far from the shores, in the darkest of all watches he will come to you. He is coming to you right now.

In the cellar of suffering the great King keeps his choice wine. There is kind of wine he doesn’t serve up at the regular times. He invites you into the dungeon and personally serves you the choice pickings. He washed my eyes with tears that I might see him. Job said he had heard of God. After suffering he said “I have seen him”

God takes the stage at the end of Job and you are expecting him to explain why. But he doesn’t. He takes four chapters to talk about himself. That’s because comfort is never found in the why, it is always found in the who. He always comes and reveals himself to us.

Job 38:3: I am just a man 38:4 “were you there when I laid the foundation of the earth?” Job 38:35. Do the lightening bolts report to you? Job 38:21: when God resorts to sarcasm you know its time to quit! God will do something you don’t understand. How will you respond? Will you be haughty or will you just say “your ways are higher than mine.” We don’t understand a lot of what happens to us. I don’t understand why you are going through what you are going through.

The mystery of this last year, PJ treasures. Lord it is a source of worship to me that you are God and I am not! It prompts me to worship. Its treasurable.

Job 41:1, 5. Can you make a pet out of the crocodile? If we cant nail a croc how can we nail God? 41:11 “Who has a claim against me that I must pay.” God owes me nothing. The real mystery is not why has bad happened to me, it is why has anything good ever happened to me.

Jesus turned round a question “why does bad happen” and basically turned it around and said “why does good happen at all?” God is replacing PJs sense of entitlement and replacing it with a sense of priviledge and gratitude and worship. He is the God of all comfort. The father of all compassion.

David Stroud explained that he would not be preaching as such this session but instead sharing his heart for the future of Newfrontiers here in the UK. You can download the audio or read my notes here:

He began by saying how grateful he was to be part of this family of churches. We left churches because of nostalgia. So we don’t want to do that. But, there is a difference between nostalgia and gratitude. He explained that he went to one week at the Downs Bible week had totally changed his life. The thing that struck him was the extraordinary sense of destiny those men had. God seemed to have persuaded them that he was going to use them.

When God grips a people he does the same in all of our hearts. Hearing one of the speakers talk about all that God had done in the past in this nation in revival. The following year, Terry preaching on Nehemiah stuck him with the passion for the Church.

It has been deeply personal. Moments over the decades that have been deep impact. He remembers when his wife was bleeding and a third miscarriage was threatened. Dave Devenish came and prayed with authority, the bleeding stopped and the answer to that prayer is now 6 foot tall!

Change to individuals is critical. Heart relationships are also key. We want to go further, faster, deeper but keep the love and intimacy. How do we keep apostolic ministry and make the most of all the blessings?

1. Continue to work together while also recognizing antonymous apostolic spheres.

We believe the Lord has asked us to start 1000 churches in this nation. That would be more than either of the Pentecostal denominations in the UK. We are not impressed with humans. But together we can do something. If we were simply to release spheres we would decentralize to smallness. We would loose the capacity to pack a punch. We’d loose the confidence and faith. Wesleyian revival saw the first generation saw few new churches. About 30,000 were effected by the end of that generation (which would be less than Newfrontiers churches in the UK now). In the second generation there was exponential growth. Generation one clarified identity, and the second one rode on that wave. It was the third generation that was the Wilbeforce and Shaftsbury generation. The whole nation marked its impact. It is not all downhill from now on!  Our first generation might be almost over, but we do have a role to play!

As China rises and Europe falls, one is getting into Christianity and the other is loosing it. We have a job to do. We must do it together.

Plurality is the best way to release apostolic ministry, anyway. In the OT it is all about the individual. In the NT Jesus doesn’t pick one he picks twelve. Paul had a team. There was always a plurality, without debunking the anointing on the individual.

We want to multiply into apostolic spheres. So for example, Guy Miller, Mike Betts, and Jeremy Simpkins are no longer working on behalf of David Stroud, or Terry or the UK team. They are distinct. They have similar values. But they have their own promises, their own characteristics. They are going into different nations. There is commonality but distinct elements.

For every church to be engaged in an apostolic sphere is important. Others like Dave Holden, Colin Baron and others will available also. Some will work across the spheres, a bit like Barnabas in the NT.

This is like a rocket about to take off. The energy will move from the center. The UK team will no longer be the ones to give the energy. The energy will come from the spheres. There will be a sense of ownership that will develop. The rockets fire it, but it needs to be kept on course too.

How will we hold together?

If we don’t do something that causes to ask that question we have not gone far enough. We don’t want to just belong to Newfrontiers for historical reasons. We want to be joined by heart, know that God has called us, and be benefiting from charismatic anointing.

As life gets busy and tensions occur, how are we going to do this? We are convicted that we can do more together than we can apart. We are convinced of this. We have a depth of relationship. We have been together for this long so there is love, turst, accountability, and a covering of each others backs.

David Stroud will be leading in a very different way. This isn’t his team. It is just that he will be gathering the spheres. They will be mutually responsible to each other.

There are a number of unanswered questions. How will we handle money? Websites? Team names? These are such key issues that we want to give the next 12 months to seeking the Lord on these things. Next year there will be no together on a mission. Elders and wives will gather in April.

How should I respond?

1. Give yourself to the Lord and to an apostolic team if you have one you are connected to one. Some of you will feel that maybe you are not connected to one. If so, be patient. Character is very important at these periods of change. When you don’t know the answer to the question, what does this mean for me, it is a challenge. Don’t rush here and there. God is in control. The Lord has built this so far, and will continue to build it. We wait patiently for him. Lets talk lots. Keep talking.
2. Pray for the leaders. Ask the Lord for wisdom for them. Jesus was marveled about, where did he get that wisdom from? Pray for the leaders that they too will have wisdom that is supernatural in origin.

Five challenges for courageous leadership

1. Courageous “everything” leadership. The mission of God started because God created this incredible world. It was perfect. Man and woman were the high point of this creation. We disobeyed God and fell. Every part of life was affected. Everything was cursed. God’s call on Abraham is to reverse the curse and bless in every area. Colossians 1 says Jesus died to reconcile all things. The story of the Bible is that God intends to renew and remake the whole of creation. We are his partners in this great plan to restore all things. Central to all that is that there was one who expressed the kingdom like no one else, and died a substitutionary sacrifice for the atoning of sins. But our job isn’t just to win men and women, it isn’t just 1000 churches. We want 1000 churches that will bless this nation. We want to change the nation not just plant churches! This requires courage because we are nervous that if we give ourselves to “everything” we will loose the atonement or evangelism. Our call is both and, not either or. Either or is often about a shrinking heart. We must handle each dimension of the mission of Christ. We must evangelize, care for the poor, think how we can be salt and light at every level of society. We must think about the streets we live in, the parks that are nearby. We care for the environment we live in. We might get involved in Neighborhood Watch, Street Pastors, mentoring teenagers. How can we make a difference in our jobs? How do we engage in the conversation in the media. We cant let our neighbours and children breath poisoned air.

2. Missional leadership. Builds churches that are shaped by their desire to express the whole mission of God to the community they are in. We are not to be a bomb shelter church. That kind of church is so nervous that they will be affected by the world that they spend as much time together as possible. If they do evangelism it is with a goal of keeping out of the shelter as short a time as possible and then to drag others back. We are to be a party church. Enjoys the presence of God. Those coming are being drawn in. They are where the people are. In the community. It is not because missional is in vogue. We must have a driving desire to see men and women come to Christ. The more focused wet get on the mission we get nervous we loose the gathered church as we also do the scattering. We must do both.

The times are genuinely desperate. 30,000 people every week stopped going to church in the Anglican church in recent years. Situation is desperate. We cannot simply enjoy what God is doing for us so far. We have to allow his mission to shape us. We need to see growth. We must have faith that we can lead people to Christ in large numbers. There are a lot of barren wombs in this room. Apostolic ministry has a lot to do with evangelism in the Bible. When Paul went into a town it wasn’t because he gathered a few Christians who were looking for his kind of church! We have to learn that kind of ministry again that turns people into disciples.

We must consider what kind of language we use on a Sunday. So for example explain the theological terms you use. Unbelievers should be coming to your Sunday meetings. We must keep all that is important to us, but make it intelligible and understandable. We don’t have to stop the charismatic. We need the presence of God. Proper use, not no use.

3. Affirming Leadership Ensure that our churches are environments that are equally liberating for both men and women. We must not change our theology. But we must live consistent to it. We are complementarian which means we believe that men and women are equal but different. We must make sure that we do not stress the difference more than the equal. We must make sure that we recognize male and female gifts, and that we train women as well as men. Keller says “The real challenge is to do things in such a way that even a radical feminist if she was to come into our churches would feel the freedom of the Kingdom of God.” The Apostle Paul speaks of his fellow workers and around half of them are women. How many of us can say the same? We do need to help men to be men.

4.  Self consciously think of ourselves as part of the center ground of evangelicalism more than we have before. We have ended up on the edge. But we are evangelicals. The reason we are charismatic is because it is in the Book. We are more evangelical than the other evangelicals! We do genuinely love the whole body of Chrsit. We are not sectarians. Thirty years or so ago we were being asked to leave churches. If we want to influence we must be close to it. You can impress from a distance. If you want to change things you do so from just off center. It is not a sell-out. It requires courage. We will be nervous of loosing our prophetic identity. But we are meant to not shift on who God has made us to be. We are to be close to them. Watch our attitudes. We must not have superiority or exclusivity. You can love someone without agreeing with the,. Love them and let them close enough to see the grace on our lives. We don’t have to convert the whole body of Christ to our way of thinking. Unity is about relationships not projects. Pray Jesus prayer, “that they may all be one.”

5. To continue to develop naturally supernatural leadership. Spirit fell on some of us in an unlooked-for way. We had to build churches to contain the work of the Spirit. We must engage with the charismatic but do it in a non-crazy way! You are most effective as a leader when you are the person God has made you to be. Don’t have to imitate someone else’s style to get their anointing. You have to go after your own anointing. Impartation is real. But you don’t have to be like others. We must develop a style that reflects a reformed theology and a pneumatology that is deeply powerful and effective, but enables us to be ourselves. The Spirit comes on us to equip us to do things. If we focus on “bless me” moments, it can be self indulging. Spirit comes on us so we can evangelise, pray, lead, etc. The experience is not the point. Are we getting the job done is the point.

Change is inevitable. Our message is the message of the Kingdom. God is here and wants to shape our churches for the mission.

Nigel Ring is a great hero of mine. I love the way he has faithfully served the ministry of Newfrontiers for decades. He has been so loyal, so humble, and so willing to lay his life down that the ministry of others might develop to the full potential. He has personally run every Downs, Stoneleigh and Together On A Mission event. No wonder Terry Virgo dedicated his new book Spirit-Filled Church to this man. But as I point out at the beginning of this interview, he did steal away my favorite Sunday School Teacher. Watch and see if I decide to finally forgive him! Nigel’s blog is well worth a read, and here is some more information about the two books on the poor we mentioned.

Adrian: Now I would like to take you right back actually… but sort of partly on route to that, my mum said something interesting today. It was through them, because I was very young, back in around 1978 when I met you first. And she said something really interesting. She said, ‘Back then it was just a tiny handful of people’. I think you were pastoring a church in Seaford and I think Haywards Heath was the very first church you’ve travelled to, if I remember correctly. There we were, a bunch of people had been thrown out of Evangelical churches, and my mum and dad who had come into the Holy Spirit through Capel Bible Week, I think it was. She said ‘you know… how Terry was back then when it was just a tiny handful of people’ Basically Terry and his friends… because you had known everyone, and how he is today, he is no different.’ And for a lot of people who have a big international ministry over a hundred churches, a big author and all that, there’s a sort of aura about them a kind of ‘I’ve achieved something.’ You seem to be devoid of that, you seem to have a humility, I guess, about you. And I know humility is a funny thing because you’re not going say ‘Yes, actually, I am humble’ because then you’ve lost it. But I’m sure that there’s been temptations not to be humble, with all these thousands of people gathering. I think someone once said ‘You should never believe your own press’. How have you maintained that humility of the years? Are there any keys that might help other people? Because even in a small church, the pastor is sometimes the head of a pyramid – everyone’s looking to them – it’s easy to get impressed with yourself if you’re not careful, I think.

Terry: I guess your final phrase holds a key! I’m not very impressed. I’m just not. And I think I live with me. And I have battles, all sorts of battles. But I don’t honestly find that’s one of them. I am not very impressed. And I also, when I first started, I did door-to-door evangelism for two years and I was very bad at it, and it was very lonely and it was gruelling. And I felt that God used that perhaps to show me my own total inadequacy. The end of those two years which were spent on a housing estate area – I mean it was torture. A lot of it was just very very hard. To get up in the morning, pray, and I was living in the home of people who were unsaved. Even if I go home, my parents were unsaved anyway! So there was no endorsement. And you go and knock doors and actually the Mormons were in town, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, it’s like ‘No. No’. And then you go back home and pray and then get up the next day you do it again. And so it was huge battle and I was aware of great weakness.

And I think, I don’t know, I’ve never been very impressed. I would go back and think ‘That was useless, I did it terribly’. And so I know that God’s been merciful. And I think also God has joined me to remarkable people. I’ve been so blessed by God over the years that extraordinarily gifted people have come alongside and we’ve done it together. So sometimes it’s possible to think ‘Terry Virgo did.’ I don’t feel that is how it’s worked really. I’ve met brilliant people and we’ve been joined in love. And people have done things and things have grown up organically. It’s not that Terry did it all. I happened to get my name, I guess, at the centre of the it all but it’s always been teamwork. There have been people without their contribution, this wouldn’t have happened. I’ve got a wonderful wife, I’ve been blessed with wonderful kids. And I think we do it together, don’t we? I mean, you’ve been around long enough. We do it together. It’s been a relational deal. I don’t think it’s ‘He went away, learned this and presented it’. I think we’ve learned together. And I’ve always known I need people. So you’ve mentioned Nigel Ring

Adrian: It was so lovely to see you dedicating your book to him. That was so wonderful. I know Wendy you’ve dedicated many of your books to.

Terry: Yeah, you know I felt to do that. I felt quite prompted to do that. You know, I always say this ‘I wouldn’t know how to cross the street without Nigel telling me.’ He’s just marvellous. And then I’ve had another Adrian – Adrian Willard. I mean just magnificent. And God has built around me extraordinarily gifted people. So I’ve benefitted hugely from that. So we’ve been a team. And when I moved to Brighton in ’79 to get involved with what was the ‘new church’ – Church of Christ the King. And we started the Bible weeks, I said to Nigel ‘Will you come with me, please?’ And he prayed about it for about 10 minutes, and he gave up his job, he and his wife Janita, moved home and moved about 3 streets from me and he’s been right there from the beginning. And so you know you just had great, great guys who from the beginning said ‘Yeah, I’m with you’. And it couldn’t have happened without that.

Adrian: I think the longevity of some of those relationships is so crucial. I was actually.. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. But I was quite surprised, at the prayer and fasting, you threw on me, with about a 2 minute notice, to talk about your book because you didn’t want to, which is understandable. And one of the things I said there, I asked people ‘I was at the first Downs Bible week, how many others were there?’ And I was expecting just a tiny smattering of hands, really, because it was a long time ago. But it was really interesting to see that there was quite a bunch of people there who’ve been there with you long term, in the broader sense, but also, like you say, some of those relationships like Nigel, it’s not always true. A lot of guys still lose people along the way because they fall out.

Terry: We have been so blessed. You are absolutely right. I go to, what you referred to, our prayer and fasting days – I remember when we first started – three times a year we gather with the Pastors to pray. I remember when it was about 20 men. Now it is about 700! It has been over 800 sometimes! And I look around the room and I think ‘Loads of people here I don’t know’. But there’s loads of people I’ve known for years and years and they’re all Christian name terms. And to be honest the wonderful privilege is I can go out to Guadalajara In Mexico and I can speak to Aturo and Heimi, I’ve been going for decades. I can go to India to Mumbai and I can speak to Samir and Jackie and I just know these friends have been with us for decades. And it’s true – we’ve got longevity, we’ve got relationship that’s right in the heart of what God has done.

Adrian: I think you once said, and it might have been at Stoneleigh, that for you, all of this, when you look out at New Frontiers and all that has been involved, has really been you and your friends trying to serve God together. Is that right? Did I remember that right?

Terry: I really feel it, and you’ve probably got a better memory than I have. I mean, we are friends together, and it would break my heart to lose a friend. So I think we’ve lost one or two on the way and it’s been painful. But to be honest, we’ve had massive loyalty and people moving together for years and years now it’s been a joy.

This is the first in a multi-part series of interview clips that I filmed with Terry Virgo when he was in London with us. You will enjoy, and for those without broadband, a transcript of the video will also be shared.

Edited Transcript:

Adrian: Hi I’m Adrian Warnock and I’m here with Terry Virgo and Tope Koleoso. It’s a pleasure to have you both here. Terry, I came under your ministry back in 1978 or something ridiculous like that, and I’ve known Tope since 1995. So I’ve known you both a long time and it’s wonderful to have you both in the same room.

Terry, you’ve been with us for ‘300’ and also today at Jubilee so I thought I would just ask both of you how that came about? How do you decide what to do? You must have a lot of calls on your time, how do you prioritize things and what you felt coming amongst us, really?

Terry: Thanks Adrian, it’s great to be here. I’ve enjoyed my weekend enormously. We work relationally. Most of the time we work with people we know. I know Tope well, I know what he’s doing and I’m delighted that he’s gathering leaders. I count it always a huge privilege to speak to leaders. I’m grateful that they are willing to spend time on a busy Saturday and take out time. So it was good, thrilling to be with them. I know you’ve already been having these meetings with some excellent speakers – John Piper, Jack Hayford, so it’s a privilege to be invited. I was glad to be here. I’ve enjoyed and I felt I was able to serve. I was happy to speak about the Spirit-filled church, which I have just written a book on. So it was great to be on that theme, which I know has stirred me and I feel strongly about that.

Then it was great to be with the church today. I’ve especially enjoyed the church – terrific family, multinational, very friendly and warm. It’s hard to move away because people are so responsive. So it’s been a wonderful weekend.

Adrian: When Jack Hayford was with us he said “You look out on Jubilee, you see the world.”

Terry: Yes.

Adrian: Tope, how’s it been for you as a Pastor of this church, having Terry here?

Tope: Terry is a father to me its been good to have him amongst us. The church by God’s grace has been growing pretty well, so it is always good that new people can come and get caught up in this. Having Terry here is just wonderful, it’s a joy. It really is a joy and we get lots of time together. As people travel around so much everybody’s in their world and when you have those moments together, it’s just great. Yesterday to just have him speak…and the talk, a lot of it was hung on this question – it was like God asking “What house will you build for me?” And just the way when he started, the way it came at me, it was like actually… it was like God asking this! And our tendency as leaders is to ask “what kind of church do I want?” Wrong question! What house does HE want? And then we begin to find out what are the components that He says these things must be there. And to have that spelt out – it was just a challenge actually.

Adrian: I’ve been around a long time and I’ve heard you talk a lot. But I think I’ve never heard a vision for the Church portrayed as clearly as it was in that first session yesterday. I obviously was going “Yes, yes, yes!” and in a sense it was stuff that I’ve heard before but that is encouraging – when someone comes in you think “Well, that is kind of what we are trying to build.” At the same time it was fresh, it was compelling. And I think since we relate obviously with others from elsewhere, and that’s a good thing, sometimes you can almost begin to back-peddle about your own values and think ‘well, this is perhaps not a gospel issue’ I mean ‘These guys are doing it differently but they’re going to Heaven’ and so we almost back away. But I felt for me personally, yesterday, just a renewed sense of ‘Hey! Actually, what we do, we don’t do just because it’s the way we’ve always done it or because it’s New Frontiers – it’s Bible stuff!’ And that was where I was coming from. How did that vision come about for you?

Terry: I guess over a period of time, to be perfectly honest. I think when I was introduced to an experience of the Holy Spirit, which revolutionized my Christianity it was like knocking over the first domino. In view of that, well, then that must be reviewed, and that must be reviewed. So it took me back to the Scriptures again to investigate. I thought ‘Why do we do that then, because the Scripture says this?’ So yesterday we looked at Acts 13, at the Antioch church, which surely must be some kind of a model. And Stephen as he is preaching, comes up with that statement in his long apology and says “Solomon says, ‘What kind of house will you build for me?’” And then you find that the people associated with Stephen flee through persecution, they come to Antioch and they build a house and you get a revelation there in Acts 13 what that house was like. And so we’re asked what were the ingredients? And so we looked at those various ingredients of the prophetic, the teaching role, the involvement of Barnabas, the multinational, and the mission. There’s so many aspects just in a few verses, really.

So over the years, these values have been more and more impressed on us and we’ve started, what I would call really, a new wine skin to embrace the fresh touch of God’s presence with us, but loving the truths that we’ve always believed.

Adrian: Yes, it’s a funny thing isn’t it? Sometimes people say ‘hang on a minute, you talk about Biblical truth!’ You’ve been reformed since the 70’s, 60’s and beyond, it isn’t a new thing being a reformed Charismatic, of course it isn’t. And there’s a lot of people that would share that sort of love of the Scriptures, and yet my perception has always been that some people don’t really want to look at what the Bible says the church should be like. They just say ‘We believe the Bible, we love the Gospel, we love the doctrines’ and yet they kind of leave the church as it was, the way they inherited it. Do you think that’s a fair assessment? You’re friends with some of these guys aren’t you?

Terry: Yes, I do. I have great friends right across the body of Christ. I think that great men, in all kinds of worlds, will preach for personal obedience. And preach stunning sermons about ‘Let’s obey God’ but the application is so often just to the individual. You know… ‘are you obeying God in the workplace, in your home?’ etc. I think we also need to obey God corporately about how we do church. And I think often that application is left aside. So I feel that no, we need corporate obedience about how you do church. And so I feel that results in reformation of church. So it’s not just charismatic life – it’s what does the New Testament church look like? And I think it is very relevant to our generation that has come out of, kind of, Christendom background. We’re more like living in a day like Pauls day where people have all kinds of gods. They don’t have Christian background. So we need to be relevant, we need to be vibrant to touch our generation with the gospel and a church life that is impacting. It’s not good endorsing simply ‘Oh we’ve always done it this way.’ Because this generation is not interested in ‘how you always did it’. They need to hear a gospel that is relevant to them today in a setting that they can identify with and the presence of God is fundamental to that.

This is the second part of a set of notes on Terry Virgo’s first session at 300 Leaders.  I have previously shared the video and downloads for the whole talk.

3. There was Barnabus. He had been sent. The Apostles were staying in Jerusalem. People have written about whether that was right or wrong. But they heard about another church coming to birth. Barnabas was sent as an apostolic delegate. He was known by the Apostles, and he represented them. It was rather like Timothy later on. Receive him, like you would receive me.

So this church is touched by apostolic ministry. It is in touch with apostolic revelation and gifting. There is a big debate about whether apostles continue today. Some say there were 12. There were several catagories: Hebrews 3 speaks of Jesus the Apostle. He was the one and only. He was sent with authority which is the root of the meaning. In John’s gospel Jesus keeps saying he was sent. Then there are the 12 who Jesus chose. They are unique. A band of apostles that the church is built on. But there are other apostles. Paul, James, Barnabus, (Acts 14:14 doesnt distinguish between Barnabus and Saul). In Acts 13 they were prophets and teachers, now they are apostles. They were sent by God. Some have argued that Paul should have been one of the 12 but Paul doesn’t say that.

Ephesians 4 says Jesus ascended and gave. From heaven. Barnabus gets called. We don’t know for sure that Barnabus ever saw Jesus after the resurrection. Apostles don’t just write epistles so we don’t need them any more. Only a handful of them wrote Scriptures. Some who weren’t apostles wrote Scripture eg Luke. Apostles were not Bible writers only.

There is a job that apostles do. It is to do with foundations. Paul is a wise master builder (architect). He laid a foundation in a local church. It is not just that philosophically we are all built on a foundation. Rather, each local church has a time when that foundation was laid. The universal church was built on the foundation of the initial apostles. The local church is also built on the foundation laid by the apostles. Sometimes a church came to birth like this one in Antioch, getting before the apostles. The apostles then quickly send either an apostle or a delegate of an apostle to make sure the church is being built correctly.

We are looking for a rainbow of ministries as seen in Ephesians 4. Lloyd-Jones believed that only Pastors and Teachers continued and that evangelists had ceased. Some people will allow for evangelists to continue, or perhaps prophets. Some will refer to people who have died as an apostle or a prophet. I believe God has given a blueprint for the church, why should we reinvent another one. We have tried democracy, we have tried ecclesiastical heirachy, why not use the Bible model we see in Ephesians 4?

4. The list of names continues. Barnabaus was a Cypriot, Simeon was a black African, Lucius is also black, Manian was brought up with Herod. He was raised with the kings son. Like he went to school with Harry or William! He mingled with some pretty high people. And Saul who is a Hebrew of Hebrews. A pretty mixed leadership team. What a strange group. What is this? It is the Antioch church getting away from Jerusalem into a gentile world and saying “What kind of house will you build?”

It is a house that is so different than what had come before. There is continuity: we are Abraham’s children. We feel a sense of unity. But we are something fresh and new. God is creating one new man out of Jew and gentile. It is energised by the Holy Sprit. Very different in education, social background. What gives them unity? It is because they are first called Christians there. What do they have in common? It is Jesus. Not just a definition of doctrine, or an agreement of creeds.

When Peter goes to Cornelius and the pagan Roman starts to speak in tongues, the fire had lept across the chasm. It is only that experience of the Spirit that joined them together. The unity of the Spirit is not just a catchphrase. He has got the same as us. The Spirit-filled church is a phenomenon. It is different to what was before. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek. We are allowed to eat Pork and still get to heaven! The restrictions are lifted. There is liberty. We are in Israel’s messiah. We are one. Jesus let women listen to his teaching which was outrageous. Neither male nor female, neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free. The early church would have had many slaves in it. Paul tells his friend to receive his runaway slave back as his brother. The twelve were all Jews, but he had a zealot who’s goal was to kill Romans, and a tax collector who collaborated with them to raise money. They sold their souls and were hated. What did they have in common? Only that they loved Jesus. He is the cornerstone where we find one another. The church is a phenomenal manifestation to the world of the way to break through racial hatred, sexual discrimination, social class war.

5. They were worshipping the Lord. Leaders together. Elders come together with a long agenda. Here is a leadership that said “lets worship.” God does stuff. They are ministering to the Lord. Bathed in worship. Not a business meeting. We are besotted with God. Lets raise churches that are besotted with God. We must model prayer and worship as leadership teams to our churches.

6. The Spirit said set apart. A house which is pre-occupied with world mission. A house that doesn’t think it strange that two of its key leaders go off to do something else. It is a global commission. Jesus said go and make disciples. The disciples went and planted churches. That is how people are discipled. A church is a group of disciples. We are called to world mission. Sometimes leaders will go and start again. Church is not a static thing. We are joined in mission. It is not that someone in our ranks goes to a mission society. The Bible doesn’t say they went and set up mission centres. They went to plant churches. Roland Allen urged us to found churches. His book was a radical call that came out more than a hundred years ago. We need churches that are in partnership with each other. Churches that extend God’s mission together. Fellowship is not a religious word, it is partnership in a shared purpose and action.

What kind of house will you build for him? The church at Antioch is a wonderful model. Came away from the Jerusalem base to start over again. Prophets were there, but tested by the Word, Apostolic involvement, great diversity. God’s church is a breathtaking phenomenon. They were worshippers, they fasted and prayed. They were involved in world mission. They saw the church as God’s agent in making Jesus famous throughout the world.

We do not want to just talk about the Spirit-filled church, we cry to God to multiply many of them.

Now that Rob Bell’s controversial book Love Wins is on sale on both sides of the Atlantic and many other comments have been made, I am feeling like I cannot avoid engaging in the controversy, or at least should read some more material to understand it better. I did not seek out such involvement, as you can see from my post which ironically listed Five Reasons I hadn’t previously blogged about Rob Bell. Since then I have posted a couple of highly relevant articles without directly addressing Bell’s work.  These are:

• Why a belief in hell is so practically important (John Piper)
• The folly of imagining hell is not real and sin is not deadly (Charles Spurgeon)
• Mark Driscoll’s sermon on hell taken from the Rich Man and Lazarus.
• Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the folly of thinking God is only love.

I have now found a very helpful round up post on Gary David Stratton’s blog that lists some of the major posts on each side of this vociferous debate. He says that over 400,000 responses are now available online, so reading every post is clearly not an option! I have been following some of the posts he lists, and have finally succumbed and am in the process of reading the book. If you have been following things more closely, and there are critical posts you think I should read that are not on Stratton’s list, please let me know. There is one additional page that I have found to be interesting, a transcript of an interview by Lisa Miller with Rob Bell.

Finally, also in Stratton’s blog is a suggestion that we should use the Apostle Paul’s blogging checklist. I have adapted this somewhat from his version, which he took from 1 Corinthians 13.  I commend this list as we consider blogging about this issue or others. For not every blog post on either side of this debate has kept within these wise boundaries. So, before you hit send, grade yourself on this list:

Is this blog post I am about to publish

1. Demonstrating patience towards those who disagree with me?
2. Kind in its tone and content? Would my “enemies” agree?
3. Free from envy in it’s motivation? Rather than secretly wishing I was as popular as the person I am condemning?
4. Full of humility and not boasting? Rather than implying I have all the answers and the monopoly on the truth?
5. Wanting others to do well and highlighting good comments elsewhere rather than arrogantly seeking more hits for my blog?
6. Polite and not rude?
7. Not insisting on my own way? Have I acknowledged that there is a chance, however small, that I might be wrong about this?
8. Calm and not irritable?
9. Avoiding even the hint of sounding resentful?
10. Rejoicing with the truth, rather than taking joy from pointing out others error? Have I struck back at those who have been hurtful to me or brushed over and endured any perceived wrongs from them, have I thought the best of others?

If you cannot honestly answer yes to all of these bold questions, it is time to save the draft, pray, go and make yourself a cup of tea, and come back to re-edit the post later. There is a time for boldly speaking the truth.  But we must always do so in love. The above checklist is demanding.  It requires careful examination of our hearts.  We will all no doubt fail at times to follow it fully.  I know I have.

Fortunately there is grace for us, as well as opportunities for public repentance when needed!  I believe that none of us can have the insight into our own sinful hearts to fully achieve such high standards on our own. I do thank God that I have people who watch over both my soul and this blog and are not afraid to point out when they feel I have erred.  I trust that you also have those who can help you to follow Jesus online.  May God help me, and each of you to blog as Christ would want us to, and to treat others online as we would want to be treated.  Those of us that love grace must be sure to demonstrate it to others.

Today’s video with Terry Virgo moves onto the fifth of seventeen values that have shaped his ministry for decades. These values are expressed as the kind of church he aims to plant:

“A church where God’s presence is prized and where God is enthusiastically worshipped with genuine freedom for men and women to worship publicly in the Holy Spirit, to use spiritual gifts and to participate in ‘body ministry’ ”

Here are some extracts from the video, followed by the video itself:

“Church is people, they are friends, they are family. They can enjoy being together in a relaxed way. . .We are enjoying sonship, access, acceptance, so we can be relaxed. . . We are God’s family. . . We want to enjoy liberty. . we have been set free. . .We are enjoying a liberty as a result of what God has done . . . When David danced before the Lord it was after God had judged men for touching the Ark . . . Dancing is not careless, irreverent. David knew God and danced with all his might. . . To be happy in the presence of God is perfectly appropriate. Clapping, celebrating, shouting, these are all biblical concepts . . . Reverence doesn’t stop us celebrating before him”

I encourage you to consider joining us at the next 300 Leaders conference where Terry Virgo will be the speaker.

We actually do have a few more places available for THIS SATURDAY’s 300 conference. Coming to us is Jack Hayford who is well known internationally for the level of anointing or “unction” that he has spent decades living in the good of (see my previous post on why we are excited that he is coming).

If you intend to come with an open heart, willing to receive from God, and to learn from a seasoned leader, I encourage you to clear your diary and snap up one of the few remaining tickets and come. Those who welcome a prophet can expect a prophets reward, the Bible tells us.

God changed the whole world through 120 men who were gathered in the Upper Room when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. God could quite literally change our whole nation through 300 men and women gathering eager to receive fresh anointing, fresh gifting, and fresh commissioning from the same Holy Spirit. Are you a pastor who is tired and weary and in need of a fresh touch from Jesus? Are you aspiring to some form of church leadership in the future? Are you desperate enough for more of God to go to a pentecostal and say, “I want what you’ve got”? If so then come this weekend, moments like these can often change the course of a person’s life. Perhaps this article is God’s gentle prompting for someone who will as a result decide to come and receive an impartation that will effect thousands of others.

My life is full of surprises and unusual experiences. One such experience recently was when I was asked to voice over a trailer for the same conference. Another first for me, but I thought I would share it here and let you be the judge of whether I have a possible future career as a presenter or shouldn’t give up the day job! Here is the video:

I am sometimes just a little embarrassed these days about the so-called “Warnie Awards.” They are something of a reminder of the good old days of Christian blogging, when almost all of us knew each other, especially the ones that were not political bloggers. Sometimes back then the online blogging community felt more connected. There were certainly a lot more links and interactions with each others posts flying around. It was of course much smaller, and basically much friendlier. With my tongue-in-cheek I started something called “The Warnies.” Basically the idea was to recognize blogging excellence in others and to continue my mission to point out great resources to my readers. Sometimes we really rose to the fun behind the idea and people even posted mock acceptance speeches. These days the Warnies largely live on as a gadget in my sidebar that automatically promotes links to individual posts on the sites of previous winners. It is very rare for me to award a new Warnie, not least because I don’t want to swamp you. I find that I look at it myself most days to check up on what my favorite bloggers are saying. But from today a new blog has the award and will be appearing in the side bar: GlocalNet.

In the past week I have had the privilege of meeting Bob Roberts who is an extraordinary man. He is the pastor of a Texas mega-church which has several daughter churches. But that is not the most remarkable thing about him. Through a series of God-ordained co-incidences and the guiding of the Spirit, Bob has found himself moving in worlds he never imagined he would. He has some incredible friends, and has made a remarkable impact as he has laid aside ingrained fears and prejudices to work to demonstrate the love of God to people that Texans are really not “meant” to get along with! But more remarkable even than that is Bob the person. I have not spent very long with him, but I instantly recognized him as a brother. He is humble, passionate, and clearly loves the Lord, loves Christians of different backgrounds, and loves the varied people of this world who do not yet know Jesus. Bob is now a new friend of mine, and I am very sure that you will find his blog posts edifying and at times challenging to you. I have already started reading one of his books, and I am sure that they are going to also prove very helpful.

I plan on blogging about some of the tech tools that can help churches. To begin, I thought I would share this video from The City which is an interview with two pastors on how tech has helped them. It is a long flowing conversation, and should give you a good idea of how things like The City can help.

I wasn’t planing on blogging a report on this weeks prayer and fasting. These events are semi-closed. They are family affairs. Visitors are allowed, but they are allowed in much the same way that I might invite a new friend to share a family meal with us. I wouldn’t want the details of my children’s conversation blogged afterwards! So I will not report on the event as such, however, it is reverberating around my mind. I just wanted to point out a couple of things that stood out for me.

The first thing I want to highlight was, a very positive feeling about our future together. We were led to pray by a team of men, and it was a great delight to see that whole team, young and old, together leading us. So often one or other of them are traveling abroad at these times, its the first time for a while I remember them all being in the room. They were united in a desire to lead us into seeking God for more of his gracious activity among us. We are not a movement that is built on the foundation of clever leaders with brilliant strategies. We are led by men who long for more of God’s consciously experienced presence to be among us. We need the filling of the Spirit. Charismatics do not simply look back to some second experience and smugly assume we “got it all” then. That is no better than someone who claimed they “got it all” at conversion! The truth is NONE of us “have it all” We all need to obey Paul’s command to “go on being filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:18, literal translation). These couple of days were an opportunity for us to pray for ourselves, our churches and our movement that it would go on being the case that we are a spirit-filled people.

We were also wonderfully challenged by Bob Roberts to be a missional people. What an inspirational preacher and example that man is!

Terry Virgo shared on the second day how he is planning to answer a God-given call to uproot himself at the age of 70. He always assumed that Brighton would be his last assignment. I am thrilled that he will be coming to London to help build a robust church in Kingston. I am inspired that he is refusing to simply quietly retire and withdraw from the public stage. God has not finished with Terry Virgo yet! I make no apology for the regularity with which I quote him here. Quite frankly if you wanted to stop reading this blog and just read his, I would be happy! He is not just a lot older than me, he is a lot wiser, a lot more anointed, and has been given much revelation. He truly is a gift to the whole Church in the mold of Ephesians 4. I implore you to benefit from what God has given him to give to us. You might not agree with everything you read or listen to, but I promise you will be inspired, and you will learn something. For sure, if you like this blog, you will LOVE learning from Terry.

If, like me, you were not able to be there on the second day of prayer and fasting to hear Terry describe the process of how he and Wendy heard from God about moving on to the next challenge, he has posted it on his blog. Go read it right away in part one and part two.

The above video comes from the recent 300 leaders Conference. It is on a subject close to my heart: diversity. Many argue that churches will only grow if they focus on attracting one demographic of person. We at Jubilee have given our lives to trying, by God’s grace, to prove that statement wrong. It hasn’t all been easy, and this video shares some of the lessons we have learned over the years.

The above video features both David Pask and Tope Koleoso. David provides day-to-day spiritual leadership to Jubilee Church, and Tope is the lead pastor, responsible for vision and preaching. As regular readers will know, I have been part of this church since 1995, and following 10 years of hard work and foundation forming we had around 100 people. Then, God pressed the fast forward button to the extent that at our Easter 2010 service we gathered almost 1000. We have been blessed, and are very grateful to God. We are still learning, but at the autumn 300, Tope and David were eager to share something of what we have seen over these years.

In the most recent 300 leaders conference, they shared this first session. Tope talked about Godward aspects of leadership. David then went on to explain strategic and practical aspects of leadership in the context of the growth that we have experienced at Jubilee. He spoke of four phases we have gone through – the tough review, the gathering phase, the establishing phase, and finally, beyond ourselves.

If you enjoy this video, you will enjoy watching other 300 leaders conference videos or booking in to attend the next one which is with Jack Hayford.

I am continuing to enjoy the installments of Terry’s video series.  This segment talks about the various ways in which we can find ourselves drifting away from absolute Biblical truth.  I do encourage you to watch all these videos.  Here are some extracts from today’s video:

“In an endeavor to be relevant . . . not just quaint and supposedly out of date…it is possible to move away from the unchanging truth. It is important to hold to Scriptures relevance…we have to work hard to translate Bible stories into the present world. Or it could be in an endeavor to give more time to worship, enjoying the presence of God, charismatic experience, you think we don’t have time for the preaching. We have always worked hard at being Spirit and Word. The experience of the Spirits presence, but also the preaching of truth. Without this we would be vulnerable to drift. . . You can find yourself being pushed away from biblical norms into reflecting the culture, being more acceptable to the man on the street, more plausible, therefore you leave some of the more difficult parts of Scripture . . . The Bible is an objective, authentic authority, it is not really for us to make choices about our preferences. . . We have tried hard to submit ourselves to what the Bible says. . . What men and women need is to know what God thinks and what God says, and the Bible perfectly expresses that for us”

In this part of the sermon, I was focused on the third aspect of what happened when Jesus’ glory was revealed. There was

…. A POWER

With the command of Jesus going forth there comes a power.

As they obeyed the wine came.  Power from God

To some of us as we hear  ”stop sinning” the power of the gospel is here and you will find within yourself the power to stop. Paul says it “Let him who steals, steal no more” STOP IT. Do what he says. Some of you say but I cant stop. I would ask you, are you doing it now? No? You aren’t committing that sin in this room? Then you CAN stop, and in Jesus name I say, receive the power of God, receive the liberating glory of God and just STOP! Go on stopping! Just don’t do it for the rest of today. Then don’t do it for the rest of tomorrow!

What can we learn?

We must do what we can do and Trust in Jesus to do the rest. You can fill the pot with water but you cant make wine. You can tell the gospel to someone but you cant make them a christian. You can lay hands on the sick and pray but you cant heal them.

And if you are not a Christian today, dare I say it you can’t actually make yourself one. But you can keep coming back to hear God’s word. You can pray “God show yourself real to me” You can even pray “show me if this is true” and then suddenly within your heart, and for some of you it is happening right now you will find yourself thinking “ITs real”

I remember guy who came to a debate on the resurrection I ran at school, I was talking about why Christians believe JEsus raised from the dead. It felt like I was getting nowhere as the non christians there had all kinds of arguments, which I answered as best I could but the christians just sat there silently watching! This guy at the back was not a christian but found himself thinking “thats strange, I find myself agreeing with him, but surely I should be agreeing with the others” he only had a couple of months before God got him!
The truth is many people today are wondering why they churches are not growing, why their friends are not becoming Christians. We can go on all kinds of courses to learn how to be good at putting water into pots. It has it’s place. But we need the WINE!

2 Corinthians 4:7 Paul describes himself as a jar of clay with glory inside: “We have this treasure [ Which he earlier says is the gospel of the glory of Christ] in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”

THE WONDERFUIL TRUTH IS THAT Glory is both hidden and revealed in us!

We see in this miracle what kind of glory Jesus has: not terribly religious! What would organised religion have made of a man of God who’s first miracle was making wine? What would they think today?

“Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3

Stop. Whatever you are doing right now, just stop. I know you are probably busy but you can spare five minutes can’t you?  Ask God the following question “am I doing anything out of rivalry or concept? Please show me.”

What about that promotion you applied for at work?  Are you thinking of the good of the company? Do you honestly feel you can contribute at that level? Or are you seeking to advance your career selfishly, oblivious to the fact you may be being promoted to your level of incompetency? Have you considered the effects on your family if, by taking on a role not made for you, you are fired in a few months? How would you feel if someone better than you got the job instead?

What about that ministry at church? Notice I didnt call it YOUR ministry. It’s not. Are you serving in the way you are because your gifting meets like a glove the need of the people? Or are you serving because you somehow managed to squeeze yourself like a square peg into a round hole?  How would you feel if someone else was found who could better do your role? Would you feel insecure and angry or would you be confident that there must be a more suitable role that you can serve in?

Are you on sone kind of “Christian leadership ladder” in your imagination? Do you hope for a steady rise to the so called top.  Or are you perhaps longing for a meteoric climb? Are you simply serving  time at the moment hoping to build your credentials for a future launch to run your own church? Do you secretly despise the leader you currently pretend to follow? Are you using him so one day you can strike out on your own?

Are you sure that your desire to church plant has been put there by God? Do you think you have all the answers or are you humbly seeking Gods help? Were you surprised when someone suggested it was time you lead? That could be good if it is a sign of humility. But it could be bad if it means that God has never stirred your heart with a godly ambition. Are you actually following the call of man or the call of God?

And Pastor, what of the growth of the church God has entrusted to your care? Are you constantly comparing yourself to others? Do you feel envious of a church growing faster or bigger? Or do you feel superior to one growing slower? Why do you want the church to grow? Is it so that you will look good or is it so God will be glorified by souls coming to know him and worship him as Lord?

It is only as we spend time on our knees being examined by God that we can know the true answers to these questions. Truth be told, all of us have mixed motives at best. Many of us start out as young guns, full of a cocksure confidence that often goes with youth. Those challenging circumstances you face may be Gods way of taking the wind out of your sails. God knows I needed him to do that for me. Has he broken you in as a man might a wild horse?

The irony is, when God truly humbles a man, taking away that sense he can conquer the world with no one helping him, it is then that the man is fit for service. Do you feel weak? Then God can make you strong! Do you exclaim like Paul “who I worthy for such a task?” Then God can qualify you! Do you lack wisdom? God will give it to you. Do you feel alone? God will give you those to serve alongside or under who he has specifically designed to cover your inadequacy. Not everyone is built to plant a church as the top of some pyramid. Far more are called to serve a leader in an existing church. Or, if indeed called and equipped by God to start a new work, to do so under the direction and support of another wiser leader.

If these words have hit a raw nerve in you, they are not intended to make you give up. Though, if you are doing something God never designed you for, a change of direction may indeed be the best thing, as quickly as possible. But perhaps, as God convicts you of independence, you may be able to still do the role you have, but with a different attitude. Perhaps you can find a godly leader who can shepherd your soul. Perhaps you can find a vision bigger than your own to gladly support. Perhaps God will take a humbled, almost broken, you and use you as a tool in his hands for the advance of his kingdom and his glory.

Will you join me in praying “God, test my heart. Weigh my motives. Purge me of any wrong desires for my glory. You know my heart. You know that even tho my ugly pride rears it’s head from time to time, I have determined to follow you and seek your glory. Make me a tool in your hands. May I bring honour to your name. May I serve you with true humility. And as you advance others may I rejoice that the cause is strengthened. Thank you for dying even for this most ugly of my sins. Thank you for your resurrection power that is given to me that I might be free! Help me to find my identity in you and to cease striving. “