http://www.fastcoexist.com/1678927/a-map-of-where-all-7-billion-humans-are-cramming-together
Anthony Delaney at Ivy Manchester
Knowing, Growing, Going
Filed under Manchester …
Andy Hawthorne: Called to Impact!
Andy Hawthorne
When you became a Christian you weren’t called to come to church but to BE the church.
Success is not a big building for us to gather in, but when we impact the world. The real action is on the pitch, but the 15 minute break with the manager is important
Ephesians 2:10
We
- not me. Corporate promises! Not solo flight Christianity.
Are God’s masterpiece
We wow God!! He smiles over you
Created in Christ
To do good works
Prepared in advance for us to do
If I don’t do mine, the world misses out. Go to the grave having done them,
This verse doesn’t sit alone. We need its context.
It starts with the worst news ever. Very bad news.
As for you, you were dead, following the devil, an object of wrath!
That’s harsh. But without Christ, we are sinners. Dead men walking. All of us, the best of us. Thoughts, attitudes, and actions. Dark hearts. Messing the world up: and God is angry about that. Everything that spoils the world. Righteous anger. You think God doesn’t get angry at what makes us angry? When you read about Vincent Tabak, or human trafficking etc.
But
Because of his great love… Jesus!! Grace!! Good news!! Made alive!! The punishment taken for us! I’m glad I’m a Christian! Get passionate about that
Because passionate people change the world.
Darkness came on the earth for three hours as he took the fall. Our fall
Our substitute
The divine But in your life.
Not saved by good works
But by that good work
For good works!
If you don’t want to impact the world for good, you’re not really a Christian! You have to work out what those works are, you’ve been appointed for some good works.
The gospel works!
You are called to something! Discover it.
1) invest in relationships
And
2) invite people to church, to Alpha etc
Invest and invite = Impact!!
That’s how the early church grew exponentially.
Debra Green – Mountains or Fountains
My notes from this, the first talk in our 40 Days of Ivy DNA Series: RELEVANT.
People are surprised when we as a church are normal rather than ‘religious’
Text – John 4- the samaritan woman at the well.
1) Jesus asked – ‘Will you give me a drink?’ This is a very controversial conversation for him to have at all. He’s showing us the type of Saviour he is. He’s speaking to her in her language, about her every day life and needs. Connects with the familiar.
If we want to be relevant we need to offer and speak into what people need.
Cf Breathe City Church in Stoke- their ‘When‘ ministry: giving clothes to the poor in the city. Thousands of clothing packages given.
When we meet the felt needs of people, we’ll be relevant. We’re not relevant because the worship is great or the preaching is good: people outside of church are not even asking about that anyway!
But if we help people and connect in people in prison, in debt, when we are marked by hospitality, or playing football like our new team IVY COSMOS – it’s great fun AND an opportunity for a conversation. We don’t have to fall into the sacred/secular divide mentality.
Is there someone you can have a chat with over the water?
2) Mountain or Fountain?
The Samaritans and Jews had a lot of theological, intellectual, religious debate about worship places.
The subject isn’t a bad one. There’s a lot in the Bible about mountains – but this is a religious debate that’s really a red herring / smokescreen to get away from the real issue of life: it’s not WHERE you worship, but WHO.
She’s thinking to impress him with her religious knowledge and grasp on current affairs and debate -
But Jesus says, ‘let’s not debate Mountains – I want to talk about Fountains!’
Jesus will change the question.
It’s not about the mountain of religion
It’s about the fountain of relationship.
Her heart was getting filled in all the wrong ways.
It’s not about discussing imponderables till 3am – after that question, along comes another…
come to the fountain!
The churches that are growing are those that are not stuck in religion, and my clever arguments are not going to win people over to Christ. It’s more about making Jesus accessible.
The harvest is plentiful!
Where?
Where people are. Go where people are.
Because people are dissatisfied and needing a fountain – of living water.
Jon Hancock – @jonhancock_tv at Ivy MCR – Micaiah 1 Kings 22
Here are my notes on Jon’s talk tonight, Ivy MCR Grow Groups are welcome to use them for your meetings too.
Jon Hancock is a BBC TV producer who has been at Ivy about a year, the family moved up with the Beeb move to Media City etc.
Jon talked about our journey as a church recently and the symbolism of that:
Meeting at Gorton Monastery, reclaiming that place.
Then the Trafford Centre where so many ‘worship’ every day.
NOW we’re off to the Vue Cinema near Media City: We’re moving all over the city worshipping Jesus in these strategic and symbolic places!
Please pray for this next move!! Can you provide lifts etc – contact the office please.
Study: 1 Kings 22
Micaiah
Looking at it from a TV producer point of view – this is a very interesting story…
There’s a ‘OH NO!” – Fist in mouth – ‘I can’t believe he did that’ moment in this story – look out for it.
Characters:
King Jehosophat – at heart, one of the good guys. Wanted to restore the nation back to God, but a bit weak willed
King Ahab (booo!!!). Loved to go to war a bit too much. married to Jezebel, a very bad sort.
Micaiah – this is the only time we hear of him in scripture.
1 For three years there was no war between Aram and Israel. 2 But in the third year Jehoshaphat king of Judah went down to see the king of Israel. 3 The king of Israel had said to his officials, “Don’t you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us and yet we are doing nothing to retake it from the king of Aram?”
4 So he asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth Gilead?”
Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” 5 But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “First seek the counsel of the LORD.”
Now Ahab’s desire may or may have been the right thing, but it could have just been a rush of blood. Jehosophat wants to consult God.
Ahab then called in a non – prophet organisation (Rentaprophet) who’d say what he wanted to hear.
6 So the king of Israel brought together the prophets—about four hundred men—and asked them, “Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?”
“Go,” they answered, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.”
7 But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no longer a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?”
What does this remind you of?! A spoilt brat of a monarch, with people sucking up all around, like Queenie on Black Adder. Jon showed a fabulous clip.
8 The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.”
“The king should not say such a thing,” Jehoshaphat replied.
9 So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.”
10 Dressed in their royal robes, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them. 11 Now Zedekiah son of Kenaanah had made iron horns and he declared, “This is what the LORD says: ‘With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.’”
12 All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. “Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious,” they said, “for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand.”
13 The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, the other prophets without exception are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably.”
14 But Micaiah said, “As surely as the LORD lives, I can tell him only what the LORD tells me.”
15 When he arrived, the king asked him, “Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or not?”
“Attack and be victorious,” he answered, “for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand.” (? Was he being sarcastic?)
16 The king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?”
17 Then Micaiah answered, “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the LORD said, ‘These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.’”
18 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?”
19 Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. 20 And the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’
“One suggested this, and another that. 21 Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, ‘I will entice him.’
22 “‘By what means?’ the LORD asked.
“‘I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said.
“‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the LORD. ‘Go and do it.’
23 “So now the LORD has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you.”
That by the way, was the ‘fist in mouth – I can’t believe he said that’ moment!
24 Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah went up and slapped Micaiah in the face. “Which way did the spirit from the LORD go when he went from me to speak to you?” he asked.
25 Micaiah replied, “You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inner room.”
26 The king of Israel then ordered, “Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon the ruler of the city and to Joash the king’s son 27 and say, ‘This is what the king says: Put this fellow in prison and give him nothing but bread and water until I return safely.’”
In other words, ‘Stuff you – I’m not bothered – I’ll do it anyway.’
Question: Are you aware of shaking off what God has said in the past – how has that worked out?
28 Micaiah declared, “If you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me.” Then he added, “Mark my words, all you people!”
29 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead. 30 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will enter the battle in disguise, but you wear your royal robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.
(Gutsy! Great plan! But it didn’t work out how he thought)
31 Now the king of Aram had ordered his thirty-two chariot commanders, “Do not fight with anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel.” 32 When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, “Surely this is the king of Israel.” So they turned to attack him, but when Jehoshaphat cried out, 33 the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel and stopped pursuing him.
34 But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armor. The king told his chariot driver, “Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I’ve been wounded.” 35 All day long the battle raged, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans. The blood from his wound ran onto the floor of the chariot, and that evening he died. 36 As the sun was setting, a cry spread through the army: “Every man to his town. Every man to his land!”
37 So the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried him there. 38 They washed the chariot at a pool in Samaria (where the prostitutes bathed), and the dogs licked up his blood, as the word of the LORD had declared.
What can we take away from this amazing story: questions to ponder and discuss:
- Do we consult God – at all? Enough?
- Do we ask the right people?
- Do we just follow the crowd like the RentaProphets?
If you have something to say – even if you’re right, there’s a way to say it and a way not to – is Micaiah somewhat too sarcastic and cutting?
Do you have to give it/ say it? Had this prophet been so negative in the past he could no longer deliver the word of the Lord because it’s not just the words but the heart – ‘grace AND truth.’
Is it your place?
Do we sit on it long enough to digest it or just spit it out without chewing it over?
Two major themes:
CONSEQUENCES & REPUTATION.
Re the Riots that have been going on – how many of those involved were only thinking of the ‘now’ moment – and not aware that there are consequences. Every decision has consequences.
There were consequences for Ahab’s choices throughout his life, despite MANY warnings. He closed his mind and heart.
There were consequences for Micaiah. Maybe he spent the rest of his life in prison!
There are consequences for those caught – in terms of reputation.
Ahab had a reputation as a tough king.
Micaiah had a rep as one who’d speak the truth, even when the truth hurt. What do you want a reputation for?
We are writing a story.
You are writing the story of your life.
You are the co-author with God of that story.
What are you writing?
Quote: ‘You can’t turn back the clock, but you can wind it up again.’
You have more chapters to write! You have not reached the end of your story!
‘Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped.’ (African proverb).
Why I believe – Part 1.
What brought me to become a Christ follower was a truth encounter.
I didn’t find Jesus’ face in my toast one morning or anything like that -
My lovely Christian friends Mr and Mrs Kitcatt may like this picture
I was a police officer – used to examining evidence and coming to conclusions as a result of that investigation. I knew how to look at evidence. And I also knew how to face facts. If the implication of the evidence was that Jesus is who he claimed to be – the one and only Son of God, then that changes EVERYTHING.
If that really were true, then I would have to make a choice – to follow him; or try to forget him.
I’d been on the trail of happiness, meaning and purpose – searching in various areas and come up empty. I’d tried my best to live a good life (by my standards anyway), but had a trail of broken promises and resolutions to show for it. In my life I’d swung at times from believing in Jesus like I had done Santa as child, to ditching him along with church. Eventually after a wander through some new age and comparative religions I heard the Marxist phrase about religion being ‘the opiate of the people,’ which made me sound clever in the pub and came to regard Jesus as a mythical figure, or if he did ever exist he was either a irrelevant prophet or a religious nutcase out to stop people from having fun.
Then, in pursuit of a particular girl, I ended up at a church event that was fun, with a speaker who was interesting and passionate, met a group of people who had a peace I couldn’t understand and a joy – despite living in the same world I did – I knew I hadn’t found elsewhere; and they said it was all wrapped up in knowing this Jesus.
I figured I’d been wrong about church, wrong about (some) Christian ministers, wrong about Christian music and drama – maybe I’d been wrong about Christ? That was enough to get me looking. .
Over a period of time, most importantly, I started to look at what the witnesses had to say. That’s the policeman’s first job.
I interrogated 4 guys, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They wrote four accounts that have survived pretty much as written all these centuries. These guys claimed to have known this Jesus. I checked out their credentials and saw that what we call the gospels rank as some of the best attested historical documents in existence. Written within thirty of forty years of Jesus’ death and the resurrection which they all reported. Like all good witness statements they’re told from different perspectives of the eye witnesses, but the events and central figure they describe are clearly the same. They haven’t been embroidered or materially changed since they were first written down. I went to the John Rylands library in Manchester city centre to actually see one of the most ancient part manuscripts, from the gospel of John, dated around 125AD!
I found that it wasn’t just the gospel writers who focused on Jesus. Aristocratic Romans wrote about this peasant in backwater Jerusalem. Pliny wrote letters to the Emperor Trajan saying how much trouble he was having getting these people to worship the Emperor. He had tried various means to force them and he asked about their religion. ‘They meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath…not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust…I judged it all the more necessary to find out what the truth was by torturing two female slaves who were called deaconesses. But I discovered nothing else but depraved, excessive superstition.’ He went on to say that those who renounced faith in Christ would be set free, but those who did, he felt, were not really Christians anyway.
The Governor of Turkey at the time, Tacitus, wrote about this new religion: “the name Christian comes to them from Christus, who was executed in the reign of Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate…”
He was against this new cult, remember!
How fast did this religion grow and spread across the Empire? Jesus was crucified in AD 33, the city of Pompeii near Naples was destroyed by volcano 46 years later, Christian wall paintings, mosaics and inscriptions are there….together with a chapel!
Jewish writers didn’t want to give much mention of Jesus because they saw it of course as a threat to their religion. But the Mishna do mention Yesuah of Nazareth as a trouble causer, an illegitimate man whose birth was in doubt, who did magic to lead people astray, before he was hanged on the eve of the Passover.
Flavius Josephus, the greatest Jewish historian, who was certainly not interested in promoting Christianity, writing in AD90, said in one of his twenty books of Jewish history; Now there arose at this time (Pilate’s governorship) a source of further trouble in one Jesus, a wise man who performed surprising works, a teacher of men who gladly welcome strange things. He led away many Jews, and also many of the Gentiles. He was the so-called Christ. When Pilate, acting on information supplied by the chief men around us, condemned him to the cross, those who had attached themselves to him at first did not cease to cause trouble, and the tribe of Christians, which has taken this name from him is not extinct even today.” (FF Bruce’s version).
So Jesus existed. Search for Jesus on Amazon and you’ll find 270,000 books and counting! Google him and you get 300 million references. But what’s so special about him? Wasn’t he just a travelling teacher or a religious rabble-rouser like those people in history and those who put him on a cross believed? Or wasn’t he just a nice, good man who went around in a nightie carrying lambs and was misunderstood? Wouldn’t he be turning in his grave at the thought that people were still following him – as God!? Maybe he didn’t think of himself as God at all?
My next post will continue the story…
New Wine and Old Wineskins
For years while I was in leadership settings in Anglican churches, with some glorious times of course for which I am grateful, I kept coming up against a particular short parable of Jesus and feeling like, ‘He’s talking to me, he’s talking about me.’ It’s from Luke 5, that old stuff about new wineskins:
read it here
I would go to conferences, go up for prayer, or just in my daily Bible readings for me and Zoe this passage would leap off the page as it seemed to describe so much of what I was attempting to do, which was at times stymied by the structures which were not ready for change.
It’s been fascinating for me to read pretty much in one sitting, a book that was sitting around on my shelf probably for about the last six years, which has incredible insight into how the parable relates to church now and how it will look in the future. C. Peter Wagner’s ‘Changing Church’ has been at times really like somebody reading my mail! I’d read a similar book of his, Churchquake, and maybe I wasn’t ready for it then but it didn’t grab me quite the same as this one. I don’t agree with everything he says of course but there is so much plain sense here I could’t stop reading way past bedtime! In the book he talks about a new Reformation that is coming to the church, in fact it’s already happening. And it’s the change from old wineskin to new.
If we look through the history of the church, God has continually been creating new wineskin after new wineskin so it shouldn’t come as a surprise when he does it in our lifetimes.
A new wineskin, a new Reformation, will of course mean massive gains for the kingdom of God while at the same time huge amounts of disruption for the status quo. For that reason Wagner identifies for us and alerts us to the demonic ‘Corporate spirit of religion’ which is assigned to prevent change and maintain the status quo by using religious devices.
Its target is human minds, particularly people in positions of influence and religious structures who unconsciously allow themselves to be manipulated so that they will not hear what the Spirit is saying ( present tense) to the churches as in Rev 2:7 but instead to only focus on what has already been said in former times.
In conversation with many good friends during those times, when I sensed God was saying if I trusted him to really step out then he would open a new door – so that I would not have to remain in the structures which had become strictures – that objections that were raised kept me within the fold – sometimes because of a sense of loyalty, but if I’m honest, often also lots of fear.
Anyone with any experience of the way these things work would think it quite obvious that those in high positions of denominational leadership would worry about and oppose, directly or indirectly, whatever they might perceive to go against ‘unity at all costs’ or be a threat of the new doctrine of democratic ecclesiastical government and not allow the old wineskin to move into God’s new times and seasons.
But Wagner points out to us that the strongest opposition to new wine skins actually comes from representatives of the most recent old wineskin. Those with the newest incarnation of old wineskins are likely to be myopic in recognising that’s what they hold, so they stretch the old one but resist the necessary changes to gain the new, even though the old wineskins will not be able to hold the new wine, the wineskins will break and the wine will be lost.
Denominational leaders have often dutifully affirmed while at the same time skillfully domesticating charismatic renewal and its leaders, effectively turning down the gas on the fire of the Holy Spirit so that it’s safe, manageable and doesn’t burn their house down.
So I wrestled for many years with the uncomfortable thought of not staying within my denomination to be an agent of renewal but instead to step outside if necessary in order to open up a new wineskin that God might want in his grace to pour into.
Together with many of my friends however I was perhaps falling under the spell of that spirit of religion, because I wasn’t able to discern its influence or presence. If it was easy to spot, why would anyone fall for it?!
On page 51 Wagner lists the kind of things that were said to me by friends (and I said them to myself) which kept me where I should not have been for longer than I should have been as he lists the reasons why many leaders will not consider leaving the denomination to found what he calls ‘New Apostolic Networks.’
- This is the church of my family I would betray my family heritage
- My friends are all here
- The denomination holds my ordination credentials
- The denomination holds our church facilities, and we would lose them.
- All my clergy colleagues, including my support groups, are in the denomination
- This is my employment – how would I support my family?
- My retirement funds are here, I would forfeit that if I left
- My religious affiliation is part of my personal self-identity
- I must avoid the sin of rebellion and remain loyal.
And so it was (despite the pain involved in stepping outside of a denominational framework of leadership which had so much I love and have enjoyed) that I finally and personally came to the place of realistically giving up the notion that internal reform was possible in what too often seemed a hopelessly compromised old wineskin setting; which restricted growth, rewarded incompetence and rejected orthodoxy. I took one of the biggest risks of my life - to move into a new wineskin.
Now please keep on pouring it out Lord!
I am still an Anglican with the credentials of having been ordained as a priest in the system, and I am very grateful that the Bishop here has been gracious to grant me permission to officiate while I’m experimenting in whole new ways of doing church. Permission without restriction is the best of both worlds. But I had to be willing to lay it all down and I was. And God is faithful.
I don’t see myself as being disloyal to or rejecting my denominational roots, though I have become disillusioned and dissatisfied with its spiritual and theological directions. Many great people and leaders I know will choose to remain (I was told over and again, ‘you have to be in it to win it’).
If that’s what the Lord is telling YOU, fantastic – but while nothing in this post should be taken to say that denominations or any particular denomination is bad or beyond redemption, I simply invite you to consider the question I grappled with so long and its implications for you – if God is choosing to pour out new wine, but you choose to remain in the old wineskin, how might you miss out – and might that be more than you stand to gain by remaining?
How Wise Are You?
Great talk for Christmas by Debra Green at Ivy MCR this evening- my notes…
The Wise men. We don’t know how many came, but they had three gifts. The most Jewish of the synoptic gospel writers wants to tell us about these people & the universality of the good news.
The shepherds are in.
These magi – are included.
Unlikely guest list!
Only those with eyes to see. Those who are seeking, find.
It’s hard these days to get Christmas cards – only 1% of cards have a ‘religious’ sense.
£16.7 Billion will be spent this Christmas by Britons. Many will go into more and more debt?
How wise are we?!
Could it have been a supernova?
Or just the manifestation of the glory of God? Because it was moving.
It seems only the magi saw the star. By that, Christ was revealed. Jesus then becomes the star. The star of the show.
There’s a move to remove Christ from Christmas.
Our job is to reveal him to the world.
How?
By speaking of him.
This is great news for all people!
When you follow a star, & find a stable.
Disappointed?
They went to the palace to look for him.
But he went where least expected.
You could be looking for a star & find a stable. After a long journey.
Not what we were expecting?
But something amazing is there.
The Magi’s job was to be interpreting signs for life, the signs of the times. Some take this as a word that astrology is okay. Today so many are into horoscopes etc – it’s a dangerous guide!
Lev 20:6 & many other passages warns against such.
It needs the church, to reveal Jesus.
God is bringing light to great darkness – Is 9.
The North Star is the only one to be guided by. If you lose it, you will get lost.
Jesus is our North Star!
If you seek him
Get on the journey
Search
He’s looking for you
Revealing himself
You will find the one you are looking for. He is your direction.
The Wise men made the wise choice. They worshipped him.
Lay face down before him.
DREAMS that lead us to the Great Adventure!
I was meeting with a new friend today who asked me how I came to Manchester and I realised that I had promised way back to blog about the two dreams that helped provide a very clear call back here, but hadn’t ever done so – maybe because I just needed to be moved and well settled before doing so.
Looking back it’s clear now the Lord had actually been shaking us from a place and people we loved very much being in and belonging with. Today I had to uproot a tree stump and it took hours and much straining to get it out, I think God had to get the crowbar out to move us from Horsley.
I wasn’t looking for another job but sensed there might be something else, where I wouldn’t be restricted by parish boundaries – what David Pytches has called ‘The condom of the Church of England.’
I was at Premier Radio for a show and “just happened” to see the Senior Pastor role at ‘Ivy Cottage’ (as it then was) advertised in Youthwork magazine, it “just happened” to be on the coffee table and was in there as a freebie for them with Renewal magazine.
To cut a long story short I was invited to come and meet the Elders and they were – and are – warm, supportive, prayerful and loving. I drove up from West Horsley leaving a very upset wife who KNEW we shouldn’t be going anywhere and told me she suspected I had S.A.D. and needed to buy a sunlamp.
I prayed with the elders and then set off to the hotel I was staying in overnight. I got lost – Manchester had changed a lot since I was living here- and ended up at a petrol station in a rough looking part of the city, in a queue with several blokes who looked like they might roll me. I went back into Policeman mode and authoritative body language meant they backed off without me having to say anything. I drove away and said, ‘Thanks Lord for clear guidance – I never want to come back to live in this HORRIBLE city. I am so grateful for beautiful Surrey!’
I went to bed at the hotel feeling at least this was out of my system.
Then I had a dream:
A little girl, standing on a stool. Her mother stood next to her saying, ‘Oh you are SO beautiful! Look at that lovely face! One day everyone will see how gorgeous you are – you will be a model, a movie star, an international celebrity – because you are so beautiful!’ As she went on gushing, I stood watching thinking, “She really needs to get over it – that is NOT an attractive little girl, she has no chance of being a model.”Then I woke up.
And I knew the Lord was showing me how HE saw the city, and its people – and what I was doing was dismissing the potential he saw in the people he loved. I half repented – “Okay Lord, I won’t say anything bad about Manchester again, but Zoe’s right and I’m not coming here.”I slept better after that. Really well. Had another dream.
I was working hard in an office tower block. I knew I had to go up on the roof because something important was going to happen there. When I got on the roof lots of people in suits were looking up at the sky. A silver jet fighter plane appeared, doing ‘loop the loops’ – people cooed. I thought, “So what?” It stopped dead in the sky, then went backwards, people clapped. I thought, “Show off.” Then went back to work downstairs again.
Some time later I went back on the roof. Mr. Silver Arrow was still entertaining the crowd, I wasn’t interested. Then the plane came down toward us at Mach 3, and stopped on its nose aerial in front of me. Next it slowly span round and round, perfectly balanced on the aerial.
None of this was rocking my world. Then the plane landed properly and its gull wing doors opened. A large white man in a dazzling white jumpsuit with buzzcut blond hair stood in front of me, “I want to talk to you.” We went inside and he sat opposite me at a table.
“You’re not impressed are you?”
“No, I don’t want to appear rude, but I’m not really into aeroplanes.” (This was weird as I do love flying, but it’s a dream, remember!)
“So, what does impress you?” Perfect blue eyes piercing me.
“Well I am impressed when people do great things for God.”
“Such as?”
“Gandhi. Changed his nation. A man of peace.”
“Oh yes, I knew Gandhi – anyone else?”
“Martin Luther King Jr.”
“Why?
“Well he wasn’t perfect, but he freed a lot of people.” (a line from a song!)
“Yes, I knew Martin. Who else?”
“Billy Graham.”"Why him?”
“Longevity, Integrity. Impact.”
“Oh yes, I know Billy.”
I sat back in my chair. ”Hang on, you say you knew Gandhi and MLK and you know Billy Graham? Where do you know them from?”
The angel (for I believe t’was he…) said, “I appear at strategic times in people’s lives to tell them to get ready for their next step – of the great adventure.”
I woke up – in Manchester, and now I’m here – LIVING THE DREAM!
What about you? I referred briefly to these dreams in my recent BBC Radio 4 recording for ‘Beyond Belief’ – which I think is due to air December 13th on ‘The Supernatural.’
As we approach the Christmas season the nativity narratives are packed full of angels and dreams and the Lord getting his will done through them. Have you experienced this kind of guidance?
Or if you did, would you just shrug it off? I’m glad I didn’t, and I’m more glad that Joseph (for example) didn’t either. Mary needed someone man enough to follow his dreams.
WE DO NOT HAVE COCKROACHES!
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.”
I’ll admit to a certain amount of frustration at times from various books I read, even the odd conference – here it is….
Try to grow a church and people say, ‘Oh you’re all about the numbers.’
As if the numbers weren’t people.
People like your kids, your neighbours, your friends.
Don’t you want them to come to Jesus too?
I talked in church yesterday about how Jesus refused the numbers game when at the beginning of John 4 the Pharisees started comparing his growth stats with John the Baptists’ – how he went to a lone broken woman in an unexpected place on the margins, because the kingdom of heaven does not usually advance by crowds but one life at a time. (In fact through that one woman’s story revival hit the town!).
But sometimes lack of relevance or connectedness to ordinary people – evangelistic ineffectiveness – is applauded as a sign of faithfulness rather than a cause of concern or a need to change and try something different.
Being ‘attractional‘ has been made a dirty word in some church settings, and I don’t get that. How about ‘A city set on a hill cannot be hidden?’
Will doing/ being/ leading church better help or hinder that?
I know being the light of the world is not all about having a big lighting rig or the best sound systems etc. (but I’d rather the sound etc. be as good as it can be with what we’ve got).
What are you doing to help?
More important:
What are you doing to hinder?
Are you praying/serving/encouraging/helping church get better?
Or are you getting bitter?
Or shall I talk about batter….
Because there’s a chip shop just opened near us here in Didsbury.
So what? Well people queue up outside this chippy, in the rain, without brollies if needs be. Long queues. For fish and chips. They’ll be queuing now, I bet.
Something fishy about that?
Well you know there are good chippies and bad ones.
They are just being the very best they can be.
It’s no good just opening a chippy and hoping (or even praying) people will come. They might stumble in once, but if the service or food or hospitality is awful, they’ll not come back.
Bad Examples?
Bad Practices: The town I lived in when in Devon, the local chinese – the owner threatened an environmental health inspector with a cleaver. I didn’t want to go to that chippy!
Bad ‘Advertising;’ I once saw a curry house on Oldham Road that had a cardboard sign in the window; ‘WE DO NOT HAVE COCKROACHES.’ Didn’t make me want to find out for myself to be honest. Sometimes – even with the best intentions – we shoot ourselves in the foot.
The new chip shop in Didsbury village must be doing something right, (chip shop evangelists?)! So much so, I’m going to try it tonight too, to see what’s remarkable about it – and so it goes, and grows.
Somebody is doing something RIGHT there – something different. Others in that industry who are wise and humble can learn from them.
Could churches learn something too? About something much more important.
They’re not content to just ‘be faithful’ to gather around the fryer and know that they have had fellowship making fish and chips again- they actually want to feed people!
They’re not happy to occasionally have a regular customer come back once a week or once a month and have their chip need met. They want hungry people to come to COD! To have the peas that passes understanding.
I bet if you meet the owners and employees, they’ll be passionate, knowledgeable, excited and friendly. They want a fish and chip revival!
I think we can learn something from this, and we should – if we’re going to be the light of the world that attracts people to Jesus.
Extra salt please!
Lynn Swart’s talk at Ivy Mcr on Acts 20
These notes I took during the talk form discussion for Ivy Grow Groups if you’re still meeting through summer….
What happened in Acts is not just about what happened, but what can happen today!
When we read Acts it is all about journeys – remember that we are on a journey too. Every day – sometimes we get stuck!
Discuss: Where are you on your journey right now? anyone stuck? Pray for one another.
Our journey at Ivy as a community is marked by Knowing, Growing & Going in God. That’s our missionary journey as a community.
We are all full time! Full time workers for the church & kingdom, some of us get paid for that. Some don’t.
Discuss: Do you agree? Should ANYONE get paid for Christian ministry?
The resource we cannot do without? The Holy Spirit! Lynn says it’s great to open the day by saying, ‘Good morning, Holy Spirit,’ every day. Invite his leading. Don’t just ask him to be with me, let him lead!
There is still a voyage of discovery – however long we’ve been following.
Keep steady in God – by knowing him, Christ in me.
Acts 20:1&2 (Read)
Uproars still happen. Idols don’t like being cast down.
Nb. this word – Encouraging! Parakaleo = come alongside and call out…
Do you love to encourage others? Come alongside & Call the greatness out of those around you?
We need people around us who will instil confidence in each other- because it is tough- but God is for us! We either believe that fully or not at all. ‘If God is for us who can be against us?’
Encouraging means ‘strengthen in purpose.’ believing that this person can make a difference.
Are we looking out for one another, lifting each other up? Not competing or even comparing. – without expectation of reward or recognition.
We need encouragement from God.
“The enemy wants to take you out at the ankles. God wants to take you out at the knees.” Do you let that happen first?
We need to speak encouragement to ourselves. Build altars of remembrance. Where I say, ‘Thus far the Lord has helped me…’
Tell stories of encouragement to one another. Prophesy over one another, naturally. Pray for one another. Take the opportunity to speak goodness and purpose into one another, rather than being quick to voice problems. I already know what my weaknesses & problems are! I need someone to say, ‘I see this in you..God’s doing this..’
? Take some time in the group doing this? Tell stories of encouragement!
Then there’s the Eutychus incident. He fell out of the window & dies. Vs 7-11. Paul speaks life – to the community! ‘don’t be alarmed’ by what you see with the natural eye.
Jesus is still the resurrection!
Community is so important. We cant do this journey alone. We need community. Ages mixed together.
Prophetic word via Dennis Wakefield was read out out by Lynn. This is on the church website.
I can’t watch my back, I need someone at my back!
Communion. Remember who is our life.
