I was impacted last year by a book by Larry Walkmeyer ‘The River Church‘, and last night I spoke at Ivy Central about how that helped me think into what I now take as a sign from God – that on the first day of Ivy’s ‘Year of Expansion’ this January 1st our town made national news, as the river here burst its banks!
We can’t contain what God wants to do this year, but what do we do to ‘Go with the flow?’
Walkmeyer described some churches as PONDS. I think most churches in Western Europe are ponds.
Once, they were filled with Living Water—fueled by revival, mission, and fire. But over time, something changed. Many grew stagnant. Poisoned by unbelief or nostalgia. Others froze in time. Or simply evaporated under the cultural heat, with fewer and fewer people drinking from them.
And now, we watch ponds dry up. Nice people tend the pond, hoping someone might come and notice how nice they are. But people aren’t thirsty for nice. They’re thirsty for living.
From Ponds to Lakes
Like Larry, when I went into church leadership 3 decades ago, I didn’t want a pond. I wanted a LAKE —something deeper, wider, more dynamic. Something people could come to and be filled.
So I read the books. Took the courses. Learned how to lead (theological college did not have that on the curriculum). I built systems. Made the music and the preaching the best we could. That’s how you build a lake church. And it worked. Kind of.
Until I started to wonder: how much are we discipling versus how many we are entertaining?
Then COVID hit. We all had to start over. And every instinct in me said: dig out a lake again. Fill the seats. Run the programs. Watch the numbers come back.
But last week sitting at Ladybower Reservoir with Zoe, I looked out at that vast, peaceful man-made lake. And I realized something: this didn’t just appear. It was built. Controlled. Contained. Kept in place by walls.
Dams.
And dams are what stop us from becoming a River Church.
Dambusters Wanted
Ladybower is famous for something else: the Dambusters. The RAF trained there in WWII, flying low to learn how to destroy enemy dams. Why? Because when you break the dam, the water moves.
That’s the call right now. God is pouring out His Spirit, the water is flowing. Not so we can build a bigger container, but so we can channel and release what God is already doing.
What Ezekiel Saw
In Ezekiel 47, the prophet in exile saw water trickling from the temple. A trickle became a stream. The stream grew deeper, wider, stronger. Ankle-deep. Knee-deep. Waist-deep. Eventually—too deep to cross.
And too often, that’s where we stop. We turn ‘the river’ into a worship moment. We sing about splashing in the river. We dance in the river, laugh in the river, we roll out the blue flags and soak in the river.
But that’s not where the story ends. Though in charismatic and pentecostal circles like I have connected to most, it’s where the river stops. We dam it up and make it a pool to do backstroke in.
But them the angel says to Ezekiel: Do you see this? Because the river wasn’t meant to be swum in. It was meant to flow.
Out of the temple. Through the desert. Into dead places.
And where the river flowed? Life exploded. Trees bore fruit. The Dead Sea became ALIVE and fresh. The waters full of fish, the banks were filled with fruit trees.
This Is a Word for Now
Our churches and ministries are not called to contain what God is doing. We’re called to carry it.
To release it into dry, desolate and desert places.
This isn’t just about church growth. It’s not about crowd sizes or program lists or buildings. It’s about becoming and being movement of people who go where the River goes.
“Where the river flows, everything will live.” — Ezekiel 47:9
If we try to hold on to the blessing, preserve it, package it—we’ll become just another reservoir. Or worse, a Dead Sea: all intake, no outflow.
But if we let the River flow? Dead places (and people) come alive.
Fruit. Fish. Flow.
There’s a moment in Ezekiel 47 that shows me what we must be getting everyone ready for right now – “Fishermen will stand along the shore… the fish will be of many kinds.”
That’s not about biodiversity and ecology. It’s about evangelism.
The Spirit moves, and people of every background, culture, and story come alive. Not because we made the lake bigger and they found us. But because the River reached them.
This is the call for Ivy Church.
Not to swim in the river. But to fish in the flow.
To send people.
To start churches.
To go where it’s dry, where the living waters lead.
To plant fruit trees where nothing grows.
To see multiplication, not just addition. Even if it feels like subtraction when it happens.
Stop Counting the Seats. Start Launching People.
I know how to grow a church. I’ve read the books. I’ve worked the plant and built the team. And it’s easy to measure success in attendance, giving, and engagement as said again recently as LAUNCH.
But maybe God’s not asking, “How many came to what you did?” What if He’s asking, “How many did you send?” That’s what counts. What if Kingdom success is the number of lives launched into mission, not the number of those listening?
What if revival doesn’t look like services packed but sent people, out being the Church in the world?
The World Is Dying of Thirst
This world is thirsty for life. We watched a Parliament vote this week to decriminalise abortion up to birth. An MP in our Death Cult neopagan system calls it “a good way to bookend the week” to say yes to assisted suicide too. Life has become disposable. This is not politics. It’s the Arabah. The wasteland.
And into this moral desert, the River of God wants to flow.
That’s why historically revivals happen in crisis. In times like these when the moral watermark is so low, the dams break and God’s river flows. When His people pray. Fast. Cry out, and…
- Break the dams of fear, pride, and control.
- Train fishers, not floaters.
- Let the water flow and follow where it goes to the dry and dying places.
So… will we float, or will we fish?
Will we dam up, or will we break open? Build lakes, or become Dambusters?
Let the River flow.
A fuller version of this message will be available soon on the ivychurch.org website.