Not a matter of prayer- a matter of faith! Arnold Muwonge

Our dear friend Arnold Muwonge spoke yesterday at Ivy Manchester. His main text was Ruth 1.21 I went out full, I came back empty. The title was RHYTHMS OF CHANGE. Here are my notes on what he shared ; great stuff – and see the end for an important prophetic word from Arnold. A man he knew came from Africa, when he was at home he could smell gas, but he got used to it. It took another guy coming in to be able to alert him. When you are cooking, you may not smell how good it is: needs a stranger to come from outside to smell it. Arnold brings an outsider’s perspective! There are three main actors in Ruth. It’s a great story. BOAZ – A type of Christ. His character was integral. Dependable. He is faithful, rich (psalm 24), able to help, our provider. We must learn to trust him. He gives us everything. He will always turn up. We can be confident in him. He operates according to covenant. Our salvation is based on covenant. NAOMI […]

Pastors R Us! Debra Green evening talk

Debra Green : Equipped. Pastors r us? What is the pastor gift? Shepherding? Can mean someone with divine enabling of others, taking responsibility to model & establish trust, lead, protect those within our span of care. We can’t abdicate caring to pastors who are paid. We all should take responsibility to respond to need. Pastoral care; 4 things to remember- CARE C. Compassion. It starts here! Jesus looked at the crowd and had compassion. He saw they were hungry. Went to meet the need. Went to rescue the lost sheep. Moved to reach out. In your gut, you are moved toward a need. Splancnizomai. Not just a sense of duty, it’s more powerful. Break my heart for what breaks yours. We don’t all have the same concern about the same things & that’s OK.  Sometimes we just have to get involved, being spontaneously compassionate. You don’t need permission or a word from God to do that. But bigger issues, like ‘should I go to Haiti?’ we need to check that and run through a bigger filter. A. Aid (or Action). […]

From Trash to Treasure

I happened upon a link today from Fast Company’s twitter feed which is well worth a read, about three ways to make gold out of garbage. I was particularly grabbed by the third way. It’s all about someone seeing ‘worthless junk’ and reimagining it – better. Follow the link to Matt Brown’s own page and he tells us how he saw these old plastic horses in a junk store bargain bucket, repackaged and rebranded them  as “Night Horses” – like, ‘Nugget the life liver,” and “Sotirius, the silent Duke.” I love it! It’s just like what God does with us! This designer says he gives the objects a story of significance again. It’s part of a project called Significant Objects. We might feel worthless, neglected, useless or left out. But the Bible says to Christ followers that we should “think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; […]

HEART FOR HAITI

Just watched the full video I made from our recent mercy mission into Haiti with our Grow Group. Some snippets are on here. Looking forward to being able to share a little more on Sunday at all services at Ivy Manchester, as we prepare for another big scary step of faith to help the people who need it most right now – let’s fill the Apollo!

Michael Ramsden – cynicism vs revelation

Luke 1. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. 14He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth.[b] 16Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. 17And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” 18Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I […]

BOOKS OF THE YEAR

BOOKS I WILL BE RECOMMENDING At the Evangelists conference this evening I’ve been invited to give a few words. As time is short, I want to be able to make the best use of the time. Speaking to these guys who are passionate about getting the great good news out, I thought I’d strongly recommend some resources that have helped me massively in the last year. They fall into the categories of the three kinds of book I can’t resist – public speaking, leadership (in this case, church leadership) and devotional. 1)      If I could only point you to one book on how to preach better, Communicating for a Change by Andy Stanley would be IT. All my team have read this book. He reminds us that our purpose is not merely to INFORM but TRANSFORM, and gives some great hints and a process for how to do that better, no – a lot better! If you’d allow me two in this category, I’d also tell you to invest in The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, by Carmine Gallo; currently […]

Barry Kissell – God’s answer to the culture.

Barry Kissell at the Evangelists Conference. Psalm 2 1 Why do the nations conspire [a] and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.  3 “Let us break their chains,” they say, “and throw off their fetters.” 4 The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.5 Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, 6 “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.” 7 I will proclaim the decree of the LORD : He said to me, “You are my Son [d] ; today I have become your Father. 8 Ask of me,and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You will rule them with an iron scepter [f] ;you will dash them to pieces like pottery.” 10 Therefore, you kings, be wise;be warned, you rulers of the earth.11 Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest he […]