“There are many Hebrew words for worship but a key main one is Avodah which combines ‘work, worship and service’ Our lives are integrated through worship. It transforms everything.”
Darlene Zschech – How To Build A Life and Culture of Worship
Dave Ferguson"A short but insightful read that can change lives forever – Anthony proves again that deep truths don’t have to be complex."
Carl Beech"Anthony is the real deal, a leader full of keen insights into how to unlock the gift and calling God has placed in you. Read this, then get hold of a bunch for your friends."
Dr. Krish Kandiah"Anthony Delaney is a gifted communicator and leader. He has an infectious passion for God and is making an outstanding impact in his community."
The Independent“Delaney is 'above all' a follower of Jesus: he has successfully utilised his engaging, measured manner to grow Manchester's Ivy Church to more than four times its size since he joined as leader five years ago. So significant today is the congregation, that events are now held several times a week at venues across the city, including Cineworld, a warehouse and even a nightclub...”
Dave Ferguson“Anthony Delaney is one of those amazing leaders who loves Jesus, loves the mission and is truly authentic in his faith. I love how Anthony is impacting his community and putting into place a network of reproducing churches to reach the UK. I'm truly inspired by his get-it-done attitude while totally depending on God.”
Mike Breen“Anthony is a rare kind of man. He’s a great leader but he’s honest about his weaknesses. He’s a charismatic personality, but he’s surprisingly self-effacing. He comes from an ordinary background but has never settled for mediocrity. He’s a strong man with a tender heart.”
Tim Morfin“So many people talk leadership theory but are not leading in significant ways. What Anthony brought to the TLG managers was so directly from his personal leadership experience. We were inspired to bring who we are to the leadership opportunities we have, to overcome opposition and build passionate teams who are focused on achieving goals. Inspirational and practical – a great combination!”
Thinking about leading...
FASTING – Why and How by Larry Stockstill
Don’t ever make a major move without a 3 day fast. You won’t hear God clearly enough!
Pete Greig – The Priority of Prayer
Push in, press on – the tide is turning!
MOVING FROM INSPIRATION TO IMPLEMENTATION
Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. I’ve just been looking today at this year’s LAUNCH church multiplication catalyst event as we GO VIRAL – planning and preparing for what I’m asking the Lord to make the best one yet. First the bad news Where I live, the word crisis has featured on the front page of just about every newspaper somewhere for the last few weeks. Few would argue with the contention that the world right now is suffering from a crisis of leadership and we see the evidence all around us. Fear rises. Everyone is effected. I don’t know whether or not the oft quoted suggestion is true that a Chinese word for crisis is also the word for opportunity, but I certainly believe it in practice. And I do know that the kingdom of God is never in crisis! That’s why now is no time for the church to retreat – thinking ‘one day we’ll fly away’. This is our opportunity to stand out by getting stuck in – with a renewed conviction that the gospel […]
REFRAMATION – A Great Book To Get ASAP
I wouldn’t usually review a book half way through but I was given an advance copy and it sat on my ‘to read’ pile until a couple of days ago – then it grabbed hold of me. I’m definitely going to get lots of copies available for LAUNCH this year as this book is so needed. Amidst all the books on church techniques, strategies and goals (which I love) comes one which asks so many challenging questions and provides great insight into what the heck it is we are actually even doing. And why ‘it’ isn’t doing what it’s supposed to. Reframation – what’s that? Well Alan likes to make up new words when old ones don’t fit, or add a couple together to make a new one – which I think is cokay. The basic idea of the book that is everyone sees through a frame, and we need to reframe our understandings of God, people and the church – which needs to keep on reforming rather than say ‘Oh yeah we did that 500 years ago.’ (See what they […]
LAUNCH! One Word Changed Everything For Me.
“LAUNCH out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.” Luke 5:4 Peter was a Type A who had been doing everything he knew to do. Working hard, tiring himself out, much effort, little effectiveness, he was pretty much always mending his nets, but that didn’t mean he was successful. The nets were empty and he was frustrated and exhausted. Then the landlubber he calls Lord stands in Peter’s boat as if he owns it and says ‘Launch out into deep water’ That word LAUNCH changed everything for Peter, and reading this passage a few years ago it did so for me too. It has become the name of the multiplication event I helped found, which has now been challenging and equipping hundreds of leaders from around the world to dream bigger and adventure further, to go where God is sending them to reach those he wants them to reach. “Launch” is from epanago, which means “bring up”, “stir up”. “excite”, “lead back”, “elevate”, “exalt”, “bring back”, “withdraw”, “retreat”, and “put out to sea”. That’s what we will do […]
At 10:02am – Join In With Jesus’ Prayer
Some years ago a friend of mine invited us as a family to come and spend some time on holiday at his villa in Spain. I was delighted to accept, but this turned out to be a far cry from a little apartment on the beach. When we got there we found we were inland, farming country, and the place we stayed was full of olive trees. It also happened to be harvest time. We ended up getting involved, using hand held machines to shake the branches to catch the olives in nets, which were then sorted by various local people hired in to help sort them before I went with him to have truckloads weighed and bought. I worked up a sweat, but it was a great adventure and memory. Others had done the hard work, we were there to reap! This was a window of opportunity to gather in the crop. Eddie told me, ‘The size of the harvest is all about how many workers you have out in the fields.’ I thought, ‘That’ll preach!’ The Message version […]
The Church Will Be Sunk Without This
I am so grateful for the insights of my friend Alan Hirsch – particularly for the gift that he has given back to the church to reignite its missionalDNA and particularly reclaim the need for apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers (APEST) to operate, for the church to be optimal. As he says, the systems we are presently running are perfectly designed to give us the results we are seeing. So I’m fully convinced and committed that it is almost the silver bullet the church needs. When we activate the 5Q ministries of Ephesians 4 through the church, everyone will see Jesus coming and the world will be changed like it has not since the beginning of our movement before it became an institution. Yet as I read through the NT I’m reminded that there are other lists of gifts and ministries in various places, and as a church planter, network leader and coach I’m increasingly convinced that they are also vital for this to happen. Paul wrote to the highly gifted church at Corinth, which despite its charismatic glories […]
Movements Start With You! NewThing Global Gathering.
Tonight I was one of a group of leaders meeting upstairs in a cool pub in the East End of London to meet, eat and catch up on plans that began to be hatched back in 2015 in Nairobi for what was the inaugural global NewThing gathering. The real work starts in earnest tomorrow but the first of NewThing’s 4Rs in Relationships and it was fantastic to connect and reconnect with faith-filled, fired up, entrepreneurial movement makers from around the world and we were addressed by Dave Ferguson to remind us of the vision that brought us together. This is from my notes on his talk: NewThing is a catalyst for movements of reproducing churches We believe God has given us something of a unique calling, something apostolic -a gift to steward and also to share around the world. The word the Lord seems to be speaking over us right now? FAVOUR! Ps 90:17 God has shown us his favour! We have the stats for that. But more important is that there are stories behind the stats. We are changing lives! That’s […]
“Ten Virgins In Trouble…”
While I love the worship gatherings, incarnational missions, programs and organic church plant ‘movement thinking’ the C21st Church needs to learn, proclamation of the gospel still has to be front and centre.