Tag: Christianity

Wanted: Jason (and Jane) Bournes for the Kingdom – NewThing Global

I am reflecting back on the inaugural NewThing Global meeting in Nairobi earlier this year and thought a summary post might help answer some of the many questions I get asked about NewThing Europe right now. We met there because of an initial connection between two leaders; Oscar Muriu of Nairobi Chapel was speaking at the Willow GLS and his message impacted my friend Dave Ferguson. They later reconnected through the conference Dave helps lead, Exponential – where Oscar in his amazing keynote from 2 Corinthians 5:14-20 he asked, ‘What are you living your life for that is worth Christ dying for?’ That led to our partnership discussions, and the idea of NewThing Global (of which I am now leading NewThing Europe) developed from that. We wanted to get a small group of friends to gather from the corners of the world to become part of a network, because trust can be communicated through all the relationships in that network. We’ve all been part of groups. There are groups that meet to train, or to talk, but a network is there […]

Ivy Church Becomes A Movement! Check the Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUdWHoXi9pQ Because we all danced to ‘You got to move it, move it’ and because you have to get moving or don’t call yourself a movement – that’s what #IvyKinetic was all about. The whole church got equipped for the call – and hit the streets! To find out more or connect with us, check out the Ivy Church website or Like the Ivy Manchester Facebook page after you watch the video. If you’re a leader who wants to turn the church inside out to help people find their way back to God, you can connect with me after investigating NewThing to find out how we can together catalyse more reproducing churches that help people find their way back to God in the UK, Europe and around the world.

Mustard Seed Faith to Change The World @OscarMuriu at #Exponential NewThingGlobal

Incredible talk by my friend and partner Oscar Muriu of NewThingAfrica and NewThingGlobal just now at Exponential. As I watch now many are responding, and I’m here praying ‘Me too, Lord! Make me brave!’  If you are resonating and responding to this and interested in planting reproducing churches and starting movements in Europe with NewThingEurope get in touch with me here.  There is sustaining faith, enough to get by today… and then there is mustard seed faith What is it? If your faith is small, you can say to a mountain – move, and it will be done for you. It’s the faith that moves mountains. It does not depend on my networks but on God alone. It begins where my abilities and resources end This is the faith that puts me in the place where nothing will happen until God moves. Mustard seed prays prayers so big there is no hope they would ever come to be without God. The sad thing is, 95% of Christians pray with that prayer. We ask for too little We are too easily […]

Life in Black and White

There’s a whole lot of work being done on my blog right now to update it and make it look fantastic and more user friendly. There will be various sections for you to be able to navigate and go deeper with regards to learning about leadership at different levels, whether it’s for church, life or business. Right now though  as you will notice it’s just black and white. Funny how we get used to all singing all dancing isn’t it? I remember the excitement in our house I think I must have been about eight years old when my Dad brought home a colour television and I got to see colour TV in the house for the first time. The first program We watched was called, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home funnily enough, because we couldn’t wait till Dad got home and put the plug on and then we could see a whole new world. Once we’d seen it in colour – there’s no way we’d ever have wanted to go back to Black and White again. Gone were […]

A Better Way To Celebrate St Patrick…

…than wearing a shamrock or even drinking a Guinness Pray his prayer ‘St Patrick’s Breastplate’!  On the day we remember a powerful missionary pioneer. I’m reminded of what a revolution this man of God wrought by reading Steve Addison’s Movements That Change The World, required reading for New Thing Europe! Pray this with me, pray it for me, pray it for you and yours, for your spheres of influence, pray it out loud ( unless it’ll get you thrown off the bus)! I arise today 
through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
 through belief in the Threeness,
 through confession of the Oneness
 of the Creator of creation. I arise today
 through the strength of Christ’s birth with His baptism,
 through the strength of His crucifixion with His burial,
 through the strength of His resurrection with His ascension,
 through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom. I arise today
 through the strength of the love of cherubim,
 In the obedience of angels,
 in the service of archangels,
 in the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
 […]

Follow Your Star! Bob Ekblad speaking at @wtctheology residential

Bob Ekbald. At @wtctheology Residential Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,     are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler     who will shepherd my people Israel.’” Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that […]

What Wise People Do At New Year

The story can tell us a lot about the company we keep and how that can make or break us, it can warn us about who we should listen to as we head into our future, too.

But as the year closes out and a new one gets ready to start, I’m thinking about various wise people I know and those I have read about and how they finish an old year really well, to start a New Year better – and what they do and say lines up well with what these wise guys did too.

THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE HISTORY OF IVY CHURCH

I spent a little time this evening looking through a little piece of the history of our church, as I read extracts from the Minute Book of “Ivy Cottage” Mission Hall. It started as a record of the ‘Womens’ Bible Class,’ then was unused from 1913 to the 50s. There are some fascinating insights into how Ivy saw itself as a MISSION from its inception, church planting, evangelism, and then that movement became a church as it formalized and hired Pastors to lead it (I’m in danger of doing myself out of a job here) and then started looking at various rules and regulations; and when that happened the pioneering and evangelistic work of women was also truncated. The record speaks for itself and there are some funny things to note along the way. Many of you will know Ivy started as a men’s Bible study group meeting in a house in 1893. I’ll have to look at their records some time too! Oct 5th 1908 – Women’s Bible Class held monthly business meetings and had 218 registered members who […]