What a great night at Ivy Manchester! As promised – here are my notes from Doug’s teaching tonight. The talk will be up on the church website for download in a couple of days. People say ‘I’m spiritual, not religious’ The world has changed, evangelism hasn’t caught up. This is an addition to the toolkit: Prophetic Evangelism. 2 scary words! He’s been PRACTISING this for years. If we have a good product, with eternal benefits – but people don’t want it, we need a marketing meeting! We have had good intentions – but that’s not enough. We have to become missionaries to the UK. What do missionaries do? Figure out what people already believe. Study the language and the culture – fit the message into where people are. Not changing the message, just changing the way you share it. Most people are open to Jesus, and to the power of God. We have to come up with ways to connect with people. Today, if people are spiritual, that’s half way home – cos God is spiritual – and he’s in […]
Tag: Church
One thing leads to another
When things occur in our generation that previous generations would have been appalled at, watch out!
Daniel Fast day one: Entering the King’s service!
We’re going through a series on Bible heroes at the moment on Sundays. Yesterday’s focus was on Daniel. If we were going to look for longevity in consistent wisdom in the Bible, I’d probably want to make a case for Daniel. Lots of other guys started out well and finished badly. Or they had a very chequered past and came through at the end. But Daniel had the kind of testimony sometimes people underplay – they feel they have to leave the church maybe and get into drugs or something so they come back having made good, then they’ll really have a testimony. I often counsel teens in church – YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO THAT! You can have a story that says, “God has been faithful to me all my life, and he’s helped me live faithfully too.” That is a powerful story! He was just a human being like us, but Daniel’s exemplary character leave him as one of very few people in the Bible who gets 5 stars all the way through his life, one of a […]
God speaks through Dreams: Walking with the King
In the dream I was stationed on duty outside a great palace like Buckingham Palace, dressed like one of the soldiers in ceremonial dress with the Busby hat on – as an ex police officer I’ve done my fair share of standing still and ‘guarding!’ Suddenly I was aware that I had a new assignment.
Losing the Plot ? Get EPIC!
“You can buy the dog for a tenner, it only tells lies anyway!”
When curses are turned to blessings
Balak takes him to a place where he can only see the rubbish of the camp. (Anyone eager to point that out in your life? Guess who sent them!). It must be easy to curse when all you can see is the negative.
Our fantastic last Sunday!
Still shaking my head over yesterday’s phenomenal outpouring of love here for my last Sunday! The church family and local community came together for an amazing time of gratitude to God, quite overwhelming at times. Apart from making me eat unmentionable things in ‘I’m a Northerner get me out of here!’, having to sing ‘Angels’ by Robbie Williams, and being presented with a beautiful album of our time here and far too many hugs and kisses – we were also really privileged to baptise 25 people! What a day – I will never forget it. Thanks to everyone – and thanks be to God! There are too many photos to upload an it takes ages – but here’s a little sample – Thanks be to God!
Mystery Churchgoers?
Just been reading about the new service offered by Christian Research – ChurchCheck, a new mystery visitor service. For £60 plus VAT they offer to send some people to “look around and assess everything that goes on, making comments on everything from the state of the exterior noticeboard to the length of the sermon…” These otherwise non committed visitors will just blend into the crowd, “rate the atmosphere, strengths and weaknesses, singing and even the after-service chat before giving the the church a score.” Some more cynical ministers might retort, “We have those people anyway – without paying ’em!” Here’s a classic comedy moment from one ‘visitor…’ Christian research reminds us “The welcome someone receives at church is so important – and ChurchCheck puts it to the test. It gives a simple and accurate account of a church’s interaction with newcomers, and the results provide very precise “actionable” information to help churches improve. Personally I think people are voting with their feet every week and we have so much to learn, it’s not such a bad idea. What do you […]
GODISNOWHERE
Yesterday morning, as part of our “40 Days of Community,” our L1FEgroup (what we call our midweek groups) went out around the village, picking up litter. The parish council here provide the bags and the grabbers, and the faithful few from the village who usually do it were, I think, encouraged to have the extra hands. So much so they gave gloves to put on those hands. I ended up outside Cranmore, my designated patch being a lay-by just set off Epsom Rd to clear up. I’d passed a few places on the way that were fabulously litter free already, so I was looking forward to having little to do but feeling good about civic duty done. But when I arrived, this spot really was a mess. I was with Zoë and our friend Clare, they had their yellow jackets on and my ‘grabber’ didn’t work so I stood there watching for a bit – in supervisory capacity – until they realised passersby may have thought the ladies were on day release from nearby HMP Send, and sent me off […]
Resist the lion!
This clip shows that it’s so important we stick together – and fight!