a rally cry that cuts through distraction and regret:
“I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize…”
Three simple but powerful moves: Focus. Forget. Forward.
If you’ve been shrinking back, playing it safe, or just trying to survive— I believe God is saying it’s time to dream again. Not just following your dreams, but stepping into God’s dreams for your life, which are always bigger than you think.If you want to walk in God’s dream, your first move is to put His dream ahead of yours. When you do, you’ll see Him open doors, pour out resources and somehow orchestrate events you couldn’t make happen in a million years. I know it’s true because I have seen it happen so many times I had to pinch myself that I wasn’t dreaming when it happened!
What we measure determines what we think success is.
Most churches still tend to measure by the ABCs:
ATTENDANCE, BUILDINGS and CASH (Offerings)
These are useful, but not optimal – or even biblical!
Being BIG, WEALTHY and INFLUENTIAL does not necessarily mean a church is healthy (as we have seen so graphically and too in recent years).
HOW Does God measure success?
We are not meant to come to church and have the pastor tell us what to do.
We are to come and tell the Pastor what God is doing!
Will we have bottlenecks, or wildfire?!
The leaders are necessary if they are there to provide guidance and support and discernment- but all through the week God should be breaking out through everyone. We need the Holy Spirit most of all!
The commission was directly given to the apostles but indirectly given to the ecclesia in every generation. After the early apostles died, the commission remained – and so does the authority, until it is fulfilled it will remain in force.
So they had a commission and were sent to fulfil it. In their generation the church grew like crazy and changed everything, everywhere. We have the same commission and we are sent to do it. That’s the key, they went, because they were sent. That’s an apostolic church.
James says “Elijah prayed prayers…” That means God gave him words to say. Don’t pray your own prayers. Wait on the Lord to hear what he will say – and you’ll see heaven’s results.
My friend Patrick O’Connell is the Global Director of NewThing, the network which I and Ivy Church are privileged to be part of, which exists to partner with movement makers and catalyse reproducing disciples, leaders, churches, networks, and movements. Here he tells the story of how he came to faith, having met his wife in a punk rock mosh pit, joined the army, he went into business and while finally successful in worldly terms when he finally after 4 years accepted an invitation to go to church and everything changed! He went from church goer to church planter, now serving thousands of church leaders and planters worldwide through NewThing’s dream – to see a church planted in every community around the world. We discuss, among other things – How might we help connect people far from God so they don’t just learn to cope, but receive hope. What army life taught him about teams and sacrifice, and how that applies to the army of God and ministry ‘in the blood and the mud.’ How do we collaborate and form networks that are all […]
EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, KNOWING JESUS. Well talk about a big vision! Dr Rachel Jordan-Wolf will be joining us at this year’s LAUNCH to talk about how it can become a reality and I loved hearing from her in advance on the podcast. Rachel is executive director of HOPE Together in the UK, having worked closely with the initiative since 2010, when she was the Church of England’s National Mission and Evangelism Advisor. “I’m committed to evangelism being at the heart of the church,’ says Rachel, “Committed to mission and to the local church in villages, towns and cities, and committed to do this together across denominations and across ethnicities to make Jesus known with words and action. We are also committed to a new generation, engaging with Millennials and with digital culture as well.” LISTEN TO THE FUTURE CHURCH PODCAST where you’ll hear how as well as being an expert on the stats and demographics from surveys that she has commissioned so we can have a great deal of hope for the future church, Rachel as a passionate evangelist herself is seeing […]
Getting the wrong people on your team (or leading it!) can be one of the most expensive and stressful issues you’ll ever face. I was thrilled to hear wisdom from my friend William Vanderbloemen on how we really can do so much better at this. He is an entrepreneur, pastor, speaker, author, and CEO and founder of Vanderbloemen Search Group, which has helped thousands of churches, ministries, and faith-based organisations create a great culture and find people who will consistently make it better to achieve their God given goals. We looked at many issues on the Future Church podcast here including:
The culture that has lost its spiritual roots is a dying culture… however prosperous it may appear externally.