Outrageous Faith

Many church buildings, ours included, have a plaque somewhere with a list of names of people who died in one of the world wars. They are there as a reminder of the heroes of the freedom we have today.

The Bible also has a kind of plaque of heroes, you can find it in Hebrews chapter 11. It is a list of people who, because of their commitment, amazing deeds and certainty in what God had said, have shaped what we think and believe about God’s activity in the world. In the midst of this list the writer says “And without faith it is impossible to please God”. 

Two things are striking about this verse;

• It is possible to please God – wow! Mere human beings like you and me, messed up, broken people like me (and maybe you!) can actually bring a smile to the face of the creator of all that is. It is a stunning thought.
• We do this by our faith – the context is important here. The writer is talking about an Old Testament character called Enoch. We know very little about Enoch (although there are various myths about him) except he so pleased God that he went straight to heaven without dying! But this verse goes on to call us to earnestly seek God which seems to be a key in understanding what set Enoch's faith apart.

At St Andrew’s we have just started a new sermon series and a prayer challenge for Lent called ‘Outrageous Faith”. You can listen to the first sermon, called 'Sun Stand Still', here and find out about the prayer challenge here. During Lent we want to encourage you to step up in your faith, to start believing that he is the God who can do the impossible and in some way act on that belief.

However, if we want to be a people of outrageous faith who are living life like the people in Hebrews 11, we need to start by being like Enoch - people who ‘earnestly seek God’. We cannot expect to see God move in incredible and outrageous ways until we align our hearts and minds with His. We do that be seeking him and his Kingdom.

As we start this amazing journey of Outrageous Faith let me encourage you to spend time earnestly seeking God. Make sure you have space every day to be in his presence and to deepen your relationship with him. There in that place He will start to reveal his heart to you and let you in on the things he wants to do through your prayer and through your actions.

Earnestly seek Him.

Doing the Hard Work of Change

Have your New Year resolutions collapsed yet? Has your desire at the start of the year to grow in your faith been completely drained? If so you are not alone. The great thing about resolutions is they express the desire to change that many people have, whether its to lose weight, read the Bible more, grow in faith etc. We all know we are meant to be better than we are! And the thing that drives all this, the thing that makes all this so frustrating, is that we know that change is possible. We've seen it on the TV, we've read it in books and especially heard it in Church - people can change. I'm sure that right now you can think of a real life story of someone who has changed, maybe quite dramatically, in some way or other and you know deep inside you that if they can change so can you.

But here's why so many of us fail in making the change that we so long for - it's flipping hard work!

It seems to me there are some changes that God does for us but then there are some things that He looks for us to do. We are required to do the hard work of change. Yet too many of us (me included just give up when it gets hard. Recently, I watched two short TED talks (if you don't know what TED talks are you are missing an amazing resource check them out) by two professors that considered the physiology and psychology of improvement and change. Both essentially say the same thing that any kind of change is hard, but that it is actually the difficulty of the process that brings about change. Essentially it is through the difficulty that our minds create new neural pathways and so create changed behaviour. We need the hard work to rewire our minds to think and act differently. (You can watch the videos here and here).

So our experience says that change is possible, science says change is possible and of course God says change is possible.

Romans 12:2 says "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

There are plenty of other verses that encourage us to believe that change is possible. So if you are struggling with the hard work of bringing about the change that is needed in your life here are four thoughts to encourage you

1. Embrace the struggle - it is the hard work that is right now rewiring your brain for the change you desire
2. Everyone struggles - you are not alone in this. Even Paul, who wrote Romans 12, said that there were things he wanted to do but didn't do them and things he didn't want to do but couldn't help himself from doing them. So why not find someone else who is looking to make the same change as you to encourage one another and hold each other accountable. Don't face the hard work of change alone
3. Persevere - the people who change are the ones who face the hard work and do not give up. In one of the TED talks Angela Lee Duckworth says the only thing that separates people who are 'successful' from others is 'grit'. They are the people who overcome their shortcomings with simple hard work and perseverance.
4. Plan for change - change does not happen by accident it needs to be planned for and we need to be able to count the cost of change. In Luke 14 Jesus talks about counting the cost of being a disciple. Counting the cost means planning, organising your life around the change you want to make and understanding the sacrifices needed to see the change come into reality.

5 Ideas for Spiritual Growth in 2015

If you are anything like me you are entering 2015 with a number of things you want to do or develop in this New Year. I hope that one of your desires for the new year is that you will grow in your faith. So here are five ideas to help you in your desire to grow.

1. Switch off from the TV and the Internet. How much time do you waste on watching rubbish TV (and let's face it there is a lot of it around!) or aimlessly surfing the net. Just spend one hour a day free from these things and use the time to develop your relationship with Jesus.
2. Learn how to feed yourself. How many times have you heard people blaming their church or their church leader etc for their failure to grow in their relationship with God. Yet it is the basic, daily, interaction with the Word of God and the presence of God in prayer that is the bedrock of our growth. If you are not growing in your faith then work out what is going wrong in your personal time with God rather than looking to blame others.
3. Admit you need other people to grow. What I said in number 2 does not mean that you do not need other people in fact what Christians often fail to realise is how much we need to be sharing our lives with other Christians in order to grow. We need others to inspire and encourage us and we need others to challenge and correct us.
4. Take every opportunity to serve. Jesus once said that his "food is to do the will of him who sent me". Jesus got nourishment from serving his Father. Look for opportunities to serve God and others, and you will find yourself growing in ways that will astound you.
5. Choose to love others. 1 John 4:12 says 'No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.' You cannot learn to love God more without also learning to love other people more. The two are inseparable.

Warning: there is a basic assumption here in everything I have said above which is - growth is not about what you know but about who you are becoming and how that is displayed in what you do. Never mistake knowing more about the Bible with growing spiritually, the two do not always go hand in hand. Yes, we should develop our knowledge and understanding of scripture but that does not necessarily mean we grow in our relationship with Jesus.

Making Room

If we are to see a significant move of the Spirit in our church we must do more than yearn for it we must also make room for the Spirit to move. Even in a church like ours we can fail to allow the space needed for the Spirit to move in power. It is easy for us to approach a quiet time, ministry time or worship time with our own agenda. Some of that agenda may well be Spirit inspired but I know from my own experience that all too often it can come out of whatever is going on in my own life.

For us at St Andrews we seem to have an unwritten rule that noise and activity are best! There are clearly times when we can see how 'disruptive' the work of the Spirit is - not least on the day of Pentecost. However, we also have to remember that before that Jesus told his disciples to 'wait'. I wonder if we have lost the art of waiting on the Spirit? Are we willing (able even) to stay still/quiet long enough for the Spirit to have absolute freedom in our lives or ministries or our worship gatherings? Or are the agendas we bring restricting, controlling or, ultimately, squashing the work of the Spirit.

John Wimber was a master of giving the Holy Spirit room to move in power. I attended a number of meetings he led and remember times when, after inviting the Holy Spirit to come, he would encourage those gathered (up to 5000 people on one occasion) to simply wait for the Holy Spirit to manifest himself. There were times when the waiting would seem long and uncomfortable but the Spirit always came and people would experience dramatic healing. We would have missed out if John Wimber would had lost nerve and moved on before the power of the Spirit fell on us.

When we make room for the Holy Spirit he comes! The spiritual disciplines are all about making room for the Spirit - prayer, read the Bible, silence, fasting etc. - yet often we can rush through these things to tick them off our 'to do list'. Even in our worship gatherings we seem to be unable to wait and let the Spirit move in his own time and way. It can be so easy to move things on quickly or try to force the Spirit to turn up.

Have you lost the art of making room for the Spirit, are you able to simply wait on him until he comes. Is God saying to you 'Be still and know that I am God'. Think through how you might be able to make more room for the Spirit in your life.

 

 

Learn to Yearn

So I am continuing to think about how we might respond to the sermon on Pentecost Sunday (see previous posts). In this post I want us to think about how we might change our attitude so that we are in a place of longing for more of the Spirit. Is it possible to learn how to yearn for more of the power of God. As I said in the sermon it is easy to get complacent about our need for the Holy Spirit and the moment we do we are in a slow decline that leads to spiritual death.

This longing is vital for us. In John 7 Jesus says 'Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this he meant the Spirit'. How thirsty are you right now, does your heart yearn for more of God's Spirit in your life? Below are some practical things we can do to increase our yearning.

• Read through the Gospels and Acts but do so with a focus on what you see the Holy Spirit doing. You will see his work on every single page of these books. Look at how dependant Jesus was on the Holy Spirit and then in Acts see how that same power was available to the disciples. Then look at your life and the life of the church and realise the difference!
• Read what the Spirit has done in church history. The same Spirit has been at work throughout the history of the church in remarkable and miraculous ways. A great resource is a series of books called 'God's Generals' by Roberts Liardon. If you can get to read any of those books it will create a thirst for more of the Spirit of God in your life.
• Discover what is the Spirit doing today. All over the world pockets of revival are breaking out. What God has done in history He is still doing today. The Internet provides a way of connecting with the work of the Spirit today. For instance check out what God is doing at BethelmChurch in Redding, California. There has been a steady stream of miracles there.mthey provide lots of video testimonies and worship that will leave you longing to see the same at our church.
  
• Express your longing in worship. There are lots of worship songs that reflect a yearning and longing for the presence and power of God. Worship has the power to change our hearts and as we choose express our longing in song so our hearts catch up with our intention. Continually choosing to press into God's presence in worship and any complacency or apathy will melt away leaving you longing for your own personal revival and the revival of the church.
  

 

We need to repent

After the service on Sunday two people shared the same word with me, that we need to repent. If it is true that we, at St Andrews, are in a place where we have lost something of our spiritual edge, our desire for the things of the Spirit and our reliance on Him then there has to be one response above all others - repentance.

If we have gone about our lives and our ministries without a deep reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit then what are we saying about our attitude to God and his work? It can be easy with some of the things that we do on a regular basis, that we feel comfortable doing, to do so without referring to God at all. You can turn up for your regular Missional Community activity and get to the end of it without ever turning your heart and mind to God for his power to do it or for his guidance in how to do it. Things like this can become routine and we can become complacent. We get in a rut and as long as the activity takes place reasonably well everyone goes home happy, but we can miss what God might have wanted to have done.

We need to understand just how far from God we can end up if we miss out on the work of his Spirit. Ephesians 4:30 says "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." Living without recognising the work of the Spirit can grieve Him or, as some other translations put it, quench his continuing work in us. We need forgiveness for the times we neglect the Spirit's work in our lives or fail to acknowledge our need of His power.

Repentance also requires us to change as well. We need to make the choice to change our attitude to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, to make a conscious decision to allow him to lead and empower us. That decision needs to change our behaviour but what does that look like? How about making time every morning to ask the Holy Spirit to lead you throughout the day in every decision, activity and conversation. Ask him to empower you in all that you will do. Then before anything you do take a few seconds to be aware of what the Holy Spirit may be saying to you and ask for his power. Making a habit of turning your heart and mind to God before anything, no matter how mundane, is saying that you recognise that without the power of the Holy Spirit you are unable to do anything of any significance in the Kingdom of God in your own strength.

Do you have attitudes towards the work of the Spirit for which you need to ask for forgiveness? What changes do you need to make in your life to start making room for the Holy Spirit to work in you and through you? What can you do to to begin a more conscious reliance on His power? What do you need to stop so that you no longer grieve or quench the Spirit of God? Finally, what do we need to repent of as a church in our attitude to the work of the Spirit?

 

The Church is only ever one generation from death

 



I thought it would be useful to follow up on my sermon yesterday with some further thoughts about what God might be saying to us at St Andrews and how we might respond to it. If you missed my sermon (where we're you!!!) you can listen to it on www.standrewsclubmoor.org.uk/resources/sermons.


I will quickly summarise the sermon now and then the next few blogs will look at how we can respond. The main points of the sermon were based on what I saw in the disciples as they waited for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

• The early disciples recognised their need for the Holy Spirit, without him they would be unable to fulfill the great commission
• They were united and recognise their need of each other.
• They prayed continuously until God poured out his Spirit on them
• Every church is just one generation from spiritual death. We see the evidence in churches around us that we're once alive but have lost the spiritual life and power they once had.

I finished by sharing that I felt the Spirit had been saying to me that at St Andrews we were in danger of being on the slow slide to death. It seems to me that the hunger for the Spirit of God is no there in our Church like it used to be. I can hear it as we worship, I can see it in how few people want receive prayer in ministry times and it is evident when so few people want to be involved in prayer. I pointed to the letter to Sardis in the Book of Revelation where the Holy Spirit says "you have the reputation of being alive but are dead. Wake up!". The problem with spiritual death is that it is slow and the church dying doesn't recognise what is going on.We need to change the way things are going if we are to avoid going the way of so many other churches before us. I ended the sermon by asking the church to pray for an outpouring of God's Spirit upon us once again and to pray for a growing realisation of our desperate need of his power. We need to understand that we can never be complacent about the spiritual life of the church, to do so will lead to death. The next few blogs will flesh out our need for the power of the Spirit a little bit more and will look at what we can do.

 

 

Daddy

On Sunday in church we had a wonderful time of worship. We had just heard the first sermon of three looking at the parable of the Prodigal Son. We were reminded of the Father's desire to welcome back his children, no matter where they have been or what they have done. Then in the worship we had a real sense of the Father's love for his kids. In a quiet moment in the worship Sue, who was leading the service, encouraged us to fully return to Him. In the quiet that followed a young child's voice called out from the back - "Daddy" and then a giggle. Then her voice came again - "Daddy" then another giggle. This happened three or four times.

I don't know if anyone recognised the prophetic nature of that brief event, but I was fully convicted to call out to 'Daddy' with all my heart and to enjoy his presence in a deeper way.

The level of intimacy that God calls us into is truly staggering and few seem to respond, least of all me. Yet that brief moment in the midst of the worship was a reminder to us all of what is possible, of what is available. There are enough followers of Jesus who have discovered the depth and the height of intimacy with God to encourage us all to put our every effort into discovering it for ourselves. It is those who make the time and effort to draw near to God, who will discover that God will also draw near to them.

Spiritual Strongholds Part 3

One of the difficulties around understanding spiritual warfare is that the Bible says so very little about it! If the scriptures have everything we need for salvation and life we can only assume that the Spirit does not require us to know that much about spiritual warfare. What we do need to understand is the victory Christ has won for us and to live in that. However, there are tantalising little insights that scripture gives us that point to certain realities of which we have only a limited understanding. One of those insights is in regard to how spiritual strongholds can affect whole geographical areas.

One of the things scripture hints at is that the demonic powers are structured in some sort of hierarchy. This would make absolute sense because we know that angels seem to have a hierarchy. In Jude v9 we read a reference to Michael as an ‘Archangel’ or ‘chief angel’ and as demons are simply fallen angels it would seem logical that a similar hierarchy would also transfer in their fallen state. When Paul talks about our spiritual battle with ‘principalities and powers’ there is a suggestion that this refers to levels of demonic structure.

There are also intriguing references in Daniel about angels fighting against spirits who appear to have influence of a geographical area (Daniel 10, 12). This has led to a train of thought that there are ‘territorial spirits’ who are able to influence and even control a geographical area. There is a lot that rings true about this idea, we only have to look at certain areas or cities to see that there can be certain values or beliefs that have a spiritual stranglehold on that area. However, despite the fact that many books have been written on this, we have to be really careful about how far we follow this train of thought, as the Bible is not definitive on ‘territorial spirits’ at all. It also has no record of Christians dealing directly with a ‘higher level’ demon who would have influence over an area.

Are there ways of understanding how the demonic influences geographical areas? My next post or two will offer a suggestion.

Spiritual Strongholds Part 2

2 Cor. 10:3 "...On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ"

Paul describes strongholds as arguments and pretensions. As I said in my previous post wrong teaching and damaged emotions can lead to wrong thinking and behaving. Therefore strongholds are areas of our live in which we have been persuaded to believe and follow something contrary to God’s word, they set themselves up against the knowledge of God. How can we demolish these strongholds?

Firstly, remember that Jesus has already won the victory "He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." (Col 2:13- 15). Jesus has done it all, any and every demonic power has been disarmed. The only weapon they have against you is deception and lies.

Secondly, because we are demolishing wrong thinking we need to demolish it with the truth. Strongholds are such an effective weapon of the enemy because so many people in the west know the Word of God. By reading, learning and meditating on the word of God we allow its truth to shape our thinking. Paul calls us to allow our minds to be renewed (Rom 12:2) . We take every thought captive to Christ when we seek to bring our thoughts and motivations to be in line with the will of Christ. This happens when the truths of God’s word are applied into our lives by the Holy Spirit. David Devenish in his book ‘Demolishing Strongholds’ lists some basic truths of scripture that are foundational for every christian in demolishing a stronghold;

1. We have been born again (1 Peter 1:3)
2. When we are, we are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17)
3. We are fully accepted by Jesus (Romans 15:7)
4. We are not condemned (Romans 8:1)
5. We are secure in our relationship with Him (Romans 8:38,39)
6. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3)

Thirdly, we then begin to live by the truth of what we believe. This takes a combination of prayer and action. If you struggle with feelings of rejection learn to live and act according the truth that you are accepted by God. Let that thought be the one that counteracts all the negative thoughts of rejection. Which version of your life will you live by the one you have been persuaded to believe by the enemy, who is the father of lies, or the one that is described by God in scripture, who is the source of all truth. This also takes prayer. Ask the Holy Spirit to help live you by the truth revealed in the Bible. He is the one who walks with us to lead us into all truth (John 15:13). It is the truth that will set you free (John 8:32).

Today, why don’t you take some time out to reflect on the scriptures above and begin to allow them to shape your thinking about who God is, what he is like, who you are and what you are capable of.

Strongholds Part 1

As part of our current sermon series on spiritual warfare this week I will be putting on my blog a few reflections on the area of spiritual strongholds. I touched on this on Sunday (16.10.11) but wanted to have a space to say a few other things that I didn’t have time for within the sermon. I particularly wanted to do this because strongholds are very rarely discussed and yet are such a powerful weapon of the enemy.

"We do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Cor. 10:3

I described strongholds as patterns of wrong thinking, and therefore wrong behaving, that have become deeply engrained within us. They are recurring or repeating thoughts that are not in line with the truth that God has given us in scripture. Wrong thinking can dramatically and negatively affect the course and quality of our lives. Strongholds have the power to influence individuals, churches, communities, cities and nations.

They are created by wrong teaching, consistently giving in to temptation, others people’s wrong attitudes and behaviour towards us, the pressure of the culture around us and a variety of other ways. Through these the enemy seeks to create sustained ways of thinking that are detrimental to our relationship with God or to the quality of our lives. Wherever the enemy gains ground in your life he will seek to make it permanent by establishing a stronghold around that area.

For instance, a simple example would be someone hurts you and you feel bitterness towards them. You decide not to work through the process of forgiving them and so the bitterness grows. It would be really easy for the enemy to capitalise on that bitterness and so the enemy says ‘You can’t let anyone else get close to you, they may hurt you as well’ or ‘Why should you forgive them, don’t let them off the hook’ or ‘Why is it always you that gets hurt?’ From a point of giving in to temptation (choosing not to forgive) strongholds of isolation, anger or self-pity can develop and become thoughts that start to shape how we live, relate to people and even how we feel about God.

The good news is that we can find freedom from strongholds, as Pauls says we have weapons that ‘have divine power to demolish strongholds’. Over the next few days I will be sharing some thoughts about strongholds, both personal and cultural, and looking for clues in scripture that point to the weapons we have to tear them down.

New Wineskins

In my last post I talked a bit about George Whitefield and his ability as a preacher. As a contemporary of Wesley he is one of the key figuresin the birth of Methodism. However, without John Wesley Methodism would have never existed. It was Wesley's organisational ability that allowed the move of the Spirit to flourish. Placing people into small accountability groups that encouraged purity and witness enabled those who came to salvation to continue in their relationship with Jesus. Whitefield's preaching may, arguably, have been more effective but his effectiveness as a revivalist was hindered by the fact that once he had left a town or city new converts were left to themselves. Wesley drew new converts into accountability groups and so allowed the missional effects of the revival to continue way after he had left.

Every move of God should change the Church. It is unrealistic to expect the church structures to remain unchanged when the Holy Spirit visits! Jesus says in Matthew 9 "Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

We at St Andrew's have at different times experienced the power of the Holy Spirit at work amongst us that has changed much of the nature of who we are as a church. We also need to continue reshaping the structures of the church. Our move to Missional Communities is a way of establishing new wineskins in response to what God is doing amongst us and, to some extent, in preparation for what he is going to do in the future. As with Wesley's groups they need to have the same focus on discipleship and mission. In that sense what we are doing is not new, we are part of a history of pioneers who want to work with what the Lord is doing.

What is sad about reading through God's General's is to see how quickly those within methodism began to lose their focus on purity and proclamation and reduced themselves to political squabbles about church order. We cannot lose sight of the call of Jesus to 'GO and MAKE disciples", the moment we do that we become less than we ought to be.

When Preaching was Rock and Roll

Currently, I am reflecting on a book of biographies I am just about to finish reading. It is 'God's Generals - The Revivalists' and it details the amazing lives and ministries of some key men of God from the early 1700's onwards. One chapter is about George Whitefield, who was a remarkable man and preached in the UK and America at the same time as the Wesley's.

Whitefield was, by all accounts, a remarkable preacher and a pioneer in evangelism. He was the first in his time to preach in the fields, something which the Wesleys and others then went on to copy. He had been ordained at 22 and quickly became known across Londan as the 'boy preacher'. However, it was not long before pulpits were closed to him because of his affiliations with 'methodism'. His passion for the lost would not deter him from preaching so he preached wherever he could. He began travelling up and down the country finding suitable feilds to preach in. As his fame grew the crowds gathered to hear him would be vast, the most conservative estimate of some crowds was 10,000, while other claimed it was 30,000.

When crowds came to see Whitefield what they saw was a small, round faced, cross eyed man but what they heard was one who 'preached like a lion'. Whitefield grew up wityh a love of the theatre. he read plays as a teenager, learning the lines and practising his delivery. he learned how to project hs voice so that he could be heard over vast distances. His sermons where dramatic, entertaining but always convicted people of their need of the free grace of God. Someone once said that they would give £100 to just be able to say 'oh' like Whitefield! As Whitefield preached the power of God would fall on those who were searching for Christ and hundred's would be saved. People would be crying out, falling to the floor and weeping hysterically as the presence of God filled their lives.

His journals and the journals of others of his day tell of how crowds would gather hours before Whiteield was to preach. One writer tells of how he was going to hear Whitefield and as he approached the twon all he could see what what looked like fog over the town. As he got nearer he realised it was dust from the countless feet and horses hooves of those gathering to hear Whitefield.

We live in an age when the spoken word seems to have become overlooked. I was reading a column in the Independant the other week that looked at our current politicians and asked where are the great orators. Were are the people who can capture our imagination by the power of speech. Have we become so tied to soundbites and Twittering that we have forgotten how to use the spoken word. Some people say that preaching is coming to an end, that new media will overtake preaching. Yet even now as people become immersed in new forms of communication what I see are people who are also desperate to hear a real person speak (aren't you tired of automated telephone answering systems!!). The Church mustn't give up on preaching as some would have us do. Of course we need to adapt our style to the current age and the current need, pretty much as Whitefiled did, but we need to preach boldly, courageously and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Praying for Revival

I've been reading a great book recently by Roberts Liardon. It's called 'God's Generals - The Revivalists' and is a history of just some of the key people in revivals between mid 18th century to the present day (check out www.godsgenerals.com). It is a fascinating and hugely faith building read. So I thought I would spend a number of posts just refelecting on some of the events I have read about in the book.

The one things that stands out above all others as I read this book is that prayer is so central to seeing revival come. The book starts with just a brief story of the Moravians who had such a major influence on John and Charles Wesley. These were followers of the teaching of John Hus (left), who was burned at the stake for preaching against the doctrines of the Catholic Church in July 1415. They had spent many years simply looking for a place to worship until they settled in Herrnhut, Germany. In the August of 1727 they began to experience an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on their churches. This in turn led to a growing passion and conviction to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth and a desire for the power to make it happen. This led to them agreeing together to pray round the clock for the gospel to be spread and revival to come. This they did 24/7 for 100 years. Those 100 years saw them send out more missionaries than any other church at that time. It was also a time of tremendous revivals in the UK and America.

That same emphasis on prayer is then seen in the life of every revivalist that Liardon looks at. It is particularly evident in the life of Charles Finney who would send a colleague, Daniel Nash, ahead of him by 3 or 4 weeks into whatever city or town he was visiting to gather people to pray. Nash would pray with power and faith, Finney would preach and the Lord would do the rest.

What is evident as you read of the lives of these saints is that they prayed because they desperately wanted to see unchurched people saved and knew how desperately they needed the Spirit's power if that were to happen.

It is really easy to read these stories of the great men and women of God and feel guilty that our prayer lives look so weak by comparison. I know that much of my lack of prayer is because I know I can 'get by' in my own strength. I know that in my own strength and with what I know I can share my faith, preach a half decent sermon, lead and pastor, but the thing is I will never see the same results that Wesley or Whitefield or Finney saw. I look at my own prayer life and I know that I have ever reached the same level of desperation for God's power for salvation that these saints did. So that is now my prayer for myself 'Lord give that same desperation for your power' and maybe when I'm desperate enough I'll start praying like these revivalists.

I thought I was getting used to the poverty here in Haiti (which of course isn't a good thing). The this afternoon we went out to the mountains to the north east of Port au Prince. There we saw poverty on a completely different level to what we have seen so far.
In a small town in the moutains is Pastor Nahum who oversees a church and a small school of about 100 children. He and a guy called Timothy run the 'Back to Life' project in this small town. Here, as well as educating the children of the school, they also feed hundreds of malnourished children in the area and provide a home for 18 orphans. The home is actually the Pastors house, where he lives with his wife and six children. the building they live in is tiny for the 26 of them, but the Pastor and his wife do this without any regret. Instead we saw just the joy of being able to serve the Lord in this way. He didn't ask us for money to help build the new orphange he and Timothy are planning. He didn't ask us to provide food for the children. He just asked that we remember them in prayer.
Each day has been more shocking than the one before for Andreas and I. Tomorrow we fly out to the largest island around Haiti. It is called Lagonave and we will visit an orphange and the site where Compassion and others are looking to rebuild a hospital. We expect to see even greater poverty than we have seen so far.
The question going through my mind is that with so much need and poverty what can I do. That is where I think Compassion's idea of changing the world one child at a time comes into it's own. There are so many needs out here that it could be so hard to know what to do that paralysis sets in and nothing get's done at all. But something needs to be done and sponsoring a child is, at the very least, a great way of changing just one life. What I have seen so far tells me that sponsoring a child transforms the life of the whole family.
"All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do." Gal. 2:10.

It's Wednesday morning here in Haiti. Yesterday was such a full on day that I didn't have time to do a blog and was too exhausted by the the time we got in the room to go to bed. We travelled out of the city to a place call Leogane which had been badly affected by the earthquake. As we drove through the city and then out through some of the country we really got a chance to see both the devestating effects of the earthquake but, more shockingly, the devestating effects of poverty here in this country.
Whereever we go here there are people living in the worst possible conditions you can imagine. Hundreds of thousands of people still living in makeshift tents, either in large groups our simply dotted throughout devasted buildings. Many of the people still fortunate enough to still have a home that is standing are living in just the smallest, dirties buildings. Unemployment here is ridiculously high. Everywhere we go there are either groups of men gathered with nothing to do or people trying to make a living by setting up stalls inbetween the rubble on the pavements selling anything they can.
Yet the Haitian people have such tremendous heart and courage. We spent the day with Pastor Menard and the school he runs which caters for 800 children of all ages. All around the school there is nothing but tents and makeshift homes. Compassion pays for the most disadvantaged (it's all relative isn't it!!) children to attend his school. The other parents pay $120 a year for their children to go. Its is the most highly respected school in the area. These children are living in such abject poverty but sang songs to us about the goodness of God with huge smiles on their faces. They, and their teachers, meant every word. Pastor Menard is anothe extraordinary church leader. He told us about the day his church fell down in the quake and about how he felt when he couldn't reach church members stuck under the rubble of buildings they were living in. He told us that in the days after the quake he wore a baseball cap with the word's 'Jesus is my Boss' on it to remind everyone he met that there was someone greater than any earthquake. He told us that his passion to reach the lost and the broken is greater than ever. His church too has grown, more than doubled in the last year. And as we stood in the large makeshift tent that now functions as his church he told us ablout his hopes for the future. Jesus said "blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God". I've seen that today.

Blogging doesn't come naturally for me, but for the next week I have a reason to do so. Andrea and I are in Haiti with an organisation called Compassion who are showing us around some of the projects they have set up in partnership with local churches. It is our first time into one of the poorest countries in the world. Each day I will give a brief idea of what we've been up to.

Today was surprising. We met Pastor Ivan (I don't know how his name is spelt!) who leads a church in an area called Delmas in Port-au-Prince. An amazing pioneer who has grown a huge church that is seeking to radically transform its community through child sponsorship. They work with 500 children as part of their child development program all chosen from the poorest families in their area. Their main building was intact after the earthquake but some of the others they had collapsed. They have temporary 'buildings' (walls with tarpaulin sheets for the roof) that double as classrooms during the week and a worship space on sunday.

Every sunday they have three services, at each service they have some people meeting for worship on the ground floor, some on the second and others on the third floor. Each service is three hours long. the pastor said his church loves to worship! All together there are 8000 people in his church. At every service they will see 50-70 people come to Jesus and the church has grown by 3000 since the earthquake. Pastor Ivan said that when the earthquake came people thought it was jesus coming back and that has made them reconsider what they think about Jesus. This humble, visionary Pastor is looking to raise $3million to build a worship space for 25,000 people and he has already bought some of the land around his current church to enable growth to happen.

Today was surprising because I thought I would be talking about kids and poverty and despair. Instead I'm talking about hope and vision. Amidst the rubble and dire poverty God is moving powerfully. That really shouldn't be a surpise should it!

Whatever It Takes

"I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some." 1 Cor 9:22

How many friends do you have on facebook? Some people pride themselves on how many they have, I don't know what the record is but I know some people who have almost 1000! Every friend, on Facebook or not, who isn't a follower of Jesus is part of your mission field. It is you assignment to share Jesus with them at every opportunity and in every possible way. If you assessed your friends and looked at what they were like how would you describe them. Sociologists would say that mostly we find friends who are in some way like us. They will have a similar background, similar interests (that's why most christians don't have non-christian friends!), similar job etc. What does that mean for our mission?

Paul could have easily have been a missionary to the jews. His background, upbringing and education seemed to make him the perfect missionary to the jewish people. However, he spent most of his time as a missionary to non-jews. He learned what it would take to adapt and change in order to be effective as a witness to Jesus amongst different cultures and people. He says in 1 Cor 9 that he became like a slave in order to reach slaves, like a jew to reach jews, to the weak he bacame weak. Paul did whatever it took to reach those people that Jesus sent him to, even though that meant great change for him personally.

Your mission field is your circle of friends and family who you see regularly. But God also puts across your path people who he is calling you to witness to. People who may not ever meet another Christian, people who may be very different to you, people who you may not even like - what will you do with those people. What would it take to be in a position to share your faith with them? It would take some level of relationship, it would mean you taking the time and effort to get to know them, to be alongside them and to discover what God might be doing in their lives.

Who is God calling you to get to know today?

Learning From Paul 2

"Paul took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyranus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord" Acts 19:9,10

If finding the places where people gather was a key to Paul's methods, the second is the time he gave to a place. Here in Acts 19 in Ephesians he spends 2 years, elsewhere he also spends substantial time preaching and developing churches. However, there are also ocassions when he spends very little time in a town, city or region, even if those times were proving fruitful.

What he doesn't do, however, is spend any length of time in places where there was no fruit and there were those times even for a missionary as good as Paul. Just look at his time in Athens in Acts 17, he spent time, day after day, debating in the synagogue and market place, but it says at the end 'A few men became followers of Paul and believed'. Compared to other places Paul does not seem to have spent a lot of time there before moving on to Corinth.

Jesus says in Mark 6:11 "And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them." They are tough words for us, especially if we are trying to share Jesus with people who we care about. The more we care, the more likely it is we will be happy to spend time trying to show the love of Jesus with them even if they are not responsive in any way. The same can happen in our clusters. A cluster can spend a ot of time working with a specific group of people or in a particular area and not see any positive response. There are two things we need to recognise in those situations.

Firstly, Paul learned that sometimes we are called to sow or water seeds rather than reap the fruit. In those situations do what you can to let people see Jesus as best you can and then move on. Others will cme along to water and reap, that's the way God works in these situations. But secondly, remember time is short. Time spent on someone who will not respond means time lost on people who would respond. Paul could have spend long periods of time in places were the response was negligible and missed out on places where the fruit was ripe for picking.

Who are the people you are trying to reach out to. Do you need to stay or to move on?

Learning From Paul 1

"Paul took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyranus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord" Acts 19:9,10

Paul is perhaps the greatest missionary the church has ever seen. He was responsible for planting and establishing numerous churches as well as leaving behind letters that continue to shape our understanding of God and guide how we should be as churches. Whenever Paul travelled around different cities he usually followed what seems like a method that we can learn from today.

Firstly, he went to the places where spiritual people hung out. For the most part that meant he would go to the Synagogue in that city. The Synagogue was a great place for him to go to as it gave him the opportunity to preach Jesus and debate with the Rabbis there. However, when that route wasn't possible he went to other places like the Lecture Hall belonging to Tyrannus or the Areopagus in Athens (Acts 17) or a river were people gathered to pray and debate (Acts 1611ff). These are all places were people were spiritually open and had an interest in religious things. There in these places he would preach, debate and argue, heal the sick and begin to build a church.

Today it's not that easy to find gatherings of spiritually open people apart from in Church, which kind of defeats the object! But it isn't hard to find places where people gather more generally and usually in those places you will find people who are spiritually open. It could be in the staff room at work, the pub, the shopping centre. The thing is, every reason why people gather usually has some sort of spiritual connection. The staff room is the place of fellowship where relationships are built. The pub can be the place of debates and discussions or a place to drown out the hurt and pain. Shopping is according to many sociologists is the new religion, most people shop in the big shopping centres more for the experience than the actual shopping. Our issue isn't finding places where people gather but finding ways of bringing Jesus into those places and there are no easy answers to that question.

When I was working for the Halifax Bank there were two places where people gathered. In my imaturity as a Christian I avoided both really most of the time. During the day it was the staff room were people gathered, while I usually went to the Christian coffee shop down the road. After work it was the pub, but I was usually too busy going to christian groups to go there. Looking back I remember how 'spiritual' I felt at those times, but now I recognise how fear was paralysing me in the mission field that God had placed me.

Why not spend some time today thinking about where you live, work or play and ask yourself 'where are people gathering?' Are you there in those times and places or are you too busy being spiritual instead of being a missionary?