Splinters

The number of groups that I discover that spring up in our city is phenomenal.

Groups that are birthed out of people refusing to be harnessed; who have no ability, anointing or mandate to lead; who actually add to the awful view that the world has of the ‘church’. Proportionally these groups are inspired by people who are hurt by their refusal to be discipled and we all know that ‘hurt people, hurt people’!

If only the world knew that ‘church’ is not the weird and wonderful groups that attribute their activity as ‘following the spirit’, but is a beautiful and awesome thing that Jesus is committed to building. Where there is fracturing and hemorrhaging you can definitely identify as not the work of Jesus – Jesus builds!

My advice is stay away from these unharnessed, rebellious and unaccountable groups. Get into church, throw yourself in and serve leaders who are mandated, anointed and held to account.

Splinters are small, painful and stubborn.

The reality is good though. The body eventually rejects splinters as foreign bodies.

Jesus will build His church.

creating the space

Here we are.

7 months into the most explosive church growth and excitment I have seen to date!

We now at getting ready for the ‘more’ that lies ahead.

Psalm 109 [TM] says ‘My mouth’s full of great praise for God, I’m singing his hallelujahs surrounded by crowds’

We all want to say amen,

My attention is drawn to the guy who is watch keeper, gate keeper and kids church pastor who needs more staff and a bigger building.

There is a tendancy to think that a great band, a great sermon and the ‘power’ of God will fill the place.

When you see the place packed out you realise that maybe what killed off revivlals of the past was that they failed to help people into the venues and it became uncomfortable and then people gave up.

We are building and expecting more growth.

We have to stay healthy!

Good Food & Advertising

Today I had the privilege of spending 1 hour with someone who, I think, is the finest leader the nation of Great Britain has to offer.

David Shearman, who leads Christian Centre, Nottingham [where I did my internship] is an incredible man who has had a dramatic impact on my life. In fact, every time I meet him he inspires me to pursue Jesus even more intensely.

Out of the many things he said, one I thought was appropriate to post here:

‘Good restaurants don’t need to advertise’.

How true is that?!

He was challenging me to build deep, significantly and with longevity in mind. He was talking about being rooted in the Bible and providing great ‘food’ for the house.

Any great restaurant doesn’t need the advisement to promote their menu. They have the wonderful ‘word of mouth’ activity. It got me thinking about Bethel City Church.

Yes we are passionate about the promotion of the church across our city but we are more passionate about the content of our church than our appearance.

My father used to say ‘high on style, low on content’.

After listening to David today, I am convinced we are committed to both style and content. With our major on the content.

During my drive back to Stoke on Trent from Nottingham, I resolved to increase my study time; increase my devotional activity; increase my prayer time and increase the ink usage in my journal.

I challenge all the leaders of the House to read 4 chapters of the bible per day. I challenge myself, not regarding the volume, but the depth of my daily intake.

Foundations in church life & leadership don’t get more important that God’s word.

‘Good restaurants don’t need to advertise’.

Big Nan!

Today was the funeral of my Big Nan!

Ruth Parker.

She was an awesome woman.

She was someone that I always admired because of her strong determination in life. She had a passion for life, family and friends.

I will never forget her.

Due to difficulties in the immediate family that I recently discovered, my relationship with Nan was not as regular as I was able to achieve over the last 6 months.

I think, no, I know that she would be proud of Becky and I standing our ground, refusing to be restricted and now enjoying all that life has to offer.

Nan was awesome. I love her and miss her! She was an example of how to be strong even through the tough times.

Big ‘My Way’ Grandad was the love of Big Nans life. She loved him til the last.

I hope we loved Nan til the last!

‘Big Nan’ was our childhood name that we gave Nan due to her stature and strength.

Love goes out to: Linda & Ron, Dave & Lorraine, Aunty Rachel, Gill, Mum and Dad, Rachel, Sarah, Al, Bob, Rez, J & Mark

Nan – I will always remember and love you!

Building Church for the Google Generation

I have the awesome privilege of leading a great church. I am 33. I say this not to celebrate my young disposition but to emphasis that here at Bethel City Church we are not theorising about the Google Generation but it is a description of who we are.

I believe that there are 8 factors to a winning formula in building a church for the 21st Century:

1. Accessibility – Bethel City Church is pretty much a church that never sleeps. There is always something going on. People of the 21st century don’t stop buying when the shops close – they go online. Pizza time can vary from 9am right the way through to 9am!!??! We need to realise that people of the Google Generation love church to be fully accessible whether this be in our programme, web sites, relational activity or even leaders – we have to be accessible.

2. Strategy – The most frequently asked question by the Google Generation is ’Why?’ – if there is no answer to this question then we aren’t interested. It still amazes me that we do church in the buildings that we can afford. No business or organisation does this. Our location matters! There has to be strategy/ reason behind where we meet. That is why we are aiming to establish ‘centre’s of mission and ministry’ in every postcode in the city. Why? We are a City Church and want people to know that the love of JESUS is not, like other things in life, a postcode lottery but a postcode certainty -JESUS loves, simple as that!

3. Environment – Much of what is declared about Jesus is from genuine and heartfelt people. However much of the way it is seen by the world is from shabby buildings called church that, if a resturant, would be shut down. We got to begin to take pride in our appearance. The environment that we present the Message of Jesus in is extremely important to this generation. We have spent the last 6 months enhancing our appearance and we want to be a church that Jesus is proud of like a groom is bride of his bride!

4. Investment – If we think that church is about Sunday morning attendance then we will loose the Google Generation. We have to ensure that this generation has something to live for, give them something to invest in and empower them to see a return on their investment. The Google Generation has to see a return on it’s efforts - lives and communities transformed. It is often descibed as ‘church hop’ but we look for a church that will give us the opportunity to give. Attendance is nothing, giving is everything. Bethel City Church is growing partially through people transplanting from other churches, why, because there is opportunity to release all that they have into the house!

5. Loyal – I love KSWISS trainers. They are the only ones that I’ll buy. There are many on the market but KSWISS are for me. Something that previous generations may not appreciate about this generation is that we are loyal. We are loyal to the branding that we appreciate. Much of what we do as church has more in common with the 19th cnetury than the 21st century. Please, don’t force us to be apart of church, release us to choose and then we will build our lives upon the church we recognise.

6. Compliment – I grew up as a PK [pastors' kid] and my childhood memories are of competition with the church down the road or neighbouring city. Now as senior pastor of Bethel City Church, I can honestly say that I champion Sean Smith [Senior Pastor, Hope Community Church] and others like him in their pursuit to build great churches in this city. The Google Generation is not built upon competition but we know that we are building church that Compliments other churches in this city. It is awesome to have such friends as Phil Barber [Potters House] who have such different church backgrounds as I but we are all working to reach this city for Jesus together. Churches that attract people of the Google Generation are secure and compliment what God is doing, not insecure and competing with others.

7. Community – Bethel City Church has the wonderful www.lovestoke.org based out of our main campus and offices on Leek Road, Abbey Hulton. The Google Generation is more than used to media coming at us from every direction. Mobile phones, internet, TV, DVD, you name it, it’s in our face. If church is only operating with one expression – Sunday mornng, then you will loose us. As a generation we thrive on diverse ways of communication. We have to build church in a way that communicates the Christian Faith in various ways. Community action does this. Ministries like www.lovestoke.org is unique in it’s abilitiy to gather people from all walks of life, be mobilised and tangably demonstrate JESUS to the community. We have over 100 volunteers of which most are part of the Google Generation. We love being interactive!

8. Public – And finally, here at Bethel City Church, we recognise the importance of being in the public eye! As a Google Generation, we are at the forefront of revolution; the epicentre of tackling environmental issues such as global warming; the driving force behind demolishing discrimination and prejudice; pioneering effective ways of making poverty history; excel and being community activists and committed to ensuring we hand something better on top the next generation. As a generation we are no longer interested in reading the headlines, moaning and praying. Our attitude is one of pray, act and make the headlines – this is the type of church that the Google Generation wants to be apart of.

In conclusion, usually when this type of stuff is written people respond with such comments as ‘unless the LORD builds the house…’ Honestly, please don’t! We know! We also know that God sent ‘labourers into the harvest field’ – HE WANTS US to get on and use the God given initiative that HE gave us to do something that brings glory to Him. Don’t be a sceptic. Please!

Maybe see you Sunday!

the sound of victory is in the house!

We changed our name to Bethel City Church!

We have had floods, fire and bereavement!

Yet we continue to praise!

We changed our name because we wanted to identify ourselves with the citythat we serve. We changed our name because we wanted to continue to advance even in the tough times!

On Sunday morning, I knew that God is for us and that we and doing more than breaking through; we are pushing through and beginning to subdue.

We are known as the church where the bounce is in the house. On Sunday the bounce turned into a battle cry!

The sound of VICTORY was heard. It was immense. It was spontaneous. It was awesome!

God is doing something here.

If you are bored of church? If you are looking for a new, fresh and radical expression of church? If you are looking for church that is on it’s way up then Bethel City Church should be your next stop.

Numbers 10:29 says is all:

‘We are on our way to the place the LORD promised us… Come with us and we will do you good’

lead, even when it’s tough

The last 10 days have been the toughest in leadership that I have experienced.

After a week that included fire, flood, total communcations collapse and the death of 2 very dear and close people (one of whom was my ‘Big’ Nan!), I was expecting maybe a little sympathy from God.

As I was praying, I felt God emphasis the fact that He had called me to lead.

Leadership isn’t selective.

You are either a leader or you’re not. You don’t choose to bail out if you’ve had a bad day.

This week has given me the awesome privilege of leading this great church through breakthrough. Due to the ‘breakthrough’, we are not letting up and now we aim to ‘push through’ to ensure we ’subdue’ that which is rightfully ours!

What is cool about this tough 10 days is that they have been the most ground breaking days also: A new house for the family, a 2nd church, the Lord Majors Appeal was given to us to host the humanitarian side of an initiative in the Congo, building renovations continue, we now have an awesome ophanage and church planting ministry in Romania and the church KEEPS GROWING!

‘And that’s not all. You will have complete and free access to God’s kingdom, keys to open any and every door: no more barriers between heaven and earth, earth and heaven.’ [Matt 16 TM]

… and the church KEEPS GROWING!