Bethel: a ‘certain’ or ‘awesome’ place

In any new venture, I have discovered, that to breakthrough, revelation & application are required. Becky & I have embarked on a phenomenal journey that a 33 year old Stoke lad rarely gets the opportunity. This journey is to lead a great church, in a great city, into the great things of God.

We are seriously not messing around or playing church. We are, along with the rest of the Bethel community, building ‘a church that loves people for who they are and inspires them to become all that they can be’. We are building numerically to a strength where our city has to notice and listen to us; we are building strategically to a standard where others will follow our model; and we are building generationally to the level that we are already planning succession 20 years from now. We are serious. This is for real! People not knowing us may read this and think ‘nice, young man – how long will he last?’; people who know us are moving into Stoke on Trent from 200 miles away to be apart of this because they know – THIS IS FOR REAL!

So what is the revelation & application required for this phenomenal venture to become a reality?

Quite simple, learn from scripture!

Genesis 28 tells how the place that later was named ‘Bethel’ started as a ‘certain’ place and became an ‘awesome’ place.

Bethel has to move from being that ‘certain’ place and become that ‘awesome’ place. It is a process that is clearly marked out and we are now, through the next 7 weeks going to be gaining the revelation and then applying it to ‘the house’ and our individual lives.

Honestly, Sunday was wonderfull to watch the scores of people respond and begin to move from ‘certain’ to ‘awesome’.

I’m so wired about next Sunday morning.

sat nav: ‘10.30am’, ’st2 8by’, ‘find’.

The importance of ‘THEN’

I like to read.

Anything!

The back of the Mars bar that I shouldn’t be eating, the small print of the contractual agreement of the credit card application that I am not even going to fill in and even the information that you recieve about dietary requirements of the latest banned health craze.

I like to read!

However, it’s amazing when reading the Bible, I miss words out. My eyes register the word and yet my mind chooses that it isn’t that important. You know the words I mean: the small, insignifianct words.

and.

the.

is.

then.

If I am going to learn then I am to develop the ability to dig deep into the small, insignificant words. If God decided that the words on the page were important enough to be there, then they must carry an important message.

Psalm 144 is a great psalm. One of huge importance to us as the leadership of this community named Bethel, one of essential importance to us as we embark on building a church that effects the generations to come.

The psalm talks about our ’sons’ being like well nurtured plants; our ‘daughters’ being like pillars that adorn a palace.

We are believing that our numerical strength will be strong enough that our city has to respond to the influence we carry, Psalm 144 carries this as it states that ‘our barns will be filled with every kind of provision. Our sheep will increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields’.

It talks of ‘no more cry of distress in our streets’. We want that in our city!

Yet Psalm 144 remains impotant if we dismiss the ’small, insignificant’ words.

‘Then’ (v12) shows us what is required if we will see great things realised. Psalm 144:1-11 need to take place ‘then’ we will see the reality of our dreams.

‘Small, insignificant’ words or ‘linch pin, gateway’ words. These provide the revelation and insight required to bring scripture alive in the 21st century. The Bible isn’t merely stories of ancient greats or therioes that have now been left being by church for the latest leadership journal.

Scripure is absolutely the way forward!

And the key to learning is to ensure the importance of ‘then’