Pressing On

Have just returned from our International Conference which was held in Thailand this time. We managed to dodge the troubles around Bangkok and saw some fires, and heard some gunfire ... but nothing dramatic on that level. Watching elephants paint ... that was something else! (See photo - believe me, the camera is not lying here!) But what did I take away from the two weeks we were together, 200 leaders from around the WEC world? The theme of the conference was 'Inspired and Compelled' ... and I certainly was, as the Spirit moved to inspire and the love of Christ for the unreached peoples of the world compelled. There was a renewing of our commitment to the core of who we are as WECers; Core passion - Christ and the gospel Core values - Faith, Holiness, Sacrifice and Fellowship Core aims - reaching people, planting churches and mobilising the body of Christ to complete the task of sharing the wonder of God's message of love, forgiveness and reconciliation in Christ. Recognis...

I write this to give a little more explanation to what I posted yesterday; There are two comments that I have heard often when talking to Pastors or Church Leaders ... "I have a Church of 200 going on 20!" ... or ... "20% of the people do 80% of the work" ... they might express these ideas in different ways, but they amount to the same thing. Mobilising Christians to mission has to start by encouraging Christians to be sold out for Christ in every area of life ... Charles Finney wrote "A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God ... the first step is a deep repentence, a breaking down of heart, a getting down into the dust before God, with deep humility and a forsaking of sin." We can pray for revival as much as we like, but it will never happen until we take this work seriously. Thus Pauline's picture is a very powerful image that encourages me to pray. Here are some notes from Pauline to flesh out what I wrote yesterday ... ...

I want to get this of before I go on some travels and whilst it is fresh in my mind ... What a weekend! I should imagine that there was approximately 2,500 to 3,000 people who attended the Missions festival over the course of the three days - to hear the specific challenge of "Praying for the Nations!". The ministry of Pete Greig, George Verwer and Michael Jaffarian of Operation World was challenging on all levels ... and inspiring. Only time will tell what fruit will come from the weekend, and from all the hardwork ... but can I please encourage all who went to send out through your blogs, facebook pages, twitter feeds, emails, letters etc. through all your networks, what the Lord said to you, how encouraged/challenged/inspired etc you have been ... and, perhaps more importantly, in the days, weeks and months to come what changes it has brought to your life. Keep the buzz going! Role on GO2011!! BTW - What a great team effort from the wider WEC fellowship, and all those othe...

In 1991, when the Lord first spoke to Pauline and I concerning the challenge to go overseas as short-term missionaries with WEC, He used the verse in Ephesians 5:14 ' Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you’. At that point in time I had only been a believer for 18 months, and had no idea what the Lord was leading us into … but nonetheless the challenge came to me – Was I willing to wake up? To rise from my religious comfort and slumber and let the Lord be ‘Lord’ over my life, what I do, where I go etc etc? There was much I did not understand but what I did understand was that – above all else – I wanted His blessing to be poured out on me, and that waking up to His claims upon my life, and following His lead was a key to this. Thankfully the Lord gave us the grace to be obedient and 6 weeks later we were in Senegal with WEC! A few years later in 2005, after we had joined WEC as long-term workers and had returned from our second spell in Senegal in 2...

I was asked to prepare some ministry on the guiding principles of WEC - Faith, Holiness, Sacrifice and Fellowship - and how they work themselves out in a contemporary world. In preparing I was encouraged by my conclusion that i n as much as the principles are based on biblical truth, then they are eternally relevant. What each generation has to grapple with is bringing His promises and His truth into their contemporary world, and come to the place of realising that we can confidently build our whole life and sphere of activity on them. Why? Because they are an expression of who He is! Let me give you a practical example of what I mean. In our principle of faith we state that ... We are totally dependent on God as supplier of every need in our lives and ministry, and totally trust in Him to bring His revealed purposes to pass in spite of opposition, difficulty and apparent impossibility ... Psalm 23:1, Mt 6:33, 2 Cor 9:8, Php 4:19, Heb 11 .... Now the passages are familiar for most Chri...

I love reading! Everything from books and magazines to competitions and recipes on the side of cereal packets if I am desperate. I see this as a good thing, and being in this role - I find that people are always passing articles and books to me with the recommendation 'You should read this!' Now I read quite widely, but want to focus these thoughts on the nature of Christian books that I have been encouraged to read recently. (I should clarify that these have mostly been in the devotional genre.) These books have been both contemporary and classic - and it is this that I want to reflect on. Most of the contemporary books I have stopped reading after one, perhaps two chapters. This has been for two reasons, both of which increasingly irk me. 1/ The author has said everything they want to say in the first chapter and the rest of the book seems to be restating the same thing in different ways ... Ie - there is a lack of spiritual depth ... Instead we get sound bites! 2/ These book...

I was walking home in the snow this morning, having dropped the smallest member of the family off at school, my normal habit when doing this is to walk in a straight line across a nearby common to get home ... Which I started to do this morning. This was harder work than normal due to the snow which was deeper where I wanted to go, so I found myself deviating in order to find a path that many had already used ... Thus it was well worn down, flatter and easier to walk on ... Then the challenge came to me 'Is this how I have been called to live my Christian life?' Not following the normal paths and cutting afresh into new areas is always harder work ... But it is worth it - in fact, if we are being obediant to the word of the Lord we will always be following another! It then reminded me of the time in, 1993, when the Lord gave me what I can only describe as a 'prophetic burden' ... which has been foundational in the shaping of my life and ministry since ... Occasionally...