What you think matters is the blog of the Newfrontiers Theology Forum and I’ve been consistently impressed by the wit and sharpness of the writing and the helpfulness of the content. Here are some examples that stood out for me:
So whether you agree with what they say or not, I’d urge you to subscribe to and engage with this blog for the building up of your theological faculties.
I wanted to highlight and bring to your attention a new website recently launched by Newfrontiers, Jubilee+. It brings back to the centre of our attention care and compassion for the needy and the vulnerable and I hope it will be a significant resource for our churches. Here’s the introduction from my friend and leader of the social justice team, Martin Charlesworth.
“What we are aiming to do is to provide you with the help you need to encourage and support you and your church in your social action agenda. We are aware that many churches are in need of resources, ideas, contacts and encouragement as they pursue their own projects and work in their communities. We hope this site provides something of what you need.
This site is dedicated to social and community action within the Newfrontiers family of churches in the UK. However, if you are from another Church grouping we hope you find the information useful.
Whilst the site is strongly focused on Newfrontiers, we will also feature partner organizations and important information about what is happening in other churches across the UK so you can see the wider context within which we are working.”
In the interests of full disclosure I should say that I count some of the staff and members of Kings as friends and am part of the same family of churches as the author of this book, Steve Tibbert. It’s always a slightly tricky thing when you review a book by someone you know. Being a sycophant isn’t my thing but then I’ve not always got the balance right when making public comments about people who, after all, are on the same team. That makes it sound like I’m about to pan this book, which I’m really not at all.
Good to Grow is the story of Kings Church in south-east London since Steve’s became the leader in the early 90′s. It’s a story of a church that has grown from some 200 to well over a thousand regular attenders, now meeting across multiple sites and pushing ahead at some rate of knots. As such it’s a story to be applauded. There simply aren’t enough stories like this in the UK of churches growing consistently over the years and breaking through significant barriers in terms of numbers and diversity.
Good to Grow also contains the leadership lessons that Steve has learnt along the way and Steve is a very focused leader and there is lots of good stuff here particularly on building a diverse church, building a great marriage and the challenge of regularly retooling your leadership team to be ready for the next season of growth.
The chapters are short and the tone is conversational so you race through the pages quickly and nowhere does it get bogged down in detail. I read it in about three hours and it’s time well spent.
At times the book is a bit uneven and patchy and this is mostly when the story and the leadership lessons get mixed up and the chapter loses focus, this was more evident at the beginning of the book as the story of the early years of Steve’s tenure was recalled. The book became much sharper and found its stride from the middle onwards.
However, any quibbles I have are minor and it certainly doesn’t spoil the book. The big take home lesson for me was the importance of building a great team which undoubtedly Steve has done. So for an encouraging story of church growth, for honest assessment of how to build a diverse multi-racial team and for other useful leadership lessons Good to Grow is a worthwhile book for a leader to read.
In the past I’ve been a bit critical of our Together on a Mission conferences but there has been a consistent high point every year. Without fail the Thursday night of prayer and giving is extraordinary.
It’s a genuine joy to watch people give exuberantly and generously as year after year close to a million pounds is given on one night. In fact it says something when there’s a slight air of disappointment if the total is only say £950,000!
It’s a thrilling thing to be among 5000 people praying for the nations and I think it’s to Terry Virgo’s enormous credit that prayer so fundamentally shapes our gatherings.
Last year I sat up in the gods watching thousands of arms stretched out in prayer as we earnestly sought God for nation after nation and I thought to myself, next year that will be me on the stage. And this it was!
I was really grateful to have a short chance to tell the thousands that the very next morning our family was flying to Sweden and something of the desire God has given us for this country and to plant a church in Stockholm. It was then profoundly moving to have those same thousands prayer with great passion, vigour and faith and to have people ahead of you in the journey come to you, lay on hands and pray for you as if they were coming with you. It was a remarkable privilege.
I’m not sure what the conferences of other church networks are like, what they focus on, what sense of unity and vision they have. I’ve certainly not come across or even to be honest heard of anything remotely to that. So while I think there are other conferences that will do many other things better I’m not sure I’d trade any of that if it meant missing out on that prayer night.
So it’s not too much of a stretch to say that we feel sent not just by a local church but also by a wider church family together on a mission. I hope as we grow and devolve from the centre to the regions that somehow that sense of together will not be lost.
For some great photos of the event go here
“It has always been the vision for our church that it would be a church that plants churches and makes disciples of all nations, that we would be involved in the mission of God in the world. The steps we have taken to form Hope Church are testimony of our commitment to do that.
However over the past nine months or so, Emma and I, have become convinced that God is calling us to once again step out in faith and be involved in the planting of a new church. Our new destination could not be any more different to our present situation but we go where the call is, and that call is to Stockholm, Sweden.
God has a habit of not letting experiences in our past go to waste and while I was a theology student at the University of Nottingham, I spent 6 months as an exchange student in Uppsala, Sweden. Now it’s time to go back.
Over the past couple of years I’ve had a number of approaches about leading other churches or planting into new towns and although none of those were right, the experience of talking through these opportunities helped us clarify in our hearts what we were looking for and what would need to happen in order for us to be able to move, if that was indeed what the Lord had for us.
At the beginning of this year (2010) I believed that the Lord wanted us as a church to make a few more international connections in addition to our support of churches in Ukraine and I made a few enquiries. One of those enquiries related to Sweden as I retained a soft spot for the country after having lived there.
Then in the spring I read in the Newfrontiers Connect magazine this prophetic word about ‘starbursts over Scandinavia‘ that for the first time to my knowledge mentioned the idea of a church plant in Stockholm. I knew that God was speaking to me but I still hadn’t said much to Emma. Partly because I have a lot of crazy ideas and I needed to know that this idea was hanging around because it was God speaking to me.
At the May leaders prayer and fasting gathering I spoke with a few people involved in this initiative and as we prayed for the nations increasingly felt that this was a burden God was placing on me. So it was time to talk to Emma. I gave her a call and got her to look by my bed where I had a ‘teach yourself Swedish’ book and basically said ‘I think God is calling us to Stockholm.’
Not too long after that another major change happened in our lives, which is significant to this story. Previously we had always described our involvement in Illuminate as an ‘anchor’ to Shrewsbury. However as it became clear that we could no longer run the shop we were moving into uncharted waters. On the day I told a friend that we either had to find new owners or close the business he shared a prophetic word with me. He saw us in the pouch of an old Roman catapult and the ropes that held the pouch down were the links to the shop, as God cut the ropes to the shop the catapult would be released and we would be flung into the far distance. I knew again that God was speaking.
Emma received some significant confirmations in Scripture as God began to reassure her He was in this. On two separate but not consecutive occasions as we discussed Sweden, the next verses in Emma’s devotional reading were two verses that had previously given her peace about significant moves in her life.
We spoke with our church oversight (a bit like a spiritual director) and told him what we were thinking and he was supportive of is pursuing this development. At the end of June I read something by Terry Virgo that made my heart race it ended with, “The restoration of the church has consumed you, but now a new day is dawning. Whereas the word ‘church’ has stirred you, let the word ‘nations’ burn in your heart – because it’s time to look at the harvest fields and it’s time to go.”
At Together on a Mission conference in Brighton in July I met with some people from the Swedish churches and a Swedish couple who have been living in the UK for the past ten years who have also independently sensed a call to church plant to Stockholm. We were beginning to form relationships and connections. It was in Brighton that I first told my fellow elder Nick what we believed God was speaking to us about and asked him if he was in faith to take on the lead role here.
This was an important moment for me, 10 years ago at the start of the adventure in north Shrewsbury, I said to God I’d give 7 years and if at that time the church had leadership to take it on, was growing and seeing people saved and added I’d ask him where next. A few years ago I did just that but as a church not all the pieces were in place, although I could see and had faith for them to fall into place in time. Right now we see leaders emerging, people being saved, baptised and added, we’re in the best shape we’ve ever been in and I think that God has used this time both to prepare me and the church to be ready. I believe that Nick will do an excellent job and is certainly in a better position for his first lead role than I was 10 years ago. I’m confident that at this time our leaving need not slow up the momentum God has given us and that wasn’t the case a few years ago. What I’m saying is this feels like the right time.
The very next meeting we were in God spoke prophetically about new arrangements as God moved people to the nations. Now prophetic words and sermons at Newfrontiers conferences are neither unexpected nor new, it happens almost every time. But this time instead of thinking, ‘that’s nice’ I was thinking, ‘this is me’. It was a massive difference.
I began to read fresh books on church planting and as I read one by David Stroud I read Gen 12:1 which leapt out to me: Now the LORD said to Abram, “The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.”
Now I’m no Abram and I’m no genius, but even I couldn’t miss this one and it made even more sense given that I now work in what feels like to me ‘my father’s house’ (we converted an old church building into offices). We continued to work on relationships with those who also felt called to Stockholm and this culminated in out ‘holiday’ to Stockholm in September, a final piece in the puzzle for us. We spoke with both my parents and Emma’s mum and they were all incredibly supportive. Emma’s mother is so supportive that in fact she is planning on moving with us to be involved in this new adventure. Those involved apostolically in our region and in Scandinavia have all supported and encouraged this step for us.
We were clear; God had given us all this and more besides, we had enough. It was time to be obedient, we were going. So it is my intention to hand over leadership of Hope Church by the end of June 2011 and hopefully (if all the practical pieces fall into place) to move to Sweden in July 2011.
For the first nine months we probably won’t be in Stockholm but based elsewhere while we enrol as students and learn Swedish and become familiar with the country from the inside and make clear our plans to move into Stockholm early summer 2012. For at least that year we will need to raise financial support to allow us live there.
At this point in time there’s many questions we don’t know the answer to, but we’re confident that God will provide for us and that is the step that the Lord is asking us to take.”
I’ll write up the process we went through soon and begin to post some reflections on that stage but this is a heads up really that soon I’ll be writing about Stockholm (and why you should move there!) and church planting and a whole bunch of other such topics.
But for now I’ll leave it there. If you have any questions just ask and I’ll try to answer them either in a comment or in a follow up post.
It was no surprise to read something like this in the Guardian online (I share many of the Guardian’s views on the environment, economics, development, politics but definitely not faith). While this idea is probably in the realms of fantasy, it doesn’t hurt us to know what our opponents would like to do given the chance. In this case severely restrict, control and ban Christian youth festivals like Newday after all,
“A scrutiny of the youth evangelism strategies of one of the UK’s largest faith groups, evangelical Christians, should give liberals serious cause for concern.”
Among the ridiculous things we teach young people apparently, are that God will judge people for sinful thoughts, that witchcraft is bad and that God heals people. Ridiculous.
The author’s solution to such nonsense?
“I believe a public commission should be established that issues non-legally binding guidelines on the forms of doctrines that it is desirable that children are taught. The preaching of hellfire or of divine faith healings to children could form part of such guidelines. Non-compliers could be “named and shamed” by such a commission.”
Well aside from the fact that no government is going to want to appoint a doctrinal commission to rehash the Christian faith it is interesting that secularists do want to control, prescribe and mandate what is or is not acceptable to believe and apparently in a modern democracy – and it seems God as judge and healer is no longer acceptable.
This is not going to happen any time soon but like I said, nice to know their plans in advance.
Secondly. he reflected that it most of the time a conference is just a conference and not a movement (although he felt this one with a ministry behind it was a bit different).
“But at the end of the day, conferences end. And then you’re left with real life, with the daily grind. You leave the place of refuge, the time of focus, and return to life with all its busyness and distraction and difficulty.”
And here’s where I think Newfrontiers has stood out for me. I’m not known for publicly praising our conferences so I hope I’m not going to damn them with faint praise but our conferences have prayer at the heart of them. We pray as leaders, as regions, as churches and as individuals for our gatherings and when they do they are not just a conference but the coming together of a movement. The movement already exists whether the conference does or not (read for example about our Front Edge conferences and also here).
So at our conferences things often change, as a result of them people return home with a call to church plant, move to another nation, step up into leadership, make themselves available to serve in a whole new way – they really are together on a mission.
I’m not always a fan of everything that goes on, but I love the passionate heart for mission and that the conferences serve the mission (not the other way around) and act as a catalyst for change in some and an encouragement to keep going for others.
We do this three times a year and I really value the time out, the extended time in worship, the exhortation to pray, the openness to spiritual gifts. I come back refreshed, renewed by time with friends and in most of all from God’s presence. I very much appreciated calling on God to move in continental Europe and there was a strong sense of us taking ownership of this part of world mission.
There was a very strong contrast on the second morning as God began to speak to people about dealing with their fear and taking courage in leadership. A few hours later our perspective was shaped by news of persecution and martyrdom in various places around the world and the courage of believers who face death and prison for the cause of the Gospel. Surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses our fears seem a little smaller.
I was interested to read on my return to the digital world this article from Rowan Williams on the purpose of fasting which is ‘about more than going without food – it is connecting with reality and noticing the suffering of your neighbour.’ As we prayed for our brothers and sisters around the world I became aware of their suffering and determined to not close my eyes to this reality.
Church planting is not an easy thing to do, there’s a tonne of things to learn and to think about. Good reasons to have some good books on the subject and I’d recommend from the outset adding David Stroud’s Planting Churches, Changing Communities: A hands on guide to successful church planting.
It comes from the Newfrontiers family of churches and draws much of its material from within that network, however much of the advice would be useful or helpful no matter what your denomination or church movement.
It doesn’t particularly deal with theory or theology but very much concerns itself with the practical and personal side to church planting. What’s your vision? What qualities do you need? How do you manage your time and gather people? How do you build community and maintain momentum? What do you need to be ready to launch publicly? As a result of it being broken down into its various parts and with regular quotes and anecdotes from church planters you can motor through this book quite quickly. However if you’ve never planted a church before, you want to be making extensive notes and refer back to it regularly.
I guess I have one slight reservation, one that was flagged up by Howard Kellett not too long ago, when he said,
“In truth “you only launch once” is very much the language of the big company product launch, reaching the self focused consumer. So the more I reflect on the term the more I don’t feel comfortable with Godfirst Church Cheltenham as a Sunday morning product and even less at ease with the idea of Jesus followers as consumers.”
And there is the underlying idea that what you need to make your church fly are good musicians, good teaching, good kids work and a comfortable venue. My some what jaded reaction was ‘Perfect if you want the middle classes’. But if you’re planting into the inner city, or a rural area, or even just your average working class neighbourhood then you may not have any of those things and still be a great church.
Now I know Dave and I know he knows that. So now you know that I know that he knows or whatever. But the point is, in the book there’s this edge to consumer values that made me a bit uncomfortable and I know it’s not just me because one of the contributors to the book has said so.
None of that stops this book though from being on the shelf of every church planter and every church leader who hopes one day to help a church plant or send leaders. This is hands on, down to earth helpful stuff.
Terry Virgo: Being Reformed and Charismatic from Jubilee Church on Vimeo.
So what to make of it? Well to begin with we shouldn’t be surprised, firstly Philippa is director of the Centre for Social Justice that has been highly influential in forming Conservative party policy on many home affairs issues, the nearer the Conservatives get to office, the more intense the scrutiny (fair and otherwise). Secondly Philippa is a candidate for parliament in Sutton and Cheam and has been tipped for office, and she is fighting against the resurgent Liberal Democrats. This brings attention your way.
It should remind us of several important facts about our society. (more…)
*Update* Nicholas Ferguson from Catford adds his review of Newday and Adrian Warnock has his daughters report on her first time there. CCK have an interview with Mike Pilavachi.
*Update 23.08.09* Matt Hosiers posts a video from the young people of Gateway at Newday
Here’s another video for you:
TOAM just seems to fall between the gaps – it’s neither as sharp on leadership as Willow Creek, nor is it a church family event like New Wine (or as our own Stoneleigh used to be). It’s open to others but this year was all about Newfrontiers, it has theology but rarely stuff from people and places that stretch us (we didn’t even have any seminars by the authors of our own theological papers – which seems like a missed opportunity). It’s international but the majority of people are unsurprisingly from the UK.
I guess I still don’t really know what TOAM is for which always makes it hard to know whether I should go back again. The reason I do of course is for the relationships.
Having said that, I still want to learn and not be arrogant enough to think I know it all, so I’ll spend some time listening to the talks and seminars (available here).
The weather has been great but now everyone is tired. It’s time to go home. But God has been good and for some of our young people it has indeed been a new day.
The highlight of the day was the evening meeting – hundreds healed, hundreds giving their life to Jesus and hundreds more recommitting themselves to His lead. Three of our young people responded in some way to the Gospel and one that God had healed her back.
Please pray that this would be the start of something lasting and transforming in their lives and not simply a summer festival high. More details to follow (if I remember).
6.15am: I’m not supposed to wake up for another 45 minutes but I am so I get a warm shower for the first time since Saturday morning
7.00am: Time for a snooze
8.15am: Head into the centre of Norwich for an hour long feature on BBC Radio Norfolk (starts about 2hr 41 min in)
10am: Think it went quite well. Then get a tour around the impressive facilities of Kings Church
11am: Back on site but then spend 2 hours with SNYA
1pm: Boss some kids around and have lunch
2pm: Head off to the office for some work on press releases
5pm: Back to campsite for food and boss some teenagers around
6.40pm: Head to big top – 29th Chapter and Simon Brading led worship, Mike Pilavachi taught on the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. Tore the place apart and hundreds responded. Very funny, wise and focused on Jesus.
9.30pm: Back to campsite for some burgers and a chat with a friend before some much needed sleep.
You might have noticed that detail is getting less as the week goes on. That’s not a surprise.
7am: A sleep in today. Amen, hallelujah.
Hmm…can’t really remember the timings of things but the rest of my morning involves working on getting some media things sorted out as Chloe Smith MP was planning on visiting the projects, reading the Bible and other important things (probably).
2pm: I find myself in a tug-of-war competition. I’m in the surprising position of anchor man. we make it to the final but lose 4-2
3pm: I get fat after a massive plate of bangers & mash covered in baked beans
4pm: A couple of hours work on photos and searching for coverage
7pm: Head down to the big tent, can’t find my group. It’s Matt Redman leading worship and Mike Pilavachi speaking
7.45pm: One of our young people leaves feeling sick. Not too surprising as he’s eaten nothing and just drunk coke for the last three days. He’ll learn.
8pm: Pilavachi is on form. Great stuff and despite a massive amount of silly cheering at almost everything, the Holy Spirit begins to move and although some it looks weird, a young girl from church experiences the presence of God.
9-10.30pm: For the price of a deluxe milkshake I have an amazing talk with said young lady who goes to bed considering living her life for Jesus.
11pm: I’m too knackered to go back to deal with the press stuff as I’m back on Radio Norfolk tomorrow
5am: Wake up as I hear people pass the tent on their way for a shower. Oh good grief.
6.20am: My alarm goes off.
7.00am: I meet a tall leggy blond who drives me into the centre of Norwich in a small two seater sports car. I pinch myself. I’m not dreaming.
7.30am: Reality kicks in as we get to our destination, BBC Radio Norfolk where I’m interviewed about Newday (its about 1hr 46 minutes in on iPlayer – available for another week)
8.30am: back on site and have a meeting about any upcoming media issues
9.30am: finalise another press release and head back to camp
10.15am: miss the morning meeting and go for an unsatisfying run around the site. Might try and run off site next time
11.15am: catch up on some reading in the Word and the weather is good.
12pm: turns out our group on outreach at a Funday today so sort some of them out
4pm: back to camp after a few hours in the company of a couple of 8 year olds, while their mum went on outreach. Great fun. Think I may have sunburn on the back of my neck.
5.30pm: Have an argument/lively discussion with some teenage girls about eating
6.30pm: Off to meet a reporter/producer from BBC Radio Norfolk who’s come to record some atmosphere!
7pm: Great worship led by Simon Brading and some chap from the US.
8pm: Doze off during Stef’s preach. Sorry Stef. Wake up, feel better and listen to the response as hundreds of young people deal with forgiving others.
9pm: Pray with a young man. Son of a professional whose family has continually upgraded their lifestyle and downgraded the quality of their family relationships. This son is a wreck and his father doesn’t have a clue. I see God move and healing begins.
9.30pm: Help 3 young girls who have gone from best friends to worst enemies to best friends not go back to worst enemies.
10pm: Write a blog post, check emails, text my wife who has already gone to bed which seems like a smart idea.
The first meeting was tonight and the noise everyone made at the start was phenomenal. Simon Brading kicked off with worship and Stef Liston preached his heart on forgiveness. Tomorrow night he’s onto forgiving others. Stef doesn’t really do funny, he doesn’t really do clever, he doesn’t really do subtle. He just gives it to you straight with all the passion he can muster and that’s fine by me.
Here’s my day so far:
6am: wake up
6.45am: arrive at school and meet others while waiting for coach
7.15am: call coach company to find out where they are
7.50am: coach arrives
8.15am: pick up some guys from Telford
8.45am: pick up some more guys from Rugeley
11.45am: have a McDonalds at Cambridge Services
2.15pm: arrive at Norfolk Showground
3.30pm: finish setting up tents
3.35pm: find out where the media team are based, check in as a server and stuff
5pm: sort out the food marquee/gazebo
5.50pm: eat some pasta
6.40pm: finally get into the bigtop
7pm: worship Jesus
10pm: write a blog post, and a press release
Bed? Who knows when….
“Our conferences are a bit dull. I don’t mean boring, I mean the opposite of cutting edge. Dull not sharp. I’m probably in the minority on this one. The worship is great and some of the talks are excellent. But some of the seminars seem to be the same every year and tell us what we already know rather than stretch us in new ways.”
Well, recently our latest and biggest conference of the year finished. Has anything changed? No, not really. I think I’d hold to that comment, which is a bit disappointing. Here are my reasons:
I predicted beforehand that we’d have main sessions based on old testament characters related to our themes and values, and guess what – we did. That our flagship conference should be so predictable by someone who has only been 3 times (I think) is a bit, well, lame. We even got Jonathan’s armour bearer for the third time!
For a movement that places great store by expository preaching I’m not sure I heard any. I certainly don’t think I gained any fresh insights into Scripture here.
Most people I talked to also struggled to choose a seminar stream – I’d like to have the ‘agony’ of choosing between several equally exciting options (like being in a great restaurant and selecting a dish) rather than reading the list and thinking there’s really only one option for me here. But then it could be me, if I picked the seminars – possibly no one would want to go to any of them.
Worship – great
Giving – fantastic
Fellowship – wonderful
Seminars – good
Main sessions talks – OK
Here’s my heart, I want to be stretched. I want the scriptures opened up to me so I meet Jesus in a whole new way, I want revelation from the Word, I want seminars that are cutting edge dealing with the big issues of our day and seeing what a biblical response looks like. I want to be exposed to new ideas, concepts, practices. Most of all if I guess again about the main talks I want to be wrong, if I try and guess what seminars they’ll offer me, I want to be wrong. I want to look forward to TOAM 2010 with real excitement.
My complete list of posts on TOAM here
Here are some others thoughts on the conference
The talks and seminars are available here
In fact, while I’m on the roll most of this one seminar should be unpacked into further seminars next year: Education (where should you send your child to school?), what’s a Christian value of education etc…; Equipping the workplace (I mean genuinely – get Mark Greene or someone) and how pastors can play their role in not drawing everything back to church programmes.
I could go on and at some point I probably will.
Then we had Joel Virgo who was excellent but scored a couple of points for the OT team. First we had a goal from Jonathan’s armour bearer and there was a substantial assist from Moses.
Anyway aside from that he spoke helpfully about how a team can support a leader to ensure a vision is realised and battles are won. He was good.
The afternoon saw Terry Virgo complete a hat trick of NOT referring to an OT character (which could be a first). Completing a strong performance from the Virgo’s he spoke on apostles and a clear response to the challenges Mark Driscoll gave last year and in many ways batted out of the park.
Add to that a provoking conversation about media and a wonderful conversation with a Ukrainian pastor and friend and day 3 has been good. Topping it all off, in half hour we’ll see thousands of people representing thousands more give joyfully, exuberantly, sacrificially. £1.5 million is the goal!!
Both Dave and Adrian (plus one or two others) are serving us really well with excellent main session write ups, do read them and digest them.
The low points
The high points
I don’t think Terry Virgo mentioned any Old Testament characters which makes 2 days in a row. After day 2 it’s 6 Main Sessions and 4 OT character lessons.
I believe Jesus when he said 'life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions'. I believe he offers something better. This blog is mostly about that search.
I'm also a husband, a father, church planter, keen runner, reader, and motorcyclist. These and a few other things make guest appearances from time to time.
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