we be church

God Gives Great Hugs

It’s been a while since I update people about my months doing a Frontiers Project with my home church in Northumberland. Recently all those on FP in the UK had some training at Center Parc in Norfolk where top bananna friendship was enjoyed and God met with us in amazing ways. Even those not healed or set free from spiritual oppression of varying kinds will be able to testify to the powerful tangible presence of God and his amazing love for us. It was like Jesus came and gave us all a great big fatherly hug.

The highlight was Simon Holley giving us an education in delivering people from spiritual oppression. I hadn’t seen God deal with it on this scale before. I was struck by the fact that we look at salvation as a decision made once. Rather, God wants us to keep taking steps of faith to relieve us from past baggage and provide us with the knowledge/weapons that he is indeed a loving Dad. As Wendy Man shared we often give the enemy a foothold when we call into question the character of God or how he thinks of us. God is good 100% of the time both in fatherly character and passionate loving action towards us.

On the last training day we focused on knowing Joy in God and Mission. Those who felt called to go to another country shared where they felt called to, one lad said New Zealand (I lived their for a year). Finding him afterward he turned out to be a Kiwi I had met once in Wellington, when on a flat hunt. He had given his heart to Jesus in the last year, journeyed to the UK and had decided to do FP in a London Church! Amazing and hugely encouraging. So in summary God is Love and is full of surprises!

Everything Conference

Newfrontiers, The family of Churches I’m apart of has decided to put on a conference that talks about engaging with our culture call the Everything Conference. Site designed by We Are Boxhead. If you know me you will know that web, design and impacting culture is one of my BIG passions. Keen on coming? Let me know. Cost is only £12.00.

The Everything conference aims to equip Christians to make a difference and to transform culture. With seminar tracks on work, community, the mind and the arts, this will be an exciting event not to be missed.

Grill a Christian Feedback Followup

I just want to say a BIG thank you to all who provided feedback on how to run Grill a Christian events. The advice and tips are really helpful as we look to putting on this type of shindig in the future, and there is still loads of time to send me your own experiences If you have not done so already. At some stage I will compile a guide to running this kind of event and publish it over at grillachristian.com, but first I would like to put one on. With that end in mind I have started building a website with a feature set that will compliment question asking at these events. Watch THIS space.

Theology Invites Us to Encounter God

Am I the only one that thinks Bible commentaries can take the joy out of reading the Bible? I have only recently been introduced to using them and I’m starting to click that there is a right way and a wrong way to read them. I don’t wish to offend, I know others take great joy from reading commentaries and they certainly can be insightful when you just don’t get that little scripture.

The sad fact is I can imagine people pouring line by line in their Bibles and chapter by chapter in their commentaries because that is just the way. We have to guard ourselves from becoming educated fools and use what we learn wisely. So many of us have the aim of widening their christian vocabularies as to inflate themselves and forget their mission is to inflate Jesus and experience him.

I’m amazed sometimes how one simple word when truly understood can catapult you to experiencing how great God’s love is for us. Ephesians 3:14-19 is Paul’s prayer about grasping (understanding) how awesome Jesus’ love is for the church is, and “which surpasses all knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God”.

“Most believers stop short of a divine encounter because of their satisfaction with theology. Theology is meant to be that which invites us to a divine encounter.” – Bill Johnson

Grill a Christian – Advice & Experience Needed

Recently been inspired to set up a regular Grill a Christian event for our older church youth group (15-18). In a nut shell these events are an opportunity for people to ask tough questions to a panel of Christians and are stepping stone to events like Alpha.

So Im on a hunt to find out what works best and need the following questions answered.

1. What format do you take for your event?
2. Do you include other content slots like live music & entertainment?
3. How do you manage and source questions??
4. What technology do you currently use? Hardware, texting, web?
5. Where is the best place to run such an event?
6. How did Grill-a-Christian start, does it have history?

Also considering setting up a website where guests can ask questions in advance. There is a possibility that the feature set could be useful for other groups and become a resource base on how to conduct these events. So in anticipation I have just registerd grillachristian.com. I invite you to answer the above questions and watch this space. Any help would be fab.

[Sore Thumbs] Engage the Culture Edition

Build it and they will come attitude to church doesn’t work, it requires a bit more effort. Don’t get me wrong, Sunday meets are essential for fellowship and provide a rudder to a church group but in this age people rarely pitch up at random. Instead you have to go to where the people are. Go fishing! Really the clubs, schools, universities, shopping centres have done all the hard work at gathering people so why not make use of it?? Here are a few examples of radical Christians taking Jesus to the people.

Prayer Caravan on University Campus!

They used to have a tent on the University of Surrey campus but it was rather old so the 24/7 Prayer Team there decided they needed something new. They landed on the crazy idea of having a mobile caravan and launched it at freshers week. “Over the course of five days well over 200 students must have spent time in the ‘prayer caravan’ as it had now been named. It could well have been two or three times that figure, we just don’t know. During the nights particularly, the caravan was packed – people kept coming in and asking questions, asking to be prayed for and doing artwork and prayer requests on the walls. The people we met and stories we’ve heard are too numerous to tell” Read some of the stories

Church in Trendy Bar

The Chapel. Sunday evening – 7:30pm at Baa Bar. Free drinks for visitors, Worship and Teaching. Recently I’ve been following Tim Simmond’s adventure in Manchester of starting a meeting in a trendy bar. It’s a project of Newfrontiers Church, Christ Church Manchester. “Our aim is to love God, love the city of Manchester and love each other. With this in mind, we run a meeting on Sunday evening (The Chapel) in Fallowfield because we want to see many people in this city discover Jesus and join a church.” Go to the Chapel or Read Tim’s Blog

Bridal Boutique on High Street

Closer to home, our own Church in Northumberland meeting in Bedlington is setting up a shop on our High Street. We are not 100% sure at this stage how it’s going to be used to reach people but God told us to go for it. After a prophetic word about dressing in fine act – righteous linen as bride of Christ Rev 19:8 we thought that renting the shop space formally called “JCs Bridal Boutique” was an obvious sign from God that we should be renting the shop. I’ll keep you updated!

---

Sore Thumbs is a irregular post mainly of short encouraging links that stick out. If you have come across a link or resource that you think would fit on this blog then why not email it to dlee at webchurch.com

God Arrives in Disneyland – Teen Healings!

I guess the title is rather deceptive, the fact is God was always in Disneyland. However these young adults went for some healing fun in the theme park and many  youth invited Jesus to arrived in their hearts. Thanks to Uncle Phil for the link!

Warning. Major faith building and major challenging if your not sure about healing in public places. Notice the ease of inviting people to know Jesus. Makes a change from the constipated alter calls we can sometimes give. THIS is what we are meant to be stepping out in guys! This is the kingdom breaking in! “Freely you have received, freely give” Matthew 10:8. Jesus truly rocks! There is no assault courses to knowing Jesus, all you have to do is to drop false Identity and to accept his freely given one! Below is part 1 of 4 with links to the other parts.

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

First Night for Ignite – Changing the Landscape

So we have our first Ignite this Friday for our youth group called “Level-x” at County Church. Ignite is basically a youth service where we have a short game, worship and a talk with the youth having a chance to hang out at the end. We have about 20 young people coming regularly now, which is fantastic, with more lads which has been a answer to prayer. We have previously been meeting in the living rooms of generous people but have just moved to a hall on an housing estate which means our youth have more space but also means that we have a consistent place for our youth to meet which is near to them.

We have been living with the theme of Identity and have a series of related talks lined up. Some of our older youth have begun taking responsibility for leading in various ways which is mega awesome and I have been really proud to see them growing in this area. The growth we are experiencing means we need more practised leaders with time to serve, particularly a female leader for our young girls, we are praying and seeking someone who is called in this area.

As it’s our first event we are still learning what will work and wont work but in a typical youthful passion we are going for it! My prayer is that God meets with our youth and that it becomes a highlight in the monthly calendar for our young people. I continue to hold on to what James says “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you” there is absolutely no reason we can’t encourage our youth in this way. You can find out what is happening with our youth on our Level-x facebook page.

Don’t Waste Your Sexuality

When you realise that all your life is for God, belongs to God it really changes your view. To waste you sexuality is to think that it is only about this moment… Joshua Harris

Watch the video for the full quote below. Joshua has also written books about young people in Godly relationships which are really helpful. I have just recommended book “Boy meets Girl: Say Hello to Courtship” to our youth group.

A Picture of Our Relationship with Our Father

I want to share an encouraging prophetic picture of how we need to approach and be with our Heavenly Father, Childlike. This is a photo of JFK with.. John Jr. playing under his father’s desk in the White House. (Thanks Gaz!)

President Kennedy, working late at his White House office, wears a slight smile on his face, indicating perhaps he is not completely unaware that his son, John Jr., is exploring under his desk in the Oval Office in the White House in 1963. John Jr. called the spot under the desk “my house” and was peeking from behind the “secret door.”

“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus”. Ephesians 2:6