Missional Life

“You either move forward or backward. A living church changes differently than a dying church does, but all churches change.

For a church to grow, it must change. It does not need to change in theology, but it will need to change in methodology. If a church is unwilling to change their methodology to reach and care for more people, then it is guilty of method-idolatry, which is where we confuse unchanging biblical principles with what are supposed to be changing cultural methods.”

“Sadly, some Christians have developed such a love and respect for the word itself that simply to hear it faithfully expounded can become an end in itself. Delighting in “sitting under” good teaching, we can be in danger of becoming like Ezekiel’s hearers – that is, those who love to hear a love song sung well, or an instrument played well (Ezekiel 33:32). The fact is that Paul’s gospel was with word and power. He reminded the Corinthians, “my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4–5)”.

“The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains proves that he has no brains of his own … You need to read” – C H Spurgeon.

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve had a couple of prayer meetings at Life Church which have been quite honestly outstanding! It’s been such a joy seeing the church family uniting in our delight and dependency in God. It’s also been wonderful seeing people gripping onto God’s promises in the midst of some pretty big challenges. These prayer meetings really are the engine room of the church. Role on Wednesday when we will be gathering to pray in our new building in Stamford!

“The gospel is the heart of the Bible. Everything in Scripture is either preparation for the Gospel, presentation of the Gospel, or participation in the Gospel.” David Harvey

Acts 3:1-4:12 is a wonderful example of how the foundation of Jesus Christ exposes and challenges all other foundations.

We read about a gathering crowd. They just kept on gathering; we’ve all seen it, haven’t we? At school in the corner of the field, a small circle of kids all shouting “fight, fight, fight…” How long till that small circle became a big circle and then that big circle became a swarming uncontrollable mob as two boys or come to think of it or two girls try to bash six bells out of each other. Yet this crowd wasn’t gathering to see bodies being broken, they were gathering to hear the utterly amazing story of ‘that guy’. You know the smelly guy, who had been at the temple gate for as long as anyone could remember. Begging and living off the scraps of life. Well not any more, he was bouncing around like a pogo stick on steroids. He was all over the place, out of control with joy! Body not broken anymore. Healed!

Confusion was everywhere. What’s happened? How had it happened? Who did what and why? These were questions you could see in every eye. Pete, one of the disciples of Jesus, stepped into the centre of the swarming mob and started an impromptu sermon. This was not like the sermonising that most people had heard, it had an energy and life and felt like some master builder was taking the scattered pieces of each person history and traditions and showing them that in everything there was a longing and a waiting for a man who would come and not only teach and heal but also save and deliver and that this man was Jesus Christ.

Now clearly the priests weren’t too happy. This was their territory, their patch, their spot, they had a monopoly here when it came to religion and so had Peter and his sidekick were thrown overnight into the local nick. Hopefully a cold damp and foul-smelling cell would sort these two hot heads out, right? Wrong! In the morning when they retrieved them from the prison cell, they started to preach to the priests! And at the heart of their message was a fight, not of fists, but a fight to highlight that the priests in all their priesting had in fact refused to accept the very centre, the very foundation, the very corner stone of the kingdom of God—the man Jesus Christ

preaching is not the proclamation of a theory, or the discussion of a doubt. A man has perfect right to proclaim a theory of any sort, or to discuss his doubts. But that is not preaching. ‘Give me the benefit of your convictions, if you have any. Keep your doubts to yourself; I have enough of my own,’ said Geothe. We are never preaching when we are hazarding speculations. Of course we do so. We are bound to speculate sometimes. I sometimes say: ‘I am speculating; stop taking notes.’ Speculation is not preaching. Preaching is the proclamation of the word, the truth as the truth has been revealed.

Lesson 2: A multisite Team
Our multi-congregation journey began with the merger of two separate churches. Clearly this had the potential danger that in name we could be one church but in practice and people’s hearts perception we could have remanded two separate bodies. In light of this potential danger we’ve worked really hard to ensure that all of our key team are living with the vision of one church serving Peterborough, Stamford, Oakham and then many villages in between. There is still much work to be done on this front, but I’m thrilled at the way members of these key teams have allowed God to broaden their hearts and live with a much, much, much bigger vision! This is certainly been one of the great joys of last year.

Lesson 1: going multisite or as we call it multi-congregation is more about a heart shift than an organisational reshuffle. Belonging to a multi-congregation church is about learning to live in and enjoy the tension of Acts 1:8. I’ve written more on this in the latest edition of the vibe our church magazine which should be coming out this Sunday. The article is called ‘beyond my alley and muddy bank’.

A year ago we at Life Church were just starting out on a multisite (multi congregation) adventure. For all of us involved it was a huge leap of faith. There have been some mistakes and adjustments along the way but I believe we are now just starting to reap the benefits of going multisite. Over the coming few days I’m going to be sharing some of the key lessons I’ve learned so far on this journey.