A Battle to Build demo…

Here’s a clip from part 1 of the “Your Battle to Build” series last Sunday message at our Hammersmith 10.30 service…

(Thanks Sandi for the clip…)

Download the full audio message & PowerPoints from our website here

This Sunday: Understanding the need and power of “restraint” in your battle to build…

Sitting down… in Washington DC

I’m in Washington DC for a few days at our Every Nation North America conference.

My daily reading the day I arrived was from Acts 13, and verse 14 caught my attention, where Paul arrives in Antioch, goes into the tabernacle on the Sabbath day AND SAT DOWN.

I dont often find myself in Christian meetings without any responsibilities, or a day without a long do do list. As a Christian / pastor / leader / preacher / visionary-type-who-has-more-ideas-than-resources I am seldom just walking into anywhere and just SITTING DOWN. But that’s what I’m doing here. I’ve got no specific responsibilities here, and besides a few key conversations I need to have and connections I need to make in preparation for some key events in the next 12 months, I am just SITTING DOWN and soaking it up. Its great (but I do itch just a little bit to…)

 I have a fairly healthy habit of sitting down every morning with Jesus and His Word before all the other demands of the day begin to drive me, and without this my getting up would soon wear me out.  I set my desire on those times. I pray that I’ll keep growing the habit of SITTING DOWN. We do need to become better at sitting down. Jesus said to Martha that this was the “one thing that is needed.”

It’s interesting that after Paul had SAT DOWN, that the next verse tells how the synagogue leaders soon asked Paul and his friends to SAY SOMETHING, and the result was tremendous revival.  Often we want to SAY before we SIT. Sitting down first helps you to:

• Listen, so you understand the real questions / context
• Be “slow to speak” so that you only say that which really builds up and is helpfull
• Receive from others who are speaking
• humble yourself

Also, this reminds you that you don’t have to push your way to prominence – God will make a way for your ministry opportunity in his perfect timing.  Just make sure you’re not sitting down when you should be standing or walking…

So join me…and SIT DOWN at the right time and place with Jesus…And when you do get to SAY something, it may be just a little buit more impacting… it could be your launching pad to the great things you’re dreaming of.

Slough & SixPM Launching this week!

Our London Expand Goals 2009 move into high gear this Sunday as we launch our third congregation in Slough as well as our new Hammersmith evening “6 PM” service (all details here).  

We declare that “You shall expand to the left and the right… make desolate cities inhabited…inherit nations…”  (From Isaiah 54:2-3)

What do you have in your own life right now over which you need to make a faith-filled “you shall expand” declaration?  Don’t let the spirit of the time cause you to shrink back into a cave of self-preservation & survival. Move in the opposite spirit and hear His voice calling you out today… EXPAND!

Our Every Nation “Expand” goals for 2009:

Here at Every Nation London we sense the Spirit leading us in this season to move in the opposite spirit to that which is so prevalent in the world at this time. Instead of shrinking back into survival mode, we hear the words from Isaiah 54:2&3 calling us to “Enlarge… stretch…do not hold back; lengthen …  strengthen …For you will spread out to the right and to the left; to… nations … cities.”

So here are some of our key Every Nation London “Expand” goals for 2009:

 

1. Plant a new church plant in Madrid, Spain (From May 2009 – led by Mel & Tanya Calingo)
2. Prepare for Gent, Belgium church plant in 2010 (Led by Trevor & Yvette Botha – www.enmgent.org)
3. Continue to support to establish our Stockholm 2008 plant, as well as our other new churches in  Dublin, Salzburg & Berlin)
4. Launch a new Greater London congregation in Brentwood, Essex (Start Sept, led by Charl & Anina Chapman, who will hand over leadership of our Stratford congregation to  Andrew & Berna Holmes from June)
5. Launch new Greater London congregation in Slough (From March 15th, led for first year or so by Trevor & Yvette Botha and a core leadership team)
6. Launch a West Sunday evening service (From March 15^th, to be led by Simon Bardone)
7. Develop strategy for our “10+10+10 by 2020” goal (10 congregations in greater London, churches in 10 cities in the UK/Ireland, and churches in 10 western European nations)
8. Further develop our ministry to the poor of Europe through our “Love Ukraine” mission. (Our first ever teenagers mission goes there in April! Led by Carol Kinne)
9. Further develop our ministry to the 3^rd world poor by partnering with the “Village of Hope”/Thembalitsha in Grabow, South Africa www.thembalitshauk.org.uk
10. Further develop our ENgage internship (Giving opportunity and training to anyone wanting to “discover their calling” through an awesome 9 month internship program here in the greatest city in the world! See www.everynation.co.uk/grow/)
11. Develop an “Live-online” Bible School option to make this life-changing teaching available as assessable as possible. (contact bibleschool@everynation.co.uk for more info.)
12. Continue to Unite in prayer with other local London churches (Diarise an awesome churches together event in the Hammersmith Town Hall on 11th June)
13. Purposefully pursue new building plan in West (Pray with us as the eldership and finance board pursue this)
14. Expand our finances (Have healthy church finances to be able to fund all of the above! Thank you to all those who have partnered with us in any way over all these years!) 

 

How will all of this happen? We see Gods answer reading in The Message Translation of Eph 3:10: Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels! 

Get yourself planted in Christ’s church, and join in on His great plan!

 

Living “filled” in 2009

For the past few months here in London I and our preaching team have been preaching through the book of Ephesians in a series entitled the “Letter to London”. 

Its been a massive blessing to me personally, and this past week again spoke so effectively to me as only Gods word in the scriptures can. The text included  Eph 5v18, which reads “and do not be drunk with wine which leads to debauchery (that’s Greek for”it messes up your life”), but BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT.”

I’m reminded again that the church and early disciples never accomplished anything worthwhile until they were “spirit-enabled” in Acts 2v4 – “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke in other tongues AS THE SPIRIT ENABLED THEM.“     The only way to live the Christian life is to live it “spirit-enabled / spirit-filled / spirit-empowered.”   Looking at Paul’s first trip to Ephesus in Acts 19v1, we read that the very first question Paul asked the few disciples whom he found there, was this: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you first believed?” Wow, what a first question. They answered: “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”    Paul then introduces them to the Holy Spirit and His empowering, and they become a powerful transforming force in their idol-worshipping city and culture. (By the way, notice that these were called “disciples” before they knew or had experienced any of this. They were on a journey of spiritual discovery and growth. The whole journey from saying yes to Christ is “discipleship.”)

Just like the early disciples at Pentecost, and those in Ephesus, every disciple of Christ must at some stage come to the realisation that the only way to move ahead to follow Christ is by being “Spirit-enabled.”   The awesome thing is that this promise is for YOU!  Whatever you do in 2009, whatever your dream, make sure that you only do it “Spirit-enabled”.

Don’t just have “get drunk” moments either, but rather live “be being filled” – develop a culture of being filled and living filled daily.  May you know His amazing filling and enabling in every area of your live and ministry in 2009!

(For more, get the download of the “Living Filled in 2009″ message for free from our website at www.everynation/downloads/ )

Rolercoaster few weeks…

I’ve been a bit scarce on the blogging lately, so here are a few things I’ve been up to and what I’ve learnt:

• I’ve been meeting with a great group of people prayerfully brainstorming a new Sunday evening service to reach and connect with “London’s Luke & Lilly” next year…watch this space.   Why didn’t I start like this in the first place??????
• I’ve been testing out doing a live web cast of my teaching at Bible School on Monday evenings, and its looking great – so all going well, from January our Bible School will be on live web-cast (staying available on-line for one week) and anyone anywhere can register in 2’s or 3’s to do it. I’ve realised that the world has changed significantly since those days when we had 100+ people at Bible School on Monday evenings at Imperial College. We’re changing too…
• I was in Dublin last weekend meeting with our church leadership there to seek Gods plan for the next season after Ray’s death (see a previous blog). Had an awesome weekend, culminating in ordaining Mike & Linda Groenewald as new senior pastors of Every Nation Church Dublin, and setting in place a strong “young eldership” team, of whom Claudine remains a part. I’ve learnt again that Jesus builds His church, and its way more than a bunch of programs that holds it all together…
• We started meeting together with a wide group of church leaders in our Borough, and an initiative I’ve had a vision for for a long time has been enthusiastically accepted, so we have a big buy-in for a “Hammersmith & Fulham Churches Together Prayer Encounter” booked in the Hammersmith Town Hall for 11 June next year. I’ve learnt again that “though the vision tarries, it will surely come to pass…”
• Another thing we did was move our church offices to a much more public position…its where the church and Christians should be…
• Oh, and I had a review of my pension fund a few months into the credit crunch…and learnt yet again “not to put my trust in uncertainty of worldly riches”…
• Among all that I had my appendix removed! I felt some pain while teaching at Bible School three Mondays ago, and by Tuesday afternoon realised it was more than a stomach cramp. I did some self-diagnosis via the NHS website, phoned a doctor friend for their opinion, and concluded that I needed help fast…the next day I was under the knife and out came the appendix. I recovered very quickly, but I learnt that the one thing I did very well in this case was to not deny that I had a serious problem which I needed help with. Instead of trying to be a hero, I looked for help…now there’s a great lesson!

1 John 1:7 -9   But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

You will call His name Jesus, for He will take away the sins of the world.

Get ready to SHINE…

Its only 3 weeks to go until our Every Nation Western Europe SHINE conference taking place here in London (Early bird discount ends this Sunday 28th, so register HERE NOW and ease your credit crunch by saving £10 on registration fee!)

We have an awesome line-up of speakers who will share their inspiring “SHINE Stories” and challenge & equip us to live what Jesus said to His followers in Matthew 5:16, saying “let your light so SHINE before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

This is a now-time in history for the Church and Christians to SHINE – and we believe that many will be encouraged and activated over these two special conference days.

 Check out all our speakers Bio’s and all details of the conference HERE .

 Also exciting is that we have nearly all of our Every Nation Western Europe pastors coming to the conference and our “EPEG” pastors equipping time for a few days before. 

So get ready to SHINE…and start by registering today to join us!

Some great advice from Bill Gates…

Here’s some advice Bill Gates gave at a high school speech about 11 things they did not learn in school. (I’ve seen these before somewhere, but thanks to my friend Mike Watkins (Leading a new Every Nation church plant in Kiev, Ukraine) who sent me a link to these posted on Forrest Berry’s blog.):

Rule 1:  Life is not fair – get used to it.

Rule 2:  The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3:  You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone, until you earn both.

Rule 4:  If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.

Rule 5:  Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping – they called it opportunity.

Rule 6:  If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7:  Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So, before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents’ generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8:  Your school may have done away with winners and losers but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9:  Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10:  Television is NOT real life (nor are video games). In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11:  Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one!

 

 

 

Do you have a life rule of your own to add? leave it as a comment for us below…

Feedback is the food of champions…

Having done an interview during a Sunday Church service with Zimbabwe Cricket legend Henry Olanga, here’s some “feedback” I received anonomously in the week following through our regular Sunday Church service evaluations:

“I was speaking to 3 people on Sunday regarding Henry’s testimony and they really enjoyed it however felt like Wolfi spoke for most of it and didn’t really give Henry a chance to say much and felt it has happened before with Wolfi when he interview’s people.”

and

“Really enjoyed Henry Olanga and enjoyed him singing, but did feel the interviewer was not great and made quite a few mistakes which detracted from the interview.”

 

Here are some of my thoughts on “feedback”:  Once upon a time I was an officer in the South African Navy (1984, a year after I recieved Christ as my Saviour and Lord).  Rank plays a huge role in the military, and you had to mind what you said to those of higher rank than you. This often hindered the real issues to come to the attention of the officers, and therefore hindered their leadership.  There is a military term: “PERMISSION TO SPEAK FREELY, SIR” which anyone of lower rank could request of someone of higher rank, in order to say things which needed to be said, but “off the record.”  Where this was allowed into the culture, it paid huge dividends for morale and efficiency.

Over the past year at EN London we have been on a journey to try to create a new culture of feedback and “healthy conflict” in our church office (We have nearly 30 staff doing all sorts of things).  This included having “Facing-the-brutal-facts-without-loosing-faith”sessions where we gave (and got) a very honest assessment of how we were really doing in all areas of our church and staff life. (Quite an eye-opener for a leader!)

We also had some staff training on what it takes to have a “healthy culture of conflict” in order to work together without all the baggage that usually gets dragged along. The key here was TRUST.  I can only say that all this has helped us (and me personally) hugely, and the feedback I am getting is that its now a much better place to work…and I think we are getting a lot more done…and a lot more effectively.

Back to my interview feedback. Its never easy recieving ”constructive critical” feedback. In this case I though the interview had gone well, but in thinking about it I realised that I have NEVER done anything deliberate to prepare/equip myself to do these kinds of interviews, even though I do them quite often. My response was to do some research on what it takes to do great interviews, and to prepare myself much more. I had interviews lined up for the next two Sundays after that, and I am pleased to say that I received feedback that there has been a significant improvement.

Who gives you feedback?  If you are a leader, have you created a true healthy “culture of conflict” around you, or will you be the last to know that the ship is sinking? Permission to speak freely SIR!

Some leadership thoughts…

In the UK we are at the brink of the Blair to Brown leadership handover as Prime Minister.  We should be reminded that the word “minister” literally means “servant,” so “prime minister” means “chief servant.” Servant leadership is what Jesus modeled and what leadership guru’s like Jim Collins (Good to Great, Built to Last) recognise as a fundamental quality of truly consistent great leadership which produces sustained growth in the most successful companies and organisations of the world. 

Consider this advice from the book of James, chapter 3 verse 16: “Where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.”  This is so true. Where leaders are more concerned with positioning (envy of others) and position (what they get out of it for themselves), the result is confusion (the opposite of fusion, which is unity and clarity of vision/goals/objectives/mission), and it opens the door to all sorts of “evil” (other agenda’s working against the cause/mission.)

As a leader, I need to look in the mirror and consider:

• Envy: Am I more concerned with how I compare to others than I am with serving others to make them great?
• Self-seeking: Do I use my position and influence for personal gain, and do I expect of others what I don’t live up to myself?
• Confusion: Do my words/actions/lifestyle send out conflicting messages resulting in confusion of vision/mission/values/goals in the organisation and among the people I lead?
• Every evil thing: I must take responsibility for everything that is growing in my garden. I  either planted it there myself, or I did not weed it out when I should have, and now it is causing trouble. Do I take responsibility, or is my tendency to try to shift the blame onto others? 

This country desperately needs great servant leadership, and so does my church, my family, and wherever your own personal influence lies….”It’s amazing what we can accomplish when we don’t care who gets the credit.”