God's timing

Normally I am not particularly excited by car parks.

In fact, I would venture to suggest i have never been excited by a car park.

Until now.

Car Parking can be a weekly problem for Church gatherings. Either because there is none, there is some but it is expensive, or because street parking annoys the people living around you who you are actually trying to reach.

"Hi, we want to be good news to you, but you can't park outside your own home for 4 hours every Sunday because of us" is not a good introduction.

This week we launched two Sunday services and are really asking God to help us reach more people.

Last week a car park opened. A new car park. It is less than 150m from the front gate of our facility, and has 75 spaces. Having spoken to the manager this week, I have negotiated Church parking all day on Sundays for £1 per car per week through a token system, and we can use it on evenings when we have our Church Together meetings as well.

It opened last week. 6 days before we started two services. There it is. 75 bright shiny spaces, a 2 minute walk away from us, and a manager who has just given us priority on Sundays.

I just got excited about a car park. It may be the last time too. But it does show we have our plans, and God has His plans, and when we make God's plans our plans, we see the fullness of His plans to help our plans succeed. And we just saw that in a car park.

Mission Shrewsbury

This organisation has been commented on before here and here.

Yesterday I attended a meeting and lunch hosted by "Mission Shrewsbury"

We represented 4 Anglican Churches, 1 Baptist, 1 Newfrontiers (and apologies from others).

There were 5 Church leaders, a couple of team elders and 4 curates, and lots of Church staff.

We heard Martin Charlesworth, who leads our Church in Shrewsbury talk about building missional Churches. We had lunch together. We then shared prayer needs in our various Churches and prayed for one another.

It was a great meeting with a lovely atmosphere. Staff teams had been invited so administrators got to chat together and share ideas too.

I do believe unity is relational as much as anything else, which is why meetings like this are just so positive.

Launching Two Services

This Sunday we launched two Sunday meetings.

Instead of 10am we had 9.10 & 11.20

Instead of 300 we had two lots of 150

Instead of being cramped we had empty seats

I have to say, I cannot think it could have gone smoother on the day. A large new refreshments area has been created for people to have drinks after the first and before the second service, so everyone still gets to meet up.

Preaching twice within two hours was tough though, and definitely something I will need to get used to. The worship was good, with several contributions in both services.

Change is never easy, but the vision is to make space for people who don't yet know Jesus to come and be part of our Church family. On Saturday every guest on our Alpha away day made a commitment to Jesus, and I counted 5 at the launch of two meetings who had made that step the day before and were there for the start of a new chapter in our Church life.

Who are the "New Apostles"?

Following up on my last post on this subject, who are the people I am referring to?

Here are some of the key people I can see steadily influencing me, others I know, and other churches I see within Newfrontiers. The more a leader / Church leans to one of these, the more it becomes apparent in everything from the style of Sunday meeting to the methodology of mission.

This list is not exhaustive. This comment is not critical. It is an observation. It is my observation, and could be wrong.

BILL HYBELS

Leadership training, seeker sensitive services, personal evangelism, personal prayer life, the list of things Bill Hybels is strong on goes on and on. Through the Willow Creek Association there is training, resources, strategies and resources for almost every aspect of Church life.

You can tell when a Church is fan of Hybels. Personal witness and social events take a priority, the atmosphere is relaxed and the vision is clear, reach people and grow the Church.

MARK DRISCOLL

Driscoll looks a bit like a cage fighter and sometimes even sounds like one. A bull-dog preacher with a gutsy style, and a church service very clearly focussed around the word, which is normally an hour or more long. Not afraid to confront tough issues, and being provocative seem to go hand in hand. A massive investment in media and focus on engaging with culture means Driscoll now reaches millions a week with his messages. The flip side is that whenever I hear a message from him he always makes a comment of some sort I am certain aged 50 he will regret.

His style is a bit edgier than Hybels, a bit grungier, maybe even a bit younger.

You can tell when a Church is fan of Driscoll. The music is louder, the room darker, the preaching longer and they have spent thousands on the website. There also seems to be a rougher edged, bolder form of complimentarianism upheld.

TIM KELLER

Keller seems to hold many of the same heart desires as Driscoll (or may vice versa), but expresses them in a much less provocative and (in my view) more mature way. Reaching the culture, mission, shaping society, reaching the cities, it all sounds familiar but feels a bit more mature and the form of complimentarianism practiced seems much more respectful and a lot less macho.

You can tell when a Church is fan of Keller. There seems to be a really wide view of what mission is, and it involves the arts, politics, industry and more. It values the unbeliever and it values the world the unbeliever inhabits and seeks to reach them there and bring the values of the Kingdom of God on public display.

BILL JOHNSON

Bill Johnson is a capital C charismatic. Arguably even more controversial than Driscoll within evangelicalism although less on the radar within the wider Church, his stock continues to rise in certain circles despite his very strong public allegiance to Todd Bentley, which must have brought him deeper support and opposition than any other issue he has had to make a call on.

He seems to share the platform at various events with an eclectic mix of people I would be very, very nervous of and people I really, really respect. My friend had medical condition in her ankle that was healed when Bill prayed for her at a New Wine meeting. Several people I know have had their lives radically transformed by visiting his Church.

I can see his influence in different people, different churches, and more recently in evangelistic methodology

You can tell when a Church is fan of Johnson. They love the presence of God and go "treasure hunting" but it does not involve a metal detector, and they are praying for and expectant for revival.

CONCLUSION

Who have I missed out? There are bound to be more. These are people who I can see definitely shaping church life and thought in different ways and through new media channels reaching a much wider audience more quickly than ever possible before.

Is this a good thing? I think the answer is a bit of both.

The "New" Apostles

Many blogs have commented an the idea of the "New Calvinists", which has even entered mainstream culture as a concept.

These energetic, culturally relevant pastors seem to be taking aspects of the evangelical world by storm, and also winding up a few people along the way.

I have been thinking.

Are we reaching a stage, through the new media channels, of actually having a new form of "apostolic" input into believers and churches, even groups of churches, through the ministry of people much more distant than before? Do we have the development of "new apostles"?

Whose teaching do we look to for doctrine? Where do we go for training? Whose advice would we seek out about everything from Church strategy to discipline? Whose definition would we use to define an up and coming leader? Who are we hoping will impart spiritual truth and supernatural insight into our lives? Who helps set the temperature we operate at? Who encourages us to mission and planting Churches? Who defines what unity is and who we should work with? That is not an exhaustive list, but it is a useful set of questions.

Is it healthy, that my life can be more influenced by a preacher in a city thousands of miles away than someone I actually know, who knows me, who can speak into my life personally?

Is it a great blessing that thousands can benefit from great ministries in ways never seen before? Or does it mean we are contracting out, maybe even franchising part of the apostolic gift to people we may never meet?

Are the Ephesians 4 gifts limited to people we "know" and have meaningful relationship with or have media channels opened up a bright new world of podcasts and MP4 sermons so we can get our apostolic gifts "off the shelf"?

Has it always been this way through letters, printed pamphlets, books etc it is just now with new media channels there is a saturation of availability?

Do we have more loyalty to our favourite online preacher than someone who has spiritual responsibility for us and our Church?

To be continued...

Fair Trade Open Day

Our Fairtrade Open Day on Saturday was a resounding success.

There was a big stall from Shrewsbury Fair Trade, as well as stands from Tearfund, The Body Shop, Stop the Traffik, The Fairtrade Foundation, Longden School G8 Group, the Bridges Charity and others.

The stall raised £1086, which for an event like this is really good.

Starbucks gave us free coffee and Co-op gave us free orange juice. Over 150 people redeemed their voucher for a free drink, many of them completely new faces responding to our publicity.

We did Fairtrade chocolate tasting too, which went down a storm. We did demonstrations of Fairtrade recipes, and also showed videos from Stop the Traffik.

The mayor was there, as was one of the local parliamentary candidates for the next election. It was an event that hit so many targets and definitely something we will consider doing again.

Delivering Leaflets

Using leaflets as a way of promoting a Church, or the activities of a Church has a number of benefits and challenges.

THE CHALLENGES

• Delivering leaflets through doors is boring. It is the "plod of God" with every step. You really have to believe in it.
• Delivering leaflets has almost zero obvious return benefit. The contacts made per hundred leaflets are minimal.
• Delivering leaflets costs a huge amount of time, and can cost a lot of money too if you can't design your oon and don't have access to a cheap printing firm.
  

THE BENEFITS

• Leaflets through doors are a great way of raising the "profile" of the Church in the area you leaflet. They probably won't respond directly, but they will tell the person they know from your Church that they got your leaflet.
• Leaflets are a way of reaching lots of people, personally, but not obtrusively.
• A decent flyer makes a giving a personal invitation a much easier proposition for members of your Church. Inviting someone to an event with a faded photocopied bent leaflet just does not hit the spot in 21st Century Britain. People have confidence if it looks the part.

This week we are delivering leaflets. We printed 2500 with all the community week events on and delivered 1800 through doors in our local area and other through our Church ministries and members.

Next up was 1000 Kidz Fun Day Flyers which went out via our Kidz Klub, Barneytots and Sunday morning as well as through local schools.

7,500 fairtrade day flyers were produced. These are going out through doors and in the town centre all this week.

10,000 A5 leaflets about the Church, especially focusing on our two services starting on November 8th have been produced. These are going out everywhere. The 1800 homes near our building are a start. This week we have taken four large estates int he town which have no evangelical witness whatsoever and leafleted them, for the fairtrade day and the Church. A team in the town centre has given out thousands more. We are encouraging cell groups to deliver them near where they meet and for people to use them to invite their friends to Church.

All in all, it is the scatter gun approach. Sowing seeds of information and showing that God's people do exist and are active.

Environmentally, Shrewsbury has fortnightly paper and card recycling so i am very confident the majority of those flyers will be recycled.

Economically, we use Riverside Press in Market Drayton and when 5000 full colour double sided postcards costs £90 it really does start to become accessible as a means of communicating. You cannot even photocopy them cheaper than that. They do national delivery too, tell them Dave at Barnabas in Shrewsbury recommended them.

So in the afternoons this week I have been out pacing the pavements of the estates of our town putting leaflets through people's doors. It is a thankless task. There is no meaningful response. But I know, for someone, somewhere, that leaflet could be exactly what they were looking for, and the start of their journey of faith, which makes it a very worthwhile venture, alongside all the other methods we have of making Jesus famous.

Quiz Night

Quiz Nights are fun!

They are a great, all age social event.

We had 80 questions, and 4 teams tied on 64 correct answers to share various confectionery prizes!

At our last quiz we had just over ten teams. Tonight we had 26 teams, almost all of 6 people or more.

We had set up 15 tables, and had 5 spares, and they kept coming, and coming, and coming.

We did not have another small table left in our entire church centre. Every kids table, toddler table. coffee table, you name it, we used it.

It was such a joy to see many groups of friends come. Friends from work, friends from the neighbourhood and again people from other Churches.

Our cell group had a "baking party" last night to make fresh cakes for everyone and they just about stretched to the numbers. As a group we have done this before, deciding as a group to put on a Quiz night as a way of serving the mission of the Church. It is a great way for all those in the cell to be able to support mission.

Kidz Fun Day

Our Children's fun day was a resounding success.

108 little faces were painted, which means there must have been close to 150 children there plus associated adults.

It was a hive of activity, with loads of great games and inflatables.

What hit me most though was the two blokes I shared car parking duty with. Both in their 40s, both saved and added to the Church in the last two years, both baptised, both already joining us on our mission to bless the community and make Jesus famous.

Personal faith is also being saved into the mission of God.

That is exciting!

Barnabas Unplugged

Last night's event went really, really well.

The venue was a cool music bar in the town centre. The age range was mixed and there were loads of guests, maybe 30% of the hundred or so who were there at some point during the evening.

People came and went, it got very hot, standing room only, it was almost uncomfortably busy, which meant it felt like a really edgy, busy music evening.

Musically we had everything from Green Day to Garfunkel, Snow Patrol to the Lion King.

What really thrilled me was a couple of people from other churches bringing their friends to our event, as part of their personal witness. That makes me really, really happy.

I would love the Church to once again be on the forefront of the music scene, instead of a being a niche market. Hmm, I wonder about next time.

Choosing a life partner...

I personally don't believe in a "one size fits all approach" to this issue, and some of the resources I have seen have been far to prescriptive.

However I was delighted to hear my marriage has a statistically better chance of making it.

Esther is 5 years younger than me and significantly smarter, which ticks all the boxes of that study!

Fairtrade matters

Fairtrade is a growing phenomenon, and rightly so.

Cadburys, Starbucks, the big names are queueing up to join the party.

Why is that?

Because we actually do care, as this article in the Guardian proves.

In a time when people refuse to pay a premium for organic, or even for better quality in some cases, we will pay it for fairtrade, because the message has been repeated and repeated and repeated and modelled until societal change is effected.

20 years ago this would be seen as impossible, now, in the midst of recession it is clear.

What else seems impossible? What next?

Barnabas Community Week

October Half term is our "Community Week" with several events aimed at reaching out into the community and raising the profile of the Church.

First up is our "Unplugged" event which is really exciting and has got different people from the Shrewsbury music scene interested already, to see if they can use our acts in other pub gigs around the town.


Next up is the Kids fun day. these normally attract over 200 children and their parents. these are chaotic and exciting in equal measure. All Kidz Klub families, all Barneytots families, and every child in our local primary school have an invite card.


Our Quiz Nights have developed their own following of local people and church members with their friends. Over 80 were at the last one. Our cell group arrange these as part of our witness, and to bring a larger event into the corporate life of the church as a service to others and their witness.


Then there is our Fair Trade open day which sees Starbucks, Co-op, Shrewbury Fairtrade, Tearfund, Stop the Traffik, Body Shop and other groups come and show what is happening, what they offer and how people can access their producst and services. It is also just in time for a spot of christmas shopping!


Day by day we will be distributing 1000 balloons and about 10,000 flyers regarding our new Sunday format and inviting the town to come to our events.

We will also be offering prayer for anyone who wants, including prayer for healing, out in the town centre.

The t-shirts are ordered, the flyers are ready, all systems go!

Exciting Churches

Dave Warnock is excited about his Church, which is great to see.

It made me think. I am really excited about our Church. Here are some starters.

1. We are teaching through "Just walk across the room" on Sunday, using the DVDs in small groups, and are in faith that God would inspire our witness.
2. There are over 20 guests on our Alpha course, several of whom have found us through our website, from all sorts of backgrounds.
3. We are working increasingly effectively and purposely with other Churches in Shrewsbury. Across denominational barriers we are pushing back the boundaries of what the "body of Christ" really means when it comes to mission. Let's do it.
   
4. "Open door" is attracting 20-30 senior citizens every Monday
5. Our Money Advice Centre is training 4-5 new people to help resource the tremendous demand for the service.
6. We are hosting a "Community week" with several major events during October half term. Over 23,000 flyers will be distributed, with events at our centre and street / door to door evangelism / prayer for healing. More details to follow!
   
7. 3 of our 18 cell groups are close to multiplying. By 2010 we could be 21 and counting... In estates around our town and villages surrounding our town we have Christians meeting to worship, witness, open the word the build community.
   
8. Our finances are robust. Our gift day this summer blew away our target and allowed us to make huge improvements to our Church centre to prepare for a period of growth. We have no mortgage on a 400 capacity building. God's people are generous, God is good, Jehovah Jireh is not a distant hope but a daily reality.
   
9. We have appointed a new full time "Church manager" to help us sustain the programme / weight of practical outworking our our mission here. Tony is a gift from God.
   
10. On November 8th we are moving to two Sunday services. We have doubled all our serving teams and are ready to open the door and say to our community "Taste and see, that the Lord is good!" From 10am we will be 9.10am & 11.20am.
    

Every single one of these is the grace of God upon us. The unmerited favour of our Lord. We have not earned it. We have not strategised it, or deserve it, but we receive it, and we say "Lord, help us to use all of this to bring you glory, to encourage the body of Christ across this town and to reach people with the good news of Jesus"

That is what makes me excited! Praise God!

Dudley Outpouring on the BBC

The Revival Fires Church got slammed on the BBC this week for claiming healing.

This was BBC 1, prime time, in the west midlands. It is the first ten minutes.

I found it very hard viewing, for all manner of reasons.

On the one hand I believe in healing, that God heals, that some people are healed.

I also know Churches are under the spotlight regarding healing claims.

I think Trevor Baker is a genuine guy. I don't believe he is deceitful. He used to minister near here in Telford and was a real blessing to many people.

On the other hand, some of the things other bloggers commented on regarding the whole approach, such as the way the offering is administered, are ruthlessly exposed and highlighted by the programme.

I just wish there were some medical records available for the BBC. Without them, any healing claims are open to questioning, and add in the cynicism of the age and a bit of cash washing around and it is a perfect storm for a programme like that.