Great minds...

Martin, our lead elder could not make the Mike Pilavachi meeting as he was speaking at a national conference for debt advice centres on Friday.

That meant he missed the talk by Mike Pilavachi.

But Martin did speak, on Sunday, at our church in Shrewsbury on "Jesus the outsider".

It was an excellent talk, well worth half an hour of your time.

Talking about the cleansing of the temple, talking about the "zeal" of the Lord, and what zeal accomplishes.

Zeal brings us to worship.

Zeal causes us to focus on those outside of Christ

Zeal demands justice.

Hmm: Worship, Mission, Justice. Where have I heard that before?!!!

Making a grown man cry...

Well technically he did not actually cry, but I reckon he was close.

I went up to Mike Pilavachi after the meeting on Friday, and I told him this.

Here is a meeting of different Churches around North Shropshire and surrounding region including several newfrontiers churches.

We discussed the meeting at our regional meeting on Thursday.

Something interesting came to light.

Phil Whittall, who planted North Shrewsbury Community Church 6 years ago, would point to Soul Survivor in 1995 as a clear point where God spoke to Him put his life on track.

Me, an elder at our Church in Shrewsbury for 18 months, would point to Soul Survivor in 1995 as a clear point where God spoke to me, and put my life back on track.

So when Mike Pilavachi comes up to preach at a Church in a small town in a relatively unknown county, what you find is two church elders, in their early 30s, who can point specifically to your camp and your ministry as clear points where God shaped our calling. Here, on the ground, on our turf, we are "doing the stuff", and so keep going, keep blessing these young people, keep making them ruined for the sake of the name of Jesus, because now the first generation of Soul Survivors blessing has reached the Church leadership stage and is bearing fruit.

He looked at me, took a deep breath and said "that thrills my soul". You and me both Mike, you and me both.

Mike Pilavachi

I can unashamedly say Mike Pilavachi is the Christian leader whose ministry has had the greatest impact on my life.

From my own walk with Christ being energised and developed at Soul Survivor camps in my teens, through to him preaching one of the most powerful sermons I have ever heard. Chuck in a "Words, works and wonders" conference while at university and the influence of various worship leaders whose gift he has helped fan into flame (Redman & Hughes spring to mind) and he really is the real deal. Not just with his words, but with his action, and with the impartation of the Holy Spirit that follows his ministry.

This is a fairly bold statement, but I am pretty sure if I could not be in my Church, his would be my next choice. That is not necessarily a doctrinal decision, but the fact is, I would like to watch and learn from him for a while. For a long while.

No-one who went to Newday last year failed to notice the Holy Spirit works through him! Many of our teenagers came back having been baptised in the holy spirit, speaking in tongues, some have since been baptised, and they point to the night the humorous Greek bloke from Watford started preaching.

On friday evening Mike came to speak at a meeting arranged by Beacon Church Whitchurch. Our Church planted Beacon just over 18 months ago.

I wrestled with whether I should go or not. I was tired. It was Friday evening. I had been busy every evening that week with a mixture of church stuff and a rare outing to an away football match. Part of me felt I "should" go, the kind of "should" that says it was important to go to support Beacon and be seen to be there. What a pompous fool I can be.

Why should I go? Well, suffice to say, that would be about Jesus. About encountering the glorious presence of Jesus. About seeing Jesus equip a new generation of young people. About hearing from someone the Lord has used to greatly shape my life. And about going back there. Going back to the place where the Lord had touched my life in my teens.

So I went.

He was, simply, superb. Worship, Evangelism, Justice. I'm with you Mike. I want to be a WEJ Christian.

We worship because we want to declare our love for God.

We witness because we want to declare our love for God, and the reason for it, with those who don't know him.

We seek justice because if we love God, then we do His commands, and a major thing He commands us to do, almost without equal, is to express His love within our society in a way that brings justice to the oppressed and marginalised.

Worship, Evangelism, Justice.

When I consider the sheer redundancy of some of the things people argue about within the body of Christ I wish sometimes we would just shut up and get on with it. I want us to be a WEJ Church.

And then the ministry time. Lots of silence. No hype. A gentle invitation for the Holy Spirit to move. Several absolutely bang on prophetic words for people. Still no hype. No noise. A gentleness of spirit. A humble desire to see God move.

Not all of what Mike Pilavachi is can be taught, some of it is just caught, so I would certainly encourage anyone to go and hear him if you have the opportunity.

Not to be seen to be there, but because you want to meet Jesus.