My View

Have been in Sheffield for Visitors’ Week at St Thomas’ Church. As always, it’s been a time full of excitement and experiences. And problems, but more of that later. God is good! Just had to make a short exclamation.

Anyway, here’s a short list of reflections:

• Passion – A friend of mine who was also attending the conference, and was here for the first time, approached me one evening: “These people are just so passionate! It’s unbelievable! They’re passionate about Jesus, about the Kingdom, about the church…” He is right. The people here are passionate. No wonder Mike Breen picked the name The Passionate Church for his book on Lifeshapes.

• Seek Kingdom growth, not church growth – Mick Woodhead, the leader of St Thomas Crookes church was very articulate about this one. And he is right. “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” These are words of Jesus in Matt. 6:33. If you seek His Kingdom first, church growth will happen. But don’t go seeking church growth.

• Voltage, Current and Resistance – Mike Breen shared a very helpful analogy concerning God’s power. We worry about why we don’t see God’s power manifested. If we believe the Bible, we have the same power source, the same voltage, as Jesus had. But the result is different. Why? We learn from the world of physics that when the voltage is the same, but the resulting current, power, is different, there must be a difference in the resistance of the electric cable. We have a higher resistance. How can we get rid of that? Study Philippians. I’ll get back to you on this one.

Here are some of my first ponderings. It’s truly been a remarkable week. Wife and baby boy arriving to England today, where we’ll enjoy a few days of holiday. On Friday we’re back in business, attending the Order of Mission Annual Gathering. That’s going to be fun. Will post back with some more thoughts, pictures, and video, as soon as I get my computer fixed.