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The path to kingdom advance

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The path to kingdom advance

Whiplash is one way of describing it.

We spent five busy weeks in a very crowded England, where there is never enough space for anything. Driving, parking, shopping, living - you name it, there’s not enough space for it. We spent the last ten days with friends who live not more than a hundred feet from a very busy motorway (interstate). Arriving back at Toronto airport, space suddenly reappeared. Wide roads, stores with acres of parking, space everywhere. And after four brief days at home, we found ourselves in our new accommodations in Michigan. Again we are perched on the edge of a highway. But as we looked out the window in the morning, the first traffic to appear was an Amish buggy.

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The unexpected value of friendship

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The unexpected value of friendship

Today I met with two very good friends. The meeting had a point. Both of these men are committed to helping us practically in our mission to extend the kingdom in the way we feel God is calling us to do. We are not on the same leadership team, or even part of the same church. Our link is simply the personal relationship our friendship in Christ has given us. That friendship led these men to place their creative resources at our disposal, for which we are extremely grateful. In fact, God has given us friends all over the place, each of whom has helped us in various ways, and without whom we could do little or nothing.

Church often works on the basis of organization. We do a job assigned to us within an organizational framework, and access resources that are provided to us by that framework. Without the organization, however, we are lost. I don’t think that’s right. I think church should operate on the basis of friendship, not function. Function isn’t wrong, but it should flow out of friendship.

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The perils of spiritual hoarding

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The perils of spiritual hoarding

Years ago, I went to a house way out in the countryside to perform a wedding. On my arrival, I was astounded to find the living room absolutely full of stacks of old newspapers. Many were piled far too near to a woodstove in the middle of the room. On using the bathroom, I noticed that even the tub was full of piles of stuff. The lady of the house was a cook at the hospital, and I wondered how long it had been since she had washed!

Hoarding is a psychological disorder usually rooted in some form of severe childhood poverty. A well-off professional friend of ours who had experienced a very poor childhood kept hundreds of tubs of empty plastic containers, bags and other things. She just couldn’t throw away stuff that she might need one day.

We can laugh, but most of us are guilty of some kind of hoarding. Clothes, old sets of electronics cables, batteries, pens, even (in the case of one friend) handbags. And we have a perfectly valid reason for keeping them all!

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The church's best asset

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The church's best asset

Thirty-eight years ago, I led a small group of students with very little experience and even less money in planting a church in the cathedral city of Durham in northern England. This week, we are back with the family of God’s people who have carried on and expanded that work far beyond its humble beginnings. Teams going out from Emmanuel Church have been instrumental in planting numerous churches in the United Kingdom and other countries, and thousands of people have been reached for the kingdom. Back at home base, in spite of all the people sent out, the house is full and expansion plans are underway.

But the best thing of all is that it’s still family. At the end of a prayer meeting, the folk gathered around Elaine and me to pray for us. One of the men referred to the account of Paul being let down in a basket from the walls of Damascus. He pointed out the critical role in the story played by the anonymous people who held the ropes that let him down. And then he said something which I found very moving, that there are people here who will hold the ropes for you.

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Challenged by change

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Challenged by change

Youth With A Mission is an amazing movement in which there’s rarely a dull moment. In fact, its motto was once described as constant change is here to stay.

We’ve been in the English city of Newcastle upon Tyne this week, working with South African friends planting a great church here. Elaine grew up nearby, and used to work in the city centre. She made the observation that while some things were the same, most things had changed, and some things were unrecognizable. And that’s always a bit of a shock - because we don’t like change.

For the most part, we understand that what we believe does not change. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.