how to ruffle a few feathers

I don’t know if it is because we are British or maybe we come across as a bit cocky but I can’t believe some of the negative comments we receive sometimes because we dare to say that church is awesome.

I spoke at Selah a couple of years ago about reclaiming the word awesome. These days everything and anything gets labelled awesome, we have awesome cars, awesome holidays I have even seen an ice cream advertised as awesome.(it’s wrong but I would like to try it!)

All well and good but are these things really awesome?, do you look at them in awe and wonder?, when Jacob met with God at a certain place he was blown away, so much so that he said this place is not a certain place anymore it is an awesome place, he called the place Bethel, the house of God.

For far too long we have allowed Church to be portrayed as something boring, irrelevant and mundane, shame on us! It is time to wake up and realise that it is not our church it is his (Jesus) church and he is absolutely, fantastically, brilliantly out of this world Awesome. Jesus never said he would build your church he said he would build his church; we are co labourers with the master builder of all time, Awesome. Let’s start speaking some life into the situation and telling people how great Jesus and his church is, how he loves people so much because they were fearfully and wonderfully made and how he loves your city or town, village or community because it is choc full of the people he paid the ultimate price to redeem .

I believe church should be and ought to be an awesome place not because of us but because of him, it’s not a perfect place because we don’t always get it right but it is a great place when people who love serving Jesus are unified under one goal and purpose proclaiming the awesomeness of father God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

I believe that it is full of awesome people, people who are fearfully and wonderfully made, who God sent his son to die for to redeem to him. We are in a City that for years have had to apologise for itself who have thought of themselves as worthless and useless, there are video’s posted on you tube poking fun at how rubbish Stoke is yet God thinks people are worth giving his son for. When I look around the church at Bethel and see great people with a passion and excitement for the things of God I think it is awesome, I love it.

Yes we are all sinful, yes we have all messed up we fall short and guess what we will mess up again but God thinks we are OK, yes he gets angry and frustrated with us, I do with my kids but let me tell you this, I think my kids are awesome.

We believe that God has called us to this city for a purpose, to speak life where for years death has been spoken, to restore the broken wells and see Bethel start to fulfil the purpose that God created it for.

So yes I believe Church is an awesome place, I believe Bethel is an awesome church, that Stoke is an exceptional City full of Gifts from God and I am honoured, humbled and excited to be a called to be a part of it.

Psalm 107 part five (the last one)

HE ALSO BLESSES THEM AND THEY MULTIPLY GREATLY   
 
Romans 5:2 says that we access the grace of God through faith.
Faith in God, pleases God. God blesses the righteous who live by faith. If we have faith in him to give us this city then God will bless us, the key to faith is staying faithful, of putting God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit at the centre of everything we do and are, God is well pleased with good and faithful servants who obay his commands and faithfully carry out their duties and we must do everything in our power to achieve this. It is only though this that God will release his power into the situation and we will see expediential growth and favour.

I will end this series where I started with a quote from Steve Penny” There is a level of success that is supernatural and cannot be enjoyed except through a life of generous giving and clean living. God will multiply any fruitful thing that you give to his cause. People who live in God’s multiplication zone are ultimately the people who establish great cities”.

Every blessing

A great city (part four)

PLANT VINEYARDS, YIELD A FRUITFUL HARVEST  
 
As well as sowing we need to establish a storehouse somewhere to invest what we sow into longer term harvests. Sustained success comes from the long term thinking. We need to think generational and build something not just for the here and now but for generations to come

Whilst working hard to reap the short term crops wise stewards also look at building long term. So many people fail to plan for the future, rather they live for the here and now, we want to be the type of people that enjoy the here and now and build for the future, why not have both! We need to develop a mindset to continue investing to build a city through which many people get blessed.. Every year we should purpose to produce a fruitful yield that we can use to increase our ability to “sow, plant and birth.”

We also need to build right, the bible says that God is the master builder, the capstone and that unless The Lord builds the house we labour in vain, we must never forget that it is his house and that he alone is sovereign.

Psalm 107 – A great City part 3

Sow fields 

but we are not just called to live in this city we are called to sow the fields, to be proactive in reaching out and touching the lives of all the people who dwell with us, of showing tangible examples of the love of Christ outworking in all aspects of the city. God loves people and the great thing about Stoke on Trent is everywhere you look there are people.

We need to get our hands dirty, roll up our sleeves and work towards the harvest. We need to speak life and champion the great cause that we serve. We can be, ought to be and need to be the difference these people are looking for.

Psalm 107 – a great City part two

 2. THEY MAY ESTABLISH A CITY
building for significance
Once you have made up your mind that it is right to  stick around until it works, you must then start to harmonise, strategize and  plan to build something of  significance . Debs if she could would love nothing more than a cottage (actually big stately home) in the countryside, I on the other hand am very much a city dweller, I love city life and the hustle and bustle that it brings. I count it such an amazing privilege to be called to Stoke on Trent, more so I am blown away that we have the opportunity to establish a great City here at Stoke.  This is the last major city in Britain to be redeveloped; we need to ensure that the church is the head and not the tail in this process and that we have a load and clear voice in this city. As the message bible says in Psalm 107 what a great place to live

Psalm 107 – A great City part 1

1. HE MAKES THE HUNGRY DWELL
 
Steve Penny quotes “Passion is the starting point for any successful life. However, many a people who are passionate to succeed, can end up running from one good idea to the next, harming not only their ministry, but often their marriage, family and relationships”.

Passion is wonderful, it’s outworking is a hunger to excel, a hunger to do well, be successful, but it must be harnessed so that a dwelling mentality is established. Football clubs are often berated by pundits for sacking managers too early, not giving them time to establish themselves, a guy called Jim Collins as produced an excellent business book called “good to great” in which he looks at companies that have excelled greatly compared to other similar companies and in every case longevity plays a bit part in this.

Seth Godin (another business top bod) has produced an excellent resource on this called the dip explaining when to stick it out and the flipside when to get out of something that has no future and will hurt you.

 

churchill

I picked up this quote from the excellent S4 leadership website from the Great Winston churchill

“‘If you’re doing big things, you attract big people. If you’re doing little things, you attract little people. Little people usually cause trouble.’

How true is that?

What do you think?

DARK PLACES

The story goes when Michelangelo was painting the Sistine chapel he spent just as much time on the corners which in days before electricity were so dimly lit that they could barely be seen from the floor of the church. People asked him why he was spending so much time on something when no one would see; his reply was just two works “God will”

 It says of Daniel that he had a spirit of excellence, he didn’t go about al big headed or with a nose in the air attitude that many of us associate with excellence he just did what was right even when it cost him his liberty.

 Thing is we are very good at doing things because it paints us in a good light or earns us rewards, credits or brownie points. How about this, we get into a habit of doing things because it is the right thing to do.

great stuff

It is funny how we all like a bit of recognition and position, now while there is nothing wrong or ignoble in wanting to be in a leadership position, I have noticed a few points about great leaders 

1. Great leaders realise that the most important thing they do is serve. Jesus said that he came not to be served but to serve.
2. Great leaders aren’t just great leaders in name but are great leaders in deed also. Sometimes even if someone holds no official position you can just see that they are leaders but the way they conduct themselves and others respond to them.
3. Great leaders have great character. When things are tough they make tough calls, it is easy in this day and age to call yourself a leader or to be in a leadership position, it is far harder to be a leader.

three questions

I took my wife Deb out for the day to York which is a great, great city. While we were there we visited one of our favourite places, Betty’s tearooms, now there are loads of tea rooms in York but there is something very special about Betty’s that is why they always have queues outside despite being the most expensive. What makes it so outstanding an experience, quality in every department, you are treated like royalty from the moment you arrive, nothing is too much trouble for the highly professional and courteous staff, the quality and presentation of the food is second to none. In a nutshell, it’s world class and world famous.

 I was thinking of this in relation the Embrace, the new greeting, welcome team we have started at Bethel I want to ask three questions

 1. at embrace and as a church what do we have to do to be world class and world famous?

2. Personally what will that cost us in time, dedication, finances, commitment and sacrifice?

3. Are we prepared to pay it?