Colin: New Year, New Hope!

I hope you have enjoyed a great Christmas, celebrating the birth of a baby who would save the world! As God promised Abraham 4000 years ago, through Him every family on earth will be blessed, and as Isaiah said, “Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end”.

When we take a step back and look at history, we can see these precious promises being worked out. Maybe they’re not being fulfilled quite how we’d imagined, but the kingdom of God on earth is growing, as an army of men and women lay down their lives to bless others.

At this time of year we also like to look forward and wonder what 2015 has in store for us. In a recent gathering of Pioneer leaders, we all felt a fresh call to evangelism. The Spirit is clearly encouraging us to continue in His mission to save the world and to proclaim the Good News as loudly as we can. The Church in every generation has to work out the questions that the people of its day are asking. We can’t simply learn and repeat the answers of previous generations as they were spoken into different contexts.

 Thankfully, there are signs for optimism that the Church in the UK has started to find its voice after decades of decline. Independent churches like River have continued to see strong growth, but now mainstream churches are also growing. For example, the Church of England reported increased attendance in 20 out of its 44 dioceses and an increase of 5% in adult baptisms in 2013. Remarkably, the Causeway Coast Vineyard Church in Coleraine has seen over 2600 people respond to Jesus on the streets in the past 10 months! I believe a few key developments in church culture have helped produce this turnaround:

• A refocusing on the Father-heart of God – that He is love
• A rediscovery of the Holy Spirit powerfully at work in and through us
• A new appreciation of our need for all churches to work together
• A recommitment to serving our communities

National events such as Spring Harvest, New Wine and Soul Survivor have helped promote such values. On top of this, there is a fresh approach to Scripture emerging, spearheaded by men like Tom Wright, which brings life rather than dogma. I strongly recommend reading his ‘Surprised by Scripture’ and ‘Scripture and the Authority of God’*. He argues powerfully that we should change our emphasis in evangelism from one largely about personal salvation and escaping this world, to one aimed at saving the whole of creation; that God’s plan has always been to see the whole world redeemed; that Jesus’ resurrection was the beginning of the new creation; that we’re headed for an eternal home on a wonderfully renewed earth; and that this is to be achieved by God and man working together.

River Churches will continue to run Alpha Courses and demonstrate His love by serving our communities, but if we are to see a real breakthrough in evangelism, it means all of us embracing the call to be good news! So how can we best cooperate with Jesus to see His kingdom come and encourage one another to be good news? Well, we could start by asking ourselves and others questions like: When was the last time you prayed for an opportunity to share your faith? When was the last time you took a step requiring faith? When was the last time you offered prayer to someone outside the church? When was the last time you were able to demonstrate your love to someone practically? These types of questions may make us feel uncomfortable, but they will challenge us to change. The answers will also enable us to celebrate the wonderful moments we get to be light in this world. I know that the more steps of faith we take, the more prayers we pray and the more love we show, the more people we will see respond to Jesus and enter a more abundant joyful life. What we have is just too good to keep to ourselves!

Colin: Called to High Places

“The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds’ feet and makes me walk on my high places” (Habakkuk 3:19).

This verse appeals to the fell walker in me! I love to walk in high places; the thrill of climbing a mountain, overcoming fatigue, dealing with extreme weather, finding a way and gaining a new perspective on the world. My good friend, Paul Wratten, and my brother Mark, share this passion and we’ve long dreamed of walking in the Himalayas together. Last month that dream became reality as we got to walk in the midst of the highest places on earth. We have many stories from our time in Nepal, many lessons learned and wondrous sights seen.

One lesson the Spirit taught me was that our Father gives us dreams, not to frustrate us, but to inspire us. We don’t need to make them happen, He wants those dreams fulfilled and we can trust Him to open a way for us to walk in the things He’s called us to. In pursuing our dreams, there are two extremes we do well to avoid. The first is to think that it all depends on us, that our choices will get us there and so we need to make it happen. The second is to believe that God will make it happen regardless of our choices.

At one stage, we were stuck in Kathmandu, frustrated by the weather closing down Lukla airport (a crazy little strip of tarmac on a mountainside!). We’d wasted a day trying to fly out and the second day wasn’t looking promising. I went to bed anxious that our dream would be frustrated. The next morning our guide told us that if we didn’t fly out that day, we should change our plans and head to a different region. Our flight wasn’t till the afternoon and it was normal for afternoon flights to be cancelled… my dream was disappearing. Then we met a man who offered us a helicopter flight for just £200 more each. One of my companions was up for paying the extra, and the other said they couldn’t afford it. As leader of the trip, I was given responsibility for making the decision. In that moment, I had clarity that I wasn’t to make the dream happen but to trust God. So I let go of my dream and said “no” to the helicopter flight. It didn’t feel good; I might not get another chance, but within two minutes there was a commotion at the check-in desk, we were suddenly booked on an earlier plane and flying within an hour. Lesson learned and the dream was back on!

This is one of the first lessons God taught humanity. He gave Abraham a dream that he would lead a new tribe unlike any other on earth, a tribe that would be a light to the world, that would exist to bless every other tribe. God told him to leave his homeland and showed him the land He would give to this tribe, a land of abundant blessing. He told Abraham to walk the length and breadth of it and know it would be his. Abraham was obedient and also worked to build an inheritance for his descendants. There was just one problem: he had no children and his wife was past child-bearing age. Abraham & Sarah did what many of us are tempted to, they tried to make God’s promise come true through their own efforts. Sarah gave Abraham her maid, Hagar, and she had a son called Ishmael. However, this caused family tension and the world has been living with the consequences ever since.

God has given River a dream that we are to be a resource church, a blessing to other churches and nations. We are called to walk into that destiny, to embrace it, but not to make it happen at any cost. So we celebrate the success of Ignite (that had a source in River) attracting over 300 students nationwide and we thank God for local churches linking with us, but we do not seek to promote ourselves or to build a name for ourselves. Rather we look to God to open a way for River to walk in all that He’s promised, and simply seek to enjoy serving churches and communities in whatever way we can.

What dreams has our Heavenly Father given you? What high places are you called to? Be still and know that He is God, embrace the dream, prepare for it, but know that He will open the way for those dreams to become reality.

Colin: Receiving Our Inheritance

Firstly, some network news. Thanks to The Journey and Vicky’s leadership, the Methodist Church in Virginia Water has asked us to partner with them. 

Bearing in mind Pioneer’s national partnership with the Methodists and our call to support it, this is a significant event! I visited them one Sunday and met their small congregation. Interestingly, my personal meditation on scripture that day was the same as theirs used in the service. It was the parable of the mustard seed and I felt the Spirit say not to look down on the smallness of that church but to expect it to grow and bless its community. It’s so important to know God is with us in every aspect of our lives, so please be watchful for these kinds of signs. More recently a few of us prayer-walked the area around the church with their leaders. It’s early days but we are seeking wisdom from the Lord to know how we might help them. If you are interested in helping us strengthen them, please contact me.

The Pastures Church in High Wycombe has joined Pioneer and is linking through River. The person who leads this church of about 80-100 folk is a chap called Trevor Lewis, a man of great faith and vision. They run an excellent range of children’s and youth clubs every Friday afternoon/evening and are looking to make their church the heart of their community. They are also currently looking to redevelop their site and build a café and conference facility that could seat up to 300 people. Trevor is keen to work closely with us and will be attending some of our Open Team meetings on Tuesday mornings at the Windsor Hall. Come along if you’d like to meet him.

Ignite starts this week and this year we are running two courses: a day time one 9am-5pm Mondays and an evening one 7-10pm Wednesdays. The aim is to help the students grow in their faith to bring heaven’s blessings to earth and so help them lead in their workplaces and communities. I’m so Receiving Our Inheritance pleased that this year we have been able to make the fantastic teaching and discipleship culture of Ignite available to those who have full time careers. We already have a good number signed up to both courses, including three from St Peters in Maidenhead making them the first church to partner with us locally in this exciting venture! The Spirit is clearly encouraging this work and it is growing; last year we were one of three centres across Pioneer running Ignite, this year there will be seven! Please pray for the teachers and students as I feel this is one of the ways the Lord is preparing His church for a revival in our land.

These are some of the firstfruits of River stepping into our calling and inheritance to be a network to serve churches in our region and to bless our nation. It’s not about building an empire but responding in obedience to what we believe the Lord has spoken to us.

This summer I have been inspired to dream bigger dreams because of the great inheritance we have in Christ. Reading Augustus (a novel by John Williams about the first Roman Emperor), I understood what adoption meant in the Apostle Paul’s day. To us, adoption is about belonging to a family, but to the Romans it was about inheritance. This was clear to all because the emperors of Rome were adopted into their roles! Tiberius was Augustus’ stepson and hence a part of his family for many years before he was adopted as his heir signifying he was to be the next emperor. The title, wealth and favour of the emperor went to his adopted son.

Most of us don’t really believe our lives are significant, and consequently we don’t dream big enough dreams. Knowing we are His adopted sons (Romans 8:15-17), receiving His name, His wealth and His favour changes what we expect and, therefore, the way we live.

Maybe we can change the world!