Renewal Christian Centre

Last Sunday B, Rachel and I took the journey north to Birmingham to visit the church that Rev David Carr leads.         He is renowned for his straight talking and his healing ministry.  He has also overseen the growth of the church to some 2500 people over a weekend.

It was excellent to go to a place that you know has stil got the same pastor and many of the same guys that were involved in starting the church.  in fact, they were honouring those on Sunday who had been with the church for 30 years or more.  We were in the second service and there were about 10 who were still there and in the first meeting there had been over 30 on stage.  I also read something this week that correlated the standing if he church in a community and the longevity if it's leadership.

We managed to find the back door to get in so we didn't have a chance to go to the visitor area, which i think consisted of coffee and there equivalent of our host team.  They did have a good building that seated 1500 people with all the seats out, but it didn't seem so big that you felt distant.  The highlight of the morning for me was the preaching.  It was so soaked in Jesus from beginning to end, there could have been no mistake who the central figure in the church is.
 
I found it inspiring to see what had been built and trust God that one day we too will see something like this in Reading.

Into the second week of sabbatical

It is now a week and a half since I started my sabbatical.  I must say it is strange not being around the hub-bub of RFC, the banter in the office, the wonderful worship times that we enjoy together on Sundays and midweek.  I am however, starting to find a routine in all of this.  I am enjoying studying the Psalms and had a wonderful time looking at Psalm 22 yesterday - seeing the wonder of what David had written and then looking at it in light of Christ and his crucifixion and all that went around that. We have so much to be thankful for in the cross of Jesus!!

I have also started studying 'According To Plan' by Graeme Goldsworthy.  I have only been in the first two chapters, but already I am having my understanding of the bible and my reading  of it, enlightened and brought a greater clarity.  This is one of three books I plan to go through during this time.  

On top of that I am also half way through a book that Gary and Anita Bailey gave me a while ago.  It is about the Noon Day Prayer Meetings that were held at the Fulton Street Dutch Reformed Church during the 1800's that paved the way for the great Revival.  I shall give a more detailed précis of this when i have finished it in a later blog.

After being silent for a month or so, I do intend to blog regularly whilst on my sabbatical, so watch this space for more news.  In my next post, I shall tell all about the church that B, Rachel and I visited at the weekend.

Alpha@CoffeeRepublic week 2+3 summary.

Over the past two weeks we have gathered again at Coffee Republic.  Many of the guests have returned and we have been joined by a couple more.  The talks have looked at the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Looking at the different arguments that have been put about as an alternative reason for the empty to and then we looked a the reasons why these things do not hold water.  We then saw this week that Jesus died on the cross because this was and is the only way that man can once again have a relationship with the living God.  It's was and is the only way that we can be forgiven of the sin that controls us, the sin the condemns us and the sin that ultimately keeps us from knowing the Father.

It is fantastic to engage with peoples questions and objections and to show that being a follower of Jesus stands up to intense scrutiny.  Please keep praying for the course and that people would progress further in their journeys of discovering Jesus for themselves.

Alpha@CoffeeRepublic week 1 summary.

Tonight is week 2 of Alpha.  I cannot believe a whole week has gone by already.  Last week teh 5 of us who are on team, were joined in Coffee Republic by 9 guests. All of them are on different stages of their journey of discovery of Jesus.  It is always thrilling to see who will turn up and to hear something of their stories.  The first night is always kind of odd as it is the night where there seems to be an urgency for answer.  The big questions raise their heads and the main objections come to the table.  I try not to get too carried away with these things because as the course progresses we hit many of these things and we also enjoy the debate.

Last week we looked at the question 'Who was or is Jesus?'. Looking at the fact that there is historical evidence to support an historical figure called Jesus; looking at his claims that he made about himself, about the miracles and his teaching; and we stated that these are all things that point to the fact that Jesus was both man and God and he was indeed the Son of God the second person of the trinity. There was a lot of discussion both before and after the talk creating a great buzz in the place.

Tonight we gather to focus on the resurrection of Jesus.  'Did he really rise from the dead?' is the question in view.  I am looking forward to speaking and getting to know some of the guests more over a cup of coffee and a cake. If you would like to join us we are in Coffee Republic in Reading town centre from 8pm.  The talk will start at 8:30pm and we will be finished by 9:45pm.  (the talk isn't that long but we have time to discuss the talk!)

Leafleting

We are now 4000 in to getting the flyers out for the general advertising of the church.  Inspiring RFCers such as Kinga, Sam, Darren, Beka C, Dave, Elli, Silke, Lozi and Becca H have all come in and pounded the streets around South Street Arts Centre in faith that we will see new people coming along to progress in their journey with Jesus.  On top of that the office crew have also come alongside these guys and done a few of those 4000.  There are still 6000 still to get out - 6000 homes still to be reached, 6000 letterboxes still to open and close.  We would love you to have the joy of leafleting.  If you have a spare hour (alright, if you can find a spare hour!) it would be great to have you come in, collect a couple of hundred and then get them out.

We have also just received the flyers for the healing meeting.  I mentioned yesterday that we will be doing this in life groups and next Tuesday evening the life group leaders of RFC will be collecting their leafleting packs.  A map, several hundred flyers and a list of roads to conquer.

Both of these endeavours are about inviting people to come and meet Jesus.  To  encounter His power, His glory and His majesty.  When the people in Acts came into contact with the church, when they got in the midst of the people and saw Jesus at work they saw something that inspired them, they saw something that changed them, they saw something that brought them to Jesus.  that's why we are putting leaflets out, to invite people to come and see for themselves the community of Jesus enjoying Him and meeting him in a school hall and an arts centre.

Healing Meeting - Sunday May 23rd

It's now only 6 weeks till we have our healing meeting on Sunday 23rd May.  We have got a guy called Chris Kilby coming to us from Southampton.  He leads the Newfrontiers Church there called Life Church.  I always find Chris to be an inspiring guy to be around - he always has a story of kebab shops where he has just shared the gospel or people he has seen healed recently.  He has a great gift of connecting and communicating with people and explaining Jesus to them in stories.  He also has a growing healing ministry.  I am hoping that RFCers will get to meet Chris before the event as we have invited him to come and meet midweek with us in a couple of weeks time.

This is definitely a date to put in the diary.  For ourselves we need to be full of faith and expect that God will do amazing things through Chris' ministry.  We also need to be inviting as many people to come as possible - I know that they will find themselves in the presence of God on the morning.  We shall also be flyering the area around the school again as lifegroups. 

RFCers on the street

Over the past few weeks three RFCers, Lozi, Sam and Edd, have been going out with people from two other churches and have been using the 'Treasure Hunt' framework of evangelism which entails asking God for clues and words which are then written down under headings such as Name, Appearance, Location, Unusual and Ailment/What they need prayer for.


This Sunday Lozi and Edd came and shared some stories with me.  This is a fairly long post but stick with it because the stories are worth it and should help build our faith:


The 8 of us got clues such as 'black railings', 'statue', 'questions', 'Christine', 'museum', 'clock', 'brick floor', 'left ankle', 'black longs and a top with blue & white', the colour 'green' and 'garden'. Based on these and other clues we got, we decided to head for the area around the museum and Forbury Gardens.

 - On the high street we spotted a lady collecting for a charity and saw she had 'black longs with a blue & white top', so we went up to her. We asked if she wanted to prayer for anything and she said to pray for her charity. We asked how her ankle was, and she said that her right ankle was in pain. We asked if we could pray for her and she said yes. We asked if we could pray for her right there and then and she said yes! So, asking if we could lay hands on her foot (she said yes), we knelt down in the street and prayed for her foot. After prayer she said it felt "comfortable". We told her that God loves her and we left her to her charity-collecting.

-Soon afterwards Matthew, Kathy from Vineyard and myself went to Forbury Gardens to see if we could find anyone else. Entering the Gardens we saw the big lion statue, the green grass, the brick floor...location-wise we hitting alot of our clues basically! Kathy felt that the Holy Spirit wanted us to go and talk to a woman who was sat on a bench wrapping presents. So we did. She was a lovely, friendly woman from New Zealand who we soon got into conversation with and was so friendly. (It turns out her mum is called Christine.) We felt the presence of God around her and really saw that God loves her heart for the "down and outs". She had a lot of questions about the bible and stuff, and we got the opportunity to read Psalm 139 to her, shared the testimonies of how we came to know Jesus and how he changed us, told her a bit about his grace and how much he loves her and how she's fearfully and wonderfully made. She let us pray for her as well, and she said that she felt heat. We shared how people react in different ways to God; some cry, some fall over, some don't feel anything but see the later effects, some feel heat and tingles. Her eyes kind of widened when we said about the tingles. She got those too. She also said that she was looking for a fun church, so we gave her a flyer of the 3 churches we were from with our contact details on and invited her along to Reading Family Church. It was so clear that were meant to meet her and it was such a priviledge as well.

-On the way back to the church offices Kathy and I stopped to speak to a homeless guy called Paul to see how was doing and if he needed anything. We didn't have any information on us about shelters or places to eat so we asked God to provide, and within 30 seconds after praying, 2 ladies came up beside us with a piece of paper on with contacts for shelters and places to eat & practical advice. God is good.


These guys are doing a great job of attempting to live out the Gospel and see people introduced to Jesus.  I am planning to go out with them sometime to experience the thrill of hearing from God and then seeing it through.  maybe you too would like to join them.  If so then just comment and I will give you more details.


God is good and He is working in our town through His church.