Small Groups Momentum growing in Warsaw

Posted by Bill on February 25, 2012

Received from Iza, the Small Groups Director we worked with in Warsaw during our European “Vision of Visions” trip

Bill, the small groups presentation to our church family, last week, was more than amazing!

I couldn’t sleep afterwards, of course . I’m still excited, actually – everyone is. It’s hard to describe how I am feeling. I’m still in Heaven (not Coffee Heaven .

Our presentation included: Adam Dulinski speaking about following Jesus, later we had four people share testimonies. Martin spoke about how the pastors and elders supported God’s work at Ephesus. I then spoke about discipleship, saying …

“We want to follow Jesus, knowing His way of walking with His disciples. Twelve people (one small group) spent 3 years with each other, learning to accept and love each other, grow spiritually, and looked for lost people. This is called discipleship. In the small groups of our church, we are learning to do the same. We take on challenges of mutual love and acceptance, spiritual growth, and to lead people to Jesus. Jesus modeled this, so did the apostles. Then Paul and Timothy continued to do this. Through small group, we want discipleship to be a part of our lives and we want this pattern conveyed to future generations. Through discipleship, we want to follow Jesus.”

The Elders and Pastors of our church then prayed for us.

Bill, many people expressed sensing God’s Power and His Holy Spirit. After the presentation, telephone texts and emails were being circulated, expressing joy and happiness for the presentation! We thank the Lord for this ministry!

Bill, thank you for helping us.

Iza

Inauguration of Liberty City Church!

Posted by Bill on

Praise the Lord for the birth of Liberty City Church! Praise the Lord for Wale and Emma, for their courageous step of faith! Last Sunday (19 Feb 2012) in the Leeds-Bradford locality in England, Liberty City Church was born and commissioned into service to the King of Kings. This is exciting stuff!

The following message was received from Wale and Emma:

Dear Bill and Beryl,

Good morning! We’d just like to give you some feedback on our first church service. Firstly, we’re so grateful to God that we’ve crossed the line from dream into reality. Hallelujah! Including ourselves we had a modest turn-up of 14 people, including a family of four, some of Emma’s family and a work colleague of Wale’s. We were excited because just this morning Wale had a revelation of four angels taking their places in the community centre for the church inauguration. Feedback was very positive from everyone who attended; the adults enjoyed the message and the kids enjoyed kids’ church. Unfortunately, there was a technical problem with the recording of the sermon, but this should be rectified for next week. Other than that, everything went very smoothly and we felt God’s peace and presence throughout.

We are very excited about what God is going to do and are trusting Him for great things. Thanks so much for your support and your prayers,

Love,
Wale and Emma

Wale and Emma are standing on water in their faith. Please uphold them with words of encouragement and ongoing prayers. Let’s adopt a spirit of great expectation that the Lord will do amazing things in the life, ministry and mission of Liberty City Church .

Standing strong in the midst of trials

Posted by Bill on

We never need to be paralysed by the difficulties we face in life.

We have the privilege of praying to a loving and understanding Father who knows our circumstances. As well as knowing what we are facing, He is ever present to guides us through each and every difficulty, commanding victory for us in every situation.

When our faith, hope and love are fixed on the Lord, we can face any difficulty or problem that comes our way, and the Lord will give us joy and peace within.

REQUEST: In Psalm 5, David’s reaction to the difficulty he faced was to make a request to the Lord through speechless groaning and crying-out to ‘hear’ him (Psalm 5 v 1-3), and ‘lead’ him (Psalm 5 v 8).
REASON: The reason for David’s request is respect for the holiness of God (Psalm 5 v 4-6), who stands against the wicked, and the wickedness of man (Psalm 5 v 9,10).
RESPONSE: The right response by believers in the midst of trials is ‘rejoicing in faith, love and hope’ (Psalm 5 v 11,12). Joy comes from trusting in the Lord and loving Him. Joy and peace is what results from trusting in the Lord. It’s what God does ‘in’ us – it does not result from circumstances on the outside. To experience joy and peace, never look to your outside circumstances, but look only to the Lord.

Throughout our earthly lives, we must expect difficulty – this is the ‘norm’ for mankind. If we want to stand strong in the midst of trials, we must not run from our trials, but to the Lord … bringing to Him our righteous requests, with the right reason, and with a right response.

Myth: Cell Church Is a Fad

Posted by Joel on February 18, 2012

Many look at cell church as a hot trend of the 1990s, but believe that there are now more cutting-edge strategies going on in the church.

Some of the newer trends are multi-site ministry, seeker models, video venues, and so many more. Some think the cell church had its day but church life and ministry has largely passed it by; we should now focus on more promising developments.

Truth: The Cell Church Has Deep Roots

I was recently reading a book by Ron Trudinger called Cells for Life: Home Groups, God’s Strategy for Church Growth. The author writes with penetrating clarity about the effectiveness of home cell groups and their power to transform lives and raise up new leaders. While reading the book, I had to keep on reminding myself that Trudinger is now in heaven, and he wrote the book in 1979!

There is nothing new under the sun. Home cell groups have been around for a long, long time. As I reflect on my own ministry, I’m keenly aware and appreciative of the pioneers who have gone before me. Carl George’s 1991 book, Prepare Your Church for the Future, revolutionized my own vision for cell groups and transformed my ministry. I stand on his shoulders. I’m also very grateful for Ralph Neighbour and Bill Beckham, two cell church pioneers, who have helped so many churches understand the values and principles behind cell ministry. Every time I read Neighbour’s Where Do We Go From Here, I receive new insight and grow in my appreciation for both the author and his in-depth cell church theology.

Going back even further, we see David Cho, the founder of the modern day cell church movement. I have never fully recovered from reading Cho’s Successful Home Cell Groups back in 1984. It lit a passion inside me for the possibilities of home group ministry. But Cho didn’t start the cell church movement. He stands on the shoulders of John Wesley and the Methodist movement, who were helped by the Moravians, who in turn were heavily influenced by the Pietists. And all of them stand on the New Testament’s emphasis of house to house ministry and celebration worship (Acts 2:42-46).

The modern day cell church movement is not new. It’s actually quite ancient. I’m grateful for the pioneer work of Ron Trudinger and others. While we in the present day cell church movement ask God for future insight and direction, we are very grateful that cell church is not a fad. Cell church is here to stay.

Restoring the side-lined

Posted by Bill on

“If you had one hundred sheep, and one of them strayed away and was lost in the wilderness, wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine others to go and search for the lost one until you found it?” (Luke 15:4).

Misunderstanding and mistakes abound in every church. This is normal. Through circumstances that are intentional or otherwise, it’s only a matter of time before someone is hurt or offended. At times, the feeling of hurt or offence is severe enough to cause a member to quietly withdraw from the church.

One morning, during my time as Pastor of the Dungog Baptist Church (a country town in NSW, Australia) I discovered a basket of vegetables that was left on the back door step of our Manse. The name of the giver was on an accompanying note, expressing kind thoughts towards me and my family. The right thing was to track down this person to personally thank them for their expression of kind love. I knocked on the front door of Ruth’s house, believing her to be a widow. To my surprise, an elderly, looooong-bearded man opened the door and grumbled out a cold “yes, can I help you?” Ruth wasn’t a widow. She had an alive husband! Why had I not known about him? I introduced myself to John and explained the purpose of my visit.

It wasn’t long after the time of my surprise encounter with John that I learnt his story of how he had been hurt and offended by someone in his previous church, in a nearby town. How long ago did this sad event take place before my meeting with John? Twenty years! Did John have to stay “lost” to Christian fellowship and service for this length of time? No! If someone in his church had noticed his absence, and cared enough for him, John would not have been listed as being “lost”.

As I write, I know of three close friends who are no longer in fellowship with any church, who are no longer serving the Lord. One of them was a pastor of a church, and the other two held senior leadership positions with their churches. Misunderstanding and mistakes stole them away, quietly, and still has them lost … somewhere. I’ve done my best to reach out to them, to encourage them and love them, but the extent of their hurt is keeping them lost. I haven’t given up on them. I continue to pray for them.

Is there anyone close to you who has been “side-lined” through some circumstance that has caused them hurt or offence? Has anything been done to help restore them back into fellowship with a church? Is there anything you can do? We must do whatever we can to restore those who have been side-lined from our team or church. We must not give up on anyone. The Lord will never give up on us. We are too precious to Him. Look for the side-lined in your life. Angelic rejoicing awaits the restoration of the lost.

Bill

By the way, it wasn’t long before John came to the church in Dungog with his wife, Ruth, and later served as a Deacon with the church.