Food Drive, Nigeria … A great success!

Posted by Bill on February 4, 2012

The Lord is busy at work through His faithful people at Lagos and Ibadan, Nigeria. CCI is glad to be partnering with Dominion Impact Church (Pastor Elijah and Pastor Kola).

I hope your spirit will be encouraged and strengthened as you read the following report from Pastor Elijah in Lagos.

Dear Friends,

Hunger, nakedness, illness, homelessness, oppression and the likes characterises the environment in which we live and minister every day in Lagos and Ibadan.

God hasn’t given the ultimate solution to our government. But to the church, the Lord has commissioned us to take charge of the situation and occupy/take territories from the enemy, for His kingdom. Most churches around us have neglected this holistic ministry of meeting the spiritual, physical, and emotional needs of the people. But as God gives His grace to Dominion Impact Church at Lagos and Ibadan, we want to make a difference in the lives of many needy people.

“For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me” (Matthew 25:35-36).

Moved with compassion for our people, Dominion Impact Church, through its Life-groups in Lagos and Ibadan, sought to fulfill the above Scripture by embarking on ambitious ‘reaching out in love’ exercises within the New Oko-Oba and Challenge communities. This outreach was targeted at meeting some basic needs in the homes of the less-privileged. To us, it was a way of demonstrating the love of Christ in a practical way to people who don’t know Him. Christmas time, we believe, is an ideal time to do to this.

The Food Drive was carried out at Lagos and Ibadan, on the 18^th and 22^nd of December, 2011. The careful choice of food items was also necessary because of the Christmas and New Year festive season. We engaged our Street Kids (one of our Life groups) in our outreach strategy as a means of touching hearts. After the food drive, we saw that many homes had opened up to the gospel. Parents came and showed their appreciation to us, and it was a perfect opportunity to present the Lord to them.

We are grateful to you for your prayer support and for helping us to finance this outreach opportunity. Our food drive was a great success! The pictures were taken at our Ibadan Church food drive.

We love you
Pastor Elijah
Dominion Impact Church

Thank you for your valued partnership. If you would like to support the work of Dominion Impact Church in Nigeria, please just click on the PayPal button below.

CCI takes no fees or charges from your donation. The amount you send, less only what PayPal charges us, will be sent to Dominion Impact Church.

Stick to HIS plan

Posted by Bill on

Valuable lessons don’t come easy for me. On Thursday night, September 21, 2006, I remember staging our first small groups pastors celebration under the tented area at Maadi Community Church. More than one hundred and forty people who had undergone small groups’ pastors training since August, 2000, joined together to celebrate the amazing things the Lord had done through the small groups of the church. During this time I had opportunity to share several defining moments of our thrilling six and a half years of small groups’ development journey.

I explained that I arrived at MCC from Australia in May, 2000, full of confidence and enthusiasm, with a plan under my arm … ready to launch-out to establish networks of small groups that would help grow MCC through multiplying disciples and multiplying groups. I shared that it wasn’t long before I found myself flat on my face before the Lord, feeling shattered and defeated – crying out in desperation to Him … “Why hasn’t my plan worked? Why is frustration and failure the fruit of my labour?”

Through waiting on the Lord I heard Him whisper back to me, “For I know the plans I have for you …” (Jeremiah 29:11a). How naive and arrogant of me to presume that I knew enough of my new assignment to have raced ahead of God with “my” plan, without having consulted with Him. Through that sobering blunder I gained a better understanding and appreciation of Psalm 127:1, where the psalmist says, “Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is useless”.

With a renewed perspective, the Lord began to reveal to me in small parts, His plan for small groups development at MCC. The plan that He unveiled was radically new to my experience. Over a number of months my dear wife, Beryl, patiently persevered with me to sketch-out God’s plan, with biblical specifications and illustration, on our home computer. The finished plan looked great, and I felt peace that this was going to work!

Following the plan the Lord revealed to us – a plan that is founded upon three great passages of Scripture (Matthew 22:36-40; Matthew 28:18-20; and Ephesians 4:12, 16), many in our church diligently laboured together to establish networks of small groups in our church that would … “Equip God’s people to do His work, and build up the church … so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love”. This great plan emphasises a balance of personal growth in four spiritual dimensions: Upward (Worship), Inward (Fellowship), Outward (Evangelism), and Forward (Discipleship).

At that time, more than 800 people had undergone small groups development training at MCC in the 6 ½ years. Although each trainee had the plan carefully presented to them, sadly not all kept to the plan. Those who kept to the plan tasted sweet-success and those who strayed away from it did not. God’s plan worked exceptionally well and still does – at any time, and in any place! Through sticking to His plan, Fredrick and Bosco planted one small group in a poor community in Cairo that grew and multiplied many times over and resulted in 91 small groups (with 947 members) in just two years!

Friends, I am so glad my plan did not work. My plan did not provide for multiplying churches and multiplying movements. It didn’t enter into my mind that this could ever happen. God, however, planned for this to happen – 297 groups, 2768 members, 5 daughter churches, and more than 1,000 new believers! All this, and much more, because of our resolve to stick to His plan!

Joel Comiskey – our guest blogger in 2012

Posted by Bill on February 2, 2012

Joel Comiskey

I’m delighted to announce that Joel Comiskey – recognised as one of the greatest exponents of Small-Groups / Cell-Groups has accepted our invitation to be a guest blogger on the CCI website in the coming year.

Joel is an internationally celebrated cell group and cell church consultant. He has written best-selling books on the worldwide cell group movement. Joel’s easy to understand writing style has encouraged and inspired the equipping of the saints, for the building the church, for service to the Lord in expanding His Kingdom without limit.

I first experienced Joel through reading several published articles by him on the web, in Cairo (in 2002). This inspired me to contact Joel by email, expressing a desire to meet with him in person. Not long after this I travelled from Cairo to Merino Valley, California, where I met Joel and his family. Ever since that time, we have been worldwide cell/small groups development partners.

I know you will be encouraged, edified, and inspired as you feast at Joel’s banquet of blog articles. If you haven’t subscribed to recieve our blog posts right in your inbox, you can do it NOW, right here! Please also take the opportunity to visit Joel’s own blog and explore the many resources available through his website.

www.joelcomiskeygroup.com
www.comiskey.org

Bill

Pray for All Nations Community Church in Sudan

Posted by Bill on January 28, 2012

Just over a week ago (or maybe two weeks by the time this is posted), CCI had the privilege of forwarding a sizeable cash gift to All Nations Community Church in Sudan for the purpose of strengthening their efforts in outreaching their community. Shortly after I received the following email from Papiti, the pastor of ANCC …

Hi Pastor Bill,

Thank you and the CCI Team for this Divine Provision. I call it a Divine provision, because since last month we have been praying for our second evangelistic outreach to take place and we have been praying for money that can cover the cost. With the gift you sent we are going to start the outreach on 26^th Jan, up to 29^th.. This four days outreach will make a great change in the life of many people. So please join us in prayer for this day and for the part of cost that is not covered. God bless you more.

Papiti.

Friends, I am so amazed at the perfect timing of this gift. I had no idea that ANCC had planned a 4-days outreach and needed financial support. I give credit to the Holy Spirit for inspiring a number of CCI partners to collaborate together for His will and purposes with ANCC. I’ve attached several photos to help you in your prayers for Papiti and ANCC. Let’s pray for a great movement of the Holy Spirit during the 4 days of their outreach event.

Pastor Papiti and family

“Lord, what an amazing work You have done in ANCC. And how glad we are to know You will continue this work until it has been completed. We want to support Your efforts through Papiti and ANCC. May Your love, grace and mercy flow freely through their community in South Sudan during the time of their outreach, commencing on the 26^th of this month. Draw many hungry and thirsty souls to Your throne of grace, through Your Son, Jesus, by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Strengthen Your church, Lord. Receive the glory they desire for You. Amen.”

It does get better than this!

Posted by Bill on

I will never forget him. On Tuesday, September 5, 2006, the Lord took my dear friend, Dave Petrescue, home to be with Him. From our finite perspectives this could not have happened at a more unexpected time.

No one gave of himself more to the Lord’s work at Maadi Community Church than our senior pastor, Dave Petrescue. Four days later, two thousand five hundred people gathered together at Victory Park, Maadi, to celebrate the life of our dear friend, and to say “Thank You” to the Lord for blessing us through him.

It was my privilege to share the following eulogy with those gathered:

The Lord used our dear friend, Dave Petrescue, to save and transform the lives of many thousands of people, for God and for “good”. I know this to be true because my changed-life is a living testimony of this. Six years ago I had seriously considered resigning from Christian service as an associate pastor in Australia. For several years I had battled with discouragement and frustration through trying to function in a constricting and smothering leadership team situation, and the joy of ministry had almost extinguished from my life.

God’s unexpected and timely intervention, however, saved me from the ministry scrap heap by placing me on Dave’s leadership team at MCC as one of his associates. Why? What good had I done in life that I should deserve this gracious placement? To this day, I still don’t know the answer to that question.

Dave Petrescue was an exceptional leader who did not suffer from personal insecurity. His joy and satisfaction in life was to see those around him grow to their full potential in Christ. There was nothing he would not do to provide opportunities of growth for those under his care and leadership. Ministry was never about him, but about God and others. He lived and led with an encouraging presence. No one in all of life has encouraged and inspired me more to grow to become all I can be in Christ than my dear friend, Dave.

Dave’s character, personality, and leadership brought to the surface of my life an amazing amount of unrealised leadership potential. His warm, supportive and approving smile set me “free” to dream big … to soar higher and higher… and expand my horizons to limits set only by the Lord. Friends, I have learnt more, grown more, and experienced more satisfaction in life and ministry in the last 6 ½ years than my previous 50 years!

Throughout our 6 ½ years of ministry partnership Dave and I saw God work miracle after miracle in the lives of His people at MCC, and beyond. Each time we marvelled because we saw ourselves as very ordinary, weak men. We began to respond to these miraculous happenings with the comment, “It doesn’t get better than this!” Because the Lord continued to do greater things, we had to modify our response to, “It does get better than this!” And friends, it has … and will continue to do so until the day we reunite with Dave in glory.

Dave Petrescue, my dear friend, as I continue in my earthly journey with the Lord, I will continue to testify to the world that life does get better than this. But, for you, from where you stand, I’m sure your testimony is now … “Friends, it doesn’t get better than this!”

David Petrescue, well done, good and faithful servant. You have left behind an amazing legacy of hundreds of fired-up successors who are eager to carry on the good work the Lord began through you. Dear friend, you have entered into His eternal rest. Until we see you in glory please don’t waste your time rehearsing those corny jokes and lightning-quick puns. In this area of your life, for our sake, we’ve often prayed, “It must get better than this!”