Just Imagine

Posted by Bill on December 17, 2011

IMAGINATION_by_archanN

I joined the ministry team at Maadi Community Church (MCC) in May, 2000, hoping the Lord might build His church through me and my wife, Beryl (Matthew 16:18a). Even though I knew I was a weak vessel, I willingly gave myself to the Lord, expecting Him to do great and mighty things. I expected the Lord to establish networks of small groups that would care for God’s people, grow many lay-leaders, and engage in bold Kingdom expansion activities. Throughout my time at MCC, I exercised an “extra mile” commitment in everything I did. I poured my mind, heart, body and soul into this work. Not only did the Lord fulfil my expectations, He went one amazing step further by birthing five churches from our expanding number of small groups. What a surprise!

Why didn’t I expect the Lord to birth churches from our efforts? In my case, there are two reasons: Firstly, birthing churches was outside of my ministry experience, and secondly, I never imagined this possibility. My Egypt experience took me from being willing to dream dreams that “I/we” can make happen to the spiritual realm of imagination … dreaming dreams that only the Lord can achieve. I now know that the ability to imagine such things is a gift, offered by God to His children to help them “see” in advance His grand purpose for their lives! Through the exercise of this amazing gift the Lord performs His plans … “plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11b).

In my small “Collins Gem” Australian English Dictionary, “imagination” is defined as, “faculty of making mental images of things not present”. I like this definition, but from a Christian perspective the following definition is better: “faculty of receiving from God mental images of things not present.”

In the Old Testament we learn of Joseph’s amazing gift of imagination. His brothers made fun of him and dismissed him as a “dreamer” (Genesis 37:5-11). The exercise of one’s imagination is something that is not usually encouraged in most families, work places, and churches. Living within the safe parameters of “do only that which is humanly possible” seems to be the norm for most people in the world. It’s the norm, alright, but it’s not all right with me! This near-sighted view robs us of the amazing hope that Scripture teaches we have in our relationship with the Lord – to open our spiritual eyes and see … and to reach out and take hold of everything the Lord has determined for us.

In July, 2006, I had the privilege of dedicating to the Lord the second of our five daughter churches at Ain Shams (an hour’s drive from Maadi) – the Interdenominational Revival Bible Church was born and dedicated to God’s great glory. I knew this young church had an exciting future ahead. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I could see this church growing and maturing into a fine adult church, and then multiplying many daughter churches that would grow and multiply many daughter churches.

Friends, my imagination has been sparked by the Holy Spirit and has taken me to many exciting new places in life. I can now see further, and I can now see more! My imagination runs hot with amazing possibilities. Do you know what I’m talking about? Do you have the gift of imagination? Are you exercising that gift? Just imagine! There’s a whole new world out there waiting to be seen and seized.

Exercise this divine gift – see and experience the amazing things the Lord has in store for you.

A vision of visions 4 – on target in Poland!

Posted by Bill on July 25, 2011

When I aim at a target, and give it my best shot, I’m keen to know the result. So, after my recent visit to Poland, I asked Christian Fellowship Warsaw North to give me an impact assessment of my time with them in May. Marcin Gochnio, a member of the church’s cells coordination team, forwarded the following testimony …

Our church grew in number in recent years, but our cell groups did not develop in proportion to the church’s growth. There were a lot of questions in our minds as to how to lead cell groups to maintain growth, joy and fruitfulness. We remembered Bill’s visit five years earlier when there was much enthusiasm when cell groups started in our church, so we asked him for help.

Bill agreed to come and spend two weeks in our country, investing a week in our church and a week with a church at Bialystok, North-East of Poland. A conference for cell group leaders, workshops and several meetings took place. It made us aware of main challenges, such as the lack of a person who would focus exclusively on cell groups’ development (a cell groups’ champion), the need for adequate support for our group leaders and for deeper understanding of the purpose of cell groups.

After Bill’s visit, many people were encouraged to take action (also our guests from other churches). We learned lots of practical tips and captured fresh ideas for our ministry. The follow-up change program requires time and these changes are just beginning. The important part of the change program will be CCI’s Small Groups Development Manual which was translated into Polish. We look forward to receiving more support from CCI and we have invited Bill to revisit us in September – this time, to invest six weeks with us. We look forward to his assistance, helping us with the change program, to provide small group leader’s training, and to invest time with other churches in our country.

We are very grateful to Bill for his hard work and highly appreciate his insight and experience. Bill is for us a true friend and brother.

Marcin Gochnio
Senior Pastor
Christian Fellowship Warsaw North, Poland

A vision of visions 3 – Ibadan

Posted by Bill on

We arrived late in Ibadan – badly dressed (jeans and t-shirts) with no time to change and knocked about a bit on the 3 hour journey from Lagos…

and Bill was still feeling really crook from congestion and no sleep – Nick began to check out the projector, screens, laptop, etc. ready for the presentation to start. As the last of the participants arrived I took myself off into the corner of the room and simply prayed, asking the Holy Spirit to come and give me the strength to deliver the training, and to open the hearts and minds of the participants – many of whom had made a lot of effort to come into Ibadan.

About 50 attended the training, and we were hugely encouraged by their enthusiasm as the simplicity of the Small Groups Church Plan was unfolded. Bill repeated the strategy that he had used in Lagos, inviting participants to come up to the front and share their questions and opinions and once again this was a great success – encouraging the rest of the audience as each person who came up to speak reinforced one or more of the principles that I had been talking about.

During our time in Ibadan we also had the opportunity to visit the site of the new church building (which has been purchased and construction has been started) and the possible site for the visionary Dominion Campus Project – this was very exciting for us and humbling, as Pastor Kola and his team have placed all their faith in the Lord to provide for their church, such a great encouragement to all of us.

This was also a great reunion for me with Pastor Kola and his beautiful wife, Bola, who also pastors in the church. Please be praying for Kola and Bola Emiola as they lead their church, and for the other members of their leadership team – Kenmi, Emmanuel and Elijah. Their commitment to following Jesus and their faith and determination in their lives and ministry is really a great example tall of us in the comfort of our ‘developed world’ homes and lives.

You can read more about Dominion Impact Church in Nigeria, and some of the other amazing things that God is doing in Africa on a new website, ‘Africa for the Kingdom‘

If you haven’t already subscribed to our blog I encourage you to do so – we will be posting more detailed reports and testimonies about Bill’s May 2011 tour in the coming weeks!

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A vision of visions 2 – Lagos, the ‘Centre of Excellence’

Posted by Bill on

Yep, the ‘Centre of Excellence’ is the slogan for the amazing city of Lagos in Nigeria where Bill and I arrived on May 6, just after lunch, and stepped out into a brick wall of humidity!

Our brother and CCI’s Field Director for Africa, Pastor Elijah Samuel, gave us this wonderful feedback and testimony on our visit.

There were no better times than May 2011 for the much anticipated visit of Cells-church Consultants International to our Lagos and Ibadan church. The meetings were well publicised and attendance at the two location were very encouraging.

Bill and Nick came to Nigeria with the aim at strengthening our ministry and empowering me as the African Field Director for CCI, to take more of the land for the Kingdom through the small groups’ development ministry.

The team arrived in Lagos on May 6th and started training of church pastors and leaders on Saturday May 7th. This training session went for 7-hours and was strengthened with power point presentation (which made it much easier to communicate the simple message of small group ministry to the audience). The training session was also interactive. The participants were allowed to share their new understanding. Amazingly people rose-up to air their views, and thanked Bill for coming to equip and empower them.

Sunday 8th May was a Cells-Celebration worship service where several testimonies on cells activities were received from members. One common feature of all the testimonies heard was that of answers to prayers in the entire small group operated by the church. This gave us the confidence and assurance that God is with us during our small group activities as much as He is with us during the celebration service. Thus cells and celebration is meant to compliment each other.

We would like to share the testimony of a member by name: Friday Adams. He is presently a cell pastor and our youth leader. He got married late last year and he and his wife are expecting their first child this year. Friday used to be a non-believer (the type who doesn’t like meeting with pastors, because he avoids being preached to or invited to a church service). Pastor Elijah is a regular visitor to his compound, ministering to others. On each visit, Friday would go into hiding in his bedroom, waiting for Elijah to leave before coming out.

However, one day, things didn’t go as Friday had planned. He met with Elijah and that was the day that the salvation of God came into his life. He accepted Jesus into his life and joined he church. Elijah listened to Friday’s story of his endless search for a good job, without success. He had visited several shrines and practiced fetish things to get a job but all to no avail. Elijah prayed with him and promised that the church would assist. With God, and through His church, Friday in less than six month of staying in fellowship with God secured a good job in a private cargo clearing and forwarding company. Friday loves his work so much, and is disciplined and dedicated to his duties. This led the management of the company to honor him with a company car, two years later. The pictures show Friday with Lydia his beautiful wife. And him alone, dancing at the altar, during a worship service.

Elijah Samuel

You can read more about Dominion Impact Church in Nigeria, and some of the other amazing things that God is doing in Africa on a new website, ‘Africa for the Kingdom‘

Please prayerfully consider making a donation to support Pastor Elijah ministry in Nigeria. Your gifts for this ministry go towards providing a permanent internet service for the church and the pastor (about $300 set up plus $1,100 per year subscription); rresources (food, clothing, etc.) for community outreach groups, reaching out to women, orphans, the unemployed and illiterate and to support small groups training courses for in-church leaders and other churches in the community.You can do this right now simply by clicking on the PayPal button below.

Friends of Sudan

Posted by Nick on June 14, 2011

As we seek to promote and enable Kingdom Building investment opportunities wherever our CCI team members and friends are, we have been connected with Friends of Sudan, a christian charity registered in Scotland, that exists to support the work of the African Inland Church in Sudan – where Pastor Saturnino (who has featured in several posts in the CCI blog) is serving.

We are really delighted to be connected with another ministry working in this geographic location – and Friends of Sudan are particularly involved in supporting and equipping the training of pastors, theological training and school projects – you can find out more about these projects on their website.

httpv://youtu.be/zeuNCANeqW8

To find out more and to make a donation to support AIC Sudan through Friends of Sudan, just click on the image below – you will be taken to their website.