A vision of visions 1

Posted by Bill on June 3, 2011

Was I day-dreaming when I wrote the “Vision of Visions” article a few weeks ago, or was it indeed a wondrous vision from the Lord of what He is preparing to do around the world through CCI?

Well, any doubts I had entertained soon vanished after Nick and I had landed at Lagos in Nigeria – the ‘City of Excellence” – on May 6 , to begin our five days of small groups development work at Lagos and Ibadan. The night before our departure from Nigeria, Nick and I walked the grounds of our hotel in Ibadan, rejoicing and encouraged by what the Lord had accomplished through us, and my “vision of visions” was affirmed. Pastor Elijah (CCI’s ‘man in Africa’) was given a “green light” by his senior pastor, Kola Emiola, to transition out of his pastoral role at the Lagos branch of Dominion Impact Church to establish himself as the small groups champion, coordinating the development of small groups in their two churches (soon to be four) and for other churches that had expressed interest in following our small groups church plan.

After giving Nick a hug at Dubai airport, I boarded my flight for Warsaw via London. It was my fourth time to Christian Fellowship North and while in Warsaw I facilitated a two day conference, met with small group leaders, preached twice and identified a small groups champion to oversee the small groups development work in Warsaw, and throughout Poland. (Several weeks prior to my arrival, the mother church celebrated the birth of a daughter church. Marek Sabotka is the pastor of the daughter church – several years ago Marek travelled to Maadi Community Church in Cairo to experience our small groups training.)

My last four days in Poland were invested with the Baptist church at Bialystok, 3 hrs drive North of Warsaw. During this time, I sensed the Lord’s presence and approval, and experienced His blessings in each small groups ministry engagement with the church. The pastor said, “What you shared is what we needed to hear. The timing is perfect. Thank you for coming to us.” Before I left Poland I agreed with Pastor Krzysztof Zareba of Christian Fellowship North in Warsaw to return to Poland in September and October this year, to minister with churches in the North, Central, and South regions of Poland.

I flew out of Warsaw, at 6.30pm on May 23, bound for London. I was greeted at Heathrow by Gary Douglas and the pastor of his church, Bill Chapman. Bill’s wife, Ellen, was also there to greet me. We travelled for 3 hrs in Bill’s car to Llanelli in Wales, where I continued to experience the Lord’s presence, pleasure and power. Myrtlehouse, the Elim Church in Llanelli, is the most alive church in town and is one of 600 Elim churches in the UK. Every person I met greeted me with warmth, love and acceptance. They responded enthusiastically to our small groups plan and development principles, and I was overwhelmed with a sense that the Lord was about to do something very big through this church … something that would impact all of Wales and the UK. My time at Llanelli helped to endorse Gary as CCI’s field director in the UK – Gary and Aline are exceptional people and it would not surprise me if the Lord uses them to spark another Kingdom expansion revival in Wales. Pastor Bill Chapman asked if I’d be willing to return to Wales to share our ministry with other church leaders.

Friends, throughout the 24 days of this amazing trip, the enemy threw everything in his arsenal at me. Despite suffering many days from sleep deprivation, the Lord kept me strong and steadfast through the power of His Holy Spirit. I arrived back in Brisbane at 1am on Sunday May 29, believing the Lord had accomplished everything He set out to do through me, according to His will.

The Vision of Visions dream is a gutsy dream. It’s BIG … it’s beautiful … and, it’s being realised before our eyes!

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 our visits to Lagos, Ibadan, Warsaw, Bialystok and Llanelli in the coming weeks!

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A vision of visions…

Posted by Bill on April 24, 2011

I believe He’s done it again! The Lord has given me another vision – this time, a vision of visions.

Ten years ago, before boarding the aircraft for Cairo to commence our wonder-filled, eight years assignment with Maadi Community Church, I did something quite strange … I whispered to my wife, Beryl, “This is going to be bigger than Ben Hur” (referring to that gigantic, blockbuster movie production, starring Charlton Heston – and what took place in our lives and Kingdom expansion impact was indeed bigger than Ben Hur!

CCI has asked the Lord for the whole of Africa!

On the 5th of May, I will be boarding an aircraft for Nigeria. The purpose of my trip is to fulfil a personal undertaking I made some time ago to return to Lagos and Ibadan to strengthen the small groups development work that commenced there in 2004 (with a follow-up visit in 2006) with resident pastors, Kolawole Oladimeji and Elijah Samuel of the Dominion Impact Church.

Elijah is CCIs Field Director for Africa. I’m getting on in years and I want to invest all that I am, and have, in Elijah and ‘Kola’, equipping them for every Kingdom expansion opportunity the Lord has purposed to extend to them.

(For this part of the trip I am going to be accompanied by two great mates on the CCI team, Dave Quak the pastor of a new church on the Gold Coast here in Australia (Living Temple Christian Church) and Nick Truscott, who we will pick up along the way in Dubai).

CCI has asked the Lord for the whole of Europe!

After booking my flight to Nigeria, I noticed a Skype indicator flashing on my wife’s computer in our office at home. It was late in the day, and I felt tired and I was not really interested enough to see who wanted our attention. However, through Beryl’s prompting (our wives are quite persuasive influencers) I responded to the caller. It was Pastor Kryz from Warsaw, Poland!

Although I’ve had the privilege of visiting Poland and facilitating three amazing small groups development conferences, while based in Cairo, I hadn’t spoken with Kryz for over four years. After learning of my Nigerian trip, Kryz invited me to “do it again” in Warsaw. My heart responded enthusiastically … “You bet, Kryz, let’s let the Lord do it again!” Martin and Agata Gochnio, and Izabela Pazdyka are the church’s outstanding small groups’ champions there and how privileged am I to invest all that I am, and have, in them.

(I wonder, could they be CCIs Field Directors for the whole of Europe?)

CCI has asked the Lord for the whole of the UK!

The story doesn’t end here. After flying out of Nigeria, I disembark at Dubai (drop off Nick so he can go home, and leave Dave to go back to Oz) and change carriers for Warsaw, via London. Gary Douglas is CCI’s Field Director for the UK – he’s based with his wife, Aline, in Wales. “Eagle Eyes, Gaz”, spotted my flight path to and from Warsaw, and, seeing that I was passing through London, he grabbed the opportunity to invite his old mate (me) to invest some time in Wales. I love Gaz too much to ever say “no” to him. So, once again, I contacted my travel agent to amend my travel itinerary, allowing me a four day stop-over in London.

Gary will drive to London to pick me up and take me home to Llanelli, where I am looking forward to meeting with Pastor Bill of Elim Pentecostal Church. Incidentally, the Elim Pentecostal Church is a member church of a network of 550 churches in the UK! Is your mind spinning wild, imagining the magnitude of what could result from this god-appointed meeting? Yes, I want to continue investing in Gary … all that I am, and have.

CCI has asked the Lord for the World!

Just before Christmas Beryl and I asked the Lord if CCI had reached it’s “shelf-expiry” date. Our experience has (sadly) been that Australian churches don’t appear to be ready to buy-in to our radical Small Groups Church Plan, and our flour and oil reserve was running seriously low. After emailing an Australian mining company, expressing interest to work with them, doing anything, the Lord whispered to me, “We haven’t finished yet – We’re just getting started. We’re about to do something greater than the human mind can imagine.”

Even though we see ourselves as the smallest of all garden seeds, Beryl and I believe wholeheartedly in this “vision of visions” revelation that the Lord is about to do wondrous, mind-boggling things throughout the world, through the CCI team and through our Kingdom expansion partners.

Are you ready for the ride of your life?

Join us and experience the reality and satisfaction of this vision of visions.

Fanning the sparks…

Posted by Bill on December 9, 2010

To be brutally honest, Beryl and I were not looking forward to our return visit to Cairo – unable to see “upfront” the amazing opportunities that the Lord had in store for us. read on →

Welcome Elijah – our brother in Africa!

Posted by Bill on June 25, 2010

Elijah Samuel latched onto cells as the best way to grow a church when he sat in on presentations of Small Groups Development, facilitated by Bill during training visits to Nigeria, in 2005 and 2007. read on →

Pastor Kolawole Emiola in Nigeria

Posted by Bill on June 1, 2009

We praise God for granting us insight into the benefits of the Small Groups Church Plan. Dominion Impact Church, our apostolic base in Nigeria, has been doing very well since the injection of small group principles in 2006. The most noticeable of all is our increase in numerical strength in our two church branches in Lagos and Ibadan. This is all due to the intentional evangelistic outreaches carried out by our small groups. Our old method of cold canvas evangelism has been done away with. Small groups are now our major evangelistic approach, and it has proved to be very powerful.

Another area of benefit is the discovery of potential leaders. We testify that it’s a lot easier now with the small groups in place to identify our emerging lay-leaders than it was before. With this in place, discipleship is no longer about programs or manuals but of “life” sharing. So, today we don’t just have better programs, we have better people!

Delegation of ministry is another plus derived from the small groups approach of building our church. Our members no longer shirk responsibility, both in small groups and in the celebration service. Thanks to their exposure to small group principles they are more committed to Kingdom service than before.

The lives of our group members have also been greatly impacted in the area of self-disclosure. They now know and understand each other better than before. Mask-wearing, pretence and shyness have gone. Intimacy and love is, today, at work in their lives. Our small group members open up more easily to one another, even those with deep hurts or fears.

With all the gains we have enjoyed through our adapting small groups as the building approach of our church we can’t praise God enough for all He has done.