It was a few months ago, while watching the World Cup that I found myself reflecting on leadership: following a great goal against a relentless opposition that continually fought dirty, England lost the game by bringing on more defenders – rather than pressing their opponents and scoring again.
Which got me thinking. Our instinct when culture inevitably shifts can be to react to the next problem rather than reach the next person. The church has never advanced because Christians agreed on every issue, but when we keep Jesus at the centre and work together that still feels like the winning game plan. He did not call us to build the church, nor did He commission us to manage decline. We are commanded to make disciples who make disciples – that’s how we win.
When I was a police officer my favourite job was to wield ‘The Big Key’ – the battering ram that knocked in the doors of drug dealers or criminal lairs. That’s always what comes to mind when I read The Message rendering of Matthew 16 where the Lord says His church is “so expansive with energy that not even the gates of Hell will be able to keep it out.”
Gates are defensive. They don’t advance. But they break when the church does.
Throughout history opponents have confidently announced the death of Christianity, but whenever and wherever the church has moved forward in this way it remains God’s unstoppable force on the Earth.
“We have to go to church.”
When big Olli first walked into our church a year ago you couldn’t miss him. I asked what brought him to Ivy Church and he said his mum had died a little while ago. When he was talking about her with his wife in the garden, “A white feather dropped down from the sky and landed on my hand… so I said, ‘We have to go to church.’”
That’s a shift many are seeing in our day. Here at Ivy, week after week, people come in with questions about Jesus, searching for truth following spiritual encounters. We live in exciting times – are you ready for them?
Olli’s whole family have now given their lives to the Lord and through Ivy’s discipleship pathway he’s now passionately sharing Jesus – even going out on the streets to witness alone as well as with our teams. As the Evangelical Alliance’s Talking Jesus research encourages us, they find curiosity more than rejection and many people are open to prayer and an invitation – the fields are white unto harvest, if we go out into them.
Here at Ivy, week after week, people come in with questions about Jesus, searching for truth following spiritual encounters. We live in exciting times– are you ready for them?”
Resilient faith
This year we’ve held multiple baptism services as we continually equip newcomers through our discipleship mentoring. We have conducted surveys that show an increase in members reading scripture for themselves. Another showed that over 80% of those who are part of our church self-described as ‘very resilient’ to facing the difficulties life throws at us – imagine if you could bottle that for society! We are discovering the power of regular fasting and our prayer gatherings are pregnant with expectancy. None of this makes headlines, but Heaven knows something’s happening.
Next year I intend to film a teaching series on the seven churches in Revelation on location. Those letters remind us from the very start that churches lose their light when they lose their first love or compromise on biblical convictions. But in every generation, when we proclaim the good news clearly, pray together in unity, pursue justice and promote righteousness in every sphere of influence, we overcome.
