Like Jesus, we must be God-focussed, yet manifestly incarnational. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, not distanced from us. His first sign was performed not in the temple precinct (which would have been Satan’s preference) but at a wedding party! But notice that Jesus did not simply blend in at the party! Rather, when a crisis arose, he took over, calling men to faith and obedience, so that a miracle could be performed. Mary’s insightful ‘Whatever he says to you, do it’ opened the way for Jesus to rule and demonstrate God’s power and kindness, replacing their calamity with an outrageous overflow of wine.

Relevant to the situation, he met the need, and his disciples saw his glory. Christ was the answer to the wedding’s predicament. We often read such slogans as ‘Christ is the answer’, but he was able to answer the real question being asked at the time, not questions which the church thinks that the lost should be asking!

A couple years ago, we celebrated the first Brighton marathon. It meant that we could not use our church building on Sunday morning as thousands of runners swamped the city, but I was so delighted at our church’s response. Not only did several take part in the race, but as a church we supplied 300 stewards and embraced and endorsed the occasion, demonstrating that our logo In Brighton for Brighton works in practice. This led to effusive expressions of gratitude from the organisers. Our Good Friday Concert for Haiti drew hundreds of neighbours into our church building and kept us on the front-line in reaching locals with missional purpose.

On a mission

A non-missional church misrepresents the true identity of the church. We are here to shed light into the darkness. Without the Holy Spirit’s presence and power there is no light, but to hide our light in self-sufficiency or charismatic introspection is to miss the point badly. We must retain intentional, focussed commitment to evangelism and relevance while at the same time wholeheartedly celebrating the Saviour in worship, eagerly anticipating a full manifestation of his presence.

Recently in Armenia, an injured karate enthusiast heard the church enthusiastically worshipping and came to investigate. Drawn by the praise, he stood enthralled at the back of the congregation and was in time to hear several testify to healings that they had experienced the previous day. As the meeting concluded he came forward and to his great delight was healed!

The church is great! Let’s go and plant more great churches to the glory of God.

Jesus commanded the Apostles to go and make disciples. They instinctively went and planted churches. Church life is the key to discipleship and creates an alternative culture where heavenly values can be formed on earth. Getting the church right is therefore a vital issue and one which should constantly stir and motivate us.

The purpose of Paul’s letters was not to teach theology but to mold behavior in and through churches that lived in the light of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and enthronement, and the subsequent outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is possible to be objectively orthodox, but fail to live the life that God wants. So, although we do not undervalue doctrine, we emphasise the kind of church life that good doctrine properly observed and embraced should produce.

You’ll never walk alone

It is virtually impossible to live the Christian life alone. It was always God’s purpose that we should work out our discipleship corporately. The good health of the local church is, therefore, imperative, and we have tried to develop local churches living inter-dependently and focussed on world mission.

It is important for the local church, cared for correctly by its own elders, to embrace its own autonomy. Free from denominational constraints, it must nevertheless be aware of its inter-dependence on other churches and the vital role of trans-local ministries working among the churches in ongoing relationship.

This lack of independence has helped to establish the strong ‘family feel’ associated with Newfrontiers. When recently in South Africa we met people from Pakistan, India, the Philippines, Dubai, the UK, Australia and the USA – just a sample of our Newfrontiers international community. Evan Rogers’ infectious worship-leading resulted in a surge of shared joy, soon followed by intense corporate intercession. Enjoying fun (ie rejoicing!) before the Lord doesn’t inhibit our ability to cry to him in zealous prayer together. Laughter and longing happily combine. Love, joy and zeal easily co-habit.

God-centredness

God-centredness must characterise our churches. So much modern religion is man-centred, celebrating man’s skills, insights and personality. Although church planters can by nature be entrepreneurs, seeing openings where others see only problems, they must beware the danger of self-sufficiency and overcome the tendency to despise team work, finishing up as loners. Even the most faith-filled leaders need close friends and companions. The powerfully anointed David was so encouraged by Jonathan and supported by phenomenally gifted lieutenants.

Check back soon for Part 2

This is the final post in Terry's series on leading through transition. Read all of them here.

In recent weeks I have visited churches in the midst of major transition. One church is aiming to prepare its people for multiplying its services so that in the near future they will become two congregations meeting at different times. Another church, outgrowing its present meeting place, is beginning to face the challenge of buying a building and the certainty of the cost reaching a seven figure bill.

When predictable routine dominates the scene, leadership requires little skill, but leadership is never more tested than in a time of transition! By definition a leader should have followers or he or she is no leader at all. As John Maxwell says, ‘He who thinks he leads and has no one following him is only taking a walk.’ You may have been appointed to a leadership role but this simply means that you are now in a context where the gift of leadership can be proven and manifested. Real leadership is demonstrated when people confidently follow.

Such a view of leadership is in contrast with what many expect in the modern church; pastors are often seem merely as Bible teachers who also attend to any problems that might arise in the flock. Their main goal is to discover the consensus or majority view of the people they lead and to facilitate it. This tends to make them followers rather than leaders!” Charles Simpson once described a man being dragged down the road by a large dog. He was asked, ‘Where are you taking that dog?’ and replied, ‘Wherever he wants to go!’

Biblical leadership

The Biblical view of leadership is in stark contrast. The Bible consistently shows God’s chosen leaders having encounters with Him and being commissioned by Him. Moses, Gideon and Jeremiah were reluctant to lead but their limitations were brushed aside by the overwhelming awareness of being apprehended by God for His sovereign purpose. With the call comes a commission or vision to be fulfilled. Paul’s testimony was that throughout his life he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision (Acts 26:19). He counted his life as of little value in order that he might fulfil the ministry that he had received from the Lord (Acts 20:24). King Saul, in contrast, testified, ‘I have sinned…because I feared the people and listened to their voice’ (1 Sam. 15:24).

When authentic leaders such as David, Nehemiah and Gideon devoted themselves to their calling, others were drawn to their vision. True leadership is the ability to obtain followers and a real leader is one that others gladly and confidently follow.

Leadership inevitably leads to tension in that it takes you into the future. In fact, a leader’s heart is already there. Leaders live in the tension between the present and the future. Abraham’s heart was gripped by a vision of the city of God which was so powerful that it forced him to leave Ur. As Abraham erected his tent in the desert we can imagine Sarah asking, ‘Where is this city that you claim to have seen?’ They were living in a tent because Abraham had seen a city!

Similarly, Moses was captivated by the certainty of a land flowing with milk and honey, but meanwhile two million people had to eat manna every day! At such times leadership comes under close scrutiny. Can I really trust these guys enough to follow them? When asking such questions, what are people really looking for?

Making decisions that draw the future into the present

As leaders ponder their vision and prayerfully dwell in the future, they must make decisions that will result in letting go of things that were previously important. You must discern what is no longer relevant and put it to death. This can be very costly. Who would have thought that God would require us to put the 28,000-attended Stoneleigh Bible Week to death? For a thing to be dead simply means that God does not want it any more.

Give space to creative thinkers. If you box in creative people you will do harm to their intuitive gift; but if you have the loyalty of creative thinkers in your ranks, give them room to move in their gift and thereby benefit from the fresh vision and the prophetic insight that they can bring. Revolutionary ideas can frighten other people, but as leaders you should prize those gifted with true prophetic insight, especially if they have the flair to bring breakthrough. Leaders should protect creative people from administrative norms that can easily crush them. True breakthrough is rarely the result of consensus and committee, so treasure and encourage, rather than frustrate and formalise, the genuinely gifted innovator.

Keep restating the vision

Do not suppose that because you have already told them your vision once everybody has fully embraced it. Keep restating your vision in terms that people can fully understand and identify with. Give people time to make the vision their own. Help them to see why you are so excited about it and why you believe in it.

Followers determine how successful leaders will be

The reality is that those who follow do most of the work. They are all volunteers and they bring integrity to your dream. Without followers who actually bring your vision into being there will be no fulfilment. Much of your gifts of leadership, therefore, are to be used in serving those who follow you. Practically everything you accomplish happens through confident, loving teamwork.

In a time of transition your relationships are of crucial importance. Do the people that you serve really love and trust you? Do they know that you are for them, you believe in them, you thank God for them, and you will give grace to them?

Also, your leadership will inspire and motivate your people. Do not simply give out information about change but stir motivation. The people of God need to own what God wants to do. Deep in their hearts they want to fulfil the purpose of God. God gives the gift of leadership to motivate people into forward movement. Without motivational gifts the people can grow cold or weary. The spiritual gift of stimulating the faith of others is wonderful!

People want to know if they can fulfil their own heart’s desires by following you. They want to fulfil their personal destiny; your gifts of leadership can enable them.

When exhorting people to take fresh steps of faith into unknown territory the gift of leadership exhortation is of huge importance. This must not be confused with trying to bully unwilling people, but rather motivating through grace and vision.

Take time and be clear

At times of major transition it is important to communicate clearly why you want the church to take certain action. For instance, God may have spoken to you through prophecy and answered prayer, and developments may have already taken place which the leadership now needs to communicate to the flock. It is important that you make clear to the people what is solid fact, what is risk, what is faith, what is sacrifice. It is important to invite questions and not create an ethos that makes people afraid of questioning the leadership. Beware of creating a context where questions are clearly unwelcome and are regarded by leaders as signs of lack of submission.

As you move through a season of transition keep information flowing. Give progress reports and any redefinition of the detail of the vision.

Call for commitment of faith

When leading people into major transition don’t leave things open-ended; lead them into full participation. Give clear steps which they can take to demonstrate concrete ownership so that the church feels it is moving on together. You cannot advance on endless negotiation. At some point there must be public, corporate acceptance of a plan. Without well-defined goals and clear-cut steps which show people how they can be committed, you can run ahead unsure if they are fully following you.

Don’t be like the pacesetter that runs so far ahead of the runners that they don’t bother to keep up. They need to be able to keep up with you so that you are genuinely running together.

Handling negative responses

In times of transition negative responses often rise to the surface. At such times you must beware bravado. It is not smart to take the stance, ‘We told them. They didn’t like it, but we sure told them!’ I have sometimes heard leaders speak in this way and I am unimpressed – and so, I think, are their followers. Look at it through their eyes; you could be making them feel that change is their enemy, or even worse, you are!

Leaders need to demonstrate a level of vulnerability that attracts rather than repels. In such a setting fearful and uncertain followers begin to gain confidence. Bullying does not produce life. You can force cloning, but you cannot force genuine life in all its phases of experiment, mistakes, courage and discovery. Jesus was a magnificent leader, making space for failure while also urging to ever-greater success.

Change can bring fear, which can erupt in criticism. People can fear that the leaders have not thought through all that is involved. They may not have access to all the information available and have not themselves experienced the thrill of being in the leaders’ meetings when God spoke and made His will known.

Good leaders will take time to repeat the vision and the process in order to win the faint-hearted and reluctant, showing how other possibilities have been considered and why this decision was made. Don’t forget that change without some continuity leads to chaos.

Don’t be discouraged

Discouragement is a powerful, satanic weapon and one that must be overcome by leaders. Opposition can lead to serious discouragement. Don’t change course to avoid criticism or you will lose your way. Beware the danger of responding to the so-called ‘ground swell’ of opinion that is running against you.

Find out if opposition really exists and try to answer it honestly. Do not allow a ‘them and us’ mentality to develop. Always bring things to the light. If you discover a ‘leader of the opposition party’ try to bring light to him or her. Don’t regard them as your personal enemy nor try to discredit them. If someone is adopting a genuinely divisive stance, and is actively involved in seeking a following in the church, this must be addressed as such and resolved.

If you are truly guilty of error, don’t blame-shift or dodge the issue but take responsibility and apologise privately or publicly depending on the degree of seriousness. When in Brighton we discovered that the cost of our new building had suddenly escalated, I took a Sunday morning sermon to express my personal sense of vulnerability and responsibility in the matter. I brought the whole thing into the light and gave explanation for the changes and reasons for our still going forward. We were then able to proceed in peace.

Vision has been described as ‘a compelling picture of a preferable future that inspires us to perform’. Always be obedient to the vision that God has given you and with godly integrity lead the people that God has given you into His purposes.

Many people came up for prayer and received healing

Hundreds of leaders listening to Terry Virgo preaching.

Great times of gathered worship with spiritual gifts at work.

The band have served so well.

John Lanferman preaching about our identity in Christ.

Terry Virgo preaching on life on life discipleship.

David Devenish preaching about bringing the church to maturity.

The delicious dinner at the banquet.

Plenty of dancing!

Eugene Peterson, in his famous translation of the Bible, says, ‘Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come to you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try and get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way’ (James 1).

Again in the Message he tells us further, ‘We continue to shout our praise even when we are hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next’ (Rom. 5).

Joseph had every human reason to feel that life had been cruel to him and that God had forgotten him, but we are told that even in prison he was a successful man. How do you remain successful when everything looks so dismal, when events and people treat you so harshly?

Dealing with the past

Surely one of Joseph’s secrets was to forgive his brothers completely and not to accuse God. He refused to be trapped in his immediate circumstances and to allow bitterness and unforgiveness to wreck his life. You cannot be successful if you are always living in the past, full of regret and recrimination. You cannot enjoy God’s keeping grace if, in your heart, you are accusing Him of failing you and thereby trap yourself in some earlier painful experience.

Joseph kept believing God. He knew his brothers meant to do evil to him but he kept believing in God’s total providence and reckoned that although they meant it for evil, God meant it for good.

God was at work painting a bigger picture and unfolding a greater design. Joseph’s freedom from the past gave him liberty to enjoy God’s provision of peace in the present.

Some day my prince will come

Joseph also overcame the temptation only to live day-dreaming about the future and putting everything on hold until things worked out. He did not press the pause button and just wait for a better day. Endurance is not about day-dreaming that ‘when I’ve finished school’, ‘when I get married’, ‘when I’m full-time’, ‘when the kids grow up’, ‘when circumstances are more convenient’ – ‘I’ll be fulfilled.’ Meanwhile I am marking time.

Some people seem to think ‘there’s a bright tomorrow and I’ll wait for that to come along.’ Some think ‘until they make me an elder how can I really serve?’ or ‘if I’m not full-time there is nothing I can do.’ Delay then brings frustration, not maturity.

Jesus tells us first to be faithful in the small before we are given the large, to be faithful with other people’s things then we will be given our own, and even to be faithful with financial matters before we are given the responsibility of true riches (see Luke 16:10-12).

Delay is not like the commercial time on TV – time to flick through the channels; time for short-term distractions until returning to the plot. Delay is part of the plot! Delay is God’s way of proving you, testing you to see what’s in your heart. God told the Israelites that He had led them through the wilderness for this very reason, ‘that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not’ (Deut. 8:2).

Soon, like Joseph, they were to be in a good land of overflowing blessing. How would they manage the desert first? Joseph was soon to see the total fulfillment of God’s promises. He managed the delay with flying colors. He endured by continuing to believe and by keeping his eyes on God.

Recently when I prayed for a lady in Scotland, she told me that she had endured shoulder and neck pain for 40 years since she was a small child. Through tears and laughter she told me, ‘The pain has completely gone!’ Wonderful!

‘Your faith has made you whole’ is an amazing statement. One minute suffering pain, the next minute completely free. Faith to receive now is exciting and impressive stuff.

Faith and patience

Here’s a strange combination; ‘faith and patience’. Two words we don’t necessarily expect to find together. Maybe we think that when faith arrives, patience is no longer required. We have to have patience to put up with something unwanted. When faith comes, surely that’s the cue for patience to leave. It’s no longer needed. Faith has solved the problem.

A lady in Oregon, with a similar mixture of tears and laughter, told me that, having been prayed for the previous evening, she was able to put her own socks on that morning for the first time for 23 years. Intense spinal pain had prevented her from touching her toes for nearly a quarter of a century. Now the pain had gone. She was completely free. Surely this is the kind of faith we are interested in – faith that gets the problem solved now, immediately.

To our surprise, the book of Hebrews tells us to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises (Heb. 6:12). Faith, it seems, does not operate only in the realm of the immediate, the here and now. In fact the faith that the Bible often highlights and celebrates is the faith that has to wait, yet keep believing.

Hebrews 11 tells us that by faith the walls of Jericho fell down! Amen! Bring it on! That’s the faith I am looking for! Let’s have some shouting followed by immediate wall demolition.

The fact is that the Israelites first had to patiently encircle the city for seven days in silence, and Caleb was one of the marching army. He and Joshua had waited 40 years for the fulfilment of the promises that God made them about inheriting the land. Still want to join the ‘Joshua generation?’

Faith and patience are not enemies; they are good companions. Often they are called upon to keep one another company.

Abraham, arguably the greatest Biblical hero of faith, demonstrated amazing patience, waiting many years for his promised son. Our problem so often is that if we don’t see immediate results we give up. We tend not so much to resemble the ‘Joshua generation’ as the ‘give up’ generation. We, particularly in the West, have been trained to expect the immediate. Press button! Turn switch! Add water! Door opens automatically! We hate waiting. We will swap queues at the supermarket checkout or airport passport control. ‘What’s wrong with this computer? It’s so slow.’ What we mean is that it took a few seconds longer than we expected. ‘Faith and patience?’ Forget it!

A man just like us

Elijah, we are told, was a man just like us (James 5:17) and he prayed. In all honesty he doesn’t exactly look like a man ‘just like us’. He prayed for rain and the sky stayed blue. So he prayed again. Not a cloud to be seen. So he prayed again. Sunglasses still required. More prayer. ‘Have another look.’ Come on Elijah. Forget it. You’ve tried. Time to call it a day. Pack it up.

[To Be Continued]

This is a continuation of a Terry's previous post.

He who has died is freed from sin

I took him to Romans 6:6, ‘Knowing this that our old self was crucified with Christ … that we should no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin’ (Rom. 6:6-7) and reminded him that Jesus said that you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Clearly this was a truth that this young man did not know.

I then led him on to verse 11 where Paul tells us what our attitude should be to ourselves, namely to ‘consider ourselves to be dead to sin’. We must line up our thinking correctly and eagerly adopt our new relationship with sin, namely, dead to it.

Finally, I underlined his responsibility not to allow sin to reign in his members (Rom. 6:12-13). As a new creation he has the power to rule his members. He was called to live free from slavery to sin because he was not a sinner but a saint. After our chat his countenance changed, his eyes looked brighter and I think a flicker of hope had replaced the inevitability he had felt that as a sinner he was still bound to sin.

Sadly, as I turned from him a girl was waiting to speak to me and she asked exactly the same question and received exactly the same 15-minute Bible study as my answer.

In the second meeting that I addressed, I was challenged that if I don’t regard myself as fundamentally still a sinner surely I would not value the Cross. But my amazement and huge appreciation for the Cross does not have to be centred around me and be sustained by reflecting on my own personal failure!

As I consider the eternal God living in everlasting bliss and mutual delight within the Trinity, the incarnation amazes me! That God should become a man! And not only that, but should also experience death, and what a death! Death on a cross in bloody agony and imputed guilt, separation and rejection.

I don’t always have to bring me into the picture! The Cross amazes me and fills me with wonder and worship, praise and thanksgiving!

To insist on still calling myself a sinner could not add value to the Cross for me. Indeed, to call myself essentially a sinner actually dishonours the wonder of the gospel. The Greek word which we translate ‘to proclaim the gospel’ was not originally a religious word; it is borrowed from elsewhere and actually means the announcement of good (great!) news. The original ‘Marathon Runner’ ran his 26 miles and proclaimed the Good News. We won the battle! We triumphed! It was a victory!

Has anybody got some better news?

If I insist on teaching that Christians are still essentially sinners, what is the Good News? Has anybody got some better news?

To quote John Bunyan: Run John run the law demands But gives me neither legs nor arms Better news the gospel brings It bids me fly and gives me wings!

To quote Paul again, ‘If any man is in Christ he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.’ The great Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones added, ‘A new principle of life has been put into the Christian. He has a new disposition – the life of God in the soul of man! That is Christianity!’

‘Terry, are you saying that you never sin?’ Sadly in this age of conflict with the world, the flesh and the devil I do, but I sin as a saint with all the sadness and inappropriateness of it – not as a sinner with all the inevitability that that suggests.

This post originally appeared on Terry Virgo's website.

I was surprised on two occasions this year when preaching to what I will call ‘conservative evangelical constituencies’ and declaring the joy of our freedom in Christ, to encounter the response that followed.

Saints?

On the first occasion I had been speaking about the glorious freedom proclaimed in Romans 6. On the second I was expounding Ephesians 2 and celebrating the fact that we are new creations, created in Christ Jesus. We are called ‘saints’, holy ones, and are certainly no longer regarded as ‘sinners’.

In Romans 6, Paul celebrates the truth that, whereas we used to be slaves of sin, God has made us ‘slaves of righteousness’ (Rom. 6:18). I deplored the fact that I had seen a poster when in the USA saying that a Christian is one sinner telling another sinner where to find bread. It saddens me not only to see Christians failing to accept the new identity that the gospel provides, but even fighting to defend their ‘right’ to be called ‘sinners’ when God has called those who are in Christ Jesus ‘saints’!

Such were some of you

Paul provides a horrific list of the evils that had formerly characterised the believers at Corinth, such as fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, thieves, drunkards and so on, but clearly adds, ‘Such WERE some of you, but you were washed but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God’ (1 Cor. 6:16). Surely he is telling them (and us) that they are now set apart saints of God.

When Christians deplore their sinfulness to the degree that they actually argue that their essential identity is ‘a sinner’ they shoot themselves in the foot! In my next post, we'll explore the true identity of every Christian.