Comings and goings

I realise that is now 3 months since I last put a post on the blog. Lots of reasons, but mainly that my focus has been on other things! Leading the church is an absolute joy and yet it takes a lot of my thinking time, and therefore keeping you guys updated has been put on the back burner.

We are entering into an exicting period of comings and goings in Weymouth. 3 weeks ago we were visited by Duncan, Sara, Josh & Katie Kellard from Palawan, Philippines who were updating us on their small church plant. It was good to hear how God has opened the door for them in their very grassroots pioneering church planting work.

On the same Sunday, we also said goodbye to our dear friend Diana Barrett, who is moving back to Turkey to join an outreach work to people with disabilities in Ankara. She will be joining up with a YWAM team, who are based at Kurtulus Church.

This coming Sunday, our great friends, Stephen & Molly Manhanga from Kezi, Zimbabwe will in town for a few days before the Newfrontiers Leaders Conference in Brighton. I'm really looking forward to catching up with them and hearing Stephen speak on Sunday morning.

The following Sunday we head to the beach for our baptisms service with Dorchester Family Church and two weeks after that Steve & Midge Smith, from Camboida will be with us where Steve will also be speaking.

Hold onto your seatbelts.....its going to be a great ride!

A new era

As we approach Easter, we are heading into a new era at Weymouth Family Church. Our meeting times are being shortened by half an hour to make them more accessible to those who are not used to being in long meetings. We are really thinking hard and praying lots about building a church for people who are not here yet. So from the 12th April we will be kicking off the meeting at 10:30am - 12:00pm. However, this means that it gives us a real opporunity to significantly pray before hand.

Our small groups are also changing to make way for increased growth in the church. They will be mainly geographically based, so we can really make some strategic effort into building community across the community.

Having said all that, while we make adjustments and re-alignments, we must never lose sight that we are here to see people saved and added into God's Kingdom and we therefore continue to pray for growth through salvation as we continue to proclaim Jesus, demonstrating our love for people that will result in a transformed community, both here and into the nations.

From the nations to the nations

This week has had a real international flavour about it. The joy of being part of the Newfrontiers family of churches means that we have linked up with a number of dear friends from nations across the globe - and for some reason this week has seen me have contact with just about all them!

Zimbabwe - Stephen & Molly Manhanga have planted a new church into a rural area of Zim called Crossroads Community Church, while also being involved in Ebenezer Agricultural College. We are looking to host Stephen & Molly when they come to the UK for the Together on a Mission Conference in July. They are great friends and a huge inspiration to me.

We are also hoping that we might be able to have Mbonisi Malaba to Weymouth at the end of the month, following the Zimbabwe Day in Swindon. Mbosisi leads River of Life Church in Bulawayo.

Cambodia - I received a lovely email from our friends Steve & Midge who have church planted into Phnom Penh - Cambodia's capital. It is wonderful to hear about the grace of God on their lives and what He is doing, while also recognising the battles that lie ahead. We are also helping Steve & Midge will be able to come to Weymouth when they're in the UK in July.

Philippines - we have also heard from Josh Kellard this week, who, with his sister are joining us as Newday. Josh's family moved to the Philippines last year, again to a cross cultural church planting. Duncan & Sara regularly send emails of what God is doing.

India - Through our regional weekend "Together at Accelerate", I have made a good friendship with Colin D'Cruz who is based in India, leading a Newfrontiers church, while also running an excellent printing business. It was a joy to be able to receive his phone call this week and to chat through our plans for this year!

Guernsey - well its overseas! Guernsey is about 75 miles due south of us here in Weymouth - I have some great friends there at Church on the rock and we are looking to build closer relationships over the coming months. Watch this space!

In Acts 1:8 we are told that Jesus promised his disciples that they would receive power from the Holy Spirit to be his witnesses not only in Jerusalem, but also in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth - what a joy it is to see this in action!

Together at Accelerate

For our second year, Newfrontiers churches in the South are together for a Bible weekend.This is an great opportunity to gather in the beautiful surroundings of the New Forest as we worship and hear from God and also catch up with the wider vision as Vinu Paul and Guy Miller speak in the main sessions. All this and more with plenty of down time, fun, sport, entertainment and food.

Click here to start booking!

Tim Keller Day

Yesterday I had the joy of being with a number of other leaders from churches across the Newfrontiers family at Westminster Chapel in the centre of London to hear Tim Keller, author of the higly acclaimed book "The Reason for God". He is the UK meeting with a number of different church movements, and we were priviledged that he was able to speak into our family churches.

In his first session, he spoke about the importance of the necessity of preaching to be : 1) Gospel centred 2) Christ centred, 3) life changing on the spot and 4) culturally transforming. I found this session so helpful in my call to preach the Word of God. The challenge to bring every preach, no matter from where in scripture it is it taken from, pointing to Jesus was so helpful and inspirational.

His second two sessions concentrated on "The Biblical Importance of the city" and "Church relating to culture" respectively. We don't live in a city, but I felt there was so much we can bring to our context here in Weymouth. And to finish the day looking at how the church is called to demonstrate being a serving community within the wider community is totally in line with what we are called to be here in Weymouth.

You can see Terry Virgo's observation of the day with Tim Keller on his blog. Thank you Terry for giving us the opportunity to sit under Tim's teaching. It was magnificent.

The next 5 years

On 1st February I brought to the church the vision we believe as a Leadership Team that God has given us for the next 5 years. It has been a process in development over the last 18 months!! I've highlighted some of the key points below. You can listen to the whole talk on iTunes or by clicking here

In September 2007 God spoke to me about giving me fresh perspective of church and a New Testament church that thrives in desert conditions – ie a place where currently no growth or life is experienced - barren conditions - whether this is through health, poverty, relationships, financially, spiritually - the church through the power of the gospel would bring life and hope to people – and this would transform communities.

I believe God has given us the following values that are the foundation to all that we do:

To make Jesus central in our lives (Proclaiming Jesus)
To love people as Jesus would (Loving people)
To live in a community that changes a community (Transforming community)

Values...how we do things

Worshipping Jesus in every aspect of our lives
Preaching and applying the truths of the Bible (in a culturally relevant way)
Praying and seeking God’s presence and leading in all that we do
Serving one another & the wider community with the skills & talents God has given us
Being generous with our time and resources
Demonstrating love and acceptance in our relationships with one another and those who are not yet part of the church
Equipping and training people in helping one another
Having fun and joy in our friendships.

Vision….for the way ahead over the next 5 years

To see a church family of 300 people
In order to achieve this we need to
Specific gateways (Nehemiah 3) that will enable people to link into the church community
ie the poor & needy, parenting course / marriage courses, kids work, students, Sunday mornings, small groups / youth work etc
Ensure church is relevant and is as accessible for all people as possible
Sunday morning meeting from 10:30am – 12:00pm from Easter Sunday (12th April 09)
Small Groups in every part of the community of Weymouth & Portland and for every member to be connected and involved in small group life
To be much more specific with Alpha or Christianity Explored
To continue to train and build a focused Alpha team made up of enthusiastic volunteers
A coordinated diary of events as part of a pre-Alpha strategy
To support and encourage everyone in personal friendship evangelism
To see our social action projects fully integrated with our evangelistic efforts
To free up people to spend time with unbelievers
To move from generalist teams to specialist teams

To see at least 10 small groups
In order to achieve this we need to
Train more leaders from all areas of the church
Widen our eldership/leadership team to incorporate diverse skill mixes
Grow more Small Groups
Intentionally integrate new people into small group structures

To see a community transformed
In order to achieve this we need to
To be church that is constantly looking for opportunities to reach those who are far from God
Monthly small group socials and 6 monthly big group socials that focus on those outside the church
Social action projects that take the gospel onto the streets
To seek ways of reaching minority groups
To put on events that are relevant to youth and young people
Training programmes that will build and strengthen families

To be a praying church
To ensure that prayer is a high priority across the church family individually and corporately
Monthly “small groups together” praying for our community
Sunday morning prayer meeting 9:45am-10:15am

To equip the church in works of service
In order to achieve this we need to
Provide a basis for regular training on a Sunday evening

Using technolgy

One of the many things I learnt from Mark Driscoll when he was here last year, was his (or at least Mars Hill's) use of technology for spreading the gospel. The web gives access to people in a far bigger and quicker way than ever before.

So we are now using the following websites to reach people that we're currently not reaching.

You can link to our Facebook page by clicking here

and also subscribe to our podcasts in iTunes by clicking here

and of course our own website