From the earliest days of Newfrontiers in the UK we have gathered our pastors and leaders (and as many wives as can make it) three times a year to pray and fast. Initially each event lasted three days and concluded with a meal. For some years now it has been a two-day event with no meal. We started with about 30. Now about 750 gather.
We have just concluded our most recent. I wish I could invite every pastor in the nation to attend. The sense of God’s presence, the comradeship, the awareness of common purpose, the fervent prayer are all truly magnificent.
A list of 40+ towns where new churches are being planted was projected on the screen. Testimonies were given by recent church planters with wonderful stories of God’s guidance and provision. Prayers were offered for their success, together with fervent prayers for our Together on a Missionconference in Brighton this July, and for revival, which is a theme very much on our hearts.
Our overseas commitment was expressed as we prayed for an upcoming church planting conference in India. Finally, several testimonies of the increasing number of healings in our churches was followed by more fervent prayer for further breakthrough in this area, and in conclusion some healings took place amongst us.
David Stroud from ChristChurch in London led us superbly aided by many who spontaneously came to the mic and led in prayer or prophecy. We often break into small groups of 4 or 5 people to intensify our involvement in prayer.
David Holden from New Community Church gave a short but excellent devotional word on our middle evening, underlining the importance of worship in the leader’s life as well as in the gathered church.
Off to Japan I was personally grateful for prayer for Wendy and myself as we leave tomorrow for Japan, where I have the great privilege of not only addressing our Newfrontiers church plant in Nagoya (the third largest city of Japan) but also speak to a nationwide pastors’ conference in Tokyo where 550 pastors are anticipated. I am particularly thrilled that my book God’s Lavish Grace has been translated into Japanese in advance while I have been asked to address themes of grace. I do trust that this will have remarkable impact upon the church across Japan.
When I was last with our church plant in Nagoya we experienced a beautiful outbreak of healings. May God’s power and presence be with us throughout this visit. Wendy will be addressing the women in some seminars and I will be taking four main sessions with the gathered pastors as well as hopefully enjoying good fellowship with them throughout the conference.
J.O. Fraser, sometimes called ‘Fraser of Lisuland’ is one of my great heroes. He was a China Inland Missionary at the beginning of the 20th century, penetrating the Lisu people who lived in tribal settlements in mountainous regions of the Upper Salween.
I first read his story in the book Behind the Ranges, more recently updated by his daughter Eileen Crossman, who rewrote it as Mountain Rain.
There is something phenomenally authentic about the man’s zeal to serve God and he wrote many letters home to his prayer partners which communicated extraordinary insight into how prayer works. He was a real warrior who drew on God’s grace with great fortitude. I want to share some of his quotes in this particular post.
‘I do not intend to be one of those who bemoan little results, while “resting in the faithfulness of God”. My cue is to take hold of the faithfulness of God and use the means necessary to secure big results.’
His diary of January 16th 1916 read:
‘Not a single person at service in the morning … the walls of Jericho fell down “by faith”. Of all the instances of faith in Hebrews 11, this corresponds most nearly to my case but not faith only was necessary; the wall fell down after it had been compassed about for seven days. Seven days patience was required, and diligent compassing of the city every day – which seems to typify encompassing the situation by regular, systematic prayer. Here then we see God’s way of success in our work whatever it may be – a trinity of prayer, faith and patience.’
Another comment of his:
‘Praying without faith is like trying to cut with a blunt knife – much labour extended to little purpose. For the work accomplished by labour in prayer depends on our faith; “according to your faith (not labour) be it unto you”.’
A couple more quotes for your interest and, I hope, stimulation:
‘After much pressure, even agony, in prayer for Lisu souls, enabled to break through into liberty, and to pray the definite prayer of faith for Signal blessing among the Lisu during the next few months … real, prevailing prayer for the first time for a week or more and well worth the travail that led up to it … Much peace and rest of soul after making that definite prayer, and almost ecstatic joy to think of the Lisu Christian families I am going to get.’
‘Anything must be done rather than let this prayer-service be dropped or even allowed to stagnate. We often speak of intercessory work being of vital importance. I want to prove that. I believe this in actual fact by giving my first and best energies to it, as God may lead. I feel like a businessman who perceives that a certain line of goods pays better than any other in his store, and who purposes making it his chief investment.’
‘Faith is like muscle which grows stronger and stronger with use, rather than rubber which weakens when it is stretched. Over-strained faith is not pure faith; there is a mixture of the carnal element in it. There is no strain in the ‘rest of faith’. It asks for definite blessings as God may lead. It does not hold back through carnal timidity, nor press ahead too far through carnal eagerness.’
Some ten years later, J O Fraser saw a remarkable breakthrough in his evangelistic work. Some 3,000 tribes people were saved in a very short space of time. People congratulated him on the success and wrote warm letters of appreciation, to which he responded:
‘Some may say, “your prayer has at last been answered.” No! I believe it was January 12th 1915, that I was definitely led to ask God for “several hundreds of families” from the Lisu. I took the answer then, I believed then that I had it.’
I have read many helpful books on prayer but there is something about Fraser who not only prayed but learned about prayer, not at his desk but in the mountains of Lisuland, often alone and battling, learning lessons that few of us learn and experiencing God’s breathtaking faithfulness.
This is not really a book review but I would commend to you Mountain Rain. I personally have a little booklet which CIM once produced called The Prayer of Faith by J O Fraser. I know God told me to buy it in March 1964 and remember arriving at the bookshop where they told me they only had one copy. I was not surprised to hear that and have always felt that God wanted me to learn from this great man.
In 2 Kings 7, Elisha promised that circumstances in the besieged city would be transformed by the next day. What seemed impossible became possible when four lepers who were already exiled outside the city realised that they had nothing to lose. They were already as good as dead. Why not throw yourself on the enemy’s mercy? Why not risk everything?
Having reached the enemy camp they were amazed to discover that the enemy had gone. Defeat was turned to victory. Not only was the enemy rendered ineffective, spoil was there for the taking. Silver, gold, food, clothing – they marvelled at it, ate it, drank it, tried on the clothes, gathered it, hid it and entered another tent to do it all over again! They had a total blast and it was all free and theirs for the taking.
Spoil is a strange word to the 21st century urbanite. Isaiah 9 promises that the coming kingdom of the new born baby will be like light breaking into the darkness. It will make men rejoice as they do when gathering a harvest or when they divide the spoil (Isaiah 9:2-3).
What on earth is ‘spoil’? Modern city-dwellers don’t know much about ‘harvest’ and are not very familiar with ‘spoil’. ‘Spoil’ was what you gathered when you defeated an enemy army. Jehoshaphat’s army took three days to gather theirs (2 Chronicles 20:25). In Isaiah 53:12 we are told that God’s triumphant Servant will share the spoils of his victory with his people. Ephesians 4 tells us that he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.
He’s a powerful conqueror and he freely shares the spoils of his victory so that Peter, who so recently swore and cursed and said that he never knew Jesus, was invited to take the spoils of Christ victory. This hopeless failure got to preach on the Day of Pentecost! A few days later he announced to the cripple at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, ‘Such as I have, I give to you. Get up and walk!’
‘Such as I have.’ Where did you get that Peter? ‘Oh, that was one of the spoils of Jesus’ victory that I took.’ Jesus won a great victory. The spoils are breathtaking and you don’t have to be very special to pick them up. Anyone can come, like the lepers did, and put on fresh clothing, pick up phenomenal spoils and go in the strength of that victory.
We enjoyed looking at this story on Sunday at CCK. Maybe you would like to download and listen to it and enter into something of the freedom of God’s grace and the wonders of His free gifts to His people celebrating the defeat of your enemy.
The Ulster Awakening – an account of the 1859 revival in Ireland By John Weir
What a book! It is hard to read such material without feeling deeply stirred about the accessibility of God in revival and the phenomenal fruits of a genuine work of the Spirit as it breaks out in society.
No wonder Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in 1959, preached a whole series on revival to celebrate the centenary of the 1859 outbreak.
The quotations from eye-witness reports of the revival are particularly stirring. Here are some that will give you a taste of the book’s content. ’A young convert addressed them, and under the mighty influence of his appeals many fell down on their knees in the muddy streets and amid chilling rain, and poured forth earnest cries and prayers…a night which will never be forgotten by those who witnessed that amazing scene.’ And again, ‘…characters often the most godless, and even maliciously opposing the work, have been stricken down under terrible distress, crying out for mercy from the Lord Jesus.’ And again, ‘…for one night or more, sleep was withheld from the eyes of hundreds of the people. Strong crying tears and prayers were heard in the streets, and in almost every house, there was the manifestation of a divine agent working mightily.’ And finally, ‘I felt as if God said this to me – “Stand back! Don’t imagine you have anything to do with this people, so just stand aside and let me act, for the work is all mine”…Souls in that meeting of 3 ½ hours were laid prostrate on the earth, crying aloud for mercy.’
Simply to read this book and soak yourself in the atmosphere of authentic revival is extraordinarily impacting. You are not only able to see the awesome power of Christ to save the lost and, with apparent sword drawn, cut people down in the streets, he is also able to win their thoroughgoing devotion and joyful worship as illustrated here, ‘I entered a very poor dwelling the other day, but it was like a corner of heaven. Three sisters on one bed were rejoicing in Christ. They were in a state of heavenly rapture. An aged mother, with tearful eyes, looked on her rejoicing children and gave glory to God.’
I must confess that I love reading books on revival and this one really hits the mark. Let me encourage you to buy it and soak yourself in it. May it motivate us all to plead with God for the revival we so desperately need.
In his 1959 sermons, Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones argued that the UK had so lost its way spiritually that only revival could turn the nation around. It amazes me to read that when I realise that he preached before the 60’s and all the moral devastation that has taken place in this nation in the half century that has followed. If we needed revival in 1959 how desperately we need it now.
Explosive Preaching By Ron Boyd-MacMillan
If ever the old adage ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ needed illustration, here is proof of its truthfulness. I must confess to being tempted to dismiss this one because of its cover, but I am so glad that I was prevailed upon to read it.
It is a genuinely provocative, interesting, fascinating and helpful book. It lacks predictability and is by no means a simple ‘how to’ book but one that asks deeper questions and supplies instructive answers.
Posted by Terry at 10:32 AM. Filed under: Resources
A group of pastors is not an apostolic team What we mustn’t do is encourage a group of pastors to say ‘we are an apostolic team’. No you are not. You are a group of pastors. It’s very important that we don’t muddle the gifts or we come unstuck.
Essentially Newfrontiers was a name given to a sphere of churches under Terry’s apostolic leadership. It would be my hope that the title and corporate life of Newfrontiers will live on, but it’s more important that apostolic spheres emerge, and that churches are in dynamic partnership with apostolic advance. Newfrontiers as a name could fade away. That’s not my heart’s desire, but it’s so much more important that apostles emerge, vitally engaging with churches that know they are on apostolic mission together, not simply on ‘the Newfrontiers list’.
So what could hold the new spheres together? It could be like it is in southern Africa: there are different apostolic men coming through, church planting and serving churches in their individual spheres. But they are keeping in touch. They remember God’s word to us at the beginning, ‘You can accomplish more together than you can apart.’ By acting corporately they have more punch. Walking away would break their hearts. We are integrated with profound love. Unity of doctrine and common values are prized. I don’t want to walk away from that, it’s too precious.
Also, there are promises that God has given us to ‘change the expression of Christianity all over the world’. I am not sure that any one sphere could accomplish that alone, but lots of spheres together in harmony, can do it. I know other teams that God is raising up are also fulfilling that goal, but we have a massive part to play, and men and women scattered throughout our present family of churches care passionately about that promise. No one wants to drop that ball!
God spoke to us years ago about the role of Joseph, a visionary dreamer, who in his youthfulness may have been arrogant and insensitive. Thrown out, he kept his dream and stayed pure through the testings. Ultimately he was released and vindicated, and blessed his brothers and the world. I have believed that promise for us. I believe God wants us to have a big heart to embrace and bless, if we can, the broader body of Christ. I am thrilled to find doors are opening to us among those who used to be nervous of us.
When we started and became Newfrontiers we were about 30 churches. I didn’t contemplate involvement in Russia, Mexico, Japan! Bedford was in the far north! God has accomplished amazing things with one sphere. What will it be when dozens of spheres kick in, develop their teams, grow their spheres, keep walking in love and relationship. Where will it take us? Where will it take you?
In Kew Gardens there is an enormous ancient vine, which produces thousands of clusters of grapes. Not apples in their loneliness, but clusters of grapes. How many apostolic clusters can come from the one root? We are coming to the end of the beginning. God plans amazing growth. I hope you aim to be part of it and play your part in it.
The end of the beginning Dear friends, we are coming to the end of the beginning. We’ve some ‘i’ dotting and ‘t’ crossing to do. But the principle is clear. Jesus didn’t hand over to one successor, not even Peter! A friend helpfully defined it like this: ‘When Peter stood with the eleven on the Day of Pentecost, he was the spokesman. It was Peter’s moment, not Peter’s movement. Later on at the Council of Jerusalem, when they were all discussing and debating major issues, Paul spoke, Barnabas spoke, and then James summed up, and everybody said ‘Amen’. But that didn’t make James ‘apostle of the nations’ or leader of a movement. It was just a moment when he was given wisdom which seemed good to everybody and they proceeded from there.
When Paul went to Jerusalem (Gal. 2:2) ‘he went to see those of reputation’. It doesn’t say, ‘I went to see the new leader.’ Later he refers to those ‘reputed to be pillars’ in the church who gave him and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship (Gal. 2:9).
When Paul became a newly-recognised apostle, certain things happened. He didn’t come from the Jerusalem stable. He had proof of his ministry. He was very clear about what the gospel was; he preached it, and he founded and fathered churches. But he did not want to be isolated. He went to Jerusalem to make sure that he wasn’t running in independence, to check that his gospel was authentic. He respected those who were apostles and recognised to be such before he came on the scene. He wanted affirmation from those who were before him.
Later on when Peter became confused about law and grace issues, Paul challenged him to his face (Gal.2:11). He didn’t say, ‘It seems that Peter is drifting on this. I guess we’ll be different groups with different emphases.’ When he saw Peter being inconsistent on grace he confronted him. Why? Because he wanted the church together, preaching the same gospel. These emerging apostles had the kind of relationship where they longed for unity and could confront and encourage and challenge one another. They were a fellowship of apostles; a forum of fathers; a band of brothers. They held together and maintained relationship.
As apostles they could have chosen to go their own way. That could happen to us. It could be that any one of the brothers who is emerging with an apostolic sphere could say, ‘It’s been great. I have loved being part of this but now I want to be released.’ There must be that freedom. Newfrontiers is simply a name we gave to a sphere that Terry Virgo raised up.
We must believe for the emergence of new apostles. That’s the key to the future. We are not looking for a husband for my daughter. We are praying to the Lord of the harvest ‘Will you give us more labourers?’ He ascended on high. He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. It’s his church. It’s not our organisation. It’s not our institution. We haven’t got to hold it together. He’s the head. He’s the giver of gifts. He’s the ascended Lord.
Apostles, like evangelists, are called and gifted by God Apostles are not an appointment of the church. You might say, ‘Terry, are you going to make some more apostles?’ How do you do that? It’s like saying, ‘Are you going to make some more evangelists?’ You can’t make evangelists. God gives the gift. The day we ‘make apostles’ is the day we drift towards an institution.
In Paul’s day it was not always crystal clear. For example, was Timothy an apostle or not? As a delegate, Paul boasted about him, ‘He’s worked with me like a son with his father. He knows my ways. Receive him like you have received me.’ He writes saying, ‘Paul an apostle and Timothy.’ Then, in 1Thessalonians 2:6, ‘as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority’. Was he saying Timothy is an apostle now? It’s left a little unclear.
Also we have got to be aware that there may be categories of apostle. We mustn’t say one size fits all. Many would argue that Paul was very special. They started as ‘Barnabas and Paul’ then changed and became ‘Paul and Barnabas’. One would also have to say Billy Graham is a bit special as an evangelist. Does that mean that our evangelists all have to be like him? No it doesn’t. There may be different measures of gifting.
I am sure you will be delighted to see that I am being dragged kicking and screaming into the technological age. Some of us who were born in an earlier century don’t immediately feel at home using e-mails for Christmas cards, but there you go!
It is with great joy that I send you greetings for Christmas from Wendy and me. We look forward to three fifths of our family being with us for Christmas while two fifths are in Cape Town. It is a rare thing for us all to get together but a joy to know that we will be a family of believers celebrating Jesus though scattered globally.
With that in mind, I do want to bring our love and greetings to our wider global family and to those who have enjoyed looking at my blog this last year. May God give you a truly refreshing time and may we enjoy an outstanding 2010. I am currently reading a book about the Ulster revival in 1859 and it is stirring me very much indeed. May 2010 be a year of visitation from God across the nations.
I do hope you find time to watch the video.
With fondest love,
Posted by Terry at 10:32 AM. Filed under: Uncategorized
Transition is a popular theme at the moment as certain people reach a certain stage of maturity! So it was fascinating on Sunday to speak on the theme of Elijah’s preparation and release of Elisha as the one who would take on his mantle. I have been occasionally speaking at CCK on the life of Elijah over a two-year period, and began on Sunday by pointing out that, though individual life stories can be fascinating, in reality they are not the whole story. Though one life or ministry comes to its conclusion, God’s story, the one that really matters, continues.
As a nation, Israel gave high priority to passing on its heritage to the next generation. Honouring your parents and being wise sons who obey parental counsel was hugely significant. Their world view was shaped by the rehearsing of their history and anticipating their future inheritance.
So Elijah’s disciple needed to be equipped for a ministry that would be wholly consistent with what went before while also developing new dimensions.
Elijah responded to God’s command and initiated what proved to be a loving, open-handed and respectful relationship. Elisha was wholehearted in his response, ‘burning his bridges’, saying goodbye to his past and throwing himself unreservedly into his God-appointed training programme, which proved magnificently fruitful as he ultimately entered into his own particular God-given role, similar yet different, discipled but not cloned.
Jesus told his disciples, ‘go and make disciples’. The apostles obeyed by starting churches, not for mere ‘church-goers’ but where individuals could be ‘apprenticed’ by others who lovingly accept them because Christ has, yet also take responsibility in ‘one-anothering’, mutual discipling, encouraging, admonishing, restoring and equipping.
Maturity and fruitfulness are the goals of a discipling relationship. We need to emulate Elijah’s and Elisha’s great example by embracing life-imparting friendships in local church life that develop us into our full potential in God.
Elisha’s final request, namely a passionate appeal for a double portion of the Spirit that was resting on Elijah, is a great reminder to us that we will never fulfil our Master’s ambitions for us without the same promised outpouring of the Spirit on our lives.
How can we continue the work that our Master started without the power that He enjoyed? Praise God that the promise of the Holy Spirit is for us and for as many as the Lord calls to be his disciples (Acts 2:39).
The whole message can be listened to or watched on the CCK website It seems that those present appreciated it; maybe God will bless it to you.
So apostolic churches are caught up ‘together on a mission’. That’s not just the name of a conference, it’s who we are! We are nations, crossing borders, entering, moving on, trying to recapture Biblical Christianity. We must fight for a Biblical understanding of the apostolic which is fundamental to the church being missional.
This practical outworking of apostolic ministry is completely lost if we see the apostles as simply Scripture-writers, and churches get stuck in institutionalism, democracy, independence. The danger of our becoming static is what Mark Driscoll saw in 2008 and so courageously and helpfully challenged us. As we grow larger, it is very possible for us to lose some of the edge of our New Testament origins and begin to look like something we never intended, merely an organisation that you can belong to.
He said to us, ‘It’s time for Terry to find a husband for his daughter.’ Mark had been in my home, seen some photographs of my daughter’s wedding, and he suggested this analogy that Newfrontiers is like Terry’s daughter; now he needs to find a husband for her, a successor. Your founder, as he put it, is not getting any younger, and you need to honour the future, not over-honour the founder. I believe God helped him to challenge us.
Helpful yet unhelpful It was helpful in some ways and not helpful in others. His wake-up call was healthy, but his illustration of finding a ‘husband for your daughter’, like a ‘successor’ for the movement, was not very helpful and I hope I can make clear what I mean by that.
The reality is this that over the years changes have already been occurring. I said of the apostle Paul that there were churches like Colossae that he hadn’t even visited; other people had represented him. That has been happening to us for some time on a global scale. People have gone from us who originally represented me, but their own gift has sprung to life. For instance in West Africa, John Kpikpi who was with us in Church of Christ the King, Brighton, for four years, and then went back to Accra. He started a church in his home, which grew and is now in some hundreds. He has planted churches across Ghana and is now also working into six other nations along the West African coast – Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Sierra Leone, Guinea Conakry and Liberia, nations which I have never visited, nor am I likely to. But he has not only started churches, he has effectively taught them about the grace of God against the backdrop of very legalistic Christianity. He fought against legalism and built a different kind of church. He did apostolic work and planted churches that are prospering and growing. He is changing the expression of Christianity in West Africa.
Edward Buria in Kenya, on television week after week, is planting churches all the time, challenging the values of the nation, caring for the poor, doing a great apostolic work. I have visited and loved it, but it’s Edward’s apostolic work. That’s happening more and more.
One tree replaced by several saplings When we started, we consisted of about 30 churches and Simon Pettit was with us leading a church in Sussex. Then he and Lindsey went to South Africa. Simon from my perspective was ‘Mr Africa’. Then tragically and unexpectedly Simon died. God spoke to us through a vision of a mighty tree that fell, but there were saplings in its shade that would now grow and change the landscape. We weren’t to replace him by a ‘successor’, we were to give space to these saplings. Since Simon died, we have begun working in Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania, Malawi, Togo, Liberia, Benin, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique and Mauritius. We also dismantled the single structure for Southern Africa and released guys to find their gifting, to begin to see what God would do in and through them.
Not only that. Peter Brooks, based in Sydney, is caring for other churches in Australia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Japan and New Zealand. When I went to Sydney for two months at the end of 2008, the first thing that was arranged was a week of prayer. I was so stirred being in a church where they were not only praying for church plants in Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne, but also for New Zealand, the Philippines, Cambodia and Japan. Sydney is important, but they were already embracing an apostolic perspective in their prayer meeting. The people are owning a broader vision than ‘can we have a nice church here please, a bit like Newfrontiers?’ We have invested quality people not only for a great church there, but to have impact beyond.
‘As your faith grows we can reach out.’ Newfrontiers is a name we put over that. We are on the move building churches of stature, of worth, of value and reaching out. So in all honesty, the idea of finding a husband for my daughter doesn’t quite fit.
Anybody who tried at this present stage to become the successor and to turn what is currently ‘Newfrontiers’ into one apostolic sphere would pull everything back. It’s not simply ‘Terry’s apostolic sphere’ any more. It hasn’t been for a while really. When I went to Australia, I didn’t go to be the ‘father’ of those churches, I went to stand with Pete. When we went to New Zealand, the churches were looking to Pete, not me. It wasn’t my apostolic sphere but I was very happy to be alongside, more like a coach. When we visited Japan to be with Tom and Julie Eaton and the church plant in Nagoya, they were looking to Pete whom I was very happy to endorse. When I visited Ghana recently, I stood with John. It’s John’s work. If I visit anywhere these days, I am visiting another apostolic sphere that is growing.
It seems marvellously appropriate for me to interrupt my series on Newfrontiers transition with a report on my recent visit to John Kpikpi’s apostolic sphere based in Accra, Ghana, reaching now into seven nations across West Africa. (Amazingly I went there for the weekend!) [The website link given above takes you to a site that is not very up to date. A new site is being developed and you can view that by going to http://www.cityofgodchurch.net/]
What John and his team are accomplishing exemplifies perfectly the sort of process that must take place as Newfrontiers presses forward in transition. John, a PhD student in Brighton some years ago, was captivated by our vision for New Testament church life, returned to Accra and started a church initially in his own home. Now he leads a thriving church, meeting in its own large premises, and oversees a team of men working into a growing number of West African nations.
His wife, Alex, is the headmistress of New Nation School, served by 90 staff and providing education for approximately 550 children. The school boasts science and computer rooms, and a developing library. The Christian values taught in the school are revolutionary against the backdrop of normal Ghanaian education, and the standards are superb. It seems amazing that this school was started only a few years ago with 30 students.
Not only is John leading the growing church but also broadcasting weekly on television, which reaches across Ghana and beyond. Some of the people who attended the leadership meetings at which I spoke had travelled 300 and 400 kilometres to be there as a result of seeing the TV broadcast.
It was a joy to renew fellowship with such men as Michael, who together with his wife Mabel and child Enam, have gone out to plant a new church which is already developing medical outreach in the region.
Ian and Rosemary McDonald from the UK, who have joined John in Accra, have provided magnificent back-up to Alex in serving in the school as well as being involved with John in other situations.
Being in the meetings is an absolute joy. Worship, accompanied by enthusiastic musicians and a great singing group, is full of delight in God. It’s wonderful to realise that so many of the people now singing and dancing were not so long ago without any knowledge of God. Now they wholeheartedly worship Him and tell their friends and neighbours about Him.
Sam Amara had brought some of his leaders from Lagos, Nigeria where his church continues to grow and plant out new congregations.
It’s hard to describe the joy and excitement that one feels when thinking that John came amongst us as a student with no awareness that God had plans for him to become a church planter and an apostle of great wisdom and skill to build. His book God’s New Tribe is full of apostolic doctrine underlining the significance of the church in God’s purpose, and his people applaud enthusiastically when ever one teaches into these vital themes.
Certainly ‘The Future of Newfrontiers’, as I am calling my current series of blogs, looks wonderfully healthy in this part of the world and I cannot thank God enough.
Terry is based at Church of Christ the King, Brighton, UK and is the founder of Newfrontiers, a worldwide family of churches together on a mission to establish the kingdom of God by restoring the church, making disciples, training leaders and planting churches. He and his team serve nearly 500 churches worldwide.
A well-known Bible teacher, Terry speaks at conferences internationally and hosts the annual Together on a Mission conference in the UK, which draws thousands of delegates from around the world.
Terry has written several books, including No Well-Worn Paths, which is his biography and the story of Newfrontiers.
