Terry Virgo's Blog

Preaching at Downs 1984

Terry Virgo at Downs 1988 from Terry Virgo on Vimeo.

My good friend, Nigel Ring, unearthed this bit of footage from Downs 1984. I hope you enjoy watching it!

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Book Reviews

Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians has always been a particular favourite of mine with its very strong church emphasis. As John Stott says, ‘Nobody can emerge from a careful reading of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians with a privatised gospel. For Ephesians is the gospel of the church.’

I would say that John Stott’s work on Ephesians in the Bible Speaks Today series is the high spot of the whole BST series. His wise pastoral insights yet scholarly approach make this such a helpful volume and one that I would heartily recommend to someone seeking insight into this great Epistle. As he says, ‘It is through the old creation (the universe) that God reveals His glory to humans; it is through the new creation (the church) that He reveals his wisdom to angels.’

His insights into the individual’s experience are not lacking. As he argues, ‘Because you did throw off your former self once and for all, you must now throw off all conduct which belonged to your old life. Your new behaviour must be completely consistent with the kind of person you have become.’

If you want to advance further in your studies I could certainly recommend Andrew Lincoln’s commentary in theWord series. Disappointed that Lincoln argues that Paul did not write the Epistle, I am nevertheless grateful to Peter Lewis for encouraging me to read a commentary which (to quote D A Carson) ‘on most pages is superb, both at the level of dealing faithfully with the text and at the level of theological reflection. Lincoln’s grasp of the eschatology of the Epistle is profound.’ I personally greatly enjoyed working my way through it and find that I have underlinings on virtually every page.

Most recently, I am just finishing Peter O’Brien’s excellent commentary in the Pillar series. He is clearly an outstanding commentator, proving to be extraordinarily thorough and insightful, and firmly establishing Pauline authorship.

If you have time, however, (and it will be time very well spent!) you would also want to read Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ series of sermons on Ephesians, in the Banner of Truth series on this great Epistle, which Samuel Taylor Coleridge called ‘the divinest composition of man’, and F F Bruce regarded ‘as the quintessence of Paulinism’.

Sadly, I disagree with all of their treatment on the identity and work of an apostle. But there again you can’t have everything!

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Miracles as we go forward

The future of Newfrontiers was our theme as 10 of our international leaders gathered for three days this week and enjoyed excellent fellowship and a very real sense of God’s guidance as we prayed, prophesied and discussed our future together.

As ever, when we gather from among the Nations there is always so much news to share.  John Kpikpi from City of God Church, Accra, Ghana, shared two excellent stories which I share with you.

First story

One night while praying, Emmanuel, our evangelist, felt God give him a telephone number and a name both of which he had never known before.  He called and introduced himself to the voice who answered to the name he had – Simon.  Emmanuel then told him that God wanted to use him powerfully.

Simon later recalled this was so outrageous to him because he had just returned from a drinking binge in town.  At daybreak, he told his mother about this unusual call and she encouraged him to find out more.  He arranged a meeting with Emmanuel who led him to Christ.

Simon then invited Emmanuel to come to his town, Dodowa, about 30 minutes drive from the northern outskirts of Accra to preach to his friends as well.  Out of that relationship a 2 day crusade was organized which saw over 150 people respond to the gospel.

A new church plant had started. Over the next few months, the new converts were bussed regularly into our Sunday morning meetings in Accra while Emmanuel, Kobby and others met with them during the week in Dodowa to teach and encourage them.  Then during our annual conference this February, we planted them out as City of Light Church, Dodowa. Glory to God.

Second story.

Emmanuel was called by a young man who knew him and asked for prayer for his mother who lived about 45 minutes from Accra in a town called Amanokrom.  Emmanuel asked for the phone to be given to the ailing lady as he prayed for her. She was healed instantly.  Because of this the family invited Emmanuel to come and meet them.  When Emmanuel got there, at least 50 people were gathered in the house.

He preached the gospel and prayed for several people, many being healed. When he returned to the town the following week the numbers had grown to over 70 people.  Emmanuel then began a regular Sunday evening meeting with his evangelistic team and within a few weeks over 100 people were gathering.  The team has just started to teach our foundation course to all these newly saved people.  We have a potential church plant on our hands.

(I’ll be sharing more about the future of Newfrontiers in due course)

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U.S.A. Visit February 2010

 I’ve just returned from a fascinating time in the U.S.A where I was primarily involved with our Newfrontiers U.S.A. annual leaders’ event which, praise God, continues to grow in numbers year-by-year as we plant more churches and others join us.

It was a special pleasure to meet guest speaker, Bob Roberts (from Texas, as he kept reminding us!)  He is an amazing man with a delightful sense of humour and also a PhD!  He is not only a zealous church planter but a man of huge passion for the Lord Jesus involved in mission in Vietnam and also remarkably in the Middle East.

His costly passion for Christ was profoundly challenging although mingled with great humour and warmth.  What a guy!  And what a privilege to get to know him, have meals with him and hear about his motivations and involvements.

The conference itself was a huge blessing, overseen by John Lanferman who is loved and respected by all the guys in the Newfrontiers scene in the U.S.  A morning of prayer (a regular Newfrontiers feature!) was brilliantly led by Ian Ashby from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

While In St. Louis, I was fascinated to be approached by two leaders of large churches from different States who have left their former denominations because of the drift of having women in pastoral oversight of those churches – something they couldn’t settle for.  Also a former Presbyterian missionary with a PhD from Aberdeen University, came to see me who had recently been powerfully baptised in the Spirit, leading to his church being similarly visited by God with some dramatic healings.  Sadly this led to his having been dropped by his mission supporters.  Fascinating developments!  I am sure that God will not bless a man into extinction!  He has become a true son of Abraham with the future all unknown, but with God just as faithful now as he was in Abraham’s day.

Acts 29

Darrin Patrick, Vice-President of Acts 29, invited me to be interviewed for the Resurgence site.  We enjoyed a great time together covering lots of very interesting subjects.  A week later I spoke to the Acts 29 Mid-West pastors’ day hosted at Darrin’s church in St. Louis where about 300 guys gathered.  At his request, in the morning I spoke on prayer which was very warmly received, and in the afternoon, answered a Q & A time for about 1½ hrs which again was blessed by the Lord’s presence.  I am personally very new to the world of “Twitter” but I am told that “Twitter-land” was going frantic as I was speaking and find that I have now two hundred more followers on my “Twitter” than I had before I spoke!  I seem to have found a lot of new friends!  Certainly I am delighted to regard Darrin as one of them.  What an excellent guy!

Jubilee Church, St. Louis

I was particularly encouraged to see how the Jubilee Church, led by Bryan Mowrey, which has recently doubled its morning meeting to two services is growing. I enjoyed the meetings which were excellently led in worship by Jordan Dillon.  Following the preaching I loved praying for the sick.  Several were healed, including a woman whose spine was wracked with arthritic pain who testified that she felt it simply “melt away” when I prayed.  Tears were flowing down her face as she gave testimony to this wonderful release – her fist time in the church.  Praise the Lord!

 Kenosha, Wisconsin

Wendy and I enjoyed a reunion with John and Kim Lalgee, who not only took us to the top of the 96 storey Hancock Tower for a fabulous view of Chicago, but also invited three congregations together for us to have time with leaders and churches, share Q & A and tell the story of Newfrontiers.  It was a memorable and extremely enjoyable weekend.

 My time in the U.S.A. was a delight and I am so grateful to God for the growing number of friends we are making, with all the blessing that we receive from who they are in God and also the awareness that, praise God (!) Newfrontiers churches are beginning to have increasing influence.

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A chat with Simon Brading

I was fascinated to see this interview with Simon Brading in Newfrontiers-USA’s The Link . This was conducted at Mobilise USA earlier this year. I thought it was great!

 Q. So this is your second year at Mobilise USA. Give us your thoughts on that.
A. I’ve loved it from the opening meeting! The preaching has been incredible. There’s been a real sense of God’s presence in every meeting – real energy, passion, heart-felt devotion and celebration of the gospel.                         

Q. What do you think about this generation in regards to their hearts and worship?
A. Quite frankly worship music is kind of a genre—an industry in the UK and America. So regarding this generation, my heart is that worship music remains fully gospel-centered and Christ-centered. Regardless of style, I’m hungry and prayerful that Jesus keeps taking center stage in this generation; that we’re still engaging with Him and prizing the presence of God, not just going through some motion of singing.

Q. Talk about participation in your church. What do you look for or hope to expect? 
A. I’m keen that when people come together to worship it isn’t a show. It isn’t, “Okay, come on then, impress me” or “Okay, that was a good song, what’s next?” but actually there’s an expectation (even in a larger meeting) to meet with God and that we’re looking to Him.

Q. Who has influenced you personally?
A. That’s a tough question. I feel like I’ve had a lot of influences at different stages. Biggest one: my dad. He’s been an elder in a church all his life; so I’ve grown up with a strong, godly man of prayer in my life. Seeing that example every day and being in a family with a real climate of prayer, praise and worship at home had a massive influence on me.

More recently Joel Virgo, who leads our church (Christ the King) in Brighton, and Matt Redman (UK worship leader). I like to read a lot and listen to podcasts from friends like Mars Hill, Mark Driscoll … stuff like that.

Q. What is the process like for you in selecting a song list?
A. That’s a great question. I want it to be gospel centered, so in the five or six songs I am thinking, “Ok, what of the gospel is here?”

Obviously you can’t get the entire gospel in every worship set. Sometimes we want the theme of adoption or justification or freedom. I step back to think and look at the songs, always trying to be very prayerful and open to the Holy Spirit’s leading. The Holy Spirit is just as evident and present in the planning as He is in the meeting, so there is not “unspiritual” planning beforehand.

Q. What are some key or core doctrinal themes that assist you in writing songs?
A. In terms of doctrine I’m wanting to keep delving into the truth of the gospel—the full spectrum.  I think it’s easy to sing songs that aren’t Jesus-centered. There’s a lot of cool songs out there that when you actually look at the words, they’re not really saying much.

Q. We’re grateful for your willingness to serve us here during Mobilise USA.
A. It’s been a real joy. It totally feels like family. From the first night here, I was thinking, “These guys are my brothers and sisters.”

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