Oxford is a very special city. It boasts some magnificent history rich in Christian influence. It is extraordinary to walk the streets and recall that the Wesleys and Whitefield met there in their holy club, that martyrs were burned at the stake, that CS Lewis and Tolkien enjoyed fellowship there.

The city is also currently the home for many dear friends of ours such as Charlie Cleverly and Michael Ramsden at St Aldates, Steve Thomas at the Community Church, as well as the fine and influential Vaughan Roberts at St Ebbe’s.

It was a special joy, therefore, to preach at not only a public celebration but also specially at our Newfrontiers Emmanuel Church, originally planted by David Coak freshly arrived with his wife Margaret from the tremendously successful church which he planted in Cambridge but now joined by Matt and Wendy Partridge. Matt is now the senior leader of a fine team.

I was thrilled to look out at a good crowd of people, including students and families, and especially to talk to a number of freshly-converted people. There was such life manifest and a great sense of promise for the future. I am so blessed that we have such a key church in such a massively influential city. I am full of expectation that it will continue to grow and enjoy remarkable influence on many lives in the future for the glory of God.

One French girl student, who was healed at the end of the service, told me that she had been saved only one month and it was her first visit to the church. Now all her pain had gone, so she could cancel her osteopath appointment for the next day.

My days before the Oxford weekend were spent with Newfrontiers leaders from across the UK who, when they gave  local reports, spoke of ongoing blessing and growth, fresh church plants and extraordinary adventures of faith, both in terms of healing on the streets, the planting of new churches and great faith adventures regarding financial commitment and the purchase of very substantial buildings for the gospel’s sake. Steve Tibbert, leading King’s Church Catford, continues to pioneer with great courage as they prepare to go for a multi-million church building in the Catford area. How I thank God for that church and its robust and courageous growth.

Also, Simon Holley from Kings Arms Bedford gave a thrilling account of multiplied healings in his church. His talk on believing for signs and wonders given at this year’s TOAM conference in Brighton (Part 2 of Lex Loizides Training Track) is highly motivational and faith-imparting and can be downloaded. It was also tremendous to hear from Tope Koleoso about the growth in Jubilee Church London in the cinema where they meet, using a growing number of screens throughout that very large cinema.

This coming weekend sees Wendy and me going to be with John and Alex Kpikpi in Accra, Ghana, where we will gather his leaders and have a series of meetings, which will be largely focused on the gospel of the kingdom and the place of healing. I trust we shall see a great breakout of God’s healing power as we gather.

Tomorrow I fly to Holland where we will gather our Newfrontiers International Forum. This important get-together will be our first since July’s Together on a Mission in Brighton and we will be continuing to consider the transitioning of Newfrontiers into the next generation.

Men carrying significant responsibility within Newfrontiers will come from Mexico, USA, Russia, the Ukraine, Armenia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ghana, Pakistan, Australia and Western Europe. Between us we represent involvement with Newfrontiers churches from over 60 nations.

As I spelt out at TOAM in Brighton (see my blog published on 30 July http://www.janga.biz/terryvirgoblog/?p=888), I am not looking for a successor but multiplied sons to carry on the mission growing across the nations.

We prize our corporate life within what we call Newfrontiers but more important is the raising up of gifted sons who develop their own apostolic spheres and multiply the mission.

We anticipate this particular transition will take place over the next few years, but I was so pleased last weekend to speak at the East of England Together where one could see in embryo what needs to be developed in many places.

About 1,200 people from about 21 churches in the East of England gathered at Pontins in Lowestoft, under the leadership of Mike Betts and a team of guys, for a great weekend. I counted it a privilege to be there.

It reminded me of our earliest Downs Bible Weeks in the early 1980s where about 2,500 gathered in Sussex at Plumpton Racecourse. In those days we represented a similar number in churches from Sussex, Surrey, Kent and South London.

We had yet to call ourselves Newfrontiers and hardly considered ourselves to be an ‘apostolic sphere’. Everything was embryonic and there was no expectation that as a family we would ultimately be represented in every continent of the world.

One notable difference last weekend was that we not only represented churches from the East of England but also from Scandinavia, Latvia, Poland, Finland and Turkey. Pioneering couples were expertly interviewed by Maurice Nightingale who demonstrated great Michael Parkinson skills, and an offering of over £50,000 was raised which expressed serious commitment on the part of those who gathered.

I realise that Together weekends are not the only way to express our unity of purpose (after all we stopped Stoneleigh) but it was great to be part of the occasion and observe the positive developments. I also heard very enthusiastic responses to the similar Together weekend in the New Forest, led by Guy Miller and his team, where India and Portugal were also represented. Since then, Guy and his team have also led the Indian Together on a Mission where 400 leaders from right across India gathered. I have not personally been to India for three years now. Other apostolic spheres are clearly emerging.

We will work hard at the Forum discussing, praying, prophesying and aiming to obey the Holy Spirit as we move forward together.

In the coming weeks I’ll continue to comment on this development. We really do feel that God is giving us help and direction, and we continue to look to Him for specific details that must emerge in the progress of change that will be required.

My final talk at this year’s Together on a Mission was specifically in response to Mark Driscoll’s word from last year where he challenged us as a movement to beware the danger of honouring the ‘founder’ at the cost of not honouring the ‘future’. He warned us of the dangers of nostalgia.

With that in mind I felt that God would have me address these themes and, at the same time, remind us of who we are, where we have reached and some of the key issues about going forward.

Please click on the screen below in order to watch the last of my three sessions.

My second main session at Together on a Mission in Brighton in July was to emphasise where Newfrontiers is in the present. I began by showing maps of first the UK with our 220 or so churches, followed by a world map with the growing number of churches there spread across the nations.

I followed this by a word emphasising the vital place of the local church in God’s purpose and some of its key features.

Please click the screen below to watch this recording.

Once again this year Together on a Mission proved a tremendous blessing. It was such a joy to renew fellowship with friends from all over the world, though this was accompanied by the usual frustration of only snatching moments with people that one had not seen for months.

All around the room you could see friends greeting one another, sharing news and renewing fellowship.

Our times of worship were stunning and wonderful. God’s presence in the midst was overwhelming at times. I am so grateful that TOAM is not a conference for people escaping the harsh realities of sad church life, but a gathering of zealots from many different church settings around the world. Some come from nations where life is really tough such as Zimbabwe, the Middle East and even Russia, nations which don’t enjoy the religious freedoms that many of us do in the West. Others are in the early stages of church plantings with all the challenges that they provide.

Last year we received as our main speaker Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill, Seattle, USA. He was very provocative, entertaining, challenging and deeply stimulating. We enjoyed him enormously and he served us magnificently. This year was in some ways a response to the challenge that he brought to us, particularly from my point of view. I felt God spoke to me saying that I should take three sessions on Newfrontiers – our past, our present and our future.

Please click on the video below in order to watch the first of my three sessions.