1/2 Some thoughts on what I continue to learn as a church leader these days.

The church I am currently helping plant has no building, no resources, a little bit of money (thanks to faithful giving) but not much else other than a bunch of precious 'living stones'..

2/2 Some days I am frustrated by this, longing for things to go back to what they once were but most days now I remind myself our current context sounds just like those early Jesus followers who had nothing else but the words of Jesus, the promise of the Holy Spirit&each other!

3/ So I am finding myself MORE ENERGISED serving the church in these days than I ever have been. It's begun to dawn on me, we have potentially a once in a lifetime chance for a significant PARADIGM SHIFT - one which may allow us to be the church our ecclesiology actually espouses

4/ * Frankly IF THE GREAT COMMISSION IS FOR EVERYONE THEN EVERYONE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO IT! More frankly though, most of the people in our churches don’t know where to start. They rarely ‘pick themselves’ to be the agents of the kingdom.

5/ Alan Kreider says provocatively, ‘Within Christendom the fundamental division is not between church and world but between clergy and laity.”

6/ So, what if we have an opportunity to actually begin to teach our people, the foundations of the apostles doctrine again? What if we start again teaching the things Jesus actually asked us to, **‘teach others to obey all the things I have commanded you?’.**

7/ To cease merely filling heads with more knowledge but rather immerse and CATECHISE our churches in the Jesus Way again?

8/ Yes, in this cultural moment we need anointed teachers/preachers highly graced to rightly divide the Word of truth but what if our congregational Sunday-centric models have become too much of a sacred cow?

9/ What if amongst the many glories of the reformation we have allowed ourselves to adopt too much of an inflexible congregational model of church which over the years has over-emphasised the front, the platform, the pulpit?

10/ What if the platforms are being broken down to establish environments which gather around the Presence than the pulpit? Of course this is not a false dichotomy - we need both...

11/ but what if there is a new moment for the fresh fire of the Word and Spirit to collide in smaller groups of people gathered around the scriptures in the presence of Jesus?

12/ * What if this is the moment to remind our people in the words of Apostle Paul to the Corinthians that when we come together (even if it’s online) EVERYONE can bring a word, a song and insight, a revelation (1 Cor 14:26) not just the ‘professionals’

13/ What if, in a world where family breakdown has reached devastating levels we can begin to rebuild ‘households of faith’, families of believers built around the teachings of Jesus reflecting the one new humanity - the kind of family the lonely are truly longing for!?

14/ What if this time to invest our lives in emerging leaders, empowering mature believers, not just to lead a ‘cell group’ but to be baptised again in G/Commission, exhorting them to open not just their homes but whole lives in mission, movement&multiplying nature of the Spirit?

15/ * What if a new pattern can emerge in the days ahead - the oscillation of big gatherings with smaller ‘households of faith’ - what if this can breathe new life into the body of Christ in these days....

16/...mobilising the saints to a depth of devotion for Jesus beyond surface-level, to a **covenanting commitment** to local expressions of the body of Christ and to Holy Spirit empowerment to join Jesus in the destruction of the forces of evil in the way of the Cross?

17/ What if the length of COVID time we have lived through is actually an opportunity for our previous ‘normal’ to be disrupted in holy ways, patterns broken and a whole new Spirit inspired pattern awaits? We’ve talked about new wine-skins for years...surely this is our chance?