Apostolic Ventures (Bank Holiday Festival)

Here's the 'Power' Festival Weekend ministry from Monday 27 May 2014.

1. The apostolic church recognises a call in its generation to specific people groups and/or locations.
2. Understands that the unit that God works through is the gathered Body of Christ, so skillfully builds the church.
3. It's God's instrument for heralding the gospel of redemption in Christ and transformation in the Holy Spirit.

Other ministries may be content merely to see the church flourish.
To the apostolic, this is like a fire engine that never leaves the station for a blaze.

Venture 1) In 2013, our greatest number of new members came from 'friends' (4/10) and family (2/10). 
How can you give time to connect with such folks?

Venture 2) Next (2/10), were contacted through our Jesus Centres.
Are you making best use of volunteering opportunities, and Jesus Centre groups with gospel slant?

Venture 3) Our MILC (Multiply International Leaders' Conference) delegates testified to the power of prayer. 
By prayer they found direction, grasped opportunities, and overcame difficulties.

Kiran (India) related how he was led to go with his team to an unevangelised village and ask for the 'postman'.  On arrival, the man was found to be seriously ill - in fact, unconscious.  Kiran was annoyed at this seeming dead-end.  Turning to leave, the man's wife asked if they could pray.  Kiran hadn't got as far as 'Amen', before the man stirred and sat up.  The family came to faith, and now there's a thriving church in the village.  

Venture 4) They also testified to the effectiveness of releasing those with evangelism gifts in teams with complementary ministries.
This means churches keep growing after the initial burst of new-planting growth.

Daniel (Kenya) and David (Sierra Leone) engage teams with specific gifts to make initial contact with folks, follow them up, and so on.

Venture 5) Who are the people on God's heart?  Churches have prayed and asked God to bring to mind contacts' names, before inviting them to events.
This builds faith that there's a specific local mission field already in His purposes.

Some of our church households have made a point of giving specific personal invitations to suitable events, rather than sticking with general publicity or vague announcements at other meetings.

Acts 18:9  One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10 For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city." 11 So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.

tiply Zambia 2014 Day Two - Thursday

A strange tune was playing from Len's side of the room.  It stopped, and I slept again.  Then the tune started up anew.  Len had bought an MTN SIM card for his data dongle: "I couldn't get it to stop," he conceded.  But 'it' wasn't his dongle, it was Gladys' mobile phone, that she'd forgetfully left in the bedroom.  And because of the commitment to round-the-clock prayer times, she had alarms set for 4.30am and 5.30am.  Meanwhile, Len had thought 'it' was my travel alarm.  Thus we were pitched into the day, whether we'd sufficiently caught up on sleep or not.

Steven excused himself from breakfast so he could dash down to the church and keep an eye on registration and other preparations.  He'd thoughtfully arranged for a sheet stretched over a wooden frame to be set up for our projector screen.  I had oats and hot milk, and Len had toast and Marmite.  He was missing his favourite de-caff tea.

George arrived with his van, and we took a circuitous route to pick up the other four.  They'd obviously enjoyed every minute with their respective hosts.  Hannah and Ali related with relish having tracked down and squashed two mosquitoes.  Their approach had been less genocidal than Len's toxic spray.

Steven's church had been repainted and now boasts a perimeter wall.  Three years ago half the premises were unused, but now they run the school, a sewing workshop (equipped by Work-Aid) and the newly installed Internet Cafe for which we'd been raising funds.  It's all a creditable achievement, and a high standard.  First to greet us with his broad smile was Emil, who attended MILC UK in 2012.

The morning sessions went well, at 11.00am.  The remainder of the team shot off to see these other parts of the set-up, which they'll be immersed in for most of their stays.  They were thoughtful over lunch, especially Jimmie, which was probably a good sign.  We led the afternoon with a question and answer session, which responded well to what the hundred-plus delegates wanted to hear about.  Church businesses came high on the agenda.  Len rounded off with a hearty presentation on servant leadership, and we sent everyone home with a question to think about ready for our opening workshop tomorrow.

The band assembled for a practise, and Ali led a group of the children into the main hall for some spontaneous worship and dance.  This was what she'd come for.  "Is your heart broken, yet?" I asked Hannah.  She nodded.

We took a leisurely trip back into town to buy a few things from an Airtel staff and the busy Shoprite, and then reached Steven's home again.  He returned, looking tired, at a slightly more civilised hour than yesterday, but in a heavy rainstorm  We enjoyed beef stew and rice, rounded off with fresh fruit.  I explained about my partial church discipline, and Steven grunted his understanding about getting over-stressy when you let problems mount up.  We planned tomorrow's sessions, including a lot of group work on leadership teams.  Another heavy rain storm

Len had spent all evening unsuccessfully trying to get his dongle to - er, dong?  I quickly precis'd some PowerPoints to print as handouts, and went to bed.

Multiply India Retrospect

"when can we get together?" Nathan and Sam both pressed me.  We found a free Thursday evening, and booked in at Kings for tea.  Nathan and Sam had heard very little about Steve being in South India and then Myanmar and UAE.  I hadn't got their full story from Cuttack, Odisha, either. "Come on, Steve." Nathan encouraged.

Steve reminded us that we'd ruined his attempt at snatching some rest before flying south to Kerala, when we discovered Nathan's laptop was missing at Bangalore airport.  His flight was uneventful, but Daniel, who was due to follow an hour later, found his service was cancelled.  Steve waited several hours in the inhospitable airport until Daniel finally arrived on the last scheduled flight of the day.  Their time spent with Daniel's friend, Dennis, has been a delight.  But later, in Thrissur, the hotel was dingy and the delegates attending the conference not the promising catchment they'd hoped for.  Checking in for the onward flight to Myanmar, Daniel found out that visas aren't available for Indian nationals on arrival.  Steve was left to head for Kuala Lumpur on his own, as so grateful to find me waiting in Yangon airport.

Nathan took up his account of the Church on the Streets staged in Aizawl, Mizoram.  The young people's group that had promised to support the scene had been brave and spontaneous.  Next day, Colney took Nathan and Sam to the Jesus Army rehab out of the city.  They'd immediately clicked with the team there, working in very sparse conditions.  "What do you need?" Nathan had asked.  "A carpenter to build us more furniture here, and then teach the guys some skills, so they can move on from their addictions to something constructive."  Nathan asked him to put a figure on this.  Something like £5,000 would see it sorted.  Back at Colney's home, Nathan put out a Facebook page, and within hours netted some hundreds of pounds of pledges.  That's now been passed over to one of our veteran church members, who has the business experience and time to see it comes to fruition.

"Cuttack was something else," Sam chipped in.  "We arrived in the middle of a Hindu festival.  I found it quite intimidating. This group of young guys came up to me and were trying to get me to dance. 'C'mon, dance for the god!' they pushed me about."  Hannah, Sam's missus nodded vigorously.  Sam had experienced a few scary moments on the trip, including the road accident in Bangalore when his autorickshow had run into a van.  However, the visit to the boys home/orphanage had melted his heart, and been more than compensation.  "They all lined up yo welcome us, in red cross teeshirts.  Oh, the enthusiasm in their worship!".  "Yea, that's what got me in Mizoram, too." Nathan added.  "I wanna do a video that will inspire us to get into worship like that."  Sam and Nathan rounded off with their comedy-film routine of getting through security at Mumbai airport.

"I was chewed up about some of the things that went wrong," I confided.  "We had these big misunderstandings about what Steve's described about Thrissur; Butch arriving in Myanmar and how the whole budget for Yangon got out of schedule.  I'm trying to pick my way through it all."  I wasn't sure whether to go into detail.  "We've always said that every new Multiply activity we embark on stretches our leadership relationships more."

Nathan got us back to a more positive note.  "Who are we going to follow up?"   "Ah, the MILC conference in May/June next year is going to have three tracks."  I explained,  "One for the existing AMEN guys, then two each invitees that they see as key players either in their home scene or for a new place; then a J Gen track for younger folks, or leaders working with them like we do at RAW - again, about two each."  "Wow, that's great!"  Nathan and Sam were excited.  They fired off a load of names they're in contact with on Facebook.  "And don't forget the Intern scheme," I added.

"While we're on follow up," Steve joined in, "Greatheart, you really must get someone to take on some of the admin side.  I watched you dealing with the travel, the finances, the conference equipment - and after you'd done all the planning...  It was too much."  "Well, it was first time for you guys, so I wanted to smooth the way."  I explained.  "Yeah, but you're going to tell me the same about Zambia next year," he persisted.  He's right, there's still lots to work on.

Dave stuck his head round the door and offered us all tea and flapjack.  "Tell the others about the train home," I nodded at Steve.  "From Manchester airport, I fell asleep and went right past Crewe, so I had to double back from Sandbach," Steve explained.  "I did 20,000 miles in 15 days on eight flights, like clockwork, then missed my train connection!  The whole household turned out at Rugby station - with flags.  The other passengers were gobsmacked!"   "C'mon Greatheart, when are we going again?"  Nathan spoke for all of us.  "I think next it's got to be Delhi, to try to cover the northern third of India.  Who knows?"   It was way past 11.00pm, and I had to drive back to Sheffield.  It had been special. 

AMEN Retrospect

I spent three days after the official AMEN programme ended following up urgent priorities.  There were details of September's India trip to reschedule.  I rang Colney, freshly returned, and he confirmed he'd now got all he needed to get the Burma conference moving.  Daniel emailed from UAE to firm up flights and forward a request from Chennai for a group of 20 pastors to come to the Bangalore conference.   He also pressed me for biog information for the South India programme for the four of us travelling from UK.

Then I had to repeat the exercise with spring 2014's trip to Africa.  Steven emailed to say he was delayed and still in England.  But he'd been introduced to a charity willing to send a container of aid items to Lusaka, free, providing the immediate transport cost could be covered.  And Desmond emailed to say he'd located a minibus in Belgium that he wanted to get across to Freetown so he could use it for Mick's trip in November.

The third priority was to get all the discussion points scheduled so we could have a decent debrief among the Multiply subcommittee.  Two sides of bullet points!  When we finally sat around the table, we realised how much ground we'd covered.  Whilst the gaping holes in our administration were indefensible, Piet was ready to champion the evolving partnership issues.  The Central Office reorganisation has created an enlarged Multiply office, and I may even get a hot-desk, there too. 

On the motorway I found some space to reflect on nuggets of conversation that had stuck in my mind.  Rukundo's Kingdom message is obviously carrying an anointing, and breaking new ground.  "Don't be surprised if God gives you some new songs to express this message," I'd prompted him.  "Oh, but we have," he beamed. "Forty of them!  We sing them all the time.  And the sister responsible gets very inspired."  He related the exact growth of his New Humanity community.  "We have 16 at our house, 15 in the other house in Kigali, 12 in the Eastern region, and nine more locally waiting to move in."  That's 52 souls. In March last year there were 14 and 12 respectively in the two houses in Kigali - exactly 100% increase.  They'd already moved from the blue-roofed house that I remember, and would need to move on again before the end of this year.

Then there was Colney's reference to his training of junior leaders.  "I tell them that if they'll learn 1,000 verses of scripture, then I'll sponsor them to attend bible college.  They are so keen to be equipped and go to the unevangelised villages."  And whilst considering India, I had to smile at at Daniel's advice to Steve as they discussed the topics for the conferences in Bangalore and Trissur.  "Okay to talk about the Kingdom church, but go easy on celibacy."  We laughed at how celibacy shouldn't be part of the Kingdom of Heaven.

In Chatham, we'd all warmed to Matthew sharing about the inward tensions and struggles of leadership.  He described how five years had changed his perspective on working out a leadership call.  "I used to see myself like a sheepdog.  One eye on the Lord, and one eye on the sheep - always in a state of tense alertness.  Now I just walk alongside the Lord, at his hand.  Enjoying seeing the next next move he's planning and next direction He's taking."

Mark's testimony also proved arresting.  Brought up in a churchy family, he'd kicked over the traces when about 16.  Yet his fledgling faith survived.  "Night after night," he recalled, "I prayed beneath my 'blanket cathedral'."  After the official week, we heard, too, that Mark's brother Ralf, in Brazil, will aim to come to Multiply International Leaders Conference (MILC) in summer next year.  This makes possible developments in South America more solid. 

Rukundo stayed on for a couple of weeks.  He came to Sheffield.  We spent time working through the challenges of developing his support team and putting structures in place.  We drove up to the Derwent reservoir, and talked in the rain.  We found a parallel with the establishment of cities of refuge in the settlement of Canaan.  They were models for God's justice and mercy.  But, useless unless they could be reached directly and swiftly.  So, Moses and Joshua were instructed to build roads - good roads.  This just reflects the point of development that Rukundo's got to.  He needs a wineskin to contain the new wine of the Spirit.

Finally, I was still worried about Gregory's tiredness.  "Hello, archbishop," I rang him.  I was relieved to hear his reply. "It was all brilliant.  I'm very inspired.  Let's keep it up."