Narrow Way Again

In August, we'd held RAW (Real And Wild) in Leicester.  They say it was the best ever.  A significant difference from previous RAWs was the target age-group, just up to 25 rather than up to 35.  Earlier in the summer, our Youth Camps had made a big impact on the around-16 age range.  So the RAW core team was keen to follow on within this Holy Spirit movement.  Some mouldy oldies' had gone along as team facilitators and mentors.  The local Leicester saints had booked premises in the city centre for team gatherings, and subsequently to keep in touch with people that had been met.  This included an early evening Saturday afternoon get-together in the Cafe of Bishop Street Methodist Church.  I was keen to join the congregation in this current experiment.

Mary and I loaded up Lillian and her electric scooter, and headed down the M1.  We dropped off our bags at Narrow Way (off Narborough Road), then cut across to Springfield House (in Stoneygate).  Here we dropped off Lil, and had some tea before joining the minibus into the city centre.  Sitting around the cafe tables, and wandering around the worship area, I had time for a lengthy catch-up with Richard and with Clive, key local leaders.  My relationship with these guys has benefited enormously from the weekends that Mary and I have visited in the past year.   Four new folks had joined the gathering, and Andy popped up to lead a couple of worship songs, followed by some personal prayer.  It was a wholesome and holding couple of hours.  The past year has also seen the two church household come together much more.

We were back at Narrow Way with enough of the evening left to attempt something worthwhile.  Richard and Margaret were just back from seeing two of their sons down south, and I got asked about the recent Multiply trip.  Conversation flowed easily and inclusively: the best of relaxed house family life.  Carl and Akke went off to join the late night evangelism and healing team, again in the city centre.

For the Sunday morning, we were back at Netherhall.  I talked about the importance and validity of each person's testimony about their experiences with God.  I related the incident when, at home, the neighbour opposite's car rolled down the drive, across the road, and smacked into our garden wall.  On board were the family's two young sons: one had meddled with the handbrake while the parents were loading up for their holiday away.  Neil had checked out the damage; Dave had run to tell the parents; Mary had rushed to console the boys; I'd stood in the road to slow down other traffic.  Thus, we - all four - would have a different account and perspective of the same incident.  Just as we have in the gospels, and just as has been authentic in Christian witness ever since.   The point was well received. 

During the afternoon, Richard and Dave cooked up an imaginative means to capitalise on this for our evening get-together.  They laid out a strip of drafting tape along the wood-effect floor of the dining room, and marked it in decades starting from 1930 up to today.   Once the get-together was underway, Richard and Dave gave accounts of their lives at 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010, tracing the faithfulness of God and new discoveries in their Christan walks.  Then we all spread out along the line to mark when we were born, and afterwards - some volunteers - the date of first finding faith, with the events that led up to it and followed.

We were spellbound by each others' accounts.  I hear they've since had a re-run, because folks who missed the first chance wanted another opportunity.  At Springfield, on our way to pick up Lil, we heard that they'd also shared stuff together like this.  St Benedict used to insist that the purpose of community life must centre on the experienced presence of God.  Norman Grubb described sharing testimonies as the key to continuous revival.  Well, we'd had a welcome taste of it.

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."