You can read the full interview – and also find out details of funding available for church community projects, of an event for leaders and activists who are offering church-based emergency food parcel provision to people in crisis on Tuesday 21st May 2-5pm at The City Temple in London, and a Church and Civic Engagement Forum in July.

The latest newsletter from the Gather Network is on a similar theme, including 20 golden nuggets on ways of connecting and working with your civic authority and details of a national conference in Stoke-on-Trent from 25-27 June 2013 called TRANSFORMATION with eminent Christian leader and teacher, Dr Ed Silvoso.

Why come?

We believe the Lord has been leading us to make a call for Fresh Streams to gather to pray and fast, intentionally crying out to God together. We want to be a people hungry for God, coming together for the Kingdom: a Word and Spirit encounter with God that leads to engagement with the world.

What will happen?

There will be worship; there will be input from Scripture; there will be fellowship; above all, there will be prayer! Some of that will be as a large group, some in small groups; there will be space for prayer ministry, for you as an individual and/or as a group from your church.

Why fast?

It’s biblical. It creates more time to focus on God. It is a temporary laying aside of our physical needs to indicate our spiritual priorities. (N.B. Hot and cold drinks will be available.)

Who is it for?

Fresh Streams is a network of church leaders. We believe that churches need leaders who are hungry for God! But note: our prayer and fasting days are open to all who are hungry for God…

Why not view the flyer (complete with map and travel instructions) and/or use this easy-to-print version to encourage others to come with you? We’d love to see you!

If you are planning to come, it would be helpful to have some idea of numbers – so feel able to email us with that information!!

With a population of around 60,000 people, Guernsey is home to Shiloh Church (www.shilohchurch.gg), a baptist church connected with Fresh Streams – and also a Kingdom Theology Hub, providing accredited theology courses – there are currently 30 students in Guernsey, part of a body of over 200 students across the UK benefitting from this innovative and high-impact courses.

“Without a doubt, the Kingdom Theology courses provided by Westminster Theological Centre [WTC] have been crucial in helping us to identify and release people into their God-given call, whether at church, at home or at work” said Phil Eyre, Shiloh’s church manager and lay pastor.

“We are seeing Kingdom growth in our church and across the island, often connected closely with the Hub”.

Shiloh, a church of about 230 people, do not yet have a team leader in place (although an appointment is expected in September). Yet this has not prevented the appointment of various team members to the staff team last Summer. “We took a step of faith and appointed a Children’s Ministry Leader, Minister in Training and Pastoral Care Coordinator. Each has or is working towards a WTC Kingdom Theology qualification” said Phil. “This has allowed us to make strides forward, seeing release in worship, mission, teaching and ministry”.

The courses are provided through a mix of residential teaching (two 4-day residentials) and local ‘Hubs’, with teaching in Hubs provided one evening per week via recordings and live ‘Skype’-type sessions. This allows the students to access teaching of high calibre from around the world.

Teaching is set in a framework of worship and prayer ministry; this is certainly not just an academic exercise. As well as church manager at Shiloh, Phil is also Guernsey’s Hub Director for Guernsey’s New Wine Training Centre Hub, into which WTC provides accredited theological training.

“We have seen students experience release in worship, healing, personal breakthrough and prophecy before the teaching sessions have started – a genuine mix of word and Spirit moving and working together.”

There are many stories of how God is moving in the students’ lives. One lady was set free from an eating disorder within weeks of joining the course, another healed of post-operative pain. One lady joined the course with severe trepidation about worship (“you’re all whacky” she said) yet has recently found herself compelled to paint during worship – with the paintings speaking profoundly to other students (and others who see them).

Students have been challenged to witness to family and work colleagues and been amazed at the response. “Every Hub night, the students have story after story to tell of how God is at work in their lives; healing, transforming and confronting others with the gospel through their witness,” said Phil.

The students are from all walks of life and a variety of ages, ranging from 20 to ‘well retired’ and also from a variety of churches of differing denominations.

Modules include Mission, Biblical Studies (Old and New Testaments), Doctrine, Spirituality in the Christian Tradition and Leadership & Ministry. All students are required to write and follow a Personal Development Plan, supported by faculty and the local Hub Director. “This is all about seeking more of God’s Kingdom here on Earth, pressing forward together in mission and ministry, irrespective of denominational differences. Addressing what it means to lead a business in a ‘kingdom’ way, to lead your home, work colleagues or church based ministries for His kingdom”.

It is clear that something good is happening; as well as releasing Shiloh’s lay team into ministry, students in the Guernsey Hub are involved in a wide range of mission and ministry including Street Life Pastors, Healing on the Streets, Caring for Ex Offenders, Messy Church, Business Connect, worship, preaching, CAP, Christian input in schools and mental health services to name a few.

“We are excited – and challenged – about a new wave of God’s blessing in our island in the near future. Release in worship and good theology training are a part of this” said Phil.

WTC has Hubs across the country and hopes to expand further. For more detail on the Kingdom Theology courses provided, see www.wtctheology.org.uk

The hardy and courageous few who ventured out into the cold and snow to come to Witney were rewarded with a welcoming word from Eddie Lyle of Open Doors that touched into the reality of life with God when filtered by the context of persecution: God IS bigger than our circumstances.

In York Matthew Porter of St Michael le Belfry echoed insights from David Watson on prayer from the book of Acts; and it was great to hear about the TRYPRAYING initiative (www.trypraying.org).

So we did try praying! in Witney and in York we cried out to God, calling on him to move in power. We praised God for the prospect of baptisms in our churches on Easter Sunday – and voiced our longing for more, as God’s Spirit moved in power across the land.

Our next Prayer and Fasting Day is in Stafford on Wednesday 22 May. Book the date! Further details will appear soon.

Kate Coleman’s teaching was at the heart of the main sessions, applying three key questions from scripture thoughtfully and prophetically: “Where are you?” was God’s question to Adam, prompting consideration of our place on our own journey, both inwardly and outwardly; “What is in your hand?”, God’s question of Moses, was a reminder of the resources we have and how they can be (and should be) used in God’s service; finally “What do you see?”, God’s question to Jeremiah, was the catalyst for considering our vision. “Informing and inspiring”, said one hearer; she spoke with “measured authority” said another.

Current Baptist Union President Chris Duffett spoke on the first evening in his usual irrepressible style, full of encouraging stories and, more importantly, a passion for outreach and mission. The following day many entered in to the challenge and adventure of a treasure hunt, briefed by Chris. This is prophetic evangelism, requiring people to approach total strangers with the good news of God’s love to them. Some of the delegates surprised themselves by agreeing to participate; as a result, some of the good people of Alfreton and Swanwick were equally surprised!

Pete Gilbert heads DNA and is a member of Fresh Streams Core Resource team. His Tuesday evening message was a prophetic word for Fresh Streams that many also found applicable to their own personal situation, encouraging a grasping of the new rather than holding on to the past.

And there was plenty that was new at the conference! New ways of making connections with fellow guests; new ways of chatting over key issues with the speakers; discussing news ways of offering support and encouragement to those looking for this kind of input into their lives and ministry.

All this in the context of worship, of prayer ministry and prophetic words that reached a climax at the end of the conference as many left through a ‘prayer tunnel’ and received a renewed sense of God’s presence equipping them for the weeks ahead.

Here are some of the comments made by those who came to the conference:

“The first Christian conference I have attended where I felt entirely at home…”

“Excellent teaching, but also found the worship, ministry and renewal of friendships so special”

“The conference is always a wonderful time of learning from God, experiencing Him working in my life and seeing Him clearly at work in others. It always brings challenge, inspiration, information and fellowship and is a really lovely refreshing time where God always speaks and I am able to hear Him.”

“What a fantastic, refreshing and uplifting time I have had the last 3 days. I am already looking forward to the next one.”

You can purchase recordings from the conference using this 2013 Conference Recordings Order Form

I became a Christian 29 years ago. I was quickly introduced to the idea that the healings and miracles of Jesus and the early Church we still available today. My biggest influence in my first five years as a follower of Jesus was the teaching and ministry of John Wimber. In fact whilst at Bible College the group of students I hung out with were known as the “Wimberites”: we would meet every Sunday evening for 2/3 hrs to worship God and to pray for one another ‘in the power of the Holy Spirit’.

Over the past 19 years of leading Hoole Baptist Church (HBC) the three values of (sung) worship, word, and ministry have been consistently placed at the centre of our life together. Yet I have been aware that although there seems to be an acceptance in many churches, including many Baptist churches, that charismatic gifts like healing, prophecy and ‘speaking in tongues’ are part of the normal church/Christian life, how many of us who believe this ‘stuff’ actually do it? How many churches/Christians actually practice what they believe? In my own life, my own church life and, I would suggest, across Baptist church life is there a discrepancy between the New Testament church/disciple and the Baptist church/disciple of today.

Into this context Sue and I recently attended the Leadership Advance Conference at Bethel Church in Redding, California. to see some of the things going on there and find out for myself what I thought and discerned from the experience. The Senior Pastor at Bethel is Bill Johnson and I first heard him speak and pray for people at the New Wine Leadership Conference in 2009. Since then I have read a few of his books and heard some of the amazing stories of what God is doing in and through the church at Bethel.

For us these days were some of the most powerful and intense personal encounters with God our Father that I have ever experienced! On one occasion I spent 30 minutes face down on the floor unable to move as the manifest presence of God on me was so heavy!

Here are initially three things that I am reflecting on that I believe will begin to bridge the gap in the discrepancy I observe:

• The manifest presence of God is not an optional extra for the people of God

At Bethel the presence of God is their passion; hunger and expectancy are two keys that unlock the door enabling us to experience this manifest presence. Remember it was Moses in Exodus 33: 15-16 who said, “If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

One of the first observations I made after arriving in Redding was that as I watched Bill Johnson speak about God’s presence, he was moved to tears and his voice would begin to shake. One of the challenges over two decades of busy ministry is to keep my heart tender towards the Lord and I was deeply impressed and inspired by the way  Bill Johnson has. A passionate hunger and deep desire for the presence of God expressed primarily in sung worship marks out the Bethel Church; spending time in this environment has made a deep impression on me. I can honestly say I have never seen such passion in sung worship: the musicians and singers were primarily worshippers first  and foremost, the manifest presence of God was so strong at times I was reduced to a blubbering wreck or found myself facedown before a Holy God. This hunger and desperation for the presence of God is something I want to cultivate in me afresh.

• Sonship is not a theory, but the deepest essence of my identity and confidence in God.

Of course we all know this is true. We’ve heard it hundreds of times preached from a pulpit, haven’t we? How would it look like today, to walk this earth understanding that all of the riches and blessings of heaven are your heritage?  Galatians 4:4-7 says, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.”

If you minister out of who you are, then your identity will determine what you see in terms of your impact. How would your perspective on God and yourself be transformed if you fully understood that He is already completely pleased with You? There’s a reason the devil confronted Jesus three times saying “If you are the Son of God…”, shortly after God himself spoke from Heaven: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I’m well pleased.”

He knew, if Jesus got that ‘sonship-thing’ nailed, he’d have access to all of his Father’s resources and become unstoppable. The same is true for us: our identity as children of God needs to becoming the overarching reality for all that I am and seek to do. (I’m using Sonship here recognising the Greek for adoption to sonship is a legal term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture. It’s an inclusive sonship recognising both male and female, sons and daughters are fully included in this heritage as children of our Heavenly Father.)

• We need to create a culture to live in that encourages and welcomes the King and His Kingdom.

At Bethel they call it a culture of honour; it’s what they believe has sustained the ‘move of God’ in that place for at last the past 10 years. This for me is what marks them out. In my life it’s so easy for me to lose my passion, my hope, and my faith for the coming Kingdom to invade and impact the earth I’m living in right now. I know the Bible teaches that the kingdom of God is here and now but it is also not yet and still to come. It’s a tension we live in, but surely this doesn’t mean we settle for ‘charismatic lite” where we sing the modern songs, sometime lift our hands in worship, even pray for the sick every now and then, especially when someone is seriously ill. What I am seeking is within our gatherings as church, and especially on Sunday mornings, we see the glory of God fall on us and for the Holy Spirit to do what he always does: point us to Jesus, convict us of sin, give us power to witness, make us more like Jesus in our character and give us His gifts of the Spirit so we become more competent at doing the things that Jesus did.

This is the journey of discipleship I am on, learning to be like Jesus and learning to do what Jesus could do, and as I develop these three areas in my life, in the words of  Psalm 27:13 “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

Further reflections

It’s now just over four weeks since Sue and I returned from our visit to Bethel Church in Redding California, I have continued to reflect on and process some of the things we saw and experienced during this trip.

I would like to add another three areas to explore which I believe could begin to address this discrepancy:

• The whole of the church is in the Kingdom but not all of the Kingdom is in the church

One of Bill Johnson’s books is called Heaven Invading Earth; this book is a powerful statement and testimony on the Kingdom of God. Theologically sound, well supported, and extremely well argued, this message provides a carefully constructed biblical foundation for the Christian to live and walk in the full reality of the Kingdom.

My own focus for over ten years has been how to seek and advance the Kingdom over and above the growth of my own church. The phrase I have been living with is ‘touching heaven and changing earth’. It’s the outworking of answered prayer “your Kingdom come, your will be done; on earth as it is in heaven”, it’s more than signs and wonders but must include the supernatural dimension; it’s about transformation within all sectors of society and an approach to discipleship that sees much more than what goes on within the walls of a particular local church. I saw all of this at Bethel and it’s what I seek to see more of here in Chester.

• The power of the Story…

At Bethel they love to tell stories of what God has done and is doing amongst them and through them. These stories inspire and generate faith. Revelation 19:10 “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” is a key verse. As we hear what God is doing or has done this releases faith to believe that he can do something similar in and through me.

At Bethel they value this so much they have a full time member of staff whose job description is to capture and record the stories. Sometime we can focus on what God hasn’t done or wish he would do more; a key to open the door to seeing the supernatural more in our lives is to remember and give thanks for what God is doing, especially the small signs of the fruit of God faithfulness and goodness in our lives.  We so quickly forget what God has done for us and what he is doing in and through us today, the role of the testimony is one that we need to encourage and make time for. Here at HBC we regularly have One Minute Stories within our Sunday Morning Celebration and we have just introduced a testimony book for people to write in, so we can record the small and large answers to our prayers to try and address this issue.

• Twenty seconds of insane courage

Although this isn’t directly connected to anything we heard at Bethel its does for me sum up something of the culture of obedience and faith that we observed. On the Tuesday evening of the conference, when we got back to our hotel, we just needed some ‘down time’, so we watched a movie in our room via cable TV. We Bought a Zoo stars Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson; it is set in Southern California: a father moves his young family to the countryside to renovate and re-open a struggling zoo.

Based on a true story, Matt Damon plays Benjamin Mee, the father, and in one particular scene he is talking to his son, and says: “You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage, just literally twenty seconds of embarrassing bravery, and I promise you something great will come of it.”

When I watched this scene I felt God speak to me and say that this was a key to seeing the greater release of the power and presence of God in and through my life and the church I led. What will I do when I sense that God is prompting me to do something? The question for me is: Am I obedient to God’s prompting? Usually it takes a step of faith and the risk of being wrong, but what if I obey and as I step out something great could just come from it as God’s Spirit moves through me and I am obedient? Over these past few weeks I have been listening and responding to these prompts on a more regular basis and every time I have done it the person on the receiving end has been touched by God‘s love for them.

As I said earlier, this is the journey of discipleship I am on, learning to be like Jesus and learning to do what Jesus could do. It’s a walk of faith as I learn to live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5: 25)

Please feel able to leave your comments below.

“NDOP Wembley was the fulfilment of a dream and vision to see the Lord move in this nation, which He dropped in my heart 17 years ago.  It was the end of a chapter of my life and the beginning of a new journey,” he says.

He adds: “We believe the momentum and legacy of the praise wave is sweeping out of Wembley and across the nation as people are now bedding down to hold events and initiatives where they are right across the UK.”

This has resulted in many strategic prayer initiatives including:

• Regions are now praying for seven days and nights each week and passing the baton to the next region. Several towns and cities are involved including Exeter, Leicester, the South East and North West carrying on into 2013 and beyond.
• UNITED – a group of organisations working together to empower young people to be agents of unity, prayer & transformation will be running a year of unbroken prayer for the nation throughout 2013.
• The Neighbourhood Prayer Network, which was launched at NDOP Wembley has been inundated with hundreds of people signing up to pray for their streets across the UK.

“The Lord said to us don’t start anything new but join the dots. We know that different regions have visions and initiatives that they already carry which they brought with them to Wembley”

Several cities have also contacted NDOP organisers wanting to hold their own regional stadium prayer events in 2013.  In response NDOP will be providing support and insight from hosting four stadium events.

“We are putting together all the lessons we learned from West Ham to Milwall and Wembley and we’ll be making it available to anyone wanting to put on an event to help them not make the same mistakes.  It will also help to build on the wonderful things that have happened in our own journey of putting on stadium events as well.”

NDOP will also be announcing exciting plans for 2013 but in the meantime they also want people to continue to use social media feeds telling everyone to join the momentum of praying the Lord’s Prayer at noon everyday.

NDOP is also inviting everyone to join a special Wembley Thanksgiving Night of Prayer and Worship on November 21 at the Emmanuel Christian Centre on Marsham Street in Westminster, London from 7-10pm.

It will be an evening of prophetic worship and prayer for all churches, pastors, leaders, youth groups, intercessors and networks to give thanks for all that God did at NDOP Wembley.

The meeting highlighted a church running a fitness centre on its premises that offered a holistic understanding of fitness and also generated income for other projects; an exciting IT support model that offered training and employment for people struggling to find work and linked the church to local businesses; a church family support project that had been so successful they had been asked to take responsibility by the county council for family support across the whole county.

Nick Hurd, Government Minister for Civil Society, addressed the meeting, recognising the “crisis of trust” around the country and affirming the role of the church as a key player in developing community transformation through social action and social enterprise.

The Cinnamon Network is offering to ‘strengthen your muscles’ for community transformation by

1. Sign posting you to 23 exemplary and replicable community transformation projects
2. Granting you £2,000 to help you start a replicable community transformation project
3. Encouraging you in your unity amongst the local churches in your locality in order to achieve greater community transformation

To access funding now click here – and if you are not looking for that right now, why not view the projects and read the stories – they will put a spring in your step!

Many connected with Fresh Streams have already seen how helpful it can be to participate in a Learning Community – now your Youth Teams have the same opportunity.

The Forge Learning Community will be a 2 year process where teams gather for 2 days (Friday evening and Saturday) every 6 months. Each Gathering moves through three stages, answering the same 3 questions: What is? What could be? What will be?

In between Gatherings there will be a follow up call and e-mails from the 3dm UK/Forge team so that they can walk alongside the teams as they begin to implement the plans they make.

The cost of the Learning Community will be £450/year per team (up to 3 people) and additional places will be £75 per Gathering. This covers all the organisers’ time and input, materials, lunch and refreshments, as well as a follow up call and e-mails between the Gatherings. They expect that the price for future Learning Communities will be much higher and wanted to give you the opportunity to send teams to this pilot one for a lower cost than usual.

They will also offer additional coaching huddles – fortnightly group calls via skype which will really allow your leaders to develop the character and competency we talk about during the Gatherings. There will be an additional cost for these.

The first gathering will be Friday 16^th- Saturday 17^thNovember, at the Conference Centre, Philadelphia Campus in Sheffield.

Booking details are here: http://forgelearningcommunity.eventbrite.co.uk/

Days like this are at the heart of Fresh Streams. We believe the Lord has been leading us to make a call for Fresh Streams to gather both regionally and nationally to pray and fast, coming together and intentionally crying out to God.

We fast as a spiritual discipline, on this one day putting our need for God’s presence above our need for food! We want to be a people hungry for God, coming together for the Kingdom: a Word and Spirit encounter with God that leads to engagement with the world.

We are hoping to gather leaders from across England from within Fresh Streams, New Wine and other denominations and networks.

We see these times of gathering to be times of…

• Encounter with God and with one another
• With time for mutual encouragement / praying for one another / hearing good news stories of what God is doing
• Standing together in Spirit-led worship and prayer for the church and nation(s)
• Listening to both Word and the Spirit, including the prophetic
• An encounter with God that leads to our engagement with the world

Check out our full list of dates in 2013.