Firstline

An international family of churches on a mission together - what a privilege! This Firstline is mostly a family scrap book of some experiences recently enjoyed.

Our USA Leaders & Wives conference in St Louis was memorable, not only representing the USA coast to coast (from Oregon to New Hampshire) but also including leaders from Canada and Mexico, and with the younger generation of leaders very evident. Praise God for the obvious progress on display. What began a few years ago with one church in Missouri and then a small circle of churches in the Mid-West is clearly on the move and ever-expanding.

A seminar by Carl and Virginia Herrington highlighting the vital importance of family life was particularly impressive, not only underlining the training of children but also catching them up into the mission. Here was Newfrontiers in miniature, a family on a mission. The presence of their children added authenticity through their testimonies; a family bonded together in love and purpose and now scattered in three different churches across the States. Heather and Matt are in Lees Summit, David is in St Louis, Carl and Virginia are in Atlanta - and Jonathan is getting ready for a year in South Africa!

Ghana, West Africa

John and Alex can remember when they and their young daughters constituted the total Newfrontiers presence in Accra, Ghana. Now John leads a growing church and an ever-growing apostolic sphere into other nations in West Africa.

Wendy and I so enjoyed our recent time there. Great new worship songs, written by members of the church (and now on their recently cut worship CD), were being sung in meetings where God was wonderfully glorified and manifestly present. Praise God for some who were getting healed, including John's sister Dora, who had been in serious pain for some time but was now gloriously free.

One of the greatest thrills was to walk with John on the massive 23-acre piece of land that they have recently acquired with a view to fulfilling great dreams for the future.

I was also pleased to have time with Sam Amara, who leads our church in Lagos, Nigeria, together with a number of other impressive leaders who attended the conference.

Our call is to plant grace-filled churches around the world and John and his team face a huge challenge, not only of vast unsaved crowds and Islamic presence but also deeply entrenched legalistic expressions of Christianity and church life. John's own excellent book God's New Tribe spells out his radical commitment to building church life that challenges the ugly aspects of tribalism that are so often skated over or even embraced among the churches.

Jesus died to establish ‘one new man', a body of believers manifestly inclusive of all tribes and nations who learn to live in joyful and humble harmony under His Lordship and corporately experience the presence of His Spirit among them. These are truths that must be fought for, not only in academic books but also in face-to-face challenges of real life situations.

Theological Forum

Speaking of fighting for truth, I have also recently had the great privilege of attending our Newfrontiers UK Theological Forum. What a blessing! I thank God for the high standard of scholarship, the relevance of application and the humility of the teachers who brought outstanding papers on a variety of themes.

John Groves (Winchester, UK) gave an excellent and very provocative paper on Spiritual Authority. It served as a serious reminder of a subject of great importance. Cobwebs must be blown away from such a theme. We must dust it down, get it out and make sure our practice is truly Biblical.

When we first started on our walk together, spiritual authority was one of the great rediscoveries of ‘restoration'. Previously neglected, it was reinstated with great effectiveness. Sadly, overstatement of authority in some places led to some nervousness and a degree of backing off the theme. Having heard John's wonderful Biblical approach, I was persuaded that we abandon or ignore such a theme at great cost. True spiritual authority must be in place in the body of Christ for the glory of God and for our good.

Next we were served by an excellent talk by Mick Taylor (Catford, UK) on the magnificent theme of Christ's substitutionary atonement for our sins. Against the backdrop of recent discussion in the wider body of Christ and the sad departure of some teachers from the classic Biblical stance, it was so good to have the benefits of Mick's fine treatment of the theme.

Finally, Matt Hosier (Sidcup, UK) led us into the sensitive and topical subject of Euthanasia. Prefacing his subject with very thought-provoking comments on the inherent dangers of our ever-increasing youth-oriented culture, he awakened us to the dangers of growingly unhealthy attitudes to ageism. The Biblical emphasis of respect for the elderly and gratitude for their accumulated wisdom and experience of life has been virtually discarded by modern society. Issues of death and life, and respect for man made in the image and likeness of God were brought home to us with great impact.

I thank God that these papers, together with papers previously presented in this context, will soon appear on our Newfrontiers website for the benefit of all who would like to take advantage of them.

Charles Simpson and Bob Mumford

Another website which will soon be releasing some excellent material is that of Charles Simpson Ministries. It is their intention to make the text of the classic magazine of the 1970s and 80s New Wine available on line.
It was my privilege recently to be invited to speak at Charles Simpson's pastors' conference in Tennessee, where Bob Mumford was the other guest speaker. These two remarkable men, together with Ern Baxter, Derek Prince and Don Basham, had formed a formidable team of ministries some years ago whose influence spread far and wide.

Hundreds of pastors gathered from across the USA joined by some from Europe. It was the first time that Charles Simpson and Bob Mumford had stood together on the same platform for twenty years. The title of the conference was ‘Reconciliation'. Charles and Bob were very open about differences formerly held but now forgotten. It was a very instructive time where I learned much and felt honoured to be invited to speak.
Charles, with characteristic humour, made several references to their advancing years and the forgetfulness that comes with age. He informed us that reconciliation is much easier when you get older - you can't remember what the problem was!

He also had advice for those who admit that they might forgive but they would never forget! ‘Just give yourself time!'

It was good to make new friends, to enjoy personal fellowship with Charles, Bob and Ken Sumrall, who spoke at a communion service, and to renew contact with some whom I had met in earlier years.

Newfrontiers International Apostolic Forum

What a privilege it is to be part of a truly international family. It was so great to gather recently with twenty guys from five continents. Peter Brooks had flown round the world from Sydney; and there was representation from Mexico, the USA, India, several African nations, Russia, Continental Europe and the UK. We had a magnificent time together, particularly addressing the theme of apostolic ministry.

It had been my concern that most thought about apostolic ministry in recent days has been focused on what we might call ‘apostolic extension', church planting and general expansion. It seems vital to me, at a time when others are also increasingly into church planting, that we take seriously the Biblical role of the apostle, not only in terms of multiplication but also in ensuring integrity of doctrine.

If the Acts of the Apostles is largely about multiplication, the epistles of the Apostles demonstrate the urgency of wholeheartedly understanding and embracing genuine apostolic doctrine. Following my own introductory session, David Devenish gave a particularly outstanding teaching on the revelatory aspects of apostolic ministry, bringing excellent application from his experience having travelled widely, particularly within the emerging nations where churches battle with many conflicting values claiming to represent ‘Christianity'.

John Kpikpi also brought a magnificent paper on the challenges of invading resistant cultures with a genuine commitment to the values of the kingdom
of God.

Superb times of worship, prayer and the release of prophecy, together with hilarious laughter, times of genuine transparency and brokenness, and a deep sense of being joined together in God's purposes, made these four days together of huge worth. I can't thank God enough for a band of friends joined together in common purpose around the world.

As I said at the start of this Firstline, what a privilege it is to be part of an international family on a mission together. I pray that this issue on the theme of Cross-Cultural Mission will prove a real blessing to you. Also, I look forward very much to seeing many of you imminently at our Together on a Mission conference in Brighton in July. If you haven't booked in yet, you had better hurry up. It's our biggest ever crowd!