March
16
Author
Chris and Jo Frost
ChristCentral Leadership Weekend Roundup

On 24 to 26 February over 180 of us from across Europe met in Crewe to eat, drink, laugh and learn (with the help of Andy and Hazel Robinson, plus their amazing team) together for a weekend. Here are our top 5 take home moments;

1. Revive the dry lands. Revival has many connotations, many not so good; namely the church goes weird and evangelism is forgotten. Jeremy Simpkins helpfully called us back to the original church revival of Acts 2 and 4 as a template for what there is growing expectancy for in the UK.  The 1947 Smith Wigglesworth and our very own Ginny Burgin’s prophecies, which are available here, were both referenced, as was Mike Sprenger’s excellent paper on the topic available to download here.

2. Digging ditches of Kingdom Culture. A ditch has a purpose; it’s designed to send what flows through it somewhere. Past moves of the Spirit of God in the church have often been contained for a lack of ditches. Using 2 Kings 3:16 Andy Robinson challenged us that churches often do okay with upward worship and inward care, but struggle with outward impact because we become focused on building our empires and not the Kingdom; “I’m guessing most of you thank your kids workers for serving Jesus an hour on a Sunday, but how many of you thank your teachers for serving Jesus 40 plus hours a week in schools?” He encouraged us to think through “What ditches of connection with society is God asking you to dig?”

3. Church culture: Sons and daughters not “cog’s”. Vision is great, we get that, but Andy warned us that an over-emphasis on vision can result in a culture where people feel “I’m just a cog in a wheel following some rules to get the right results”. He got us to ask the question; “How do you want your church to feel in 5 years time?” rather than “How big do you want your church to be in 5 years time?”

4. Communion – Hosted by Jesus. Alan Rose helped us see when it comes to communion we’re always the guests (“…He took bread” Luke 24:30) and that we get to encounter Jesus in it (“Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread” Luke 24:35). Loved the way we were encouraged to grab big chunks of bread, dip them in large bowls of wine and make some noise.

5. Being sent out - Finishing with some powerful prophetic encounters, especially for those not on the payroll of a church, we were reminded of Andy’s challenge; “the most holy moment on a Sunday is the end, when everyone gets sent into their area of influence”.

By Chris and Jo Frost

If you missed the weekend, why not catch up with the teaching by visiting our media page?