My name is Martin and I was born on the Wirral – the place no one has ever heard of unless you live within about 20 miles of it! I’m not sure I’d know the meaning of the word “peninsula” if I wasn’t born on one!
Anyway, growing up in the 80’s and 90’s meant that racism was definitely present in the society around me but I have always been blessed in that I’ve never experienced anything severe despite being one of the few BAME students in primary school.
My parents had it tougher, with my Dad emigrating to England back in the 60’s and not only that but meeting and eventually marrying my Mum, a white woman. My Mum told me stories that when she was out walking my in my pram as a baby people would assume I was adopted rather than acknowledge that interracial relationships actually exist.
My secondary school was much more diverse in terms of it students and for that I am grateful however there were no BAME teachers at all. Growing up it was rare to see BAME leaders or experts/authorities on a particular subject with the exception of my doctor who is Indian. This trend continued into my professional career and I believe is a major contributor to how BAME people are viewed i.e. not valued enough to be given any authority.
I became a Christian at 15 and attended a Pioneer church on the Wirral. It was a relatively small church compared to Frontline, comprised of mostly families so I stood out for being the only BAME member there and also one of the few people who wasn’t attending with their family. Despite that I was always treated as part of the family.
Around 2004 I joined Frontline in Liverpool and found it to be much more diverse – a church with a strong emphasis on community and fellowship. I’ve since become part of the Frontline Wirral church as I still live on the Wirral and it has always felt like my home.
My fears have grown with the racially motivated events coming to the forefront of late. I got married in 2016 to my wife Becky (who is white) and at the time I was in no way concerned but only recently have I started to worry about what people are thinking when they see us walking down the street together. We have a son, Elijah, mixed race but light-skinned enough to pass for white and I’m ashamed to say I’m grateful of that as it’s one less thing to worry about (his surname isn’t going to do him any favours though!).
My desire is for these concerns to be proven irrational, for more BAME people in positions of authority and influence, for our kids to be raised within inclusive communities and with a diverse educational system, for us (me included) to be open to challenge of our behaviours, for us to treat each other with love and respect. After all, has Jesus not been asking us to do this for some time now?
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
                                                                        John 15:12

I grew up in South London in the 70s and 80s. Both my parents were from Barbados, part of the Windrush generation that came over after the Second World War to help rebuild, “the Mother country” as they called it. I know racism was a constant in their lives but they hardly spoke of it.
My two brothers and I lived for most of our childhood in Herne Hill an area that bordered Brixton. I can still remember experiencing the Brixton riots of 1981. It was a time of tension between the black community and the police, caused by police harassment.
I can still remember my mum turning up after school on the first day of the riots to stop us going to Brixton to join our friends in the rioting and looting.
My parents worked tirelessly when we were young, my mum had three cleaning jobs on the go at any one time. She would head to work at 5am, be back by 8am to get us to school and then would head out to work while we were in school returning to cook and be there when we got home, she would then head out again to work just before 6pm and return by 9pm. My dad worked on a building site, though he was out of work for a while in our childhood.
Growing up in London was for the most part great, though there was always the undercurrent of racism in the 1980s. I can recall my older brother been stopped once by the police for looking suspicious, which equated to walking down the street whilst black.
Church has always been an important part of Afro-Caribbean culture and it was mandatory, as any child of that generation would testify. Irrespective of any protestations from an eight-year-old.
Racism in my teens was generally quite overt. It was the time of far right groups like the National Front, I was a middle distance runner for my school and county, I used my training to good effect when pursued by these bigots, who always tired first.
My secondary school was multicultural and aspirational there were several BAME teachers but it was my pastor, who had been to Oxford University who encouraged me and my twin Sherwin to go to University.
I did a History degree at Portsmouth where I was a bit of an exotic oddity, many of my friends and fellow students had never met a black person in the flesh, so stereotypes were never too far from the surface.
I had become a Christian a couple of years before university and church life was great at university, once people accepted that I wasn’t an overseas student and that I was born in this country, though I found it tiring to repeat this to several well-meaning church families.
I moved to Liverpool in the early 1990s and lived in Toxteth. It was here I encountered endemic racism from the police. I lost count of the times I was stopped by the police in those early years, whether it was stealing my own car (this was quite a regular occurrence), looking suspicious, carrying a suitcase when I visiting my parents or being mistaken for a suspect who also happened to be young, male and Black.
My experience of church life was totally different in comparison, when I arrived at Frontline in 1992 I was the only BAME person there but I was just Sherlon another student who was instantly welcomed by all and made to feel part of the church family.
I decided to go into teaching around 1998 because I wanted to make a difference in the lives of children from deprived backgrounds.
Initially finding employment was difficult; I went to numerous interviews but with no success. At one interview I was asked how I would deal with racism as a black teacher in a majority white school I was taken a back at the question as no other candidate was asked that question. Surprisingly I did not get that job.
I was head hunted for my first teaching post at a school in Toxteth  - they were more progressive and ethnically diverse and wanted their staff to reflect their school community.
Education is a major antidote to racism and intolerance. As a history teacher, I know that historical perspective is everything. In terms of racism in schools, much of it stems from ignorance of other cultures and lack of visual diversity in certain communities. In October 2019 I was racially abused by a student when I challenged his behaviour. The boy was given a fixed term exclusion.
This has not been the norm for me though more subtle stereotypical racial comments about black people amongst students and staff (to a lesser extent) have been, especially in more mono cultural schools
As a Christian and member of the Frontline church family I am excited at our future. There is no racism in Heaven, there is only the culture of the Kingdom of God, which is inclusive to all and there are no ethnic minorities just a God Majority
I am excited at how going forward we can advance God’s kingdom in Liverpool by showing the world around us a model to combat racism. The gospel of love, where there is no Jew or Gentile…
My faith has remained an anchor in spite of all I have experienced. I am a Child of God, racism or racists might have infringed on my life but they don’t define it. As a church, we all irrespective of our ethnicity need to see each other as God sees us not as the world would try and define us. It’s much easier to love your brother or sister than a complete stranger. That’s the key to being inconclusive and attracting the wider community into our church family.

Some people when you mention the word theology say, ‘I don’t really care for theology, it’s all about Jesus’. The thing is…that is a theology. Theology is any belief that we have about God.
We all have a theology – we all carry around a belief about God and those beliefs reflect in how we relate or don’t relate to God, the world and each other.

So our theology is powerful because what we believe about God has a direct impact upon our entire life. To use a John Harding’ism – our relationship with God, the world and other people reflexes out of our theology.

Theology isn’t intellectualism. It can be and there are theologians that come to study the scriptures in a very academic, cold fashion, but good theology flows out of a heart that is in love with Jesus.

I don’t personally consider myself a theologian and I am never one to be enraptured with the latest idea or theory but I love Jesus. I want to know Him and I want my ideas and thoughts I have in my head to be transcendent, lofty and Biblical.

The Biblical authors encourage us to have our minds renewed and transformed so that we won’t be conformed to the world’s pattern and ideas of superficial life (Romans 12:2).
Our theology is essential. Good theology liberates us from falling back into dead and empty religion. It leads us into the joy of exploring and revelling in the wonder and beauty of all that Jesus has won for us by His incarnation, life, death and resurrection.

In this modern, you tube era we can easily get caught up in all sorts of wondrous, weird and outlandish theology. Spend an hour on Youtube and you can be chasing unicorns through a 7th heaven porthole before you know it! But at the centre of all Christian belief is Jesus.
Christology is the study of the nature and person of Jesus.

John Wimber the founding pastor of the Vineyard movement used to say ‘It’s the main and plain’.I don’t know about you but I don’t see the need to chase visions, angels, demons or any other outlandish experience. I’m still totally and utterly enraptured with Jesus and His glorious gospel.Jesus is the main and plain of scripture.

Jesus is God incarnate. He is both fully God and fully man. In Him is God’s declaration of desire for union with humanity and the means in which this union has happened. When I look at Jesus I realise that separation from God is just an illusion but now humanity is intrinsically and inextricably linked. Jesus is perpetually and eternally God and man intertwined and this union of God and man in the person of Jesus is the very thumping heartbeat of the Gospel.
Without a true and Biblical understanding of Christ we are left to ourselves on our own treadmill of religion trying to climb towards God, but when we understand God came to us, as us…everything changes.

In a world of confusion with Biblical theology and the Person of Jesus under attack maybe we need to switch off Youtube and come back to the old, orthodox practice of reciting creeds, reading the Bible in community, gathering as His church to hear good biblical teaching?
The Spirit of God is perpetually calling us back to our first love. To keep Jesus at the centre, to fall in love with Him and constantly remain in awe and wonder of Him as we continue to explore the eternal and never ending landscape of our union with Him. In the thick fog of confusion don’t lose heart, don’t lose your true north…don’t lose focus….it’s all about JESUS!

Recommended reading:
Anthanasian Creed – https://www.crcna.org/welcome/beliefs/creeds/athanasian-creed
Mystical Union - John Crowder
The Divine Dance - Richard Rohr

Having two children I wanted to share a few thoughts about tiredness, busyness and the quest to ‘make time’ for God. Of course, that language is what has led me and many others down a certain path. That path that lures so often with its tempting ways and has left me feeling pretty empty at times, lazy, even faithless as I’ve failed to make the time for God. There’s a different path though isn’t there?

I read recently about a mother who too was struggling in this desire for God whilst raising two under four year olds, whilst sitting a degree in theology. She shared this with her teacher at the time:

“I get up sometimes at 5am, desperate to have time with God and it’s like my kids have radar and inevitably one of them wakes up ten minutes later. I mean, where is the icon of the mystic with one baby on the hip, a toddler crying at their feet, cooking dinner with one hand, trying to finish work on a laptop with the other? Because that’s my real life.”

Jim, her theology teacher, said, “Ok, you be you and I’ll be God. And since I’m God, I’m watching you get up exhausted every morning, and I’m so touched that you want to spend this time with me. Really, I am! It just means the world to me. The thing is, I just can’t bear how much I love you. It’s too much! And so at a certain point I rush into the bodies of your children and wake them up because. . . Jim paused. “Because I want to know what it feels like to be held by you.”

What Jesus shows us is that God’s presence isn’t just found in our quiet times, although he did find those times invaluable. But perhaps, the interruptions in our lives are the presence of God that we are so desperately trying to access in moments of stillness and silence. God’s presence is with us always and comes to us in so many ways, loving us as we do our jobs, speaking to us through the birds singing in the trees, cheering us on with a whisper. His word, reminding us of what is good and true when we most need it.

In the mothers’ case, she learnt that her life as an exhausted young parent was exactly the place of her own transformation. It’s the same with all of us. As we learn to let our heart open enough, we begin to recognize each nappy change, every play time request, every meeting or class we teach or even email we write! . . . all of it, as the incredible communion of Gods infinite love and presence with the very finite and ordinary reality of our lives.

There, in everything, is God with us, interrupting our days. . . wanting to be touched, noticed. . . held by us. All we have to do is be present.

I have a confession. I love food. It’s a passion of mine. I love reading cookbooks, watching cookery shows on TV, I love buying and cooking and most of all eating food. We occasionally eat out, and I have an incredible memory for the food I’ve eaten on holiday and in fancy restaurants. I could list the top 3 steaks I’ve ever eaten. I’m also partial to a donner kebab and a pot noodle (Bombay Bad Boy)

The joy of eating and drinking is a gift from God (Ecc 3:12-13). The Bible has lots to say about the serious business of feasting and celebration. And yet, it has been in developing a regular rhythm of fasting that I have found a deeper intimacy with Jesus.

Jesus didn’t tell us to fast to make us more spiritually powerful or to give us greater breakthrough (although this may well be a reflex of a regular rhythm of fasting). Fasting isn’t first about kingdom advancement, it’s about covenantal identity. It’s a way of helping us, the church, to grow in our passion and love and longing for more of Jesus. For the Bride (the church) to be reunited with her Bridegroom (Jesus).

When we fast, we turn the longing for food into a longing for more of Jesus our Bread of Life. And He responds by gifting us with a greater sense of His presence.

Of course a greater love and passion for Jesus is right at the heart of what will lead to the transformation of others and of our city. First Love is what makes our witness effective and our lamp burn bright (Rev 2 and the church in Ephesus)

As a church we have a regular pattern of fasting that I’d like to invite you into. We fast 24h a week. Typically you’d eat your evening meal on Monday, then break your fast with an evening meal on Tuesday. You could fast other days and times, in other ways, but that’s how we tend to do it. Just make sure in your fasting you’re not doing it out of religious duty or in order to try and prove something to God or others!

We call this the Bridegroom Fast. I think it’s been one of the most significant things we’ve done as a church, although in many ways it is unseen.

In the past I hardly ever fasted, but then maybe once a year I’d aim for a week. It never seemed to be a positive experience and it often ended up in failure. I suppose it’s a bit like trying to run a marathon when if you’ve never run a 5k. A regular weekly 5K is probably far better for your physical health than running a marathon annual with no exercise in between! That’s a bit like fasting!

I also use to do Daniel Fasts or abstain from meat or chocolate or social media. This sort of fast can be good, especially if you have a medical reason that prevents you from going without food, but I think for most of us, most of the time, there’s something really significant in fasting food.

I don’t feel guilty or ashamed if one week I forget, because I’m living in grace. But I’ve found now that it’s become a joyful, live-giving aspect to my relationship with Jesus. It’s helped me to break the idol of self and of food. I have a greater compassion for two thirds of the world who don’t have the same sort of access to food as I do. And I’ve grown in my thankfulness to God in the times of feasting.

So why not give it a go!

Further resources
The Bridegroom Fast - Preach by John Gibson (April 2017)
7 Purposes to fast in Scripture - Notes by John Gibson
Fasting Guidelines and Information - IHOP 

A reflection on redeeming language.

I grew up (physically and spiritual) in the 80’s and 90’s. I went to Bible College and studied theology at the end of the 90’s. There was a huge trend at the time to ‘drop the jargon’; a challenge to make our language more accessible to seekers and our services more attractional. We were told, ‘don’t say and do things that are weird’. The motivation was good; to win more to Christ. And it fitted with a wider belief in the western church that we needed to improve the packaging and branding of Christianity to make it more effective. I, like many, bought into it and would find myself correcting people who used religious jargon.

But if I’m honest, I don’t think this approach has worked terribly well.

Before full time church leadership I used to be a teacher, and I spent a lot of time teaching A Level Philosophy. One of my favourite modules to teach was Religious Language. It covered questions like, ‘how can we talk meaningfully about a God that is beyond description?’ ‘Can we only describe God in terms of what he is not, rather what he is?’ ‘Can we talk meaningfully about anything that can’t be verified through the senses, or is it all non-sense?’ One of the things I learnt through this module was that religious language is essentially jargon – or vocal shorthand – and communities will always use jargon to help define their distinctiveness. For example, think about how teenagers in each generation find a new way of describing something as ‘good’. In the 80’s it was ‘ace’, in the 90’s it was ‘cool’. Now my boys talked about being ‘gassed’! It’s language used to create community, identity and belonging. No-one in those communities are thinking about getting rid of jargon to become more accessible! They’re using language to define who’s in and who’s out (or in the case of my boys, who’s old!).

For me, I think the church has had a couple of decades where in the west we have lost our distinctiveness, of what it means to be ‘in’. That in turn makes it difficult for someone to desire to belong to a group like a church because we’re no different from any other social group - just nice people doing good things with a common vocabulary. But wherever we see a church that is vibrant and growing with new believers, we see a church that is distinctive and characterised by the power and presence of God.

I write this off the back of a fantastic Sunday service with Tamryn Klintworth. You can hear her preach on our website or through our App. Basically, she preached about being ‘washed in the blood’. As a church we responded to the Holy Spirit through the message. People gave their lives to Jesus for the first time. Many more recommitted their lives. Now when was the last time you heard the phrase ‘washed in the blood’? Probably when some preacher told you not to use it. But Tamryn explained in simple language what it meant, along with other jargon like ‘atonement’. It was distinctive. You couldn’t have sat in that service as a non-believer thinking ‘these are just nice people doing good things’ because we heard how each one of us are ‘sinners’ (again, religious jargon), but the good news is that Christ’s blood atones for sinners!

A similar thing happened when we recently unpacked ‘Speaking in Tongues’. Speaking in tongues in a Sunday service doesn’t really fit with the idea of being a bland, seeker-sensitive bunch of nice people doing good things! You may have been told that you can’t do things like that because it will put the un-churched off. Whereas I now believe the opposite is true. The supernatural element of Christianity is the very thing that will explode the myth that we’re just nice religious people who’ve chosen to follow Jesus over Allah or Buddah. Indeed, we know that on that particular Sunday where we taught on speaking in tongues someone gave their life to the Lord for the first time and someone else recommitted their life after a period of being backslidden. It’s the power of being distinctive.

And language can actually help us with that, as long as we are love-motivated and take the time to explain what we mean and give people opportunity to ask questions (which is the problem with getting all your teaching from a podcast btw, but don’t get me started on that!). Jargon therefore can actually help someone in the journey into community and belonging, because it raises questions and highlights distinctiveness. More than anything, let’s be open to the power and presence of God breaking into the life of someone who doesn’t yet know Jesus. That’s got to be far more powerful than just being nice.

“I find it exciting to see God outworking his plans during the morning service.”
Clare Dowrick

“I love tuning into the Holy Spirit with a group of others and sensing his blessing and direction for the meeting.”
Lynne Slattery.

“I feel that joining in Awaken prayer is a way I can genuinely serve the church. It also builds my faith and sharpens my spirit as I join with others in prayer. There is nothing like partnering with others and with the Holy Spirit to bring His Kingdom here on earth.”
Mike Farrington

As a scattered church, much of the prayer and prophecy we do at Frontline is going to be in our homes, communities and small groups. This is wonderful and entirely appropriate. But we are also a gathered church so corporate prayer is an important dynamic for us to enter into. This is why we in the prophecy team have been working behind the scenes to establish corporate prayer rhythms alongside our gatherings.

We would love to extend the invitation to you to come and join us...
Prayer is an extraordinary privilege. We as believers in Christ Jesus get to come boldly before the throne of heaven with any need or request. A privilege of that magnitude is hard for any of us to truly fathom! Prayer is also a 2 way street; As we learn to listen in and hear the voice of God we can offer prayers of agreement and declaration. This type of prayer is life giving and extremely powerful. As we pray in response to hearing God, we connect to heaven’s authority. Agreements are made between heaven and earth; the course of history is changed.

During the Awaken prayer time we listen and pray for Liverpool and the UK, keeping our expression of gathered church in its wider context. We believe that the impact of our gatherings is increased by our prayers, both for you as individuals and those you connect to. We spend time praying for the children and visitors, and end the hour by joining those serving in leadership for the Pre-service prayer time at 10am.

Listening prayer, prophecy and intercessory prayer are intrinsically linked. I love nothing more than to hear Holy Spirit speaking and enter into a conversation that is about friendship with God as well as purpose. When we gather as the prophecy team this is the kind of prayer we enter into together. We listen to Holy Spirit, share what we hear with each other and then pray or intercede as a result. This means that the prayers we pray for you and those leading the service on a Sunday morning are initiated by Holy Spirit as well as by us.

Our time together is always dynamic, interesting, encouraging and fun! There are solemn moments of intercession and joyful moments of synergy. Many times we have prophesied together at 9am and then watched and heard the same words or scriptures declared from the platform later in the morning. The excitement we feel to be affirmed by Holy Spirit in this way is really wonderful. The team is currently made up of a small group of committed people but we would love it to grow as you feel led to join us. Perhaps you could decide to come once a month or once a term. Take a moment now to ask Holy Spirit what your contribution is and then be true to that.

I love being part of the Awaken prayer times before our Sunday gatherings and I’m sure you will too! 

Awaken Prayer Time. Sunday Morning 9am-10am. Foyer/Main Hall at The Frontline Building.
Here are some scriptures for further reading about this topic:

• Hebrews 4:16
• James 5:16
• Ezekiel 37:1-14
• 2 Corinthians 9:7

Hello, my name is Kathryn and I work in HR (not everyone’s favourite profession I know!) in the NHS. My job is ultimately to support the smooth entry, development, management and exit of those working for my NHS trust. This week, my job involves me working with colleagues across the region to review pay rates for agency staff, a workshop reflecting on managing people in a just and fair way, appropriately applying employment law, supporting managers to lead their teams well and supporting my team in their roles. Most weeks I really enjoy the variety; some weeks it can feel quite overwhelming.

Despite the challenge, I believe that I am absolutely in the right job and that God brought me here through one hell of a storm. For the previous year my prayer about work has predominately been a desperate one … “God, get me out of here”. He did not answer that prayer in the timescale I had hoped for, not even close. Then, 6 months ago, God very clearly told me that I would be offered my current job before I’d even interviewed for it. It was a fairly overwhelming time … and now here I am, three months in and in a job I wouldn’t have dared to dream of. I have a lot to learn!

In my role I have the privilege of working with multiple teams, to understand the incredible work they do and to witness their ability to advocate and work for their patients and service users during their most vulnerable moments, knowing that my team have, in a small way, helped them achieve that. Working in HR, I think we have the opportunity to guide the tone of an organisation; to influence how people are treated and to always strive for better. Sadly we don’t always get it right and I find that the hardest part of an HR role is knowing that our processes (some within and some outside of our control) can make a hard job or situation feel harder. It’s a substantial challenge to rise to.

It is unlikely to be a surprise to hear that the NHS can be a really challenging environment to work in and that it can also be an incredibly rewarding one, filled with wonderful, kind, committed people. I am so thankful to be a part of it. It is my prayer that what is good prospers and that a sustainable answer is found to persistent pressures.  

Let the children come to me. Don not stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children. - Matthew 19 v14

My name is Nicky Gibson and I work for Sticky Fingers Nursery. I have been married to John for 35 years and have three grown-up children and four amazing grandchildren! I trained as a primary school teacher many years ago and had been working as a supply teacher in Liverpool. About three years ago I became unsettled in my supply teaching role and applied to work for the nursery.

Every day is different, and we are constantly on-the-go! Although the children are pre-school, we have a curriculum to teach and are required to constantly observe and assess the children to see what they need to learn next.  We have meals to prepare, nappies to change, cleaning to perform, resources to prepare and first aid to attend to. We also try to support the parents in any way that we can and often sign-post them to other Imagine If projects. I am also the Special Education Needs (SEN) coordinator, so need to assess children and contact other professionals.

Working with children is never dull! I absolutely love seeing the children develop and get very excited about even the little steps the children make, like a child putting two words together for the first time! I work with some amazingly dedicated people and love working as part of the team.

There are aspects of the role that can be quite challenging, some of our children have had poor attachment to their parents and often delayed development or behavioural issues as a result. I see it as a privilege to connect with and support all of our nursery families and pray that we are making a kingdom impact.

My faith helps as I am able to pray for the children and their families. I have tried to consider nappy changing time as an opportunity to pray over individual children. I know that God cares for every single one of them and when I am finding a child particularly challenging, I can ask Him to help me deal with them in a positive way. I have also prayed about issues that I have needed to discuss with parents and found that they then approached me to chat. God cares about all the little details!

My prayer is that God will use us as a team to make a Kingdom impact with these children and their families and to see them turn to Jesus!

 Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. - Colossians 3 v 23

During our preaching series Because of Jesus… we have created a large piece of artwork. Each week different artists have created the sections during our Sunday Service, which have been related to the topics each week.

Being creative through art is one way that we can worship and respond to the word of God.
We are made in the image of God, the creator and each of us is unique. Creativity is also not one thing. There are so many different ways that we can express creativity.

We want to continue to build more creativity in church and explore further how this looks at our Sunday Services and throughout church life.

Over the coming term we will occasionally provide spaces where you can respond through drawing and writing during our Sunday services. This will be a place where everyone can participate and respond however they feel they want to.

If you would be interested in taking part in future creative projects then please get in touch with Beth Dobson.

I started my working life as a primary school teacher which was followed by ten years working for Frontline Church. Increasingly I recognised that one of my main strengths lay in helping people through difficult times in their lives so I began training as a counsellor while I was still working at Frontline. I started training aged 59 which in itself was a challenge as I was by far the oldest on the course but I had a strong sense that God wanted to use my life experience and the gifts I have outside of the church as well as within. This conviction carried me through the challenging moments!

My official counselling began as a volunteer with Liverpool Bereavement Service, supporting people who had experienced the loss of loved ones. During the three years I counselled there a phrase by Bill Bennot often came to me, How we walk with the broken speaks louder than how we sit with the great , as I needed God’s help to listen to the painful experiences people were walking through.

I have now had my own private counselling practice for over two years at Ullet Road Eco Offices, not far from the Frontline building. I thoroughly enjoy running my own one- woman business but mainly love working with people one to one. Every person has a unique story and often behind the initial issue they bring to counselling there is much more to be heard, acknowledged and healed. I have had clients ranging from 16 years up to 84 years, both men and women, some have a faith in God but many do not.

As a counsellor working outside of a church setting I have to work according to the ethics of my registering body (BACP) but if clients bring up spiritual issues of their own accord we can have a conversation around their beliefs. It is always a great joy when a client finishes counselling  to receive a card saying what a difference it has made to them and I am thankful to God for those opportunities to help bind up the brokenhearted.

It has been encouraging to see changing attitudes towards counselling happen over the last few years…it is no longer being seen as just for people with serious mental health problems but that everyone can benefit from the opportunity to talk in a confidential environment about challenges they face, transitions through different seasons of life, handling relationships, jobs, losses, health issues and so much more. Counselling is not a quick fix for the difficulties of life but it is an opportunity to work through them with a compassionate professional alongside. I am grateful to God for calling me to be one of those people.

We have been thinking throughout our series Because of Jesus about our identity in Christ. How we are hidden in Him, and how as we behold Him, we start to see ourselves for who we really are. It is a profound mystery; how we can be in Christ and Christ in us. How you are in Christ and I am in Christ. We have said throughout the series how we died with Christ. Somehow, 2000 years ago, you died in Him and were resurrected in Him. Paul calls it a mystery, meaning something we cannot get our heads around.

I heard someone speaking recently about light, time and space. He was saying that according to Einstein’s theory of relativity, time is relative to motion. That means that the faster you travel, the more time becomes compressed. So for example, if you left earth in a rocket travelling at 160,000 miles per second for 10 years, you would age by 10 years but everyone else on earth would have aged by 20 years. If you were travelling at 170,000 miles per second, 20 years become compressed into one day. You would have aged one day, everyone on earth 20 years. Whereas if you were travelling at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second, all of time becomes compressed into one moment. Past, present and future in one moment. Anyone into Sci-Fi and Doctor Who will undoubtedly be familiar with this theory!

I am clearly no scientist. And the things of faith are mysterious and beyond human comprehension. But I love the idea that Jesus is LIGHT. That means, among other things, that for Him, all of time is compressed into one moment. It means He is eternally present. The past, present and future are all one moment for Him, because He is Light. No wonder He could say Before Abraham was, I am John 8:58.

Go back to those thoughts about being in Christ, and present with Him in His death on the cross.  When Jesus hung on cross He was and is simultaneously with you, right now. He bore our sin in His body on the cross. He became our sin. You were on his mind as he hung there on that tree, because for Him, He is in the past, present and future simultaneously. That means that even if I sin here and now in the present, He is bearing that sin in his body on the cross. Perhaps that's why in Revelation Jesus is described as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world  Rev 13:8.

Mind blowing. No wonder we have to use metaphors like light to describe the God of our salvation. Of course, our eternal destiny is to be like Him. When we see His face we will be transformed into His likeness. We will fully partake in His divine nature. That is our eternal destiny, and I think that’s pretty cool! 

Hi, I am Rachel Marshall and I currently work for the family support charity, Safe Families for Children. I have worked in the charitable sector and for various local authorities for most of working life, apart from a season in a fish farm, and a deli (not at the same time!). I love working with people; with children and families, with other professionals and agencies. I thrive on finding out what the issues are, what’s working, what isn’t, and how can we help. I’m a do-er, I’m practical, and I love to try and make things better for people. My background is in Social Work and so I understand the principles of the legislative framework, policies and procedures which govern what I do. But this is not meant to be my CV! I want to share with you what God has been speaking to me about lately… And that is, am I target and goal- driven, or heart and compassion driven?

If you work in the public sector, the NHS, in teaching and education, business, in fact in most arenas, you will be familiar with the concept of making sure that your work hits targets. You will have set goals that need to be met by a certain time, and if you do not then in essence, you will have missed the mark. My own job has targets and goals. In isolation, these targets are not bad. They simply exist to keep things on track so that a service can be delivered, a job can be completed on time, a team can be effective, a measurable goal can be achieved. However, things happen in work which can result in these targets not being met by a certain time.

I work with families in need, and sometimes in crisis. My job is to assess their needs, and if safe to do so, to place a trained volunteer with the family to offer specific support. I love what I do, and I really value the volunteers that I work with. I feel privileged to be able to visit the families that I do, and I’m often humbled by their stories of what they are dealing with. The people I meet are often broken and hurting, marginalised and isolated.

I went through a season in my work where I became over-focussed upon meeting my weekly targets. I tried to ensure that certain tasks were completed so that I got another number in a column. When I did this, I felt good about what I did. When this didn’t happen, I felt that I had failed. I found myself losing sight of the needs of the person in front of me, and instead focussing upon my need for success. I measured what I was doing in terms of numbers, and target achieving. When I was on target, I felt good about my job. When I wasn’t, I felt like I had failed. Over time, and through thought-provoking conversations with my colleagues, my manager and my husband, I realised that I had lost sight of what truly mattered.

God doesn’t look at a group of people and just count us or assign numbers to us. God looks at us as individuals. He knows us by name, He knows everything about us. He knows what a person is struggling with, what their dreams are, what their fears are. The bible talks about God being like a good shepherd and going after the one lost sheep: He cares about individuals.
As I brought my struggles for success to God, I felt that he started to change my perspective. I started to treat every person I met as an individual that needed my understanding and support, rather than a person who could help me look successful! I came to the conclusion that even if the work I did never helped me to reach a performance target, but that it helped someone, then in God’s eyes, that was a success.

My prayer for you and I today is that we don’t measure our success solely by performance indicators, but rather that we take the time to treat people that we meet in work with kindness, love, compassion and mercy. Whatever you are doing today, have a great day in work today!

At the beginning of January as a sort of Christmas gift, I was able to go skiing in France with a  few guys from church. It was to be my first ever time skiing – having never done anything like that before; no skiing, no snowboarding, not even ice skating or skateboarding.

Being somewhat competitive by nature (the Lord is working on my character), and knowing Jack Mariner was to be skiing for the first time too, I decided to book myself in for a day of tuition at certain establishment in Manchester, mid December, to ahead of the curve.

The day for my training arrived and I headed off to the ski slope, a mix of excited and nervous. The day started off quite well. There were 6 of us in a group lesson, and I connected well with everyone in the hope there might be some gospel conversations throughout the day, which was scheduled to last between 10am and 6pm.

It pretty much went downhill from there, both figuratively and literally.

I was appalling. I couldn’t even do the basic moves. All the group were progressing higher and higher up the slope, whist I was kept at the bottom. Little kids were flying past me. Grannies were overtaking me. I was trying so hard, but just couldn’t get it. Every time one of my original group swooshed past they’d say, ‘keep going John, you can do it’ in an attempt to encourage me (but I just felt embarrassed and patronised).


The instructor was a superb skier. But I couldn’t take his expertise and translate it into action. If you’re familiar with the discipleship square (above), he was in D4, I was in D2 and he couldn’t quite get me into D3! 

At around 3pm, 3 hours before the session was due to finish and despite my best efforts, I threw in the towel. I went home utterly exhausted and with a massively bruised ego.

It was good for me.
It was good for me to fail.
It was good for me to get to the end of myself.
It was good for me to feel rubbish and then experience the father’s affirmation.
It was good for me to remember patience as I try and pass on my learning to others.

January arrived and we headed out to France. I had an amazing time away with an awesome bunch of guys discipling one another around the meal table, with loads of fun and fondue.

P.S. the Sloan's soon got me skiing and I ended up loving it!

We believe that love and passion for Jesus has to be the starting point for everything we do. As Frontliners we desire to be growing in our intimacy with Jesus, recognising that it's all about His grace. John talks to Jennie Connolly about how developing her relationship with God has helped her to make some big decisions in her life.

John: Jennie, tell us a little bit about yourself?
Jennie: My name’s Jennie. I’m from Liverpool, I’ve been a Christian just over 2 years and I’m currently living and working in Greece helping out at our church plant Elpitha, led by Trish and Malc Morgan.

John: You grew up in Liverpool, but you haven’t always been a Christian. How did that happen?
Jennie: Well, I was at a sad point in my life, I’d just been through a pretty major relationship break-up and was feeling abandoned by family and friends. I was desperate for change. I approached the only Christian friend I knew, and she asked me to stay with her for a while in New York. I somehow knew that God was getting my attention, so I went. She introduced me to her church friends, and what I saw in them was people who had the same sorts of backgrounds and baggage as me, only they were living free from it. I went along to a church service and it was like God was speaking directly to me, so I responded and gave my life to Jesus!

John: So encouraging to hear that. For those of us who know you, it’s been great to see you growing in your faith. How has that happened?
Jennie: When I got back from the States, my friend who’d introduced me to Jesus helped me connect with a missional community. That was my first experience of Frontline. I was invited to a meal and I rocked up with some random food. They were all so open, warm and welcoming. I was just so hungry for God and wanted to take any opportunity to be among Christians, to ask loads of questions, soak it all up and be in God’s presence. The more I learnt the more I wanted to learn.

Looking back I realise they were helping me with accountability, asking me how I’d got on, setting me little challenges to help me grow in my faith. It’s part of why I ended up doing the Frontline Internship.

John: Tell me a little bit about that, how interning helped you grow in your faith?
Jennie: It was just a natural step to do the internship. Taking a year out has been a massive catalyst in my faith journey, especially around setting patterns and rhythms in life to help me live in a different way. Just things like learning about worship, not just as singing but how we can live all of life as worship. Spending time with God daily. It’s had a real impact on my life. I can’t go back to how things were. When you’ve experienced that adventure of living for God nothing compares with it. The internship helped me to say ‘yes’ to God in bigger and bigger things. Like tithing and trusting God with my money, or heading off to Greece to help our church plant.

John: How are things going in Greece?
Jennie: When I first came over here, for the first few months I did really struggle being away from that community that had invested so much in me. But because of that personal investment in my relationship with God, I was able to turn to God and really rely on him. It was like I’d cut out the ‘middle-man’. It was just me and God. Those habits of reading the Bible and prayer that I developed have really helped me here. So now, when I face a challenge, I go straight to God before I go to a friend. It’s helping me deepen my relationship with him and my trust in him.

We believe that Frontline is called to make an impact; in the city through to the nations. We desire to see the Kingdom of Heaven established here on earth in every sphere of society. John Harding talks to Hana Clarke about how Imagine If  has helped in transforming her life over the last few years.

John: Hi Hana. Obviously I know you, but why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hana: My name’s Hana. I’m a friendly, confident person, and the reason I’m covered in glitter at the moment is ‘cos I’m doing an apprenticeship with Sticky Fingers.

John: We love having you working around the building and seeing your smiling face, but would it be true to say you’ve had a difficult journey to this point?
Hana: Yeah. I had a pretty traumatic childhood that has left me with ongoing mental health issues, but my life is really different now to what it was just over a year ago. I’d started hanging around with the wrong crowd. I got into drink and drugs. I thought at the time it was the best life I could live, but I was wrong. My family fell apart and I ended up homeless and in a pretty bad way.

John: It’s difficult to imagine that looking at you now. How did you get from being homeless to working here at the church?
Hana: I know! When I think about my life I get a huge rush off it.
I think ‘Wow, God, look at what you’ve done!’ Everything changed just over a year ago. I was homeless, at a low point. Whitechapel got me a place at a hostel, and from there I was referred to Genesis Housing and got a place in Imagine If’s Sozo House. People here have helped me so much. Jemma is a bit of heaven. The way she’s been with me is amazing, she’s challenged me and never given up on me when I’ve had an episode. Jenny too. They’ve helped me rebuild my confidence and my life. They’ve all shown me a love I have never felt before, and for that I thank God every day. They believed in me to the point where I now believe in myself and have the strength to do things the right way and react differently to situations.

John: You’ve just finished a shift with Stickies but you’re still full of life! What are your hopes for the future?
Hana: I love working with the kids ‘cos they’re so hopeful. They always see light in the darkness. I hope I can be a bit of a role model to them; someone stable in their lives.

This week we look at the value 'Extended Family'. We believe that we need each other. The Father is not looking for more servants or workers, he's looking for sons and daughters. In all we do we desire to do it as family; young, old, male, female, every tribe and tongue together. John Harding speaks to Josh and Charli Langlois about their experiences of belonging to a missional community.

John: Why don’t we begin with you introducing yourselves?
Charli: We’re Josh and Charli. We came to Liverpool to study and that’s where we met. We’re both vets now. We’re married and have a little boy called Ezra. When I came to uni I wasn’t a Christian, I came to faith through friends at uni who connected me into Frontline Church.
Josh: I was brought up in a Christian family on Guernsey. We went to an Anglican church as a family, but when I came along to Frontline it immediately felt like a place where I was comfortable and like it was community, only with a really strong sense of mission - looking outwards - which really fitted me as a person. So we stayed and never looked back!

John: Being part of Frontline, for both of you, means that you’re a long way from your biological families. How has that been for you guys?
Josh: There has been a cost. Family is really important to us both, and we don’t see our biological families as often as we would if we lived elsewhere, but we’ve found a real place to belong here. We’ve found people who love us and support us in every season of life, people we can be vulnerable with and accountable to. When we first got involved in the church, we lived in Runcorn, but we were really challenged that if we were to experience the sort of extended family that we want, we’d need to really invest. So we moved to be closer to people in our Missional Community.
Charli: We wanted to be closer to those we wanted to invest in and who wanted to invest in us.

John: What difference has belonging to a Missional Community made?
Josh: It’s hard to say one thing, because living as extended family doesn’t boil down to one example. It’s about living life together, lending tools and helping with DIY. It’s about having meals together, sharing communion together, the thoughtful text messages. It’s about being committed enough to each other to resolve conflict and challenge. It’s about all the tiny little examples that happen all the time.
Charli: There are people in our extended family whose door is always open to us. That means a lot to us. The thing that hit home the most was when we had our baby, Ezra. People brought food for weeks. They helped us. They rocked Ezra to sleep so I could have a bath. They served us even though they had busy lives. It made such a difference at a time when I had issues just after the birth and we were utterly exhausted.
Josh: We’ve invested in our extended family for quite a few years. Our door is open to them. We all support one another. Now we’re taking this way of living and we’re challenging each other to be missional. So Charli and I are meeting monthly with our neighbours for meals. We’re gathering unchurched people in our home, and we’ll say grace before we eat, and pray for them. Missional Community has really given us the confidence to do that and spurred us on to live differently.
Charli: Yes! The amount of people at work who say, ‘they did that for you?’ Or ‘Oh my goodness, they do this for you’. We try and do those little things for others that have become normal to us but people see them as different and extraordinary.

This week we look at the value 'Confident Witness'. We believe the gospel is both words and works. Presence and Proclamation. In an increasingly secular society we desire to confidently make a noise about who Jesus is and what he's done for us. John Harding spoke to Paul Brown to find out about his work with The Message Trust.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and the work you do with the Message.
My name’s Paul, I’m Liverpool born and bred and along with my family, we’ve been part of Frontline for over 20 years. For the past year I’ve had the privilege of working for a charity called the Message, working in local prisons to share the love of Jesus with prisoners. God is doing amazing work in our local prisons. We’re seeing around 50-60 prisoners each month become Christians and giving their lives to Jesus; many more are actively involved in Bible Study, Discipleship and Seekers/Beginners courses (such as Alpha). These prisoners are then reaching out to and discipling other prisoners. We’re seeing transformed lives in the prisons and supporting them on their release. Instead of being part of the problem, they're becoming part of the solution.

Maybe you could share a few stories of what God has been doing?
Officers and prisoners say they are seeing amazing transformations in the lads I'm working with. One officer told me that one of my big biker lads had stopped officers from being attacked by other prisoners. Other prisoners have told me that he's stopped them from being battered in their cells or in the showers. Yet, I've been with him as tears have rolled down his cheeks as he's accepted God's forgiveness for the things he's done wrong, and as he forgave his step dad for what he'd done to him.

When a former Norris Green/Croxteth gang member became a Christian, he cut off his long hair and said, “It belongs to the old me and now I'm a new creation I should look different and behave different.” He started supporting other people coming onto my courses and instead of "taxing" other prisoners for their trainers and tracksuits, started giving his away to those who needed them.

We've seen loads of miracles and healings - of hearts, minds, bodies and emotions. One very sick and yellow-looking fella was going in for a liver operation the next morning and one of my lads asked if we could pray for him. We prayed, his colour came back and the next day he was sent back from hospital not needing the operation because his liver had been completely healed.

It’s just amazing to hear how God is using you Paul, but it’s not always been like that, has it?
A message popped up on Facebook recently, reminding me of a prophetic message I received at a really low point in life. At the time I’d been out of work for quite a while and was experiencing feelings of pain, loneliness, emptiness, hopelessness and shame. I was asking God questions like where are you God in all this? The prophecy spoke of God being at work in those hard times, pruning and preparing me for fruitfulness, and that’s exactly what he’s done, in His perfect timing.

How can we as a church family help support you in the work you’re doing in local prisons? 
Well, I’d love it if you could pray for me, even now as you're reading just to take a moment to pray. Or when you see a story about a prisoner on the news, take a minute to ask God to reach out to them. We also have monthly Message Prayer days. Email me for more details.

I desperately need volunteers (men or women). If I have volunteers, I can work with twice as many prisoners. God will use you and you'll see God do amazing things in prisoners. The process for volunteering in prisons is a bit complicated, so we have to look for people who are willing to giving about a day a week (or 2 half days). It’s a big ask, so if you think God might be speaking to you, get in touch and I can organise for you to come into prison with me for a taster session or two. I also need volunteers who are willing to meet with and support prisoners who've become Christians, when they leave prison.

We’re really keen for people who can come in and lead worship (3-12 times per year) on a Sunday (this isn't as complicated). I’m really sure that if people come along to see what God is doing in our local prisons, they’d want to be part of it.

If you’d like to get in touch with Paul, email paul.brown@message.org.uk

I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. 
- Psalm 140 v 12

 My name is a Helenor. I am married with 3 senior school aged children. I qualified as a solicitor in 1995 and have worked for Liverpool City Council for the last 12 years. I work in child protection - presenting cases at the family court and being involved in the decision making of whether a child can safely remain in its family or whether it needs to be removed to live with family members or a foster carer.

My day will consist of attending court, replying to emails, giving telephone advice and supporting younger, less experienced team members. Working in the public sector is challenging - the sector is often under resourced and the saying doing more with less has now been overused and there is only so long you can stretch yourself.

The environment can be stressful with urgent decisions and actions needing to be taken - these decisions effect people's everyday life and futures.

My prayer is that I will be a gracious team member - willing to those around me when they feel overwhelmed and to always try and see the best in people around me and that my words would bring peace in difficult situations. I pray that in our broken world that God's light will shine and that His hand of justice will prevail.

I am seeing the worst bits of life and our broken society on a daily basis and this can lead me to become hard hearted and lose hope that God is in control and can bring everlasting change in our city. I love the work that the charities Home for Good and Safer Families do and they both really help me to cling to hope for change.

How does my faith help me in my job? I don't get told very often that I am doing a good job - people are too busy crisis managing to reflect and praise! My faith helps me to see the bigger picture and reminds me that my boss is Father God who loves me and is pleased with who I am.

God has a vision and mission to fulfil. His mission is to see His Kingdom come to earth and to overthrow every evil work that is against His Kingdom.

Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. - Matthew 6:10
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. - 1 John 3:8

God’s mission is that ‘none will perish’. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Through scripture, you understand that God’s priorities are often different from ours. So we are faced with a conflict. Do we lay down our vision and priorities? Or do we try to fit God’s priorities into our list?

Jesus brings clarity to this conflict when He says to us So above all, constantly chase after the realm of God’s kingdom and the righteousness that proceeds from Him. Then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly. - Matthew 6:33

God’s heart is to bless us with the things that we desire. He longs to prosper us in every area of our lives. He wants us to be fruitful and that has always been His heart for His people; so that we would be a blessing to everyone around us. However, His vision and priorities have to come first. He wants His Kingdom to be established in every area of our lives - there is no sacred/secular divide when you are in Christ. It all becomes His.

One of the ways I have tried to practice this is by asking God on a regular basis ‘What are You doing and what are You saying?’

In an airport, coffee shop, pub…just wherever we are, God is speaking, His Kingdom is waiting to crash in and we are His sent ones. He is waiting for you to say, I will seek Your Kingdom first, and I will say YES.

Again just before Christmas I was asked to give a short gospel message at an open mic event which was hosted by two of our missional communities. It was an evening event at a coffee shop in the financial district of the city. I was nervous for about 2 weeks before the event. What was I going to say? How can I describe what Jesus has done in a few minutes in this unlikely setting? I wrote down a short talk and prayed. Two days before the event I asked God, as I sat at my computer in the Frontline offices, ‘What are You saying and what are You doing?’

I felt a vague idea appear in my mind. I could have easily dismissed it, but I have learned to listen. As I concentrated I felt God say “There will be a man there who has had a reoccurring injury where his right arm dislocates.”

I wrote it down in my phone notes. I didn’t keep thinking about it or try to understand it, because I know if I do this I will somehow talk myself out of this moment. If I overthink it, I will dismiss it because I have never heard of this issue before or because it sounds weird or awkward. I left it in my notes and committed to God that I would share it. It always occurs to me in these moments What if it’s not God?

I have decided not to even entertain that question anymore, because I know again this is one of the ways I will talk myself out of taking risk. I do of course weigh any words against scripture – is this encouraging, loving etc etc

The question What if this is not God? is just fear talking. If it is not God, what is the worst thing that can happen? I will probably feel a little daft and embarrassed. A more important question should be What if this is God?! What if this is a moment, in which the Kingdom is going to crash in? What if this is the day this person meets Jesus? I am driven by this question…even when I am full of my own fears and doubts.

I stood up and awkwardly delivered my short talk. I then said something like As a Christian I sometimes hear God speaking to me about people around me and I felt God say there was a guy here with a reoccurring injury where his right arm keeps dislocating.

I felt so self-conscious as I stepped away from the tiny stage. I was instantly filled with doubt and anxiety. I felt like I’d blown it and I was certain that this word definitely wasn’t from God but was just my own imagination.

A few moments later, I was tapped on the shoulder and was told the person the word was for is totally freaked out and is scared and cannot work out how I knew about his shoulder/arm. In fact, he was so scared and freaked out that he didn’t want to come and speak to me. So I gradually and probably not very subtly made my way over and sat on his table. After a bumbling introduction, he asked me how I knew about his injury. I told him, it was no magic trick or mind reading, but the God who created the universe knows him and knows every detail of his life. This God longs to be in relationship with him and for him to know His love. He was blown away. He had never heard that before. I then told him God is going to heal him if I can pray. This might sound like a crazy statement. You might wonder how did I know. The truth is I didn’t. Faith is spelled R.I.S.K. When we turn up the risk, it creates a space for God to crash in. I prayed twice and his arm was healed. He left knowing God’s love and I am sure feeling utterly perplexed!

My friends you are God’s beloved. He longs to use you. You don’t need some crazy experience at a conference before you are ready. You don’t need to be prayed for by an amazing man or women of God before you get the ‘anointing’.

The very Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of you.
Believe me you are ready. Jesus said it is finished. His work is complete and we cannot add to it, but it is waiting for us to take hold of it by faith. He longs to partner with you.

So how do you start?
Start simply and start slowly.
Begin by spending time with God. Not with a list of prayers, but simply spend time with Him. He saved you for relationship. He longs to spend time with you and share His thoughts with you. Find a way to connect with God. Wait patiently for Him to come. You are one with Him by spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17), it’s not about pleading or begging or jumping up and down for His attention. His eyes are upon you. He is with you. When we take time, it allows us space to become more aware of His presence.

Commit yourself to prioritise His vision and His mission. Your Kingdom come and Your will be done! Ask Him often - What are You doing and what are You saying?
When you ask, commit to do what you hear Him speak.

Lastly, take risk. Risk is an essential ingredient of seeing the supernatural. Unless we step away and beyond what we can do in the natural, we will never step into the supernatural. A step of risk is what puts our faith into action. Let your mouth set you up for the supernatural. I often find my mouth setting me up. It’s brilliant and scary all at the same time.

When we take risk - when we believe - we open the door that allows God’s supernatural power to break into our circumstances. - The risk factor by Kevin Dedmon

We believe as a leadership team that God is calling us to see more of His Kingdom come. He longs to break out in the midst of us, at the bus stop and in the park, in your office building and doctor’s surgery.

Jesus we say YES. Your Kingdom come and Your will be done! Amen.

I remember the moment well when it began to dawn on me that there was more to Christianity than attending a church. I had been radically saved by Jesus at 15, shortly before this I was messing around with drugs, arrested for burglary and expelled from school.

Initially my response to follow Jesus was an emotional reaction to His overwhelming, unconditional love. Then I had a hunger to understand what I had become part of, so I started to read the Bible. I began in Acts and I was quickly swept along by the amazing historical account of what God did, in and through, the early church. Then one day after reading about the man being healed outside the temple gate, it hit me. Christianity was so much more than a church service or being a good moral Christian boy. It was more than just an intellectual assent, it was deeper, mystical and beyond my very limited understanding.

I was being invited into a relationship with THE living God. I was being invited to know God by both His revealed truth (scripture) but also in an experiential way. He was knowable, tangible, He longed to crash into my normal, mundane existence, and to partner with me so I could see His kingdom come.

As soon as I realised this I became a complete nuisance to my youth worker.
“Oi Dave, when do we get to do the stuff?”
“What ‘stuff’ are you talking about Chris?”
“You know the good stuff. Like seeing blind eyes open and raising the dead and all that stuff!”
My poor youth worker.
The picture Acts painted had captured me and a programme or service was never going to be enough.

Since that day, I have longed to see God’s Kingdom come. For healing, deliverance and Salvation to become my normal. At times, it’s felt unobtainable, allusive and impossible.

Just before Christmas, I was in Costa coffee. I was meeting with a young person but as I walked in I noticed that one of the baristas had a bandage around her hand. I immediately thought to myself I am going to pray for her. I am not sure if it was God speaking or my own desire to see His Kingdom come. I asked her as I ordered coffee what had happened. She told me she had burnt it badly and it was very painful.

I sat down and had the chat with the young person and when it had finished I went back over to the coffee bar. I said, “I’m a pastor of a local church and I wondered if I could pray for your hand to be healed. I know God would love to heal you!”

She said she would love for me to pray. So I prayed for healing. As I prayed, I felt God say, “Bless her money situation. She’s struggling at the moment.” So I told her what I felt God say. She burst into tears and so I prayed for God to come and bless her and help her find a place to live also.

A week later, I was back in Costa and she came running up to me. With excitement, she told me what happened just 2 days after I had prayed. She told me her hand was better and that even the doctor had wondered how on earth it had healed so quickly. She had been given a new role at Costa. She was now the manager of the branch and she had found a place to live.

Isn’t Jesus just so wonderful? God had met her needs and shown her without doubt that He is alive and loves her.

These events have become more and more common in my life and I am so humbled by them every time. I am so aware that it’s not me; I have no special power or revelation. I am simply His child and deeply loved by Him. I am just part of God’s wonderful body and I am in partnership with Him.

I am also aware that I am still very much a learner. Sometimes I get it wrong and sometimes I get too scared to do what I feel God saying. However, God is patient with me and He lovingly coaxes me along as only a perfect Father can.

I would love to pass on some things that I have learnt in the last 20 years of seeking God’s Kingdom and some of the pitfalls to avoid.

My first lesson would be to allow scripture to define and shape your identity and relationship with God. Do not allow your experience or even lack of experience or disappointment to define it. What I mean is this….just because you haven’t seen God heal someone does not mean He doesn’t heal. Just because you are not sure how to hear God’s voice does not mean He is not speaking and just because you haven’t seen God move in a supernatural way does not mean He isn’t moving.

God has defined for us who He is. The Bible says that Jesus is the exact representation of God the Father.

‘Christ is the exact likeness of the unseen God.’ - Colossians 1:15a
So don’t allow your lack of experience to shape God for you, but allow Jesus to define in glorious technicolour who God is and what God can do in and through you.

Jesus shows us that the Father is passionately involved in our lives and that He longs for His will to be done upon this earth. He is the healer, Saviour, redeemer, deliverer, provider and the list could go on.

The moment we refuse to limit God by our past disappointments or our lack of experience we will begin to move in the supernatural.

Our new identity is bound up in Jesus’ finished work through His life, death, resurrection and ascension. The Bible makes it clear that something profound, mystical and spiritual happens to us the moment we put our faith in Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:17.

You are now a saint. Filled with the very Spirit of God. Called holy and set apart by God to bear good fruit. We are called to be apostles – ‘sent ones’, sent with the very authority and resources of heaven. Do you know this? Is this the truth you live with? It’s not mind over matter, but His truth supersedes and replaces the old. The old is truly gone and the new has come.

We believe as a leadership team that God is calling us to see more of His Kingdom come. He longs to break out in the midst of us, at the bus stop and in the park, in your office building and doctor’s surgery.

Jesus we say YES. Your Kingdom come and Your will be done! Amen.

In John 14 verse 12 Jesus says “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.”

In part 1 of this blog, we looked at how responsibilities can become a burden and wear us down if we hold on to them too tightly. It is important for our own health and well being to hold things lightly. In stewarding things well, we keep room for joy in our lives and stay strong and engaged.

Equally, it is important for those around us that we are able to let go of things at the right time. Jesus understood this. Jesus knew that the responsibilities he had stewarded during his lifetime, needed to be passed on to his disciples. He understood that if he did not create space for them to function without him physically there, they would not grow into full maturity.

He even goes a step further than this and says “you will do even greater works”.

There is a kingdom principle here that is really important. Tolkien illustrates it well with the story of “the ring”. Bilbo stewarded “the ring” for a time and prevented it getting into the wrong hands. But Frodo his nephew did something even greater. He destroyed the ring, ending the potential for darkness to rule and reign in the mythical ‘Middle Earth’. It’s the same for us and those we are leading, whether our children, friends or co-workers. Sometimes we need to let go of something in order to create space for other people to play their part in God’s story. We have the potential to release others into the even greater things than we could do, just like Jesus did.

Are you going to be able to let go at the right time? Passing on “the baton” is a key part of living the Christian life well. Without this aspect, we become overburdened, worn out and worn down, all of which are joy killers.

So my question to you are: is God asking you to let go of something, pass it on to another? What season are you in? A season of saying yes to taking on something new or of saying yes to creating space for someone else?

Perhaps it’s even a season for both. As we prayerfully trust our decisions to the Lord, we can be confident that he will work all things together for the good of those who love him and that we will get to do even greater things that even Jesus did!
 

In JRR Tolkien’s well known story of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, Bilbo Baggins is guardian to 'the ring'. This ring of power comes under his possession in order for him to steward it and pass it on at the right time. He is never supposed to own the ring. That is, the ring was never supposed to become part of his identity. But the longer he had hold of it, the more he started to own it. And the more he owned it, the more it owned him. At this moment in the story, the ring has started to take hold of him. It has sapped his life and energy to the point that he says to his old friend Gandalf the Wizard, ' I feel thin. Stretched somehow. Like butter spread over too much bread. I need a holiday, a long holiday and I do not think I shall return. In fact I mean not to.'
There are times in our lives when we may be asked to steward something. This could be a job, a responsibility, a ministry opportunity, a financial obligation, a relationship, or any number of other good things. As Christians, it is important that we do not shy away from stewarding these things, even if it is tough.

Jesus says in Matthew 16:24 'Take up your cross and follow me.'  When we are following Jesus in obedience, we can have confidence that the burden of the responsibility will not get the better of us.

We must remember that these things are never supposed to become part of our identity. At the right time, we need to be ready to pass the baton on.

So my question to you today is: are you a good steward of the opportunities and responsibilities that you have been given? Is there something you need to give up today to make space for joy?

 Hope is defiant. 
 
 Hope looks negative 
 emotions 
 and circumstances 
 in the eye 
 and stands tall. 
 Hope will not be 
 cowed 
 or bowed down. 
    
 Hope will not be 
 oppressed or 
 suppressed. 
 Hope will rise 
 though all else cry despair. 
    
Hope will hope
against hope
and break through
to seize the
impossible.
Hope stands on certainty
and builds for eternity.
 
Hope silences the cynic
and causes the sorrowful to sing.
Hope heals the past
and redefines
the future.
 
Hope lifts the head
and strengthens the heart.
 
Hope proclaims a
new day
because
the Son
has risen.

by Kerry Connolly                                                                                                                                              

You may be surprised to know that this deeply unflattering photograph is of me looking after my mental health! It was taken on a cold and wet day in November at Easedale Tarn in the Lake District.
Steve might argue that it’s evidence that I have abandoned my mental health all together; but I simply love to swim in wild, freshwater locations (salty sea, not so much, though I’ll take it if it’s all that’s on offer!). There is something about the cold, untamed nature of these swims, something so ‘up close and personal’ with creation that makes me laugh out loud and makes my heart sing in joy and worship like very few other things can. In these moments when my senses are assaulted by the cold, the wet, the mud, the wildness, I am fully in the moment and feel fully alive. It’s good for me. I so often get locked into my head and forget I have a body; that’s impossible when you’re swimming in water that’s 10 degrees. It’s good for my mental and spiritual health to do this, whenever I can find time in a busy life.
I wonder what looking after your mental health looks like for you? When we take time to nurture our bodies and our souls, we acknowledge that we are not God, we have limits, we have needs, we are human. And God loves our humanity.
Christmas is a wonderful time to remember that God loves our humanity so much that the came in human form as Emmanuel. Jesus, fully God, fully man.
It’s also a time where our mental health can come under pressure; perhaps through busyness, perhaps through financial strains or difficult family situations, or a whole host of other things.
Whether we have a recognised mental health challenge or not, we all would do well to remember that we are but human, and that God knows and loves that about us. He remembers that we are ‘but dust’ Ps 103:14
“Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.” [Mental Health.gov definition]
When mental health affects so many areas, we ignore it at our peril. Perhaps you’re not sure what helps or hinders your mental health, perhaps you’ve never thought about it before, perhaps you feel your mental health is very good, perhaps you’re wobbling with it at the moment? Wherever you are, take a moment to receive that your mental health matters to God.
Here is a link to an excellent website which can help you understand and support people around you (maybe in your Missional communities, or at work or home?) who may be struggling with their mental health, and also may help you, if that describes you.
Whatever you take from these brief thoughts, may I encourage you, as we rush into the crazy Christmas season, to think of one thing you will do to bring a smile to your face over the holidays? It may not be as radical as plunging into an icy lake, it may be as simple as carving out some protected time to enjoy a cuppa in peace, or taking a few moments to enjoy the lights on the Christmas trees. Give yourself something to look forward to, it’s a real mental health boost. Emmanuel, God with us in everything.