The Mission of the Church from Ben Peays on Vimeo.
Three young pastors—Kevin De Young, Greg Gilbert, and Ryan Kelly—explore together what local churches should and should not prioritize according to Jesus Christ in his revealed Word.
On Tuesday night I went to watch my beloved football team, Tottenham Hotspurs, play in the Champions League proper at the local pub. Jo, my wife came with me to watch the first half, and we settled down, her with a diet coke and me with a pint and a packet of butcher’s pork scratchings. Everything was going well, Spurs were two ahead when half time came. Jo left to go home and I stayed hoping for more of the same after the break. I should explain that the pub that we were in is one of those locals’ local pub – you know the one where you walk in and time stops for a moment while everyone looks you up and down before time starts again, but they’re still all looking at you out of the corner of their eyes thinking “What are you doing in my pub?!” Well, I started speaking to the bar lady asking her about her life, during the half time break, then of course I get the reciprocal question “What do you do?” I normally start that reply with the opener “you’re not doing to believe me” (and quite often they don’t) “I’m a pastor”. I got the normal response “you’re too young to be a pastor”, which I know at some point I’m going to be encouraged by, but at 36 it would nice to have a look of maturity about me. I’m the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer of pastors! Then started the questions, but so had the second half! “You know the problem I have with religion is?…”(she started) “it starts all the wars in the world”. And then “If there is a God, why does he let innocent people suffer?” I only went in for a pint and to watch the footy, not to start a course on apologetics, and the nature of suffering! I helped the bar lady understand in layman’s terms how her issue with suffering only made sense if there was a God, and that it is actually power-hungry people who have at times used religion, politics and anything they can, to get what they want by starting wars. So I thought I could get back to the football… No! – Someone else had overheard our conversation and wanted her objections to be answered. “I’m a p***head, and I love it, but I’m not a junkie – never touch the stuff – ask anyone! Go on, ask anyone in here!” she said. (She had had a couple of drinks, maybe more.) “I’m a good person me, I’ve never hurt anyone. Go on, ask anyone in here!” she continued, “I say each to their own, if you want to believe in that crap, it’s up to you, but don’t preach to me! You’re not one of those preachy types are you?!” I was of course laughing inside as she spoke with great conviction and passion about the truth that she believed in, whilst not liking to be ‘preached at’. “You’ll never covert anyone in here, we’re all p***heads!” I thought if you only knew, why I was there. “Is that a challenge?’ I replied. The score was now 2-2 in the football and Tottenham are getting battered, whilst I’m having a discussion about the fallen nature of humanity and how she’s not exempt from that (in layman’s terms), plus other often quickly-changing topics – due to her inability to stay focussed on any one subject – including the need for justice, absolute truth, the source and nature of moral law and why she needed salvation through Jesus too! By this time the game was over (2-2 if you’re interested) and the pub was emptying – apart from her partner who had kept his head down the whole time. I was about to leave when she said “you know you’re alright, and I’ve never heard someone explain the Christian stuff so intelligently” – I wasn’t sure whether to take that as a compliment to my intelligence, or that I was that simple she understood me.
I praise God for the opportunities that he’s giving us every day to speak with people about the Lord. I know that I pray for them and there’s nothing better than sharing the Lord with people, but if Lord you could just see your way not to bring them along when Tottenham are playing in the Champions League which is only going to come along every 10 years or so, that would be great!
Got passed this on by a member of our church plant. conspiracyoffreedom produce thought provoking video, in this one they seek to challenge our response to the consumerism and individualism of contemporary culture as people who follow Christ. Their strapline is “less stuff, more life”. It seemed very relevant when we’re all seeking to commit to our community and those in need.
Watch Home here:http://conspiracyoffreedom.org/2010/07/10/home-2/
check out this video on church planting
Well, we have unpacked (though there are about twenty boxes, a surfboard, snowboard, American size fridge freezer and the list could go on, that we have had to leave out in the garage as there’s no room in the house) and settled in to our new home. Already we are excited about the adventure of planting a church in Birmingham.
THE PEOPLE>
It’s been great to meet up and chat with old friends; they have been very welcoming and caring towards us. We have been getting to know the neighbours – on one side we have “peter” – a biker dude who loves to play AC/DC and Iron maiden on the other side and “annie”, a single mum with who loves a little sauce in the evenings, and often ends up crying and speaking loudly down the telephone at night with friends and family (we’re getting to know quite a lot about her life even though she isn’t directly telling us.) Across the road we have “Brian” and “Margaret”, older couple. Brian is quite unstable on his feet and fell down his step last week, but it gave us opportunity to help them and to chat with them. Up the street there is a younger couple, “Helen” and “Steve” with two kids, Sam and Emily who seem very nice. There are no other believers on the road we can tell of yet but hopefully that will change very soon as we get them around for food, get to know them, and tell them about the Lord (not always in that order).(“” indicates not their real names)
THE CHURCH>
The core team in the church has grown again with 14 definites, which is great. And everyone is really excited and looking forward to starting to meet as a church for corporate worship in November. In the mean time we’re meeting for prayer on Sunday mornings, we had our first one last Sunday and it was most encouraging, seeing people eager to learn and grow in the Lord, and to be helpful and effective in serving Him. I know that the excitement level will be high at the moment and over time, through preaching, I will need to keep the clarity of the vision and purpose of the church in focus but we’re enjoying and blessed by the excitement none the less.
THE SUPPORT>
A church planters’ network is starting at the end of September organised through 2020 Birmingham, which I’m really glad to be part of this for support and encouragement. The format looks good
A suggested format would be every other Wednesday morning
10.00 – Breakfast/coffee/chatting
10.30 – Sharing, discussing, praying – a chance to talk through the things that have happened since we last met
11.30 – Coffee and seminar – covering one of the topics below
12.30 – Bring your own lunch
what I’m really hoping for most of all, is to have plenty of time for chatting, praying and sharing ideas and experiences as a vital part of meetings with other in similar situations.
The suggested seminar programme also looks good, I don’t think we’ll do all of them and I’m sure that once we get together we’ll add to the list . hopefully, being part of this network will be beneficial for our work in the context of Short Heath.
The programme
1.1 Your context
1.2 Looking after your personal spiritual health
1.3 Setting out a vision and core values
1.4 Building a missional community
1.5 Building and developing a powerful team
1.6 Establishing personal ministry patterns and priorities
1.7 Supporting the weak within the congregation
1.8 Loving the unlovely and supporting the difficult
1.9 Identifying and utilising the gifts of the church
1.10 Preaching to the unbeliever & believer in a TV orientated culture
1.11 Nurturing the church’s prayer life
1.12 Pastoring sinners for change
1.13 Practicalities and responsibilities
1.14 Money
1.15 Multiculturalism and different models of church plants: from heterogeneous to homogeneous
1.16 Relating to other churches and organisations
1.17 Review a book together
THE FUNDING>
Our funding situation is still the same – we have a deficit of about £12,000 this year, which is like to go up next year, if Jo is no longer working. I’ve applied to a number of trusts and hope to hear back from them in the next month or so. If you want to support us, just ask for a form from me and I’ll email it to you (or if you’re in Niddrie, Derek laidlaw has some paper copies). I’ll keep you update on how things are going in this department.
The church as been given about £20,000 icluding gift aid towards a building or any work which might need to be done on a building, which is a blessing. We are still looking for a building, one trust is discussing what to do with their building this week so we will wait and see what happens there. I’m not too concern because the Lord has it all planned out but I’m just eager to know! Patience Jez, Patience!
THE INCIDENTALS>
We’ve had a week of interesting incidents – Jo accidentally lock us both out of the house so I spent an unsuccessful hour poking a long piece of wire though the key hole trying to release the catch and then having to break a window and get in (using the skills I learnt in Niddrie!). Then on Tuesday, the car, which was given to us by Jo’s mum (jo’s dad’s car) only four days before, was crashed into by another car. Thankfully, jo was not hurt, just a little upset and shaken. The car, like most of our previous cars, is not worth the excess we’d have to pay if we claimed (we might get it back but no guarantee) so I’m off to the scrappers again to find a replacement door which Steve, the heavy metal loving biker, is going to help me fix on. Why do all our cars get crashed into, robbed, or broken into?
THE WORK>
Jo’s work is going well but I’ll let her tell you about it herself in the next update.
At the moment, my work consists of spending time with the core team, dealing with the practicalities and legalities of starting up a new church (ie charitable status, leadership roles, ministry roles, buildings, initial venue, bank accounts, giving and receiving gift aid accounts), networking, getting to know the locals (a visit to the local local’s pub), calling up and writing to companies to change our address, filling in funding applications, waiting in the house for gas engineers and plumbers to come, and visiting anywhere that will let me use their internet for free. I’m going to get away in the next couple of week for a time of quite reflection and refreshment with the Lord after and also some time away to prepare for the upcoming task of leading the church – including reading and preaching prep. If anybody knows of a place (house, cottage or caravan) I could go for free or really cheap in England let me know.
THE CHALLENGES>
My biggest challenge is living life without TV (yes! Jo has got her way and the TV has been banished) not that I use to watch it a lot but a bit of reality TV to relax on occasion was quite nice. However, I’m putting the extra time it has provide me to good use by reading through the ever increasing pile of quality Christian books – jut find ”why we loved the church” – kluck and deyoung and “Leaders who last” – kraft – both of which were excellent.
THE KNEE>
For those interested about my knee, I’ve been to the physio and I’m going to be joining an ACL recover group (a bit like the Recovery group in Niddrie – we all share about how our knee feels, and receive some input by the physio reminding us that left to it own device our knee would fail every time, that my knee is a ‘scumbag knee’ and without physio it could never make itself right – a little joke for the Niddrie crew) which should means that with in two/three months l’ll be back planning football. Yes! (deep inside I know it will more likely be 4-6 months).
Thank you for all your support in our new venture. Continue to pray for us, the people in the community that we mentioned, and the church.
Blessing Jez & Jo
First, I’d like to thank all of you for praying for Jo, myself and Marilyn (Jo’s mum) after the death of her father. We thank God for the grace that he has shown us through his comfort and care. Chris, Jo’s father, was a believer so this was not the end for him but the beginning of something so much more wonderful. We thank God for his saving grace to Chris. At times like these you cannot help but feel the gravity of one’s salvation or not. How we would of coped knowing that a loved one was leaving this life for an everlasting one far worst I don’t know. As we move, to short heath, I pray the magnitude and imperative importance of this gospel task will be felt everyday so what we don’t get distracted by lesser temporal concerns.
plans continue to go well; the core group looks strong and committed, our need for a building and base for our work could already be filled if it God’s will, Jo’s work is confirmed and we’ve already met some other folks involved in church planting that will hopefully be a source of outside help.
Prayer Points
We don’t have a house yet.
I have knee operation that would keep me of partly off my feet for six weeks which could be an issue was were due to be moving in four weeks
The car has just broken so we need transportation
Don’t has the finances need yet
Need a building/base to work out
For some time Jo and I have felt it right that we should look to move on from our work here in Niddrie to new pastures and ministry opportunities. Over the last 8 months we have sought the Lord and explored, in faith, a number of different options. One of which is the possibility of leading a team to church plant in deprived area of north Birmingham. So it is with great sadness, but also excitement, that we let you know we will be finishing our work in Niddrie at the end of July, and moving to start this new venture in September. We hope to be able to tell you more details about this church planting project at a later date, and would very much appreciate your support and prayers as we move into a new chapter of our lives and ministry. We hope to take what the Lord has taught us here in Niddrie, and use it for the furtherance of the gospel in Birmingham.
We would like to express our thanks to Niddrie Community Church for the friendship, patience, and encouragement that we have both received. We will greatly miss our friends here, the fellowship, and those we have come to know through our work in Niddrie.
We hope to keep you updated on our adventures, challenges, and encouragements, the Lord takes us through over the coming years through this website.
Jez