From Atrocious to Audacious
I have often said that God is the great salvage expert. He often finds Himself having to take the wreckage of our life, ruined by our frequent blunders and gaffs and turn it into something fit for purpose. Hopeless situations are no obstacle to God and it is all too simple for Him to birth something beautiful out of a scene of chaos.
In 1989 the horror of the Hillborough disaster was broadcast on T.V screens around the globe. Scenes full of confusion and chaos. Broadcasters were careful to avoid showing too clearly the human disaster that we all knew what was unfolding. By the end of the day 94 supporters of Liverpool were lost; their life breath squeezed out of them.
Watching T.V that day in Brisbane, Australia was a young man called Dave Gilpin. He was youth pastor at Southside Christian Renewal Centre and that day he was so greatly affected that it was to result in the greatest of moves for he and his wife, Jenny. After placing an advert in the UK Press “Aussie Church Starting” the church now known as Hope City was born in 1991 in Sheffield.
The young man chosen by Dave and Jenny to care for their youth was Glyn Barrett; Manchester born, raised in Australia. He was just as courageous and committed to God as his pastor, though slightly less quirky. I had the privilege of working with Glyn at this time and was impressed by his candour and his character. He was a good man.
A number of years later; years packed with life-forming circumstances; Glyn was the key founder of a youth event called Audacious. Now, filling major auditoriums, it is one of the best places a young person can find themselves each summer.
This week my own Youth Pastor returned from Audacious 2009 with an army of inspired young people. I have no doubt that in years to come they will look back and understand Audacious to be one of the most defining of weeks.
It was my wife, the source of most of my best ideas, who while watching the event on T.V said, “it’s amazing to think this was birthed out of Hillborough”. It is amazing. To be fair, no matter how much man may rightly be able to take the credit for the initiative, entrepeneurship and raw courage needed to make Audacious happen; only God could have taken a scene of horror and atrocity and viewed it as a seed which He would patiently and painstakingly water and nurture until it produced a harvest of churches and Jesus followers.
Just as our wisdom is as foolishness to God; I suspect that when we weigh our most daring of exploits they will seem tame against God’s, who surely makes plans that are truly audacious.
