May 24 2009

Mind your own business

 

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Hi and thanks for visiting therevster.com.

Another great morning was had at New Life this morning. Lots of people just celebrating the bigness of God in them and the fact that they are gowing to be big people too. There were stories of wins and successes and joys and accomplishments.

It was in this setting that I felt compelled to tell the great people og New Life to “mind their own business”. Sounds rather rude and out of context I know, but actually its far from it.

We looked at the words of Jesus to his disciples described in a couple of places in the Bible to show how He wanted to protect their hearts and protect his investment within them. he did this by telling them to keep their eyes off other believers calls and focus on their own. In other words to “mind their own business”.

In this short 10 minute talk you drop in on me continuing a theme of being Big People. In particular this podcast begins as I’m explaining from the gospel of John chapter 21 how Jesus teaches his disciples to be bigger people by encouraging them to “mind their own business”.

Enjoy as you join worshippers gathered at The House, the home of New Life in Scunthorpe, England


May 19 2009

Big People

 

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Hi and thanks for visiting therevster.com.

I recently spent time away with some of the leaders of the church I pastor and as well as having lots of fun and enjoying each other’s company, we chewed over many of the various statements, mottos and axioms that we’ve used to describe our church. It was a helpful exercise and in the doing of it we arrived at an overarching phrase which we believe will express the whole scope of our flavour as New Life Church.

“Big God.. big people .. big church” is already becoming part of the language of New Life’s leadership. We believe in a Big God .. we build Big People .. who belong to a Big Church.

Heather Small, now a solo artiste was the lead singer of a band called M People when she sang the inspired song “What have you done today that makes you feel proud?”. What a grea song and what a great thought. I recently gave a challenge for the congregation of of my church to think of some things that they’ve done this year that make them feel proud. We know that the Bible teaches that having a proud heart is a sinful thing but being proud of personal development and achievement is not a self-exalting excercise – it’s a celebratory excerise. Perhaps if we find it difficult to list many things we’ve done which make us feel proud gives us a clue that we are not living life the way that Jesus intended; a life packed with lessons learned, battles won and successes earned.

This podcast features the bulk of a talk I gave entitled “Big People”. It was a call to the great people of New Life to listen again to the CALL of Jesus to “follow Him”, to take advantage of the consequence of followship which is a “life to the full” and then to take seriously the commission to become a true disciple.

You see the belief in a Gig God will cause a deep longing to see people become all they can be; for them to live life large and experience it to the full. For them to place body, soul and spirit into the service of God … to become Big People.

My team of leaders are committed to growing people in love displayed through our values, see them experience forgiveness, overcome weaknesses, resist the enemy and find freedom in God. We will join with the angels in celebrating every success and rejoice with everyone who is growing big on the inside.

In this second talk of a series you drop in on me talking about our need to be Big People. Enjoy as you join worshippers gathered at The House, the home of New Life in Scunthorpe, England


May 15 2009

A Big God

 

\"link to mindmap of the talk\"
Hi and thanks for visiting therevster.com.

I recently spent time away with some of the leaders of the church I pastor and as well as having lots of fun and enjoying each other’s company, we chewed over many of the various statements, mottos and axioms that we’ve used to describe our church. It was a helpful exercise and in the doing of it we arrived at an overarching phrase which we believe will express the whole scope of our flavour as New Life Church.

“Big God.. big people .. big church” is already becoming part of the language of New Life’s leadership. We believe in a Big God .. we build Big People .. who belong to a Big Church.

We believe in a God who is who He says He is and does what He says He does. The God who is revealed in every page of scripture. A Big God!  Only by believing in a big God can we begin to successfully raise strong disciples; big people. The followers that Jesus wants are ones who pursue wholeness, learn to live life sold out to him and therefore learn to live life large, to the full. Only then can we build and belong to a big Church. A church that Jesus celebrates not tolerates. A church that is valuable to God and invaluable to the community.

In a series of three talks, I unpack aspects of this phrase to the church for the first time. “Big God .. big people .. big church”.

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In this first talk you drop in on me talking about our need to believe in a Big God. I use visual examples of us straightjacketing God to make him more palatable to society and later I literally tear the bible apart to make the point of how subtly we learn to compromise the God of the bible. Enjoy as you join worshippers gathered at The House, the home of New Life in Scunthorpe, England.