From Scaynes Hill to Turkey...Global 2012

GLOBAL 2012

I won't be at The King's Church Mid-Sussex this coming Sunday (14 October). Instead I,  Dominique and Joseph, along with Steve and Carol Cornford will be travelling to Turkey. Yep, Turkey!

We'll be missing a great morning at TKC as Kieran Dunne will be preaching the next installment from Mark's gospel, however, we will be on our way to meet with about 500 other leaders from across the globe.

Recently we have heard a lot about our roots as a church, how we began in someone's home and grew to our current location at The King's Centre. As Terry Virgo travelled from Seaford to meet with a small gathering in Scaynes Hill no-one would have dreamt what God would do over the next 40 years.

Initially Terry served a few church in Sussex but that then grew to the South East of England, then wider in the UK and then internationally.

Newfrontiers, as it is now known, may have begun with a few people in Sussex (our church included) but is now a collection of over 900 churches across more than 60 nations.  Kenya, Ukraine, Brazil, Phillipines, France, South Africa, New Zealand, USA, Bulgaria, Canada, Germany......the list goes on on and on.

For many years there has been an international leaders conference in Brighton. We have been very fortunate to be only a 10 minute train journey away to benefit from this superb global gathering. Many others travelled thousands of miles to be there.

However, Newfrontiers is changing and how we gather as a family of churches is also changing. Rather than one man leading Newfrontiers, we now have many teams leading Newfrontiers across the world. Today, there are far more Newfrontiers churches outside the UK then within it.  In many ways, we are no longer a family of churches, but a family of families.

So Steve and I, with Carol and Dominique, will not be at TKC on Sunday - instead we will be at Global 2012.  A leadership conference that is gathering 500 leaders involved in Newfrontiers from across the world to a hotel in Turkey.  It feels like an immense privilege to have been invited. 

We would value your prayers as this conference comes at a key time for Newfrontiers. We, as a family of churches are changing, it is an exciting season but there are certainly many unworn paths ahead of us.

At Global 2012, we will benefit from apostolic teaching from guys like PJ Smythe, Edward Buria and Dave Devenish as well as having lots of opportunity to catch up with what God is doing across the nations of the earth and celebrate what he has done from small beginnings in a home in Scaynes Hill.

If you are on Twitter look out for daily updates and I will post a full report here when we get back.

Why a prayer meeting is always more than a prayer meeting

Experiencing the 'heating plant'

There is a story that has been told about five young college students who were spending a Sunday in London, so they went to hear the famed C.H. Spurgeon preach. While waiting for the doors to open, the students were greeted by a man who asked, "Gentlemen, let me show you around. Would you like to see the heating plant of this church?" They were not particularly interested, for it was a hot day in July. But they didn't want to offend the stranger, so they consented. The young men were taken down a stairway, a door was quietly opened, and their guide whispered, "This is our heating plant." Surprised, the students saw 700 people bowed in prayer, seeking a blessing on the service that was soon to begin in the auditorium above. Softly closing the door, the gentleman then introduced himself. It was none other than Charles Spurgeon.

Charles Spurgeon was one of the greatest preachers our nation has ever heard. Thousands gathered week after week to hear him preach at The Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. But behind the scenes, in the basement, hundreds were praying for the meetings.

 

Hundreds.

Behind every strong and growing church lies a strong corporate prayer life.

Prayer at TKC

 

Life is exciting at TKC right now, moving into the King's Centre has given us fresh momentum and increased profile. There are lots of people asking about and visiting the church. It is an encouraging time.

However, we must never become reliant on ourselves or on a building. We must always demonstrate our reliance on God by gathering together in prayer.

When we gather to pray we remember again who we are and who God is. When we gather to pray we surrender ourselves again to God's greater plans. When we gather to pray we call in the Kingdom of God. When we gather to pray our hearts are changed for eternity. 

A prayer meeting is never just a prayer meeting.

We are meeting to pray this Sunday (07 October 12) at 6.30pm at The King's Centre. We will pray for God's Kingdom to come in Mid-Sussex, we will pray for other local churches and their leaders and we will pray for the upcoming trips to Bulgaria and Kenya.

I really want to encourage people to come along to pray. If we are to be known for anything as a church, let it not be for the big blue building, but let it be for our passion to gather together and pray.

Why we have a 'Vision Sunday'

After a few weeks out of the office during August it has been great to get back into The King's Centre and start preparations for the term ahead.  Kieran Dunne has joined the staff team this week and I am so excited by the contribution he will make to the leadership team.

VISION SUNDAY

This coming Sunday (9 Sept) at The King's Church Mid-Sussex is what we call Vision Sunday. We have Sundays like this once or twice a year at particularly strategic or significant moments.

Bill Hybels, leader of the Willow Creek Church and Association has written some excellent leadership materials over the years but one of the most helpful things I have learnt from reading his books is about vision and about the importance of regularly casting vision.  We all know that life is busy;  work, family, travel, illness and disappointment all take their toll and it can be easy to lose sight of why we do what we do.


So, this Sunday, as we begin this new term in a new building with a new team, I will be reminding us of what our vision is. To raise our eyes again to what God has called us to as a church. I want to encourage you to be there as we consider all the Kingdom opportunities we have over the coming months and years.

 

PRAYER WEEK

This will then lead us into our week of prayer which we have at the beginning of each term. We will start on Sunday night at 6.30pm. We have decided to run the prayer night in the main audtorium at The King's Centre. We are going to create some space physically and create some space in terms of time to simply worship and enjoy God. Before we bring our long list of prayer requests to him we want to create some space for him to talk to us. I am particularly excited about praying in the main venue and again would love to encourage you to be there.  There is nothing greater or more important that we can do as a church than create time and space to hear from our Father God.

We are on a big adventure together. I look forward to seeing you this weekend.

The King's Centre Launch

We have now had three Sunday meetings at The King's Centre.  Each week we are learning how best to use the space and make our gatherings as good as they can be. We have had an acoustic engineer in this week advising us on how we can improve the sound quality in both the auditorium and cafe area. We hope to begin to implement some of his recommendations over the next few weeks. 

We deliberately wanted to learn these lessons over the summer before we officially launch The King's Centre in September.

On September 14th we are hosting a champagne reception for local dignitaries and the business community. Nicholas Soames MP will be with us to 'cut the ribbon' and say a few words. Then on on Sunday 16th September we have...

Terry Virgo at TKC

Terry has been instrumental to our life as a church going back to our early days when we met in a home in Scaynes Hill in the 1970's. It is such a priviledge that he will be with us on our official launch Sunday. He will be be preaching at our 10.30am meeting and also at a 7.00pm meeting where we have invited other local churches to come and celebrate with us.

Its all about Jesus

Then on Sunday 23rd September we are going to start a new teaching series from the gospel of Mark. We are going to look at who Jesus is, what he did and what he taught. I can't wait to get into this incredible book as we focus on the person of Jesus week after week.

Its going to be an exciting month and remember.....Kieran Dunne is joining the staff team as well.

A new chapter begins

I am so encouraged.


After all the months (and years) of praying, giving and planning we have now had our first Sunday meeting in our new venue - The King's Centre, Burgess Hill.


It was such an electric atmosphere and it was so good to see the place rammed full and to hear the voices of people worshipping God. Though we knew that lots of people would be interested in seeing the new building, we did not fully expect that over 430 people would be there on our first Sunday. As I said, I am so encouraged.

It was a great privilege for me to be able to preach the first message in The King's Centre - reminding us to be more excited about the presence of God than a new building.  The picture to the right shows the view from where I was standing. It was quite an amazing moment for me.


We are on a steep learning curve in terms of running our own building. We recognise that not everything was as good as we want it to be. Please bear with us over the next few weeks, especially in the following areas:

ACOUSTICS AND SOUND

Our technical team did an outstanding job to get us up and running for Sunday morning - they had very little time and worked incredibly hard. We were aware that the auditorium would present some challenges regarding echo and reverb. However, until we were able to get 400 chairs and people in the building we could not fully analyse the sound. Please be assured we are aware that the sound is not as we want it to be. We are working hard on finding the right solutions and will be liaising with acoustic specialists, however, this will not be completely resolved immediately. Please be patient as we try to find the best short and long term solutions.

COFFEE AND REFRESHMENTS

We are aware that some people had to queue for some time to get their refreshments last Sunday. We will try different solutions each week to try and reduce the time people have to wait. We are requesting that people do keep lids on hot drinks - this is both for safety (we do not want hot drinks spilling over children) and to prevent spillages in the building.

PARKING

We were able to get many cars on to the site which was great news.  Again, we will learn over the coming weeks the best way to park the maximum number of cars. If you are arriving from the north end of the building (i.e. coming in from Royal George Road, Burgess Hill) please park in the spaces we are able to use at Sussex Central College which is right next to The King's Centre. This will help prevent log jams at the south entrance of the building.


Thank you for your patience as we work these things through. The reason we are not publicly launching the building until September is so that we have these weeks over the summer to discover the best ways of running these areas.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

This coming Sunday (15 July) is a big Sunday for us at The King's Church Mid-Sussex.We will gather for the last time in Clair Hall, Haywards Heath before we move into our new venue at The King's Centre, Burgess Hill.

It is going to be a significant morning as we have been meeting in Clair Hall for 35 years.

As I have been preparing for Sunday I have been reminded again of the men and women of faith who have gone before us and who have made it possible for us to enjoy the kind of church that we do today.

We are the fruit of what is known as the 'Charismatic Renewal'. In the 1960's and 1970's there was a new wave of Holy Spirit activity in the UK. Men and women were being baptised in the Spirit and the freedom and joy that resulted impacted normal Sunday morning meetings. Many existing church wineskins did not want to find room for this new wine and so small groups of people began gathering in one another's homes - building community, teaching grace and being open to the gifts of the Spirit for today.

We now enjoy all of these things and, to a degree, may take them for granted. However, we can only enjoy these freedoms because of the battles that the previous generation fought on our behalf.

David Coak and John Salmon, who led our church
when it began, standing outside TKC's first offices
 in Haywards Heath opposite Clair Hall

We truly are standing on the shoulders of giants.  

On Sunday 22 July we start a new chapter as a church, meeting in our new venue - The King's Centre, Burgess Hill. It is such a joy to be leading this church at this time. But I know I only get to lead us into this new chapter because of the giants that have gone before me, because of the foundations they laid and because of the values they built into us as a people.

These are exciting days, but as we look forward let us also look back and remember all those people who made these kind of days possible for us to enjoy

Unbelievable Generosity - Gift Day Feedback

Stunned.

That's how I felt last Sunday morning as our finance director (Paul Wright) gave me the scrap of paper which had written upon it the total from our recent gift days.

As I had been praying for our summer gift days I felt God say to believe him for £100,000. Obviously, this is a huge amount of money. The members at TKC have given out of their skin over the last two years as we have purchased and converted an old warehouse. So £100,000 - really? Was that possible? We are in a recession after all. It seemed like a very ambitious faith goal that God had given me.

As I looked at the piece of paper on Sunday morning I was stunned.

£91,955.99

At the time of writing we have now exceed £95,000. I am praying and believing that we will indeed pass the £100,000 target.

To be so close to £100,000 was incredible. I wanted to believe God for that figure but wondered if it was really attainable - I felt like the man in the gospels who said in Mark 9 “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

And still the gifts are coming in!

When King David took up an offering for the temple in Jerusalem he said this:

“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand." 1 Chronicles 29 v 14

I feel exactly the same. Who am I and who are we that we can give as generously as this. I am so grateful to God, so grateful to the church I am part of and, as I said, I am ...

Stunned.