The impact of growth

Dee & I have just returned from an inspiring visit to one of the world's most interesting cities, Mumbai. I will do a mail out soon with my thoughts and feelings when I have had time to process them a bit more. I am very exited to say that Pastor Biju Thampy who runs the organisation and the church that we visited will be with us in December. This is a Sunday that you will not want to miss.

This week we have the privilege of having to add an extra service in Newcastle to cope with the number of people joining our church community. I find it humbling that so many new people have joined just in the last nine months. We haven't changed how we do things, we haven't had an extra big evangelistic push or changed our structure in any way that would cause people to come in. I think we have grown in depth and health over the last 2 years that we are beginning to see the fruit of that as a church now.

Whenever growth happens we have to expand our thinking and be flexible in how we do what we do. As I get older and more set in my ways, change does become a bit more difficult, but I also realise that I cannot and will not put my personal comfort above what God is doing in and through our church. Growth will not only bring change, it will bring challenge. Are you prepared for both?

Some areas that growth in church will impact-

•   It should impact my set routines. Very practically, as our service times change we have to adjust our Sunday routine.

•   It should impact my friendships. I have the opportunity to open up my life to new friends. There are so many people in my life now that I did not know before being part of this church.

•   It should impact my serving. In whatever area that we serve, we now have the responsibility to train other people who are new to help us in that role. What happens when we have to go to three then four services? Our existing team will not be able to cope, so we need to recruit, train and disciple.

•   It should impact our midweek community. Our Connect Groups will need to expand in numbers to help people not just attend a service but be brought into the life of the church community.

•   It should impact my prayer life. New people equals new need and areas of brokenness that we have to trust God with.

•   It should impact my level of faith. As we grow so should our faith. Are we believing for the north east to change because we are here?

Pastor Brian Houston has said that we should be a small church with lots of people. Whatever the number of people that attend our church and however we organise structure to help with growth we all still need the same things-

•   Relational connection with each other

•   Opportunities to serve and contribute to our community

•   An environment that facilitates our growth.

•   A cause that we are part of.

As we fulfill the mission that Christ has commissioned us with and stay healthy, we will grow across all our campuses and growth involves change. Lets make sure that our hearts are prepared for this and our attitudes are the same as Christ who embraced change and put others' needs before His own in order to bring people into relationship with His Father. (Philippians 2).

This Sunday our services are

Newcastle- 9:30am, 11:30am and 5pm

Teesside- 11am

Newcastle North- joining with Newcastle at 5pm

Mwanza- 11am

TAKEN

Just in case you didn't know I am a man. I very rarely leave the toilet seat up but I am a man. As a man, I am not the cause of all the world's problems but there is a time to stand up and say "this problem we are facing is a problem mainly caused by men for men". The problem I am talking about is the abhorrent global trade of human trafficking. Especially those being trafficked for the purpose of sex slavery.

The reason I am talking about this yet again is because a couple of the young woman from our church, NCLC, went to visit the A21 crisis house in Greece last week. A21 is an organisation we partner with in the fight against human trafficking across Europe. I also have just read the report from Hazel Thompson about her latest ebook "TAKEN". This is not the Hollywood glamourised version of events where Liam Neeson sweeps in using his set of special skills to rescue his daughter. That, unfortunately, does not happen. Most of the women and children do not have an ex-CIA operative to bring them home. Many are kept in locked rooms or cages until they are "broken" and never return home.

It can be easy to relegate that problem to another country. But this issue has been highlighted by our own Lindsay Bruce as also a North East problem. I challenge you to do an internet search on human trafficking in the UK. It is a problem here and now with us. Teesside's Ben Cooley felt so passionate about this subject that he has set up the charity HOPE FOR JUSTICE to help in the fight.

I can easily abdicate my responsibility as a man and say that I personally haven't caused it but maybe we, I, need to be part of the solution not just ignore the problem.

Get involved. Buy Hazel's ebook, go to the A21 or the Hope for Justice website and find out what you can do. We are VERY excited to have Ben Cooley, CEO of Hope for Justice join us for our IronMen Conference in November. He will challenge, inspire and get in your face. If you are a man, get to the conference, you can register here.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Lessons from Tough Mudder

 I pray you are having a great start to the week. As most of you will know, on Saturday, a team from NCLC competed in the event aptly named "Tough Mudder." It was tough and there was a LOT of mud. We finished, having completed every obstacle.
It made us all confront the fear in our head whether that was of heights, ice baths, dark holes, long runs or electric shocks (you REALLY should have a fear of electric shocks). Between us we managed to raise about £1500 on behalf of the A21 campaign
against human trafficking.

One of the things that was most evident throughout the event was teamwork. We were in it to complete it. The only way that we wanted to complete it was together. We all needed encouragement at different points of the course. We contended FOR each other not WITH each other in the tough times.
We all made a decision that we start, run and complete the course together.

The Bible in Psalm 84 says:
Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you.
Selah
Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.

We have committed to the journey together as a community. We go through the tough times together. I want as many of us to start, run and complete this journey together. We are encouraged in Hebrews not to step away from meeting together.
The amount of times I talk about leaning into community when times get tough, yet it still breaks my heart to see one or two people step away using weak excuses or some even great sounding reasons but it still comes down to a decision to step out of what God has placed you in.

There is strength in our community.
There is companionship in our community.
There is accountability in our community.
There is discipleship in our community.
There is growth in our community.
There is healing in our community.
There is value placed in our community.
God is found in our community.

Those that are planted in the house of The Lord will flourish (Psalm 92).

I am committed to building a church where lives will flourish.
I have no plan B.

Flourishing is not just about things going well. It is about staying the course when things get tough. It is about being able to withstand the harsher seasons yet still bear fruit.

Let's contend FOR each other in tough times, celebrate WITH each other when times are great and stand ALONGSIDE each other to complete the journey and win the prize. A prize which is much more than a cool T-shirt, a not so cool orange headband and a pint of cider.


Yours
Pastor Jon Cook

Tough Mudder videos and pictures

So the event is finally over and done with for this year. I did a video just before the event and an update today.
I have also included a video of the event and some pictures.
I am hopefully doing 2 next year.
We raised about £1500 for The A21 Campaign against human trafficking.

The Arctic Enema

Guard your heart

Over the past few weeks I have been preaching on the subject of Healthy Relationships. Having the right people around us (and being the right people) is crucial to our growth in our walk with Christ.

Proverbs 4:23 tells us "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it" Our heart is shaped by the people that we allow to speak into it. Saying "Above all else..." means it is a priority. Our heart needs to be protected from unhealthy relationships which would misshape it, so why do allow the wrong people to shape our hearts?

Parable-

Imagine that you are incredibly hungry.

For some reason you haven't been able to get any food or you have been sick and not able to keep any food down.

You have no food in your house.

What do you do?

 When you are this hungry and have no food to satisfy your hunger. Where would you go?

• To a friend who is also really hungry and has no food? It makes sense to go there because he understands how you feel when no one else can.
• The people that have food are annoying because they don't realise how hungry you are and what you are going through.
• Your hungry friends won't judge you for being hungry.
• They will reinforce that you’re ok to be hungry.
• They will help you come to terms with your hunger.
• They won't look down on you like your non-hungry friends might.

If this sounds just a bit ludicrous, why do we do this with relationships?

If we were hungry we would go to people who could feed us not those that are hungry as well. To be with the hungry we need to have something to feed them with.

If we are feeling low spiritually or relationally why do we go to people who are as hungry as we are?

Go to those that will feed us. That's what the prodigal son did.

Show me your friends and I will show you your future.

As someone tweeted the other day "Align yourself with people who match your destiny and not your history"

I want to be someone who shapes people's hearts in a godly direction. What about you?