God revealed in us.

So this week our news and social media is crowded with images that assault our senses. Pictures of children lying dead on a beach. My mind wants to rush passed them, not to ignore the issue but to lessen the trauma. I have three children and like most parents we picture our own kids there.

There has been a debate raging on how we define the people that this involves. Are they migrants or are they refugees. I do understand that language is powerful and we have to be careful how we describe groups but whatever name we use to describe them is yet another way of making them less like us. That wasn’t a refugee or a migrant lying on the beach, it was a child, somebody’s son or daughter. Someone’s brother or sister. The people fleeing are first and foremost PEOPLE. 
Like you and I.

They were neighbours, they were school children, shopkeepers, builders, plumbers, entrepreneurs, grandmothers, unemployed. They were Arsenal, Man United, Newcastle, Man City fans. They loved to cook, eat McDonalds, feel the sun on their face, splash about in puddles. 
They were like you and I.

As a follower of Christ I have prayed and sung “God break my heart for what breaks yours.” This breaks God’s heart. Therefore my heart, your heart, our hearts should be broken.

Don’t get lost in the political arguments and counter-arguments. Don’t succumb to the headlines about the very small minority who may be playing the system. These are people who are in need. Jesus was asked the question “Who is my neighbour” He answered with a story of two men who were least like each other yet one went out of his way to meet the other’s need. 
It cost him. 
It inconvenienced him.

If it were us, how would we want to be treated by people. The Bible is clear on how we treat and welcome the stranger. A stranger isn’t someone who is not like us, they are just someone we haven’t met and become friends with yet. That person is made in the image of God, the same as you and I. 
That means we are alike.

Jesus also tells us in Luke 14 that we should invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind in and we ourselves will be blessed because of that. This will inconvenience us and possibly cost us financially as individuals and maybe as a country. But we should be prepared to pay the cost, its what makes us human. 

It’s the God nature being revealed in us.

From the pastor's desk March

 Last week I had two texts with questions sent to me from two different people. One of them helped me to really focus down on to a subject and the other caused me to expand my thinking and open up to a subject.

The first was simply “What creates a great environment in church”. That needs a whole blog by itself, so I will come back to that one at a different time. The second question, which I want to focus on here was, “From a pastor's perspective what are the three most important things that a church attendee could do to help you build the house?”

That got me thinking. There are lots of things that I could have replied with but how do I condense it all to the three most important to me, in our setting and at our stage of growth?

Is it about finance? Is it about serving? Is it about attitude? I tried not to over think my response and so replied within a few minutes. Here is what I wrote to him (not in order of importance)

1. Keep connected to the right people, especially when it gets tough.
2. Be a disciple & disciple others.
3. Have a daily encounter with the three things Jesus left behind-

• His word,
• His Spirit,
• His Body.

There you have it. That’s what I would want you to know.  There are many other actions and behaviours that will flow from these three. For us as a church at our stage of development, this is what I want you to do to help build our church community.

Keep connected to the right people, especially when it gets tough.
Over the years this has been one of the most crucial things that has helped the church, grow, decline or plateau. When we move out of connection with the right people we stop being discipled and pastored. This can happen due to tough life circumstances or due to being hurt or messing up. It's not just staying connected to people, it is staying connected to the RIGHT people. Are they encouraging you to be part of the community that has loved you, fed you and looked after you or are they pulling you in another direction?

“If the people you hang with don’t like your church, give it a month and you won’t either.”

Be a disciple & disciple others.

This is our commission. Jesus told the people he was discipling to go and do what He had done for them. I don’t want a church of attendees, I want a church of disciples.

Have a daily encounter with the only three things Jesus left behind.
We live in grace but we are called to certain disciplines as disciples. Are we getting the word of God into our minds and hearts? It will bring health and growth. Learn to feed yourself on the Word, this is what mature followers of Christ do.

Jesus said He would leave His Holy Spirit to comfort and encourage us. He gave us a language to speak that will build us up. Do we use it daily? The Spirit gives gifts to build the church not for our own little parties.

Jesus said that He would build His church. He is coming back for His church. He loves His church. That is you and me. It is what He uses to refine us. In all her beauty and flaws, she is what Christ loves. Are we meeting together, not just on a Sunday, but as a daily habit? Meeting in formal and informal settings.

If we can continue to get these right, we stay healthy as disciples, we continue to do what Christ has told us to do and we stay connected to Christ. The house will be built.

There is a lot more I could say on all of these three factors but would take far too long.

I hope this has helped.

Yours,
Pastor Jon Cook

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

Getting my house in order

So this last weekend we had the privilege of having Jeff Lestz speaking at our church. People often label Jeff as "the finance guy." He is a successful Christian businessman and author who has a heart to empower people to be financially healthy and also see churches raise finances to further the kingdom of God. He uses sound biblical principles to educate people and build leaders within churches.

But in reality he is a kingdom guy. He is a people guy. He is a freedom guy. He loves God and loves people.
He is also a friend, despite his terrible jokes.

There were so many challenges that were laid down across the weekend that it could be easy to get overwhelmed by them all but three things stood out for me. None of these where new, more of a reminder really.

The first was a reminder of the character of a leader from Paul to Timothy particularly around the issue of money. We need to have our financial house in order.

Not just for the next month.

But are we planning for the future, our grandchildren's future (Prov 13:22)? We are socially conditioned to live for the now. Buy now, pay later. We were challenged to live within our fiances so that we see and use money as a servant to see the kingdom of God expanded. Lets put plans and actions into place that will allow us to live in financial freedom in the future. I have been using this phrase a lot lately but it is still apt in this situation. The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is now. Start now with your finances.

The second challenge was to think bigger but clearer. Have a CLEAR, CONCISE, MENTAL PICTURE of where we are going. Then put plans in to get there. I will be taking some time over the next few weeks to do that again.

The third challenge for me was a simple statement that Jeff made- Jesus was a friend of sinners and to be that He had to be their friend.

Yes I know that it is obvious, but sometimes we can overlook the obvious. Jesus was their friend. Not just friendly to them, but their FRIEND. Imagine that. He did what friends do. He didn't just hang out with them he supported them, challenged them, laughed and cried with them. Think of your friends right now. Think about what you do with them, how you feel about them. That was Jesus and his mates. We are not talking about his disciples, we are talking about those that were not like Him. The tax collectors, the party goers, the ordinary people, those with less than reputable backgrounds. Jesus was their friend. I guess I was challenged to ask myself if that's what I do.

I don't want to be just friendly, I want to be people's friend. Those outside my church community.

Jesus took time out to spend it with people who were not like Him but who needed Him. Do I?

Anyway hope you have found these simple reminders useful. 

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

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?