Hopelessly devoted to you.

Hopelessly devoted to you.

Today I was listening to some classic tunes from the film Top Gun. It brought back some great memories of years gone by. In the weird way my mind works at times, I ended up humming the classic Grease song by Olivia Newton John "Hopelessly devoted to you." It was sad I know but we have all done something as equally cheesy.

Anyway with those the only four words of the song that I know they began to go round in my head. I began to think about the words I was singing. 

What am I devoted to?

Is there a hopelessness about my devotion, an unrequited love.

Or is it a devotion that brings hope?

As we move into a brand new year I need to check-

• The direction of my devotion
• That my devotion level is high.
• That my devotion is filled with hope.

Direction of devotion

What am I devoting my life to? Not just the grand ideas and values that I have but how does that translate to my everyday life. To my time, my finances, my language & my emotional buy-in.

The direction of my devotion must always line up with the Word of God, our plumb-line. What does the Bible tell us that our life should be devoted to?

Firstly it should be given over and devoted to God. There should be no thing and no one that comes before him. When God asked Abraham for his son God didn't want the sacrifice, He wanted to know of Abraham's totally obedience. Who was higher in Abraham's devotion, his son Isaac or his God, Yahweh. God asks us the same question. Who receives your devotion?

There are other people or things that need our devotion. Are we devoted to our spouse? Are we devoted to them above our children. Tough question but a Biblical principle. 

Acts 2 :42 informs us of what the early church community devoted themselves to.

The teaching the apostles had reached from Jesus

The fellowship- not just fellowship, but THE fellowship.

The breaking of bread- keeping what Christ had done  for them at the centre of their thinking.

Prayer- close, intimate, regular communication with God.

Does our life follow similar patterns?

Devotion level

I'm not really sure if you can measure the level of devotion. Are we just devoted or not? Whether we can measure it or not, people around us should be able to look at our lives and be able to see that there is something slightly unbalanced about our lives as devoted people are never balanced people.

Hope filled devotion

Does my devotion cause my life to be filled with hope whatever the circumstances around seem to show? Hebrews 11 shows us a group of people who were devoted to someone that caused their lives to be filled with the actions of faith and the certainty of hope. 

Lately, probably more than ever, I am filled with the hope of what Christ is doing and where He is leading us as a church. Circumstances would not seem to show this. In seven Sundays we will be without a venue, finances are incredibly tight and we are still in the grip of a global recession. 

So my hope cannot come from circumstances. My hope MUST come from someone that is bigger than my or even world circumstances.

The only way that our devotion can be hope-filled is to place it on the rock of ages, the God of eternity, the healer of the sick, the provider, the grace giver, the releaser of the captives, the forgiver of sinners, the lifter of the downtrodden, the home builder for the homeless, the only giver of hope who is totally worthy of our devotion

So my question is how will your world see the object of your devotion today?

NCLC New Year's day message 2012

New Years Day message from Andrew Flewers on Vimeo.

A life that was lived.

Last week NCLC lost someone who had touched many lives during her short time being part of our community.
She wasn't part of the worship team or one of the speakers, she wasn't one of the recognised leaders of the church. She was "just" Lizzie. But for those people who knew her there was no "just" about Lizzie. She radiated warmth, enthusiasm and life.

One of my friends Craig has been deeply touched by her death. He wrote about the effect that she had on him. I will leave the rest to Craig Nelson.

Liz Jobes was a beautiful, young and vibrant girl. I'd known Liz for approximately 3 months. She came into our church with her amazing brother and sister; Peter and Rachel. Very quickly all three of them had an amazing impact on the life of our church, getting involved in whatever they could and serving on different teams.


I didn't know Liz as a close friend, she was after all 21yrs old and I'm a little older! (Come on Craig, more than a little) But I had the pleasure of small chats in passing and on a few occasions she was part of a group of people I was having lunch or dinner with.


That makes the impact her death has had on me all the more astounding. It's not necessarily the quantity of our interactions with others, but the quality of them. You realise when someone has died just what they gave you and what they have left you.


Lately, after the glow of being given a job with a dream shift pattern has worn off, after the horrors of going through a marriage separation have gone away, after becoming debt free and having surplus cash again, I expected to be ecstatic and excitedly move forwards into the future. Instead, the initial jubilation for all of the above lasted about 1 month and I began to feel kinda flat again. Why should this be? After all, I have so much to be thankful for! Yes, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, physically, going through tough times does have an effect on you. Having got through those actual situations I'm still dealing with the effects they may have had.

That's where Lizzie comes in. You see, Lizzie has taught or rather shown me something. She's shown me how to LIVE. I know that it's not our circumstances that dictate our Joy because even when things are ok I can still be pretty flat. So how can I live?


How can I save my general demeanour from being kinda miserable? By choosing to live the way Lizzie lived! This is how I see it, I cannot remember one single occasion when I saw Lizzie, that she wasn't smiling, not one, ever!


A person who is smiling is a person who is living every moment to it's fullest potential.


I can worry too much, I can think way too much about things, I think about the future, about tomorrow or next week or next month or when I get married again or when I'm a dad or when I retire! The list goes on, I think think think think think and in doing so I rob myself of the beauty of LIFE, I rob myself of the beauty of NOW. I close myself off to real life because the only real life that's happening is that which is happening NOW! I miss out on interactions with people because I'm not present, I may be physically, but inside I'm somewhere else, thinking or probably worrying!


When Lizzie died, her young age made me realise that we don't have that long, she had 21yrs but I feel she probably had way more than many who die in their eighties, why, because she lived in the present, with a great big beaming smile and innocence that meant she was open to everything that was happening around her at that moment. She was enjoying the moment and not selfishly hiding away in her own thoughts, thinking and worrying about herself and her life. She had an innocence that showed she wasn't hiding, she wasn't protecting herself from the world around her, like I often do.


Life can do that, we get hurt and broken by the stuff life can throw at us. We often respond by putting up walls and barriers, protecting ourselves from any future hurt that may occur.


But in doing so we rob the world of our true colours, we rob ourselves of life by not engaging with it. We rob our friends by denying them the way we are individually made in Gods image.






I want to live more like Lizzie,


live in the moment,


live innocently,


not hiding my colours,


letting God shine.


Thanks Lizzie. 

Enemies with faces

This week has been a busy week for us. We have been attending lots of meetings and using time to prepare for the move to our new venue in two weeks. So to be called into a meeting at 24 hours notice with the venue management was not something we were expecting or had scheduled into our already busy diaries.

There was a sense of "What's wrong?" that we were carrying before the meeting. As much as I tried to remain positive, my thinking continually went down the worst case scenario. As we entered the meeting I felt I knew WHAT the problem was, WHY it had come up, and WHO it had come from. Unfortunately I was right on all three counts.

Now the outcome was not all doom and gloom, as we are still in the venue for the three months that they had agreed to, but we are not sure what happens after that. The thing for me is that because I know where the objections are coming from I can quite easily put a "face" on the enemy. This is the easy way and unfortunately what many Christians have done down through history. We have become known more for what and in particular WHO we stand against.

That was immediately the direction my thinking took. It was then the words of the Bible came ringing in my ears "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Eph 6:12. Its easy to fight an enemy with a face but much harder to face an enemy that we can't see, protest or blog against.

As I thought about it, I was reminded that we are in a SPIRITUAL battle and we need to fight with SPIRITUAL tactics and SPIRITUAL weapons. Our strength is in God not legal systems.

The Bible is that which we calibrate our life against so what does it say about this situation?

• Enemies without faces are to be fought with the full armour of GOD including the WORD and FAITH, also with PRAYER and with FASTING.

• Those who we think are enemies with faces are to be loved, which means that we don't actually have any enemies with faces.

So over this next week before the management meet to make a decision on our long term future in the venue

1. we will present a good case as to why we should be there, 
2. extend the hand of friendship and offer to meet with those who object to us being there
3. pray and fast against our real enemy.

We need to be clear on who are our enemies are NOT as much as who the enemy IS.

Will you join with us and commit to praying but also maybe fast for a day or two?

Releasing Leaders

For those of you that know me and are part of my life, I hope you will be able to say that I am passionate about seeing something in people that they maybe don't always see in themselves. I don't want it to stop there though. I want to release people into their God-given potential. That can involve pushing other people forward when my insecurities would cause me to want to hold the limelight.

I don't want to sound like a saint, because nearly everyday I struggle with some aspect of that and often get it wrong. We have so many talented people in our church that I think God has brought them my way to partly use them to refine me and my need for prominence.

Despite (or maybe because of) my insecurities I am committed to raising a platform for people to be released into leadership. Anyway, one of the young guys that has created a stirred in our church recently by his awesome heart for serving and building God's house is Peter Jobes. If you are part of NCLC you will probably have already encountered him or one of his amazing sisters. They are a true gift to us as a church. Peter wrote a short piece on the welcome at our church to help people understand the Biblical heart of a great welcome. I love how Peter has captured part of why we do what we do.
You REALLY need to take 5 minutes to read this.

Guys! We're going to be welcoming people to church on First Faces at Encounter so I want to take a quick look at why this is both IMPORTANT and AWESOME. Sometimes, when we do something every week, we start to think of it as just part of the routine and we forget why we're doing it; we're doing it for the GLORY of GOD. When we welcome people what we're doing is as much for the glory of God as is the worship or the preaching or any of the other parts of the service.

I want to take a look at what Paul says in the book of Romans about HOW we need to welcome people and WHAT happens when we do it.

"Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God."
- Romans 15:7 (ESV)

We must welcome people as Christ welcomed us, and we must do so for the glory of God. When we smile and say 'Welcome to church,' we're not just being polite, we're glorifying God. What we're doing is an act of worship. When we put aside whatever we may be feeling about the past week or any worries about the coming one and just welcome people in the same way Christ welcomed us then we're showing God's glory.

I LOVE that Paul is specific about this. We're not just to be nice people, we're not just to smile, we're not just to be friendly and warm in our welcome: We are to welcome people in the same way that JESUS CHRIST welcomed us and when we do so it GLORIFIES GOD.

I want to quickly share three important points about how Jesus welcomed us:

He welcomed us AS WE WERE.
He did not say that we had to be a certain way or achieve a certain thing before we were welcome, He just reached out and welcomed us with love. We need to be the same; we're not there to welcome just the cool kids, or to smile only at the people we know, we're not there to try and think who is holy and say nice words to them: we're there to welcome everyone that comes. Jesus said 'come to me ALL who are weary'. We need to be the same, no matter who it is or how they seem, we are here to WELCOME EVERYONE AS THEY ARE.

He welcomed us WITH HONOUR.
At the last supper Jesus did the unthinkable. In a culture where men walked on dirty roads and got filthy feet the lowest servant had to clean them on arrival. What Jesus did was flip that around, hosting his disciples he DROPS TO HIS KNEES with a towel and washes their feet. He honoured them not because of who they were but because it showed the character of God. We need to HONOUR THOSE WE WELCOME! It will show in how we do it. Do it well, what we're doing is about them. We don't want to give the impression that their arrival has distracted us from our chat with our buddies or that we'd rather be looking at our phone. When that person is being welcomed we honour them with our full attention and with the love of Jesus.

He welcomed us to CONNECT US TO GOD.
'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.' (John 14:6) Jesus welcomes people not just to get to know them but because HE IS THE WAY that they come to God. Jesus spent His whole ministry connecting people to God, whether it was the tax collectors and sinners or the lepers and the blind, Jesus used His own life to connect them to God and then gave it up so that He could welcome us and connect us too. It is our job to help create an environment where people CONNECT TO GOD

When we welcome people we're not just saying welcome to church. We're showing that they're welcome as they are, that God has opened His arms for them, that they're honoured and we're doing our part in connecting them to God. We should all pray before we start, it doesn't have to be out loud and it doesn't have to be long and fancy; just simply open up to God and ask Him to help you to do this with excellence.

An AWESOME WELCOME can be the difference between someone going into church with an open heart or with a grumpy attitude because they've not been well received. WE'RE THE FIRST FACE THEY MEET so it is OUR responsibility. We might literally be the first person they have ever met in church! Want to know what it means? I can still remember being welcomed to NCLC. I'd only been to one men's breakfast before that but I was made to feel so welcome by a group of people that by the time I sat down in the service I already felt like I'd came home. That is the experience we want to give people who attend; the words 'WELCOME HOME' are not just a slogan on screen, they're how we do church.

I'll leave you with a scripture from Matthew that shows how God values how we welcome strangers. It's one of the things that Jesus says makes us inherit the kingdom.

"Then the King will say to those on the right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirst and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me'."
Matthew 25:34-35

So how good was that!!!

What is rising up?

Well I'm sitting here frustrated and annoyed as somehow my ipad has lost my previous post.
Anyway, let me try and remember all that I wrote.

None of us can say that we have not been affected by recent events in our beloved country. We have seen the news reports, watched the videos and followed the twitter comments. I would like to try and add some wisdom to the situation if I can.
Let me first ask you what rises up within you when you here this news?

1. Fear?

2. Anger?

3. Revulsion?

4. Apathy

Or maybe FAITH?
Faith for forgiveness and reconciliation?
Faith for peace in our country?
Faith for God to do something?
Faith for salvation from this?

As Christians we need to remind ourselves that, as the Bible says, we are not fighting against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces. Why then do we seem to make the enemy the face of humanity that is doing this and not those spiritual forces. Our first response should be to come before God and pray. Pray for peace, pray for community to be restored. Not to what it has been recently but to what only God can bring. That sense of SHALOM. Community prospering and peace.

I also need to be reminded that I am in some way responsible for this mess. I have bought into a consumerist, materialist mentality that is pervasive in our society. When we hold that up as the ideal western way, when we say consume and there are those that cannot consume, what do we expect? Eventually there will be a backlash. It is not about a lack of food or basic needs it is about 42" plasma TVs. Why? Because we have bought into the lies that tell us that is what we NEED.

When Nehemiah prayed for favour to go before the king, he prayed for forgiveness for the mess that his people were in. He knew that he owned part of that mess. I want to be part of the solution not stand and complain about the problem. I own this problem. I need to repent for being part of the problem. Have we placed the rioters in a group called "THEM" or got before God and asked for forgiveness for "US"? Its easy to blame "THEM". Nehemiah prayed "US".

What I want to rise up in me is-

1. Repentance

2. Faith to see God bring SHALOM

3. Faith for reconciliation within our communities

4. A plan of action if the riots hit the North East.

The Bible is clear that even in situations like this fear will not conquer even when it is peddled by our media. God has not given us a spirit of fear but of LOVE, POWER and a SOUND (disciplined) MIND. Perfect LOVE casts out fear.

Lets pray for love in our communities and our fantastic country.
Lets pray for our hard pressed and berated police force.
Lets pray for the righteous reporters, like our own Lindsay Bruce, in the media.
Lets pray for godly Nehemiahs that have the ears of our government and local authority leaders.
Lets pray for those that have instigated and got caught up in the riots.

I want to be part of the solution.

What is rising up in you?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Hillsong Conference thoughts

This year I have had the privilege of attending 2 Hillsong conferences, one in Sydney and the other in London. This is a significant expense for us and therefore I need to make sure that it impacts the wider church in a major way. I don't just want to pass on notes or nice thoughts I have gained. I don't even want to just come back with some structural or audio visual changes that we can make to improve who we are.

I want people to know that something significant has happened. I want people to know that I have changed. I want people to know that church will never be the same again. I don't want to fall back into the same routine.

Pastor Jentzen Franklin really challenged me with his message on Peter hearing the rooster crow. What must he have thought every time he heard one crow after that. A reminder of his failure and betrayal of Jesus. What are the constant reminders of my failure that the enemy holds over my life? Where have I limited my life because of the past?

I was challenged not to live just above average, which looks good to those living an average life. There are areas in my life that I know I am not reaching my full potential but actually look quite good if not seen from the place of what I could be doing. The same could be said of our church. We look good in some respects and we could live on that reputation, but I don't believe God has given us the people and the resources we have to live just above average.

If attending both conferences has done anything for me, it has challenged me personally to look beyond where I am and trust God that there is so much more (Eph 3:20-21).


Ok so for those of us who love lists, here is my top 5 of areas to trust Him for more.

5. Numbers- I have always shied away from setting targets for numbers and being driven by numbers and may continue to do so, BUT every ONE is vital. So I am trusting God for a large church, not just slightly above average but by any standard large. Large numbers of salvations, large numbers of baptisms and large numbers of discipled followers of Christ. I was struck in my daily reading that often Christ looked at the CROWD of people and was filled with compassion. He saw the large numbers. I am believing that LARGE NUMBERS of people will come from and into our church community.

4. Finance- I want to change the world that I am able to influence and to accomplish that takes a unreasonable amount of finance. Therefore I want to raise people who are committed to giving their finances for kingdom purposes. Everyone can give but God has gifted some to be able to give beyond their natural ability and others to give extraordinary amounts. I am believing that UNREASONABLE FINANCE will come from and into our church community.

3. My preaching & teaching- I have never really believed that I had much to give outside my own church. Now believe me, I love preaching on my own platform and teaching leadership to my own people, but have always thought that other leaders seemed to have all their leadership teaching organised and strategically planned. Don't get me wrong, I think I have things that are worth passing on but never felt like I did it justice when compared to other leaders I know. Anyway I am believing that God will increase my influence to help other leaders. I am believing that SIGNIFICANT INFLUENCE will come from and into our church community through my preaching and teaching.

2. Success- I have always dreamt of being the best at something, whether it be sport or music but have achieved the dizzy heights of "average". I am beginning to realise that my success is to enable others to achieve far beyond what they can see for themselves. I am believing for world class athletes, musicians (and drummers), business leaders and politicians to come from & to my church. I am believing that SUCCESS & SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE will come from and into our church community.

1. Faith & Grace- I know that the heroes of Hebrews 11 were commended for their faith and they took risks because they believed God. As a church we have stepped out in faith in many ways recently and will continue to do so. In this last year we have bought new offices and taken on new staff. in the coming year we are changing venues to a increase our capacity, starting a new campus in Tanzania and a new extension service in a local Newcastle estate. But I still want to pioneer new ground, step out in large faith. In and through everything we do I don't just want grace to be what we receive, I also want it to be what flows through us. I am believing that INCREASED FAITH and HUGE GRACE will come from and into our church community.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad