From the Pastor's desk

This is an email I sent out to our NCLC this week.
Hope it helps.

Dear Church

As I am sat here contemplating the year ahead for us as a church I had the thought "What do I want the church to know this year?" There are many spiritual lessons that I want us to learn from the Word of God as well as theology & lessons from the life of Christ. But if I could sit down with each person in or connected to our community what would I tell you?
I didn't write down long lists and then bring them down to 5 most important. I wrote down the 5 that came immediately to mind.
I hope they help you.

1. You are loved. It sometimes goes without saying, and thats a problem. I should say it more. Its not that someone somewhere loves you... I do. Me, sat here at this desk. Whether I know you as a close friend or someone who I say hello to in passing on a Sunday. I love you. Our worlds may not collide very often but please know that I love you.

2. You are more than a bum on a seat, a weekly NCLC statistic or church financial contributor. You have value within our community. Not because of what you do but because Christ has placed intrinsic value on your life and I want to try to make sure you know the value of His own life that He placed on you.

3. You have purpose within the Kingdom of Heaven. You have intrinsic value but you also gain your purpose through contributing to the community. Your purpose comes because you have value, you don't gain value because you have purpose. Each of us are called to bring people to Christ. What greater purpose is there than to introduce people to Jesus. Every skill, talent or gifting should lead you to bring people to Jesus.

4. Its ok to hit crisis point. We all go there at some stage. The last thing you should do when you hit it (or it hits you) is to back away from the people that love you and the environment that will support, build, comfort and embrace you. If you are there at the moment, come back to the house of God. The open arms of welcome are for you as well.

5. Learn to learn. I want a church of people who know HOW to think not just WHAT to think. So many people will tell you exactly what to think and produce long lists of things you need to learn to fit into their club. I want to show you the Word of God and let Him speak to you through it. Study it for all it's worth. As a leader it is much easier in the short term to tell people what to think. The results are quicker & much more visible- people do what you tell them & think what you tell them to think. Teaching people to learn and to think for themselves is much slower and harder. BUT you get mature Christians who know why we do things not just what we do.

Anyway these are 5 simple things I want you to know. But if you forget everything else go back to number 1. In the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Love
Pastor Jon Cook


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Could I survive without my wife?

I wonder what you thought when you read this title?

Is he stupid?
Why open that can of worms?
Has he got a death wish?
Is the bath big enough for him to sleep in tonight?

There are many other questions that may question the state of my mental health.

Anyway, the short answer to that question is...
Yes!

My life would go on.

I am not talking about death or divorce or any particular circumstance like that. I am just asking the question would I survive without Dee being in my life.
Of course I would. BUT, (you knew there had to be a BUT didn't you) I don't want to just survive.

For those of you that have had the privilege of meeting and knowing my wife you will know that there is something special about her.
She doesn't help me survive, she helps me flourish and grow.
She supports and encourages me.
She challenges and comforts me.
She helps me.
In Genesis 2 God declares that it is not good for man to be alone so He creates a helper, a supporter, someone who furthers him. The Hebrew word used is the same word that is generally used in the way God helps us, for example:
Psalm 121:1-2
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

I don't know if this challenges your thinking in terms of the biblical view of women.
It should.
For us men, do we allow the women in our lives to be our helper or do we feel we are self-sufficient? If we are feel we are ok by ourselves then we are not being all God intended us to be.
For my women readers, are you helping the men in your life? Helping them become all they can be?

Living biblically can be challenging and may go against political correctness but we have been called to be people of the Book and live in the pattern set for us by God.
I don't want to survive, I want to live life to the full. Part of the way of doing that is to live how we were designed to live.

As a husband, Christ has shown me the model of how I relate to and treat my wife. He said that I have to love my wife as He loves His church. How? By building her so strong that the very gates of hell cannot withstand her. By loving her enough to lay down my life for her.

So why on earth would I want to live without her!

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Who are we staying connected to?

I am currently sat on the train down to London from my beloved city of Newcastle. Why?
Because I am connected to someone and something bigger than myself and I am determined to stay connected.
As a follower of Christ my primary connection is with Him, but it is not with Him alone. But before you start shouting "Burn the heretic", hear me out.
Firstly God set the precedent in Genesis 2:18 when He said "it is not good for man to be alone..." We were created to connect to each other for relationship.
Then as we look throughout the word of God there are many examples of Godly connections
- Jonathan & David
- Elijah & Elisha
- Naomi & Ruth
- Joshua & Caleb
- Paul & Timothy
- Paul & Silas
- Paul & Barnabas
- Paul & Luke
I guess Paul really understood the value of connection.

I want to encourage you to make a connection and then work at it. We so often expect others to do the running but if it is a connection that we desire then be prepared to do everything you can to make it work. I was chatting with a friend yesterday about a pastor who is a mutual acquaintance. He doesn't really make an effort to connect with other pastors and therefore does not seem to be growing or developing in his capacity. I have realised that I can't, and don't want to do this journey alone, and I know that my strength is the people I make an effort to place myself with.
So with this in mind, here are a few keys from John 15:1-17 to making connections work-
1. Be connected to someone bigger than ourselves. The branch connects to the vine
2. Be connected to someone who helps us grow. If you don't show the fruit there is no purpose for the connection.
3. YOU make the effort to stay connected, don't expect them to. Abide in their world and they will be in yours. Check out Elijah & Elisha or Naomi & Ruth.
4. Do what they say.
5. Friendship flows from serving. Get the serving right first.
6. You will hear their heart if you are their friend.

Anyway, I am on my way to Hillsong London to get into the world of & stay connected with my pastor, Gary Clarke. Hope this helps.
Let me know your thoughts or questions.

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Back to the Future

At the end of 2010 I wrote a letter to Pastor Gary of Hillsong London to update him of our progress over the year, BUT I wrote it looking back on 2011. I wanted to set in writing some of the things that we as a church will work hard to accomplish.

Steven Covey in his fantastic book "7 habits of highly effective people" stated that we should start with the end in mind. Andy Stanley also said that we should ask ourselves "what do we want people to become?" then work out the steps to get there. So take a read of what happens in 2011 and then let's begin to make it work.


31 December 2011

Hi Pastor Gary,

I thought I would give you an update on this last year of 2011. It has been a year of quite significant change for us in many areas. We have moved into our own building and at the same time made moves to make sure the church community is staying in the local community. Many of our Connect Groups are held in places where the public hangs out. We have also established Connect Groups that meet at different times to cater for different work & relationship needs. We have established a great relationship with Costa & Starbucks and also a few of the local pubs.

Our year started out with people seeking God in our prayer meetings and personal devotional time. We don't ever want to become a church that is dependant on our own efforts but relies on the Holy Spirit. We have always tried to give our best for God and then let Him do the rest.

Our Vision month of April was amazing. We started a 40 day fast on 1 March & finished on the day we took our Heart for the House offering. People fasted all sorters of things, food, social networking, television, coffee. It was great to see everyone's commitment to not only the fast but to seeking God throughout that period.

Our Heart for the House offering taken in April saw us be able to make the new building into an amazing place for us to meet and make an impact in the community. The building has a fantastic auditorium and place for Kids church. It has also enabled us to grow our United Youth and see leaders growing from our youth. Our campuses have expanded across the north east and into Tanzania. We now have 4 campuses with another one planned for next year. The Cowgate campus started with a connect group then the campus pastors moved onto the estate in order to have a local impact.

We have started a Wealth creation scheme. This is just people coming up with ideas to increase the finance within the church. The vision is always bigger that the resources, so as we increase our vision we need to increase our resources. Our increase in finances have enabled us to add two new members to our staff team. This has helped us to effectively pastor our campuses better and also the bolster our finance and administration processes.

Our "Double in Year" initiative has seen a huge increase right across the church. Because people are taking Jesus to the world, they are then able to bring people to our church community. We have doubled the number of Connect Groups, the number of people being baptised, the giving has seen huge increase and the number of people coming to Jesus for the first time has doubled.

As people are being added to the church community in all the campuses every week, not only are they being added but they are also being discipled. People are taking responsibility not only for their own growth but also for those around us in our community. People are getting together and helping each other pray, read the bible, serve in church and serve in the community. We have also given back the main responsibility for baptising people to the connect groups but mainly to the people who bring their friends in. They bring their friends & see them saved, they then have the privilege of baptising them.

We have programs that help with discipleship but it has been more about building a culture of discipleship. This has been particularly evident in our Men's Life. Our Breakfast Club has empowered the men to find their voice in discussions and the Real Men teaching nights have set a foundation for our identity as men in the church. We are now catching the established Sisterhood pretty fast.

Culture building has continued to be one of our priorities. We are also building a strong culture of hospitality and adding value to people by serving. Servolution has become a point of impacting our community through meeting needs where we can. All areas and generations in church life are involved in some way in Servolution. We have encouraged everyone to do what they can. There is no reason why everyone in our church community can't be involved. We have been able to increase our contribution to the local community where the building is as we now don't have to spend hours setting up and packing down. Through Servolution we have been able to distribute food and clothes to those in need, clean gardens and houses and reduce incidents of crime in Cowgate and the estate around the new building.

Our schools ministry kicked off this year in 1 school with Shine for girls & Strength for the boys. Some of them have started coming along to our Fuse & Wildlife nights. We are also starting to build a good reputation with the Head-teacher and teachers

We have not moved away from the 5 core values that we started out with. We still teach and model generosity, servanthood, submission, excellence and most importantly living for the cause of Christ. Our culture of connecting has gotten a lot stronger this year. We have moved away from just doing services on Sunday to making sure we use the day to connect and add value to each other's lives, especially the guests that walk through our door.

The Hillsong conferences have continued to help move us forward and give us a picture of what we are part of. People were making plans and putting things in place at the beginning of the year to make sure they could get there. It was fantastic to see that NCLC are still the largest sending, yet again beating Tom Rawls' church in Norwich.

Our church community is known for it's passion, it's generous nature and it's commitment to connection. I love that. But we are mostly know for our love for Christ and each other. We are called radical, weird, extreme and even fundamentalist by those that don't understand us. The great thing is we are not being ignored.

We are a church where the people who walk through our doors feeling broken are accepted. We are a church where people are finding their fit. We are a church were people are finding Christ and being made disciples.

Yours
Jon Cook



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Snow is falling, all around us.

Over the past few weeks we in the UK have faced one of the largest snow falls this country has seen in many years. I have watched with interest people's reaction to the snow and then to the circumstances and the problems that the snow caused.
The initial wonder & beauty that people saw soon turned to annoyance at the inconvenience caused. As someone who spent my childhood in Canada where the snow we have just seen would be only the start of about 5 months of up 6 feet. I still love the snow so I guess I am coming from a biased perspective but it has been amazing to see the reactions from people.

For some people the inconvenience was fairly small, for others it was large and for some it was downright dangerous.

So what are some of the reactions that I have seen?

1. Love the snow, don't want it to go, don't care what happens I am going to have snowball fights, enjoy the lie in on snow days and take loads of photos of me doing snow angels. Please let it stay until summer.

2. I love the snow even if it is causing me problems but am going to get on with it. I will think about snow tyres next year.

3. We like this but make it go away because I will have to change how I do things if it stays.

4.I hate the snow, can't wait for my holiday in the heat of Spain, but there is nothing I can do to control the weather so I will make the best of it & enjoy the hot chocolate with marshmallows.

5. I hate the snow full stop. I am going to complain about it and nothing is going to make me like it. I am going to blame everyone else for all the difficulties I am experiencing and do nothing to help myself. Oh, except complain even louder.

From my interaction with people, I don't think this is just how people deal with snow. It is generally a stance we choose to take in life.

Paul the Apostle was clear on the stance he took in life when he said, in Philippians 4:11-13
11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

There are quite a few things I love about these short verses. Here are a few of them-

1. Paul had to LEARN to be content. This gives me hope. I can learn this to. Paul didn't just decide from now on he was going to be content and that was it! He went through a learning process, and I'm just guessing but I reckon he probably got it wrong at times.

2. Paul's content wasn't based on external circumstances, it was based on his trust in God his strength.

3. Contentment is a secret but it is there to be grasped. If it is a secret it means we have to search for it.

4. Paul faced many situations, including being stoned, shipwrecked, imprisoned, prosperity and church planting. He was content in the worst of them and the best of them.

5. Paul realised that there were some situations that he could not control. The only things he could control was his reaction to them and where he placed his trust.

So I guess my question for you is, what stance will you take, not just with this snow, but in life?

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"Merry" Christmas

First of all let me say Merry Christmas to you.
I remember being told not to use the word "merry" as it had connotations of behaviour that we don't condone as Christians. Here is the dictionary meaning for "merry" -
full of cheerfulness or gaiety; joyous in disposition or spirit
Thats a pretty good description of how I want Christmas to be for me, my family and my church community. Its typical of human nature that we can get so caught up in trying to get everything right in order to please someone. As Christians we do that for God (its called legalism). We so often forget that we live in His grace, and faith is what pleases Him, NOT making sure we don't use words that may have some loose connection to having one drink too many.

This period can be such a time of high stress and low peace with the planning of feasts fit for royalty, the careful selection of presents for our friends and family then realising that we don't have everything we want to make everything perfect. What happens if we forget to get that present or forget the Yorkshire puddings (actually that would push the limit of my grace). Are we still going to have a "Merry" (full of cheerfulness) Christmas? Parents, are we trying to get everything our kids want? They remember our presence not our presents. Especially if, with our presence, we are "joyous in disposition or spirit".

This season for us as a church community has been amazing. It feels like we are moving forward in so many areas. Our Christmas service was phenomenal. People worked so hard to present a relevant message of hope in Jesus Christ. I personally was blown away by all the effort that went in behind the scenes to make the day a "win". I believe that behind the excellence of the performance people's motivation was to lift the name of Jesus high. We took up an offering of £2470 that is going to help create so many hope-filled Christmas memories for the girls that A21 have rescued. Nick and Chris Caine were blown away by our generousity and want to extend their personal thanks to us at NCLC.

We also saw close to 40 hands go in the air that evening signifying people coming back to Christ or coming to Him for the first time. Those hands are not an end in themselves. They are really just the beginning. We as a church now have to make them into disciples.

This coming year our focus is establish a stronger discipleship culture. This will not be done by adding programs or meetings BUT by each of us making room to get alongside someone and BE discipled and also get alongside someone else and disciple them. This is not just the role of those leaders of teams or specifically gifted people. Jesus told us all in Matt 28:19-20
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

He didn't say our Christian life consisted of just going to church. He commissioned us, as local church, to find people and make them like us as we are like Him.
Are we up for the challenge? I hope so because that is where we are heading in this next year. We are working hard to build the infrastructure of church buildings, finances and offices but they mean nothing if they become the goal and not the tools to achieve our goals.

So, have a fantastic Merry Christmas.


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What is a "win" for our Christmas service this Sunday

Here is a letter I would love to receive after our Christmas service. We hear many of these comments already so this is how the whole experience should feel like at NCLC. We are getting there.

Dear Pastor Jon

I just wanted to write this letter to say thank you to you and your church for my first experience of NCLC. I came along last Sunday to your Christmas Presentation and was blown away by what I saw, felt and learned.

My friend Dave, at work has been bugging me for the past couple of months or so about coming along to church, but I always had a good reason not to. Actually my good reasons were excuses because I had been dragged to church as a kid and the last place I wanted to be on the busy run up to Christmas was a boring, draughty, cold, unfriendly church. How wrong could I have been!

My friend had been coming along to NCLC for a while and I began to notice a real difference in him. He no longer seemed as hassled by the work as he used to be. He talked about his wife in a way that made me think he really loved and respected her. Thats not what he used to be like believe me. We were told at the beginning of the month that we might be made redundant which was a huge blow. He was as upset as all the rest of us but seemed to have a calmness and peace about him that I couldn't understand.

Anyway after seeing how he has been dealing with that news I wanted to know a bit more about this God that he talks about so I decided to come along with him to the Christmas service. My friend was a bit crafty and asked me to pick him up, I realised later that he was making sure I got there.

As we got close to the City Hall I could see some idiots lined up in the street with bright yellow jackets chatting to people and giving out hot drinks. They must have been idiots because it was freezing yet they had big smiles on their faces and were talking to people as they went past. When I realised they were from NCLC I asked how much were they being paid for doing that. I couldn't believe they were all volunteers and a lot of them were under 18. Unbelievable

As we walked into the City Hall foyer I already had a steaming cup of hot chocolate in my hand. This was when it got really weird. As we walked through the door people came across and started talking to me. This wasn't the kind of church I remembered. I was introduced to a whole load of people who made me feel as if they were there just for me. I was still very sceptical though because they had obviously been told to look out for me by my friend (or so I thought).

Some people that knew Dave came up and started talking to him and I thought they would leave me out of the conversation, but I was introduced to them and was included in the group. I mentioned to someone about our job situation and immediately one of the group said they knew someone from the church in my field of work so they went and got her. She said she would speak to her company to see if there were any jobs coming up.

By this time a lot of my perceptions about church were being broken down. I couldn't believe how many different age groups and colours of people (not sure if thats politically correct) there were and so many involved in what was going on. I felt like I want to grab a jug and start giving people hot chocolate.

Well when we went into City Hall the atmosphere was amazing. Everyone was excited to be there. I was looking forward to singing some traditional carols. Well we did that but the band, choir and whole presentation was like something off MTV. When I watched the video about human trafficking it made me so angry, yet blew away another perception about church and money. You gave your whole offering to help rescue the girls being trafficked.

The speaker was sooo funny but the way he talked about Christmas really challenged me about my life and what I was doing. At the end of the service the challenge he gave to raise our hand if we wanted to know this Jesus that came in a manger made my stomach turn in knots. I put my hand up. I didn't want to at first because I could tell that Dave was praying for me and I didn't want to admit he had been right all along. Dave came with me to meet some people at the end of the service who prayed with me and gave me a Bible.

I hung around after the carols and people were chatting and arranging to have people over for Christmas lunch. I will be so fat being part of this church, everything is over a meal. Saying that the people were working so hard packing down equipment that they must have to eat loads. Dave asked me if I could stay and help so I did. I have never seen people work so hard for no pay. I had a real feeling they were doing all of this just for me.

I came to church because I had already seen something different in Dave. I have since found out its not something, it is someone. My perceptions were broken down by the NCLC community and because of what happened I also met Jesus. I had so much that needed forgiving in my life and am on a journey of getting to know God. My life has been so much about me and my needs. This church has given me a glimpse of someone bigger than myself. I will never be the same again.

Hope its ok but I have already asked people to come along next week. I hope my experience wasn't a one off.

So thank you

Mark


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