ltimately leads to our fulfillment and healing.Recently, one of our younger members (Jessica), said she thought it would be good to have a tea party, so some of the girls got together one afternoon for tea ... how english!
I think some people clearly long for an excuse to get dressed up, and didn't they look beautiful! I am sure that there may well be a repeat of this in the future!Carol and I find ourselves being spoken to again and again by God through the new growth that is coming through in our back garden. We love this time of year, the climate is beautiful - warm but not too muggy yet. To see life coming forth is very exciting. I have included an early picture of our garden, but in another month it will look very
different. Already we have been splitting out some plants that have grown quickly and spreading them around the garden to parts that are more bare - what a great picture of how the kingdom of heaven is meant to infiltrate and affect the world. It can seem costly and risky to be split off from those we have grown up with and 'planted out' on our own to reproduce, yet surely this is the most natural thing, a God-given calling.
We also decided one day (somewhat randomly) to dig up part of the dog run which is a little out of sight anyway, and plant some things we could actually eat. Wesley the dog is getting a little too old to do much running around anyway and is certainly a house dog! So, we have taken another risk and planted tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, onions, more tomatoes, basil, english peas, cucumber, zucchini, yellow and acorn squash and cilantro. Mike even put together a home-made growth-box from instructions he found on the internet. This was how we started but decided to branch out.
This week is Rez Week on the campus of the University of Texas - an early celebration of Easter. Neil Cole is one of the keynote speakers and a few of us from BridgePoint will be spending time with him tonight. Neil's message has been quite instrumental in what we are doing here at BridgePoint - the importance of multiplication of the life of Christ in us through relational/community discipleship. Our desire is to take the model given my Jesus in Luke 10/Matthew 10 and see the kingdom extended through planting simple, easily-reproducible faith communities (aka 'church') in the homes of seekers/new believers. The exciting thing is that everyone can play a part, and needs to. One thing Neil often says is that we have raised the bar so high in terms of how we do church to make it so complex and professional that only a few are able to pull it off. At the same time we have lowered to bar of discipleship to make it popular and to draw a crowd. These two need to be reversed.
Last Sunday at our monthly network worship gathering, we chose to do Good Friday early and focus upon the cross. Instead of a block of worship and my preaching, we took a risk and asked everyone to join one of six groups, which they felt was closest to their passion/gifting. These were drama, song/psalmody, prayer/prophecy, painting/drawing, teaching and story-telling. Each group was given a facet of the cross to explore together and then to present to the rest of us using their gifting. It was thrilling to see people engaged, praying together, sharing and ultimately presenting to the rest of us. We saw tremendous creativity and experienced beautiful anointing. Many who would rarely speak in this context got a chance to extend themselves and to share.
I continue to look for ways to support the family financially. Recently we invited over for dinner a couple we had met through the ministry of Intimate Life. During the evening the guy was talking about the work being done by the Center for Relational Leadership within ILM. They work with one large company and a few smaller ones seeking to coach their management and supervisory staff in relational principles for the workplace - what you might call 'loving your neighbor as yourself'! Early this morning I went up to the retreat center just to sit in on a talk by their CEO and was amazed to hear him talking about learning to care for and love one another ... not to a church group but to managerial teams from different States here in the US. It was a most unusual (i.e. new for me) but exciting experience. There is a possibility that I may be able to help in some coaching work - but there is some extended training I would have to do beforehand (unpaid) and I need to see how I can find the time to do this, particularly in light of my other part-time job. Please pray for me in this. If I have to do 'tent-making' work, I would much rather be doing something like this than processing purchase orders on a computer screen.
Please pray for us also as we seek to follow the Lord's leading to equip and release the saints to do the work of ministry and see the gospel spread by multiplying this life in us through relational discipleship. There are many challenges without and within, but by the grace of God ....
We appreciate your support, your partnership and your prayers.
Much love,
Mike.
