We’re off on Sunday (28th Feb) traveling to Ndola, Zambia to meet with a group of pastors from Zambia and the DRC. The plan is to meet seeking God for a strategic plan to work together in order to reach Zambia with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We will be attempting to blog our trip. You can follow at http://andycott.tumblr.com/ where there should be daily updates featuring the sights and sounds of Zambia.

Church Planting in Zambia from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

I had a great opportunity to publicize the Lusaka church planting plans for 2010. If you want to get involved please contact us at admin@tcch.org.uk.

Thanks to http://adrianwarnock.com for the opportunity.

TOAM BRIGHTON 2009

Once again ‘Together on a Mission’ was outstanding! Personally very moved to hear what God is doing around the world. One story that was both inspirational and amazing:

A young girl from Lesotho (Lesotho is one of the poorest nations on earth) who most had ignored was saved and began to feel called to serve God in the UK. She pursued this impression from God and trained as a nurse. As her wages improved she started sending money back to the church in Clarens. When she returned home for holidays she would consistently serve in the church.

She noticed the community in Lesotho had serious transportation problems, even for simple things like getting their weekly shopping so, even though she earned relatively little she has bought a 40 seater bus from Japan (via the internet) and had it exported to Lesotho where it will be used by both church and community.

This is empowerment of the poor!!

So many, many amazing and wonderful stories of God’s love and power. We really can do more together than we can apart.

More soon

famine?

Back in January we started a sermon series based on the story of Joseph.

This week, as we near the end of the series, we turn to the famine. Joseph was to provide salvation from the effects of this catastrophe. God had long been preparing Joseph for the moment he would be thrust from the prison into the palace. He goes from prisoner to prime minister in the most dramatic rags to riches story in history.

Joseph, of course, has no idea this is about to happen. As far as he knows there could be many more years of obscurity ahead.

His decision to be faithful in the privacy of his prison cell saved many thousands of lives. He also provided food for his own family and kept God’s people and the promise of a messiah alive.

Decisions made in private can have global effects!!

We have the privilege of having our lives woven into God’s plan to rescue mankind from an eternity without Him. We can feel, like Joseph must have felt at times, abandoned by God and rejected by men. The danger when we feel like that is we can abandon our walk with God and sin, making poor decisions based on bad motivations.

Our government is in the midst of the worst crisis in generations the cause has been bad moral choices made in private. For generations the families of these disgraced MPs will suffer the consequences.

The famine we face is not a lack of food but rather a famine of truth, righteousness and love. God continues to prepare his people to participate in His great rescue mission. Our private decisions continue to have global consequences.

On our arrival back from South Africa in 2003 we were stunned by how the UK and presumably the US as well had become addicted to money. Every other advert on the TV was offering jaw-dropping sums for loan. Even more sickening was the appearance of a whole range of TV shows offering to sell your family heirloom’s for ‘cash’. It seemed to us that the whole country had been reduced to it’s base value in pounds and pence. Even people’s homes were no longer homes but cash-cows to be milked to death for money. The God of money or Mammon as the bible calls it was alive, well and ‘kicking ass’ in the western world.

2008 saw this god die. This is the fate of all gods, who are no gods at all.

The issue I want you to think about today is that with the death of this god our attention can be drawn away form the real issues facing humanity.

People (outside of Christ) are in far deeper trouble than a credit crunch, however severe. If you don’t think this statement is true you don’t understand the gospel!

We have a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to restore the church and build the Kingdom of God, serving both our own generation and many to come. To be side-tracked at this point, to be consumed by our inability to be consumers would be a foolish error.

Our commission and our great God are alive and ready for action. Be a good soldier and fight!!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

The new web site Newfrontiers Church Planting outlines a strategic plan to plant in the UK. Can I take this opportunity and encourage you to read and engage with this excellent vision.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

1 John 3:16

I had the privilege of attending the Newfrontiers prayer & fasting event this last week. There is always such a sense of God speaking during these times (Approximately 700 pastors praying and fasting for two days). With the opportunity to hear news from the UK and around the world comes many jaw-dropping moments, my jaw dropped as news of church plants in many capital cities around the world were announced. Many of these are capitals that Christians might consider no-go areas because of their commitment to other religions.

As the news was shared about one such city those who had been to visit (the small group of Christians who are already there) told of how they had, of nesessity discussed what their approach would be to their own safty. They had options; to remain indoors and unseen, to travel only with a recognised driver/body guard or the approach they actually took which was to move about freely and stand with the local chrstians as much as possible.

Their conclusion to act like this was based on the verse we started with, and these are their words.

‘We’ve not been called to save our lives but to lay them down’

This is, of course, following Jesus great example.

Lex is an evangelist and elder at Jubilee Community Church in Cape Town, South Africa. He speaks widely amongst our family of churches in Newfrontiers as well as leading the Front Edge initiatives, around the world.

He is writing here under the sub-heading ‘highlights from church history’ and not only is he very well researched but you’ll finish reading encouraged to share your faith, preach the gospel and change the world.