Podcasts about gospel service

My Story   Talk 16   Ministry in Basingstoke (1968-78) Part 1 Welcome to Talk 16 in our series where I'm reflecting on God's goodness throughout my life. Today I'm going to begin by telling you how in January 1968 we came to move from Colchester to Basingstoke.   During 1967, as part of my SPF travels, I was preaching in Oxford when an old friend from the Elim church asked to see me. He was hoping that an Assemblies of God church might be planted there and wanted to find out if I would be interested in coming to take over its leadership. I told him that I would pray about it but that my initial reaction was that I did not feel any sense of leading in that direction.   Some weeks later, I had an unexpected phone call from my friend Michael Collins who, as I have already mentioned, was a fellow student with me at Oxford and part of the original SPF group there. He told me that he had heard from Oxford that I might be thinking of leaving Colchester and that, if that were the case, he wanted to sound out whether I might be interested in coming to Basingstoke.   He explained that they were looking for a pastor and would like to invite me to come and preach one Sunday. The church had not had a pastor for three years and numbers had dwindled to only 12 people. Although they were not able to pay me much, the potential was great, as they had a new building on a large piece of land and Basingstoke had a rapidly expanding population.   This was an exciting challenge, but numbers at Colchester were now around 80 and I was relatively well paid. Did I really want to take on another small church and take a substantial drop in income? And did we really want to leave behind the many friends we had made at Colchester? So I told him that I did not think it likely that the Lord would move me from Colchester but that if they wanted me to preach for one Sunday I would be happy to do so.   As far as moving there permanently was concerned, I determined in my heart that I would only consider it if I received a unanimous invitation from the members of the church. We would also need them to provide housing for us, as the salary they were likely to offer would be far too low for us to be able to get a mortgage.   These matters were discussed when I went to preach there, and the financial position was clarified. The church's income was £14 a week. £8 of this was taken up with mortgage repayments on the new church building and, if they needed to provide us with accommodation, the remaining £6 would be taken up with that. So anything they could offer me would be an act of faith on their part – and required not a little faith on my part too!   In the circumstances, I thought it highly unlikely that they would be able to meet the criteria I had set, but 100% of the members did vote to invite me, and after a couple of months I heard that they had been able to purchase a house for us. Taking this to be the will of the Lord, we informed the friends at Colchester of our decision, sold our bungalow, and moved to Basingstoke in January 1968. The move to Basingstoke went smoothly and the house the church provided, a typical three-bedroomed semi-detached, had the advantage of central heating, a luxury we had not been used to. With the profit we made on the sale of our bungalow in Colchester, we were able to have new fitted carpets throughout, and to buy furniture for the lounge as well. We also bought a small second-hand car, having left the minibus in Colchester.   We were welcomed warmly by the church members, and the building was packed for my Induction Service with people from other churches who had come to show their support. The speaker was Billy Richards, the AoG pastor at Slough, in his capacity as Chairman of the West London District Council. His cousin, Bill Mitchell, who was an elder in the church, was at the piano, and we were inspired by his God-given talent and grateful for his commitment to play at every meeting. Other key people were the deacons, Janet Collins (Church Secretary), John Nicholson (Treasurer), David Moncaster (Sunday School Superintendent), and Michael Collins.   Another person who was present at the Induction Service and to become an asset to the church was William Kay, who had written to me asking advice as to how he could serve the Lord after he had graduated from Oxford. As he had come to Christ while he was at university and had had no real experience of life in a local church, I told him that this should be his first priority and made a few suggestions as to where he might go, adding as a PS that I was moving to Basingstoke and that he might like to come and help with the work there. Which he did, and within a few months a young schoolteacher, Anthea Bell, was to join our church and eventually become William's wife and a great asset to the church.   At the beginning of our time there, Eileen's primary role, of course, was looking after Debbie and Sarah, who were still under school age, and then Jonathan who was born in October 1970. However, she was soon to find an outlet for her ministry when we started our church pre-school playgroup, but more of that later.   Niggling doubts So overall there was much to encourage us during our first few months at Basingstoke, but we were missing Colchester and both Eileen and I were having doubts as to whether we had done the right thing in moving. Part of the reason for this was that when I had given up my teaching job we'd had real confirmation about it through the gifts of the Spirit, but we'd had no such confirmation about moving to Basingstoke. Could we have really missed the will of God on such an important matter?   The answer came in a posthumously published article in Redemption Tidings written by Donald Gee. He was talking about how a church should choose a pastor (and, by implication, how a pastor should choose a church). He said that such matters should be determined by sound judgment and sanctified common sense, and not by the operation of spiritual gifts. And this came from the pen of a world-renowned Pentecostal leader and author of Concerning Spiritual Gifts.    This was just the reassurance I needed, and I later came to realise that God's will is not difficult. By definition, God wants his will, and if we really want it, he will ensure that we get it! We will prove his good and perfect and acceptable will if our lives are truly consecrated to his service (Romans 12:1-2).   Church growth And, of course, one major aspect of God's will is that he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). In the years we were there, Basingstoke was the fastest growing town in England and there was a vast harvest field on our doorstep waiting to be reaped. We sought to do this in three main ways – personal evangelism, evangelistic missions, and children's and youth work.   Personal evangelism In those days the primary way of seeking to win others for Jesus was to invite people to church where they would hear the gospel. This was something we did every Sunday night in our Gospel Service, even if very often the only people there were already Christians. However, even if today it's easy to criticise this style of evangelism, it did have the advantage of regularly reminding Christians of what the gospel is and the urgency of proclaiming it.   But clearly the Gospel Service approach to evangelism would not be enough. Neither would a leaflet inviting people to our meetings, unless of course it contained a clear gospel message. Jesus did not command his disciples to go into all the world and invite people to gospel meetings. He commanded them, and he commands us, to go into all the world and preach. God's people needed to be trained how to do so.   While I was at Colchester I had completed a course on personal evangelism produced by Billy Richards and I had found this very helpful. So I decided that in our Wednesday night Bible Studies I would teach the people at Basingstoke the principles I had learned from this. We then embarked on a programme of door-to-door work, conducting a ‘religious opinion survey', and found that most people were willing to share their views with us and for us to share the gospel with them. Admittedly, not many came to church as a result, but at least they had heard the gospel.     Evangelistic Missions But our biggest attempt at reaching people with the gospel was in 1970 when we organised a fortnight's evangelistic and healing mission conducted by evangelist Melvin Banks. I invited Melvin for two reasons. First, he was clearly gifted as an evangelist, and I had come to understand that my own gift was predominantly that of a teacher. And secondly, because remarkable results were being reported of hundreds being saved and healed through Melvin's ministry, and I strongly believe that healing is one of the signs that God gives us to confirm the message of the gospel.       In preparation for his coming, we spent months training the people for this big event, which was to be held in the Basingstoke Town Hall, not in our church, and got them ready for an intensive follow-up programme of personal visitation to the homes of those who made a decision for Christ. We printed thousands of leaflets which were designed by Melvin and which majored strongly on some of the many miracles he had seen in his ministry.   Not surprisingly, on the very first night the Town Hall was packed. Melvin did not preach about healing. He preached salvation. And to my amazement, when he made the gospel appeal, 57 people raised their hand. And then he prayed for the sick.  And miracles happened. It was the same every night throughout the fortnight, and by the end over 600 people had signed decision cards.   I thought we were experiencing a real revival! But sadly, when our team of trained follow-up workers visited their homes, it became apparent that the vast majority had not really understood what they were doing. They had come to the meetings because they wanted to be healed and that was why they had raised their hands, even though, to be fair to the evangelist, the message he preached was not about healing, but salvation.   Out of the 600 who had raised their hands, only 12 people were added to our church. Of course, we thanked God for the 12, and we had the satisfaction of knowing that the others had at least heard the gospel, but the sense of disappointment among our people was palpable. And I came to the conclusion that at least part of the problem was the advertising.   People with a longstanding physical ailment will understandably try anything to relieve their suffering, and that's what they have in mind throughout the meeting, even while the evangelist is preaching. They are prepared to do anything he tells them to, so when he tells them to raise their hand, they do, but it's a mistake to assume that that means they are saved. And as I thought more about it I realised that Jesus and the apostles did not advertise their healings. Their healings were the advertising.   So, somewhat disillusioned by this style of evangelism, it was six years before I decided to invite another evangelist for a series of meetings. I eventually asked my old pastor, Alfred Webb – who was really an evangelist rather than a pastor – if he would come and do a week's teaching on personal evangelism followed by a week of meetings where he would preach the gospel. And this time I encouraged the people to pray for an outstanding miracle of healing that would take place before the evangelist came.   And those prayers were answered in a rather dramatic way the Sunday after Easter. It was the evening service, and I was preaching about Thomas. He was the disciple who had been absent when Jesus, three days after he was crucified, appeared to his disciples on Easter Sunday. When the other disciples told Thomas that Jesus was alive, he simply refused to believe it. It was impossible!   But a week later Jesus appeared to him too and showed him the wounds in his hands and feet. I remember saying something to the effect that the same Jesus whom Thomas had been able to see and touch was present with us right now even though we could not see him.   After the sermon, as we sang a closing song, a middle-aged woman walked – I should say hobbled – to the front of the church. This was a complete surprise to me as she had never been to our church before and I had not invited people to come forward for prayer, as we sometimes do. Neither had I mentioned healing.   So I went to her and asked: Can I help you? She responded by saying: If Jesus is present as you say he is can he heal me now? Immediately I knew that this was the miracle we had been praying for. He can and he does! I said. Be healed in the name of Jesus!   And she RAN back down the aisle, instantaneously and completely healed. I found out later that her name was Ruby. She and her husband, John, both became Christians and members of our church.   And when we produced the leaflets that would inform people about the visit of Alfred Webb, we told Ruby's story and used it to point out that we all have a greater need than the healing of our bodies. What really matters is the healing of our souls, the forgiveness of our sins, which is available to all who will come to Jesus.   While Alfred Webb was with us about 20 people made decisions for Christ and about 12 of them were added to the church – a far higher percentage than the 12 out of 600 people who had signed decisions cards in the Melvin Banks meetings.                

My Story Talk 15 Ministry at Colchester 1962-68 Part 3 Welcome to Talk 15 in our series where I am reflecting on God's goodness to me throughout my life. Today is the final talk about our ministry in Colchester between 1962 and 1968. These were the first few years of our married life and so far I have shared with you about the birth of our first two children, our housing, employment, holidays and transport.   We have talked about the growth of the church and the reasons for it, testified to an outstanding miracle, explained how I got to know more about Assemblies of God, and how God called me to give up my teaching job and go into full-time ministry.   Today I'll be sharing first how this led me into a wider ministry, and concluding with two important lessons I felt God was beginning to teach me.   A wider ministry – the Students' Pentecostal Fellowship If I had thought initially that God's purpose in leading me into full-time ministry was just so that I could give more time to the local church, I was soon to learn otherwise. It certainly did that, but I soon began to receive invitations to preach in churches at weekend conventions, and, more significantly, to speak in Coleford at a National Day School Teachers' Conference on the relevance of the baptism in the Holy Spirit in day school teaching today.   It was there I met members of the AoG Home Missions Council and the National Youth Council who, if I remember correctly, had jointly organised the conference. The invitation came, no doubt, not only because I was a pastor who had until recently been a schoolteacher, but also because of my ministry in praying for people to receive the baptism and my role in the Students' Pentecostal Fellowship.   I have already mentioned how, while I was at Oxford, I was asked to share my testimony at the AoG National Youth Rally held in the Birmingham Town Hall and to contribute an article in Redemption Tidings entitled Pentecost in Oxford University. So I was by no means unknown in the wider fellowship, and it was probably not surprising that, when Richard Bolt resigned as Travelling Secretary of the SPF, I should be asked to take over his role of visiting colleges and universities, preaching and praying for students to be filled with the Spirit, which of course would not have been possible if I had remained in school teaching.   Universities where I conducted meetings on those early SPF travels included Oxford, Cambridge, Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham, Durham, and Newcastle. Later, after I had left Colchester, I also preached in the University of Louvain (Leuven) in Belgium, and in 1972 in the majority of universities in the state of Illinois.   The purpose of all these meetings was to tell people about the baptism in the Spirit, explain why it was biblical, and to pray for them to receive as I laid hands on them at the close of the gathering. Among the many who received were the chaplain of Queen's College, Cambridge, and William Kay a student at Trinity College, Oxford, who had come to Christ at a Billy Graham meeting in London.   Valentine Cunningham, a student at Keble College, and the son of an AoG pastor, invited William to a meeting he had organised where I was to preach on the baptism in the Spirit. After he graduated he became a member of my church in Basingstoke, a close friend, a lecturer at Mattersey Hall Bible College, and a university professor who has contributed much to Pentecostal education around the world.   Val Cunningham went on to become Professor of English at Oxford and was a great help to me when I wrote Be Filled with the Spirit, a booklet published by the SPF, which proved to be the springboard for my ministry as an author.   Other former SPF members who became professors were John Miles and Michael Collins. John, after spending some years as a missionary in Congo became Professor of French at Wheaton, and Michael, after serving as SPF General Secretary, became Professor of Engineering at City University, London.   He was succeeded as SPF General Secretary by Andrew Parfitt, who after spending years in school teaching, became an AoG minister, as did Jeff Clarke who received the baptism under my ministry while he was a student at Oxford, and David Littlewood who received while was a student at Essex.   It is clear from all this that during the course of my lifetime Pentecostals have moved on from being suspicious of higher education to embracing it and playing an active role within it. This will become even clearer when we consider in a later talk the educational developments in our Bible Colleges.   Lessons I learnt at Colchester Of course, I myself had never been to Bible College. And although I had received excellent teaching from my father and from Leslie Moxham, my pastor at Elm Park Baptist, I had received no formal training for ministry, and back then there was no provision in Assemblies of God for supervision from a more experienced minister. So I was very much learning on the job and was conscious of my need for the guidance, help, and the enabling of the Holy Spirit.   But my experience at Colchester taught me many lessons. The most significant of these was learning to trust God for our needs after I had relinquished my secular employment, which I have already mentioned. But there were two other areas the importance of which I began to understand more clearly. These were:   o   the nature of the ministry God had given me o   the importance of a balanced theology of healing.        The nature of the ministry God had given me In my teens I had been greatly impressed by the ministry of Billy Graham. I had seen thousands of people walk forward in response to his appeals for salvation. Surely this kind of evangelism must be the answer and, when I felt the call to the ministry at the age of 16, I soon began to have dreams of becoming an evangelist. Later, after I was baptised in the Spirit, I came to see the importance of healing in evangelism and, as I have mentioned previously, was greatly influenced by Richard Bolt who was seeing remarkable healings in his evangelistic crusades.  And at that time the American Pentecostal evangelist T. L. Osborn had made his books on healing available to students free of charge and I had read them avidly.   So I now wanted to be a healing evangelist, a desire which was evident in the two evangelistic and healing missions I conducted at Colchester. And that was why, although I shared with others the responsibility of preaching and teaching on Sunday mornings and midweek Bible Studies, I always did the preaching at the Sunday evening Gospel Service.   But when Harold Womersley, veteran missionary of the Congo Evangelisitc Mission visited us on itinerary, he asked me – purely out of interest, I think – about what I was teaching at our Bible Study meetings. And when I told him that, when it was my turn, I just gave whatever word the Lord had put on my heart, he graciously suggested that as the pastor it was my responsibility the feed the flock by regular and systematic teaching of the truths of God's word.   This, I think, would have been at about the time that I had given up my school teaching job, and so, taking his words to heart, I set about planning various series of weekly Bible studies, and I discovered that I really enjoyed it and, to my surprise, so did those who came to hear me. It was gradually dawning on me that my primary ministry was not to be evangelism – though I have not been totally unsuccessful in that area – but teaching.   Of course, I had no idea then how that teaching gift would eventually be expressed not only in churches, but also as a Bible College principal and as a writer. But that brings me to another closely related lesson I began to learn at Colchester, the importance of a biblically balanced doctrine of healing.   The importance of a balanced theology of healing As I mentioned at the beginning of this series, ever since my father told me of the healing of my aunt who had been deaf and dumb from birth, I have always believed that God still works miracles of healing today. I grew up with the belief that everyone could be healed if only they had enough faith and that the lack of miracles today was entirely due to lack of faith.   This understanding was confirmed by the teaching of Richard Bolt and the books of T.L.Osborn and was directly related to the doctrine that Jesus died not only for our sins, but for our sicknesses too. We can claim our healing in just the same way as we can claim forgiveness of sins, and all because Jesus died for us. I embraced this teaching wholeheartedly, and that is what I preached.   But my experience as a pastor in Colchester didn't always seem to confirm this doctrine. It was great when we saw people healed, but what could I say to those who were not? Did I really have to tell them that the reason they were not healed was lack of faith, or that there must be some unconfessed sin in their life? And whereas this might apply in some cases, it surely was not true of all?   I simply could not believe, for example, that when Jack Joliffe was diagnosed with a cancer that first disfigured him and eventually destroyed him, it happened because of lack of faith or some secret sin. I knew him too well. He was a godly man, full of faith, and an elder of our church. It's all too easy for evangelists to preach these doctrines and then move on, while pastors are left with the care of Christians who have not been healed and have been wounded by the teaching that if they are sick it is somehow their fault.   But it is not my intention in this talk to repeat what I have already said at length elsewhere. My rejection of this view is comprehensively explained in my Ph.D. thesis, Healing and the Atonement, where I argue that, although there is a sense in which healing may rightly be understood to be in the atonement, it is not true to say that Jesus died for our sicknesses in exactly they same way that he died for our sins. I have also explained this in my book Just a Taste of Heaven – a biblical and balanced approach to God's healing power, which is available from my website www.davidpetts.org.   I simply mention it here because it was at Colchester that I began to question what I had previously believed about healing. Of course, we mustn't build our doctrine on our experience, but if our experience doesn't tally with our doctrine it's always good to consider whether we've understood the scriptures correctly.   So I was learning important lessons at Colchester which were to stand me in good stead for the next ten years when we would be pastoring the assembly in Basingstoke. Life is a continuing process of learning and sometimes unlearning, and Basingstoke was no exception. Next time I'll begin by telling you how we came to move there.  

Philippians - Gospel Citizens - 8. Gospel ServicePassage: Philippians 2v19-30Speaker: Reg Morrish

My Story  Talk 13 Ministry at Colchester (1962-68) Part 1 Our time at Colchester saw the arrival of our first two children, Deborah in 1964 and Sarah, fifteen months later in 1965. Apart from the birth of the girls, the most significant aspects of our time in Colchester were the growth of the church, my ministry beyond the local church, and the lessons the experience taught me.  In this talk I'll be dealing mainly with the growth of the church, but first a word about practical things like employment, housing, holidays, and transport.   Employment, housing, holidays, and transport Before we were married, Eileen had been working in the Dagenham education office, and on moving to Colchester she found an excellent job in the education office there, which was within walking distance of our new home. She was soon promoted to a highly responsible administrative position which she held until shortly before Debbie was born.   As for me, although the church was contributing £5 a week towards the rent of our bungalow, it was essential that, for the time being at least, I find full-time secular employment. For the first year, the nearest RE (Religious Education) teaching post available was in Braintree which necessitated a thirty-mile round trip every day.   However, a year later a post became available in Colchester at the Alderman Blaxill Secondary School, a little over a mile from our church and a similar distance from our home. In those days the RE syllabus was based almost entirely on the Bible, so lesson preparation was not difficult, and I became very much aware that teaching 300 children every week was an important part of my ministry. I will say more later about how the Lord remarkably blessed that work, but how in 1966 the Lord called me to give up the teaching job and give myself full-time to the work of the church.   The rent for the bungalow we were living in was about £28 a month, which sounds ridiculously low by today's prices, but it didn't seem so then bearing in mind that my monthly salary as a teacher was only £60!  However, we soon discovered that some new houses were being built nearer to our church and that as a schoolteacher I could get a 100% mortgage to buy one. The monthly repayments would be just £18, £10 less than we were already paying in rent.   The only problem was that the builders required a £20 deposit to secure the plot. Eileen had £20 saved up to buy a hoover, which we desperately needed, and we were wondering what to do, when my mother, not knowing anything about our plans to buy a new property, phoned to say that she was buying a new hoover and asked if we would we like her old one, which was in perfectly good condition. We saw this as a clear sign that the Lord was prompting us to make the move, and we paid the £20 deposit and moved into our new home in August, 1963.   My parents also moved in 1963. They had been living in Hornchurch since before I was born, and now I was married they decided to move to a new bungalow in Eastwood, not far from Southend-on-Sea. So when the children came along we were grateful for our holidays to be visits to our parents who were equally pleased to have an opportunity to spend time with their grandchildren. Eileen's parents were still living in Hornchurch, and it was always good to see them, but my parents' home in Eastwood, with its proximity to the sea and the beautiful view of open countryside to the rear of the property was especially inviting. We usually travelled there on a Monday and returned on the Saturday so as not to leave the church unattended on Sundays.   But that brings me to the subject of transport. During the course of my ministry, I have owned or had the use of some fifty different vehicles, ranging from my first car, a Ford Prefect, which I bought during my final term at Oxford, to my recently acquired nine-year-old Mercedes E-Class saloon. The Ford Prefect broke down in the cold winter of 1963 when the snow lay on the ground throughout January, February and most of March.   I was on my way to school in Braintree when it happened, and I quickly decided that I needed something more reliable. That was when we bought our fourth Lambretta scooter, reliable because it was new, but extremely uncomfortable and at times difficult to control in that freezing weather. So it wasn't long before I was back in a car again.   In the summer I borrowed an old Bradbury van from the father of some of the children coming to our meetings. He said we could have it for the day to take them to the seaside. Unfortunately, it broke down on the way home and I was left with about a dozen kids on the roadside. As I was wondering and praying what to do, a man came by in a Humber Hawk and asked if he could help. It was a large car and somehow he bundled all the kids on to the back seat and, with me beside him in the front, kindly drove us all back home.   But that gave me an idea. Maybe I should get a Humber and use it for children's work! I looked in the local paper and saw an ad for a Humber Super Snipe, even larger than the Hawk. It was over ten years old, but I had read somewhere that if you're buying a second-hand car it might be wise to get a big one. It might cost a bit more in fuel, but the engine was more likely to be reliable! Which has been my excuse for buying big cars ever since!   So I bought it for £80 and discovered that it did 11 to the gallon in town and, if you were lucky, 19 on a run! But it did the job, and I remember on one occasion squeezing eighteen kids into it to get them to Sunday School! It was only a short distance, and I realise now how potentially dangerous that was. But in those days ‘risk assessment' had not been invented and there was no requirement to wear a seatbelt. In fact, there were no seatbelts. Piling people into the back of a van or lorry was quite common, but of course there was far less traffic on the roads back then. And if it did enter our head that something might be risky, we just trusted the Lord to take care of us!   But it soon became obvious that we needed something more suited to the task, and I traded in my Humber for a 12-seater minibus. And before long we were running four minibuses to bring people to the meetings as one person after another, following my example, exchanged their car for one. Everything we have belongs to the Lord, and if changing our car for a minibus will lead to more people coming to Christ, we should surely be prepared to do so. The commitment of such people was undoubtedly one of the reasons for the growth of the church while we were there, and that's where we turn to next.   The growth of the church The Full Gospel Mission, Straight Road, Lexden, was nothing more than a tin hut with the potential to seat at most eighty people. When Eileen and I arrived, there were only twelve regular attenders, and that included a family of four who emigrated to Australia not long after our arrival, leaving us with a congregation of eight. By the time we left, the church was packed every Sunday with eighty regular attenders, which, in the 1960s was considered rapid growth, and my main purpose in this section is to explore the reasons why. But first, a word about the church programme.   Church programme When we arrived in Colchester we inherited what was a typical programme for AoG churches in those days. On Sunday mornings there was the Breaking of Bread service, otherwise known as Communion. There was a Sunday School for the children in the afternoon, and on Sunday evenings there was the Gospel Service where all the hymns and the sermon were designed to bring people to Christ, and after which there would be laying on of hands and prayer for the sick.   Midweek on Tuesday evenings there was a Children's Meeting from six to seven followed by a Prayer Meeting at nine, and on Thursday evenings there was Bible Study. There was no meeting for young people until we started one on a Friday, but more of that later.   The attendance at these meetings was far from encouraging. In fact, during our first year at Colchester, the Sunday School and Children's Meeting were attended by only a handful of children, and the midweek meetings for adults were hardly better. On Sundays, if we had visitors, numbers might rise to fifteen. I faithfully preached the gospel every Sunday evening, but in that year we saw not one single decision for Christ, largely because most Sundays everyone present was already a Christian.   Apart from the weekly programme, there was the church's Annual Convention when a guest speaker would be invited for the weekend and friends from surrounding Pentecostal churches would come for the two meetings held on the Saturday. It was good to see the building full and to hear some of the pioneers of the Pentecostal Movement like Howard and John Carter. But while these occasions were a real encouragement, they hardly made up for the weeks throughout the year when so few were attending. So what made the difference in the remaining years where we saw our numbers multiply significantly?   Reasons for growth It is the Lord who builds his church, and in my view, the major reason for the growth of the church was, without a doubt, the fact that he strategically placed me as an RE teacher in a local school where I was free to teach the young people about Jesus. That, combined with the fact that he sent me key people to help me start a Youth Meeting on a Friday night, resulted in dozens of decisions for Christ, many of whom started to come on Sundays.   It all started when I received an invitation to preach at the Youth Meeting in the Colchester Elim Church. After the meeting a couple of people in their early twenties asked me if we had a Youth Meeting at our church, and I said that I'd like to start one but that I had no musician. To which they responded by offering to help me. David Fletcher was an able guitarist and John Ward an excellent accordion player. Together with their fiancées, Jean and Sandra, who were good singers, they made a great group for leading worship and were, quite literally, a Godsend.   All this, in the providence of God, coincided with my starting teaching in the local school and with a girl called Corinne, one of the children from a family in our church, starting there too. She provided the link between my RE lessons and the local church. I told the children about Jesus, and she told her friends where they could find out more.   So we launched our new Youth Meeting by hiring a couple of coaches to provide transport to the church from just outside the school gates. My new friends from Elim provided the music and I preached. In school I had been able to tell them about Jesus, but I couldn't make a gospel appeal in RE lessons! Now, in church, I had complete freedom, and on the very first night, when I made the appeal forty-one children made a decision for Christ.   And when a number of them started coming on Sundays, on one occasion eleven of them being baptised in the Holy Spirit, there was a new sense of expectancy among the older members. They were thrilled to see young people in their meetings, and that began to attract people from other churches too, including David and Jean, John and Sandra, who decided to join us because of their work with the youth.   Of course, our attempts to reach people with the gospel were not limited to the young people. I produced a quarterly newsletter which we called The Full Gospel Mission VOICE. We distributed thousands of these to the homes in the area, using my minibus on a Saturday morning to transport ten or so young people to deliver them street by street throughout the area. I can think of only one person who came to Christ through that ministry, but at least we knew that people had had an opportunity to read the gospel even if they never came to church.   After I had given up my teaching job, I also conducted two evangelistic missions in our church. Each mission lasted from a Saturday through to the following Sunday. We leafleted far and wide, each leaflet containing a message about healing as well as salvation, and, of course, details of the meetings. The meetings were well attended, but mainly by Christians who wanted prayer for healing, and although there were a few decisions for Christ and some healings, I have no memory of anyone being added to our church as a result.   And an SPF mission we conducted in Wivenhoe, a village near Colchester next to which the new University of Essex was about to be built, fared little better. It was a great experience for the students who participated, but there were very few local people who attended. Apart, that is, from Ian and Janet Balfour, a couple from a Strict Baptist background, who came to support us, got to know us, were baptised in the Spirit as a result, and decided to move to a house less than five minutes' walk from our church. They had four children all under the age of five, one of whom was Glenn, later to come as a student to Mattersey Hall, and, for a time after my principalship, its principal. The Lord clearly had a purpose in our going to Wivenhoe, even if, at the time, we felt rather disappointed with the results.   And Ian and Janet were not the only people added to our church as a result of receiving the baptism in the Spirit. Alan Coe, who was a work colleague of John Ward and had recently become a Christian, came along to our meetings, received the baptism, and joined our church. He proved a very faithful member, and when I was in contact with him recently was still attending regularly. David Littlewood, a former Methodist, later to become an AoG minister and a member of Mattersey's Board of Governors, was also baptised in the Spirit in our church while he was a student at the University of Essex.   But the ministry the Lord had given me of praying for people to be filled with the Spirit was not limited to those who would become members of our church. I had the privilege of laying hands on Reginald East, the vicar of West Mersea, and on Mike Eavery, the minister of the local Congregational Church and seeing them both baptised in the Spirit in their homes.   So the Lord was blessing us in ways that perhaps we had not expected, and if the results of the evangelistic missions we conducted were rather disappointing, he was showing us that the key to growth was to follow the supernatural leading of the Holy Spirit. Miracles happen as he determines, and I was certainly not expecting what happened one Saturday evening.   But I'll tell you about that next time.  

A brief series on the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. What does this mean for us as individuals, and how does it affect the life of the local church? ‘We are priests to the world. We should pray for our unbelieving family and friends, for our nation, leaders and even our enemies.' #PriesthoodofallBelievers #preachingthegospel #sacrifice #drinkoffering #service #prayer #intercession #incense #Psalm141v2 #Joel2v17 #Romans15v16 #2Corinthians5v20 #Philippians2v17 #1Timothy2v1-4 #Revelation5v8 Overview of the themes and key passages from the book of Hosea followed by preaching suggestions in the “Bible Survey” series. #BibleSurvey #OldTestament #Hosea #MinorProphets #sermons #Godslove #Israel #laws #worship #Canaan #sinfulness #repent #churchhistory #backsliding #Godsjudgement #Assyrians #slowtoanger #restoration #exile #JewaandGentile #Christonlysaviour #Hosea11v1-11 #Romans11 For more audio from GBM, visit www.gbm.org.uk/listen To contact us, please email servingtoday@gbm.org.uk  

Acts 20:17–24 records Paul's final words to the elders of the church in Ephesus. Standing on the shore, he reflects on his ministry among them, urging them to continue in the example he has set. At the heart of this passage is Paul's deep love for the Lord Jesus, his devotion to the people of God, and his unwavering commitment to the ongoing work of the gospel. In this “Gospel Goodbye,” we hear an echo of what should be the passion of every believer throughout history: 1. A Life of Gospel Service, 2. The Labor of Gospel Ministry, and 3. A Longing for Gospel Reward.

1. A Solemn Responsibility 2. A Sincere Opportunity3. A Sublime Certainty

Gospel Service 15 December 2024

This Is My Story: Part 17, a Gospel Service at Cork Church, Sunday November 10th 2024.Testimonies from Jennet, Pat & Joyce. Also a short Gospel Message from Pastor Nick Cassidy!If you were blessed by this message; and would like to donate to our ministry please visit:https://www.corkchurch.com/givingFor more information visit www.corkchurch.comStay connected:Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/corkchurch/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corkchurch/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/corkchurch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This Is My Story: Part 16, a Gospel Service at Cork Church, Sunday August 25th 2024.Testimonies from Viny, Gerry & Van. Also a short Gospel Message from Pastor Stephen McBride!If you were blessed by this message; and would like to donate to our ministry please visit:https://www.corkchurch.com/givingFor more information visit www.corkchurch.comStay connected:Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/corkchurch/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corkchurch/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/corkchurch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mr Chris Killen speaks on 'The Brevity of Life' this evening Gospel Service. -21st July 2024

Mr Chris Killen speaks on 'The Brevity of Life' this evening Gospel Service. -21st July 2024

Mr Chris Killen speaks on 'The Brevity of Life' this evening Gospel Service. 21st July 2024

An audio service brought to you by Shofar Joburg

June 9, 2024 / Joshua Ro Series: Gospel Faithfulness 2 Timothy 2:14-21

Mark 10:35-45 - A Culture of Gospel Service (09 May 2024)

Faithful Gospel Service (Colossians 1:24-2:5) by Faith Family Church Oak Grove

Luke and Kate had both felt God's call to missions. But they were still waiting to know where that call would take them. They went through training. They travelled to serve in different countries. And all the while, they asked God where he wanted to send them long-term. His answer finally arrived after a 12-hour bus ride to a rural village in Myanmar where there were no other foreigners. Kate and Luke both felt it clearly: “This is it. This is home. This is where I want you.” God put a deep love for the local people in their hearts. Their calling was confirmed when a village elder asked them to stay and serve with their medical skills. That clear sense of God's calling would prove vital in helping them stand firm in serving through challenges, Christian persecution and even the 2021 coup. In Myanmar (formerly Burma), each person's religion is printed on their ID card, and it is illegal to change one's religion. It's illegal for a Buddhist woman to marry a man from another religion. Ethnic divisions are baked into everyday life as each person is expected to look out primarily for their own people. In the midst of that challenging environment, listen to how Luke and Kate shared the gospel and how Jesus brought people from different ethnic and tribal groups together as fellow members of the Body of Christ as their house church includes four different ethnic groups unified in Christ. Luke and Kate also share the story of a Buddhist background believer who was severely persecuted by her own mother, but endured faithfully and eventually led her mother to Christ. They'll also share how they talk about persecution while sharing the gospel so that those who respond and become new believers are ready to count the cost of following Christ. Pray for followers of Jesus in Myanmar and for Luke, Kate and their family. Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the podcast. Or you can listen each week—and get reminders to pray for persecuted Christians—in the VOM App for your smartphone or tablet.

This Is My Story: Part 15, a Gospel Service at Cork Church, Sunday April 28th 2024.Testimonies from Douglas, Jacinta & Gosia. Also a short Gospel Message from Pastor Nick Cassidy!If you were blessed by this message; and would like to donate to our ministry please visit:https://www.corkchurch.com/givingFor more information visit www.corkchurch.comStay connected:Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/corkchurch/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corkchurch/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/corkchurch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This Is My Story: Part 14, a Gospel Service at Cork Church, Sunday February 18th 2024.Testimonies from James, Kassia & Nathan. Also a short Gospel Message from Pastor Nick Cassidy!For more information visit www.corkchurch.comStay connected:Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/corkchurch/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corkchurch/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/corkchurch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker: Ed Marks; Scripture Reading: Mark 1:14—3:6 Subject: Living in the Reality of the Body of Christ by Learning Christ as the Reality is in Jesus. Source: New Zealand.

Sermon Text: Acts 7:54-60 Sermon Date: 1/21/2024 Speaker: Scott Fortenberry

Sermon Text: Acts 7:54-60 Sermon Date: 1/21/2024 Speaker: Scott Fortenberry

1 Timothy 1:18-20 Bulletin Sermon and LG Questions

This Is My Story: Part 13, a Gospel Service at Cork Church, Sunday October 15th 2023.Testimonies from Johnny, Lisa & Nathan. Also a short Gospel Message from Pastor Nick Cassidy!For more information visit www.corkchurch.comStay connected:Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/corkchurch/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corkchurch/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/corkchurch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This Is My Story: Part 12, a Gospel Service at Cork Church, Sunday July 30th 2023.Testimonies from Lyudmila, Carmen & Isaac. Also a short encouragement from Pastor Nick Cassidy!For more information visit www.corkchurch.comStay connected:Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/corkchurch/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corkchurch/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/corkchurch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This Is My Story: Part 11, a Gospel Service at Cork Church, Sunday March 26th 2023.Testimonies from Ray, Dara & Sandra. Also a short Gospel Message from Pastor Patrick Dobbin!For more information visit www.corkchurch.comStay connected:Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/corkchurch/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corkchurch/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/corkchurch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Copyright Subiaco Church, 2023

Copyright Subiaco Church, 2023

Rod Cocking

Rod Cocking

This Is My Story: Part 10, a Gospel Service at Cork Church, Sunday October 9th 2022.Testimonies from John Atkins & Pastor John Ramos. Also a short encouragement from Pastor Stephen McBride!For more information visit www.corkchurch.comStay connected:Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/corkchurch/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corkchurch/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/corkchurch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If we are to offer our whole lives as a sacrifice to God, then why are so many churches filled with consumers? Romans 12:3-8 teaches us that the local church is a place to give, not just to get. God has uniquely gifted every believer to serve Christ's church. Learn more in this week's message by Pastor Christian.

Matthew 20:20-28

Join us for our series on the book of Philippians. Today's sermon is from April 24 2022 by Lead Pastor Israel Martinez. Sermon Text: I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also. - Philippians 2:19-24

Join us for our series on the book of Philippians. Today's sermon is from May 1 2022 by Lead Pastor Israel Martinez. Sermon Text: I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me. - Philippians 2:25-30 ESV

This month, University Chaplain the Rev. Dr. Shaun Whitehead joined us for a candid conversation about tradition and community at St. Lawrence. Reflecting on the unprecedented events of the last two years, Shaun shares the impact that it has had on her and the broader Laurentian community, along with her hopes for the future.Recently promoted to University Chaplain, the Rev. Dr. Shaun Whitehead serves the campus community by providing spiritual and emotional support to students, staff, and faculty, regardless of faith background. She also is the pastor of the campus' weekly Gospel Service and directs the Community Gospel Choir. Shaun received the Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications from Clark Atlanta University, the Master of Divinity degree from McCormick Theological Seminary (Chicago) and the Doctor of Ministry from McCormick Theological Seminary.

This Is My Story: Part 9, a Gospel Service at Cork Church, Sunday November 28th 2021.Testimonies from Charina, Kieran & Jess. Also a short encouragement from Pastor Nick Cassidy!For more information visit www.corkchurch.comStay connected:Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/corkchurch/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corkchurch/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/corkchurch See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Gospel Service including a personal Word of Testimony

GOSPEL SERVICE 7pm--'CHRIST'S FINAL CRY UPON THE CROSS' - John 19-30-1. The SACRIFICE is ACCOMPLISHED-2. The DEBT is PAID IN FULL-3. The SINNER MUST COME

This Is My Story: Part 8, a Gospel Service at Cork Church, Sunday July 11th 2021.Testimonies from Judith, Ann & Mary. Also a short encouragement from Pastor Nick Cassidy!For more information visit www.corkchurch.comStay connected:Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/corkchurch/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corkchurch/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/corkchurch See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

01:05:19

Is your Christian service Bible-shaped or culture-shaped? When we are shaped by the culture more than by the Word of God, we will have wrong expectations, the wrong message, the wrong aims, and the wrong power source.What does Bible-shaped Gospel service look like? The Apostle Paul gives us his model in Colossians 1:24-29.

Dr. David B. McWilliams - June 20, 2021