Pastor Nigel

The iChurch.

For our Sunday tour devotions in Ocala, Florida, I spoke on the theme of 'iChurch'- a sermon first preached by my friend and colleague Pastor Steve Ball at my home church, City Temple in Cardiff. These days, iPhones, iPods, iBooks, iMacs, are must have items- what would the 21st century church look like for it to be as attractive? Of course, it would be a church centered on, modeled on, and inspired by Jesus.

We read a very familiar scripture passage, the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19, and expanding on Pastor Steve's original thinking I cam up with this four key characteristics of the iChurch, all beginning with the letter 'i':

1. Immediate Inclusion-Luke 19.5-6.

Zacchaeus was a man used to being an outsider- a Jew working for the Romans as a tax-collector, despised by all. Jesus called him by name and demanded that Zacchaeus come down from the tree immediately. The iChurch will be the one that welcomes the outsiders, brings in the marginalized, includes the sinners, and gives them a place that makes them feel they finally belong.

2. Intimate Involvement-Luke 19.5-7.

Zacchaeus must have been used to being lonely, lacking close fellowship from anyone but his family. Jesus changed all that, and was willing to eat with him in his house-and risk the wrath of the religious leaders for doing so. The iChurch is the one that meets people where they are at, and introduces them to an intimate relationship with Jesus more than rules or regulations.

3. Incredible Impact-Luke 19.8

Zacchaeus life was transformed dramatically by the intimate encounter with Jesus. Not only did he vow to pay back all the money he had cheated people out of, he promised to do so four times over!

The iChurch is the one that constantly seeks, prays for, and sees Jesus incredibly impact the lives of the lost. We shared some tour stories-just a few that we had heard about- of how Jesus was impacting people's lives through the music ministry of the bands on this tour.

4. Immeasurable Increase-Luke 19.10

Zacchaeus was just one man who was added to the family of God, but Jesus whole mission was to seek and save the lost. The iChurch is the one that takes this mission of Jesus seriously, and through the grace of God, the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit, is part of the unstoppable, magnificent increase of God's Kingdom.

We were privileged in our devotions to be joined by Pastor Mark and his family from First Baptist of Ocala, the concert venue, and after sharing a few testimonies of the Lord seeking and saving lost people through the ministry of his church, he prayed a blessing over us all and the night's concert.

The concert itself, as all of the concerts on this 4 show run, was a powerful time with God certainly touching people's lives- the iChurch at work!

GATEWAY SCHOOL INDIA.

At recent concerts many fans have been coming up to me asking for more information about our work in India. Here are some links that will help you: www.igniteindia.org.uk -to get the overall picture of the ministry I am involved in India, and the new school in particular which Third Day help support. There is a page for each different aspect of the ministry. www.igniteme.org -this is the UK homepage for Ignite, who oversee the church and youth ministry work in India. Plenty of pictures here. Click on the national flags at the bottom of the page to see who we are partnering with in various nations-India included. www.nigeljames.typepad.co.uk -this is my personal blog which has photo galleries of my previous mission trips to India. Our hope is to begin to arrange some Third Day fan mission trip to India over the next couple of years. If you want to email me with any further questions about the school, Third day's involvement, or my wider ministry in India, then I can be contacted at nigel@igniteme.org

RICH TOWARD GOD.

In our band devotions last night we started off in a passage that I'm sure we've studied before somewhere back over the years. It was the parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12.16-21.

Although this parable is mainly about the foolishness of prioritizing riches on earth over riches in heaven- the man isn't condemned for having a successful crop or for building barns, but simply for believing these things were the most important- we took the application of the parable a little further. I pointed the guys to the fact that this is a very rare parable in that God himself speaks in it. I showed the contrast between 'for himself' and 'toward God' and challenged us all to examine our own motives in life, and our own generosity- did we find it easier to be generous towards ourselves than we did towards God and other people? Then we had an honesty moment and at the top of a sheet of paper wrote the words FOOL and RICH. We then prayed that God would speak to us about areas in our lives that we needed a reprimand for (we listed those under fool) and those that we needed encouragement or commendation for (we listed those under rich). It's fascinating that although in other places in the Bible the word 'fool' is contrasted with 'wise' in this parable it's contrasted with 'richness toward God'. We finished off by praying that more and more we would learn to hear Gods' voice if he needed to call us 'fool', but also that it wouldn't be too late to change our attitudes if he did so, and that we would learn what it meant to really be rich toward God and we would keep putting that mindset into action.

SIGNS OF THE KINGDOM.

After our show in Cincinnati last night I stayed with John SInclair, who is the pastor of the Vineyard Eastgate church. John's son-in-law is my good mate Russ Pawlowski. I preached a sermon entitled '6 Signs of the Kingdom'- evidence in your life that you are living for the King. I'm intending to use these signs as a 6 part series of 'Word to the Wired' audio devotions on the WIred fan club site. The six signs of Kingdom living will be based on incidents in the life of Jesus, and backed up by some personal examples:

Worship

Involvement

Compassion

Forgiveness

Servanthood

Outreach

and I may post an extra one to help sum them all up!

PRAY FOR ALL PEOPLE.

For our Sunday tour devotion we spent most of the time praying. With all three bands and crew well  represented, I read a few verses from Paul's first letter to Timothy-a passage regarding public worship:

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. As you make your requests, plead for God’s mercy upon them, and give thanks. Pray this way for kings and all others who are in authority, so that we can live in peace and quietness, in godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, for he wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.  For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and people. He is the man Christ Jesus.  1 Timothy 2.1-5.

Paul uses 4 different Greek words here for prayer- requesting, pleading, praying, and thanksgiving. It's surprising that Paul instructs Timothy and the church in Ephesus to pray for those in authority- because in both of their situations that meant the Romans, and specifically Emperor Nero who persecuted Christians severely and eventually had both Paul and Peter put to death. Paul was really saying that our pattern of corporate prayer should include especially praying for all leaders- whatever their perspective and persuasion. We split into groups and prayed for a variety of things-but especially for the newly elected President of the USA.

BACK ON THE ROAD AGAIN.

On the first night of the Third Day Live tour, in Grand Rapids, we managed to gather all the bands and most of the crew together for a short welcome and prayer time. I read a few verses from 2 Corinthians 3 :

We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ. It is not that we think we can do anything of lasting value by ourselves. Our only power and success come from God. 

Using these verses as a basis for prayer, I simply prayed that even though we might have confidence in our ability and in the quality of the tour package, we would recognize that nothing of eternal significance could come from this tour without the power of God at work. I particularly prayed that we see the Holy Spirit moving in our own lives, in the lives of people attending the concerts, and in the fundraising focus on this tour- we are asking for people to sponsor children in India through World Vision, and linked to that Third Day and World Vision are helping fund the Gateway School project on the Come Together Compound in Rajahmundry, India.

SAD NEWS.

I'm sure most of you will have caught up with the sad news that David Carr's father died after a long illness. David needs to be covered by our prayers at this time of grieving, and as he stands strong for the rest of his family. Due to the cancellation of this weekend's tour shows, I'll be flying out to join the guys 6 days later than planned, and will aim to spend some time with David- listening, talking, praying, weeping. I always feel slightly frustrated when I'm in the UK and guys in the band are going through hard times, but it just didn't make practical or financial sense to stick to the original travel plans. I'm praying that God will give me supernatural wisdom as to the content of our devotional times on the tour, especially after David's loss.

As always, I'll be posting our tour devotions here for you to read, and I'll be giving you an insight into the Gateway School project on the Come Together Compound in India- which will be the focus of our tour financial giving.

AROUND THE CROSS.

So I'm sitting in the United Airlines Red Carpet Club at Denver Airport, with just enough time and energy left before I board a flight to London to tell you about our final Music Builds Tour Devotion. Being a Sunday we gathered together all the bands and some of the crew for a communion service together- an opportunity to thank the Lord for the tour, for each other, and most of all for His death and new life. My talk took us to the stories of Mary Magdalene and Joseph of Arimathea- two fringe characters in the crucifixion narrative.
You will need to read the following passages before you proceed:
Mark 15.37-47
Mark 16.1-6 and 9
John 19.38

Joseph was a member of the Jewish High Council and he comes out of hiding as a secret follower of Jesus. He was changed more by the death of Jesus than his life- realising just who Jesus really was brought out belief, proclamation and action. For him the cross brought out courage and made him realize he had to conquer his fear. He risked his reputation to honor Christ, and even made the costly sacrifice of giving away his own tomb.

Mary was part of a group of women who weren't able to speak before the High council in Jesus’ defense, weren't able to appeal to Pilate, weren't able to stand against the crowds, and weren't able to overpower the Roman guards. Rather than abandon Jesus completely they did what they could, they stayed at the cross when the disciples had fled, they followed Jesus to the tomb, they prepared spices for the body, a sign of love, devotion and respect. Mary was blessed to be the first witness of the resurrection.

From Joseph of Aramathea we learn to be brave, to conquer fear of man, and to be willing to sacrifice what is costly for the sake of Jesus, because He is worth it.
From Mary Magdalene we learn to stay close to Jesus, even in the seemingly most difficult and despairing of times. Mary had experienced the miraculous power of Jesus before, and by staying close even when others had deserted Jesus she was the first to see the life-giving power of God at work again in the resurrection of Jesus.

How can we picture God’s kingdom? What kind of story can we use?

In all the cruise time this week, I didn't get to post our Sunday tour devotion from last weekend. Using verses from the Message version of Mark 4 we looked at the power of story:

Mark 4:2 He taught by using stories, many stories.
Mark 4:11 He told them, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom—you know how it works. But to those who can’t see it yet, everything comes in stories, creating readiness, nudging them toward receptive insight.
Mark 4:13 He continued, “Do you see how this story works? All my stories work this way.
Mark 4:30 “How can we picture God’s kingdom? What kind of story can we use?"
Mark 4:33 With many stories like these, he presented his message to them, fitting the stories to their experience and maturity.

Here are my key points:
*Post-moderns have lost the Big Story- today there is a lack of belief in the Metanarrative (the overarching big story of the world).
*Christians have lost the power of telling the Big Story.
*We can tell the Big Story by telling the smaller stories in the Bible, and by telling our own story of God at work in our lives.
*We must rediscover ways of telling the greatest story of all time, and help people re-connect with it.

The questions I asked the assembled gathering were;

1. Which are your favorite stories from the Bible and how do they speak to you about God's story?
2. What are your favorite themes in God's story?
3. What is your part in God's story and how did you discover it?

We can choose to be a big player in our own small story or we can be a small but crucial part of God's MASSIVE story.

CRUISE WITH A CAUSE.

I've just had a fantastic time on a 4 day cruise/mission trip from Miami to the Bahamas! Scotty Wilbanks hooked the trip up for me to have a VIP place on Cruise with a Cause on my 4 days off between Music Build shows. There were loads of Christian bands and speakers taking part in the cruise- including DecembeRadio, Andrae Crouch, Donnie McClurkin, Tony Evans, Josh McDowell, Sonicflood, Michael English, Mary Mary, The Crabb Family, Building 429, and Ted DiBiaze- the Million Dollar Man back in the heyday of WWF wrestling! Yet the highlight for me was the mission day on Wednesday in Nassau, Bahamas where the 1,500 of us on the cruise visited 41 schools, the prison, the hospital and put on the free BahamaFest in the evening for over 20,000 people. Back on the boat on Thursday evening, the news broke that 10,250 documented decisions for Christ were recorded- that's first time commitments or re-dedications. As we sailed out of Nassau yesterday morning, local churches were already beginning the follow up. Over 60% of the people who responded on last year's mission are still going strong with the Lord.
I'd never been to Miami, or to the Bahamas, or even on a cruise! I've been on plenty of mission trips but this one was HUGE- and introduced many Christians to the mission field for the first time. Now Scotty and I are trying to persuade Third Day to be part of a Cruise with a Cause in the future. Here's a photo of me in the school that I spoke in- a small primary school of 104 children, but 79 of them came forward to meet Jesus as their Saviour, Lord and Friend.
If you fancy a gentle introduction to overseas mission, with a load of great Christian music and teaching, and a top quality cruise experience, then check out Cruise with a Cause- they'll be announcing some exciting plans for 2009.