Pastor Nigel

BEHIND THE BAND.

On the day that Third Day win an American Music Award, which must be nearly as good as a Brit Award, I got notice of a newspaper article about my role with the band. Tom Parsons, who also recently reviewed Lessons from the Road, met up with me at the recent Johnson City show and this was the result:

The man behind the band.

LET US...

         Very early on in my ministry experience, working as a pastoral assistant at a Methodist church on the outskirts of London, I learnt the value of using prayer and the Bible in pastoral situations. It sounds absolutely obvious, but the senior pastor kept instructing me to keep these 2 tools as foundational in all that I did. This stood me in really good stead when some years later I began to be involved in ministry to professional sportsmen in the UK. Oftentimes I'd be in situations that I didn't really have any experience in and felt out of my depth, but was released from the pressure of thinking I had to come up with all the answers for myself. So by the time I began traveling with Third Day, I knew very well that God was always going to speak more powerfully into the lives of people than I was able to do on my own or in my my own strength. Those two same foundations of praying together and reading the Bible, remain the major tools that I employ in pastoral ministry to this day, and perhaps the biggest spiritual challenge I face on the road is co-ordinating Mac, Mark, David, Tai, Scotty and myself to be in the same place at the same time so we can pray together and seek God's wisdom from His living word.

      On this current Third Day Live tour, I've been on stage speaking about child sponsorship and our school project in India, at roughly the same time that we've been used to meeting together for our devotional time. Hence, our quality time in devotions has suffered a little. Today we met in the late afternoon and had a really honest time together when we were reminded of the importance of 'us' and 'together'.

The passage we drew inspiration from was Hebrews 10.22-25:

Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 

Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.  

I focused on the 4 'Let us' exhortations that the writer gives out. Rather than being instructions to believers about simply their individual faith, these words are meant to bring us together collectively as the body of Christ.

 Let us draw near to Christ-we are to approach God through Jesus, with a sincere heart ready to receive and give thanks for His cleansing and purification.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess-earlier in Hebrews the writer refers to our hope as an anchor for the soul, a shared hope which we celebrate, cling to and share with others.

Let us consider how we may spur one another on-the Greek word here for 'spur' is usually used to mean a disagreement or an irritation, but here it is used to mean being an encouragement to each other. A spur is used to prod a horse to go faster, longer, stronger. We recognized that to spur each other on may occasionally be challenging and uncomfortable, but also necessary and part of an incredible adventure together.

Let us not give up meeting together-Again, the Greek words here convey a sense of abandonment, even desertion. We all know people who have given up going to church or having any really deep fellowship with other believers, and we confessed that sometimes on the road we can all be coasting along and not wanting to make the effort to meet and encourage each other in Christ.

Realizing that we didn't want to meet just out of a sense of duty or legalism, and that we need to give time, focus, and togetherness to this, we spent some time praying-each guy prayed for the guy to his left, and we re-affirmed our desire to meet in the Lord's presence, and to have an intensity and an 'edge' to our devotions.

Only a few hours ago, I had nothing to say to the guys, a desire to focus on our 'togetherness' and in my own personal study time earlier today the Lord spoke to me so clearly through this passage and revealed to me His desires for our devotional time- a reminder again that He will always have something more powerful and fruitful to say than I will. If you want to minister to others, then let God minister to you first.

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.