Go West Commission, go West!
by Guy Miller
At one of our first bible festivals at Westpoint, a visiting speaker, felt prophetically that Commission had a delightful inheritance in the West, both in the US and also South America. Weighing this word as a global team we concluded we should pray and seek God for pioneers to plant new churches or maybe find US churches wanting to work with us.
We began our USA adventure, a decade ago, with one adoption in Austin and one plant in Fort Worth. We have seen good fruit from both works albeit the churches remained small and vulnerable. In the challenging times of Covid both of these churches shut their doors. Pioneering like this takes huge guts and I am so grateful for all our leaders and friends who paid such a big price to see Commission churches in the USA. We feel the lessons are many but perhaps the greatest is around language and culture.
George Bernard Shaw observed “England and America are two countries separated by the same language”. Never has this been more the case than when we consider the church in the UK and the church in America. We speak a common biblical language but can completely miss one another in our understanding. Words like, reformed, grace, charismatic, leadership, church, are common words but conjure up completely different images depending on who you are talking to.
In 2023, Vinu and I visited the USA after the kind invitation of a few leaders who were looking to build relationships with Commission, in Utica, Boston, Pittsburgh, Fort Worth and Savannah. We were very warmly received and spent time teaching into the core values of word, Spirit, grace, church planting, whilst applying the lessons of the last decade. A number of churches are now seeking to partner with us into the future, to plant more churches in the more unchurched areas of USA as well as go together to the unreached nations of the world. Our commitment to the leaders and churches in the US will be ongoing, and we are trusting God for an American family to grow and to have a rich harvest of souls in the USA.
Alongside this we have invited an American couple, Adam and Laura Watson to come to the UK to join with us at Westminster Chapel, and partner with Commission to plant a church in London, to serve in our training programs and work with Guy in helping develop leaders for overseas missions.
Adam & Laura Watson
