Reframing for Growth
Commission church teams gather to pray for our mission, our nation and our work across the globe.
As the world woke to news of a second Trump presidency, Commission UK leaders gathered at Welcome Church in Woking to pray and fast.
It was a prophetic and powerful day, which will shape the vision of Commission as we process all that God said and did amongst us. It was also the first time we’ve gathered in this way since Vinu Paul picked up the leadership of the global Commission Family, so it was an important time to hear from him as well as from the Lord.
Vinu introduced the journey of the day - 'Look up, look within, look around, look forward, and look outward', before we focussed ourselves on God as the band led us in worship. It's always such a joy to be led by gifted and servant hearted musicians, who point us to God with their words, music and hearts.
Leaders follow as a team
Some weeks ago, God had put a message on Andy Le Roux's heart (Vine Church Odiham). Andy is a great bible teacher, and through a powerful message on David entitled 'The King in the Cave' he helped us to see how as a family of churches, God will lift our heads and galvanise us to press on for greater adventure together.
Andy's message urged us as a team of leaders within Commission churches to celebrate our diversity, deepen our relationships with one another, and cultivate courage as we come under the leadership of our commanding officer, our wonderful Jesus - the greater and better David.
Praying for peace, light and justice
Following a short break, I (Chris Kilby) and Mark Landreth-Smith led us to 'Look Around'. We were confronted with a number of global challenges where we see a clash between the dominion of darkness and the Kingdom of God.
This was a sober and difficult time of intercession, as we considered the loss of life, injury, and displacement of people caused by the current major wars and political change.
We cautiously began to pray into the horrific realities of abortion and the increasing acceptance of euthanasia and assisted dying, particularly in light of the bills currently going through the parliamentary process.
We also prayed for the ongoing cultural crisis with regard to sexuality, gender and the church, knowing that with one hand we must hold fast to the sword of the word of God, whilst with the other arm embracing those broken by the world's unbiblical values.
A breakdown in family life and a shocking increase in poor mental health kept us on our knees as we cried out to God for our nation.
As a result, before we moved on to the next session, Russ White (Citygate Bournemouth), under the powerful leading of the Holy Spirit, led us in an earnest time of prayer for healing.
Astonishing prophetic moments
In the next session, Tim Blaber (Hope Church Winchester) and Joe Leach (Grace Church Chichester) helped us to 'Look Forward'.
We actually began by looking back as John Groves reminded us of a number of the key prophetic words that have underpinned our mission for decades, such as 'There are no well worn paths ahead of you', and 'You can do more together than you can apart'. Such words are still so important for our adventure together.
There were a number of leaders to whom God had given prophetic words, which will be weighed and tested in the days ahead:
New distinctiveness
Guy Miller had seen 3 small English garden birds on a wire giving way to three more distinctive birds.
The first was a Parrot, which represented our greater and more colourful diversity in the years ahead.
The second was a Magpie, whose black and white plumage emphasised our distinctiveness from the world around us, and also God's promise of provision as the magpie gathers silver.
Lastly was the Swallow, which represented a summer for Commission, and migration, mobilisation, and travel.
Being reframed for greater power
Dave Lockyer (Junction Church Eastleigh) shared a picture of a snooker table being reset. Balls that had been in the pockets were taken out and put tight together in the triangular frame so they were touching; the frame was then removed and the cue ball powerfully struck the pack of reds, causing several to go straight in to pockets to score.
The application - that this was a time of re-framing for Commission, bringing leaders closer together in relationship so they are ‘touching’; and that the arm of God will bring power to Vinu’s apostolic ministry as the cue ball, impacting church leaders and their contexts to see areas of rapid breakthrough and success.
Spreading out for future growth
Kevin Bartlett (Cristo Salvador Madrid) brought a word about an enormous forest, on a huge scale. The thrust of the word was that trees planted too closely together restrict growth and health, but that God would be uprooting and replanting some to allow health, strength and growth in the years ahead.
An unexpected moment of confirmation
Sometimes, when we are all in the room, and God is with us we experience a clear moment of hearing his voice together, and it changes everything. We had one such moment on this day.
In conversation a few times recently, I (Chris Kilby) have heard Vinu mention that our vision has become too small, and that we need to begin to dream bigger. Huw (Grace Church Exeter) then began to prophesy that we needed to begin to 'add noughts' to our expectations, saying as an example, 'if you think you need one elder, consider looking for ten'.
At the very same moment that Huw was bringing this word, Vinu had just been in conversation with Tim Blaber elsewhere in the room, saying that 'we need to add noughts to our vision statement - we need to be going for millions of lives, through thousands of churches, in hundreds of nations'!
Mark Landreth-Smith very helpfully took a moment for us all to pause and hear what God had said and done in bringing confirmation to this prophetic encouragement. Looking back, we will know that this was one of those moments when the Spirit of God powerfully spoke and changed us forever, bringing us faith and courage as we offer ourselves once again for this great global adventure.
Into 5 continents
In the following session, Martin Flood (Mosaic Church Basingstoke) and Chris Kimbangi (Hope Church Guildford), along with a great variety of our leaders helped us to 'Look Outward'. We prayed for many of the 17 nations that we are now working in to.
It was great to hear the update about recent work in Mongolia from Paul Williams (New Life Fordingbridge), and about Italy, in which I shared how God has spoken and given us vision for a 'Decapolis' - 10 cities. We also heard about growing connections in The USA and an exciting new opportunity in New Zealand pioneered from India - the first time Commission had planted from India to another nation. These are exciting times, and it is a joy to see Commission expanding from the nations to the nations!
Download a PDF of the prayer slides for this session
All to serve our saviour King
We ended the day where we began, drawing our attention back to our beautiful saviour Jesus as we took Communion together, and once more we worshipped with gratitude for all that Jesus is, all he has done, and with a fresh commitment to serve him with all that we are.
I, for one, was very grateful to be in God's presence, among God's people, and hearing God's voice afresh speaking in to our mission together.
The adventure continues.….
