NZ and Beyond 2013
Notes by Julie Young
The bracketed info denotes who said it.
JH = Joel Holm, TB = Tak Bhana NM= Norm McLeod, BC= Bayliss Conway
Overall
It’s going to take the whole body of Christ to reach this nation. (TB)
It should affect people socially, economically and culturally as well as spiritually. (NM)
Pray as if it all depends on God, and work as if it all depends on us. (TB)
Revelation
A great awakening is on God’s agenda. (TB)
Worship
Worship brings liberty. Worship in the bad times. E.g. Paul and Silas in prison. Some places, the only way to get in, is to worship your way in.(BC)
Sing oh barren woman (barren in salvations)…sing songs of victory (need to do opposite to dry situation) (TB)
Prayer
Isaiah 54:3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.
Deut 10:19 And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.
Romans 10:15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Luke 10:2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
Every church needs to have an Acts 13:1-3 meeting where God is experienced, and people go out. Prayer releases people into the mission field. (Paul and Barnabas) (TB)
Acts 13 meeting had prayer, fasting, and worshiping.
Luke 10:12 The harvest is plentiful, the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
Ephesians 6:12 Prayer will hold back the powers of darkness that hold people captive.
Ephesians 6:19 That I may speak boldly/fearlessly…. words may be given to me.
(I had a vision of arrows shooting up at bad spiritual cloud and a big black boulder coming down from above to smash the cloud)
List we prayed for at NZ and Beyond conference:
God to send labourers into His harvest
Every believer mobilised into the harvest
God to give us a passion for the lost people
Our eyes to be opened to see the ripe harvest
For NZ to experience a great awakening
For church and leaders to experience a fresh awakening
Holy Spirit to be poured out across the land
A great harvest to be gathered
Call upon the promise in Acts 2:17: I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.
Zech 4: 7 “"What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of 'God bless it! God bless it!' "
Do what?
There are people crying out to God. We need to be available. E.g. Macedonian man in Paul’s dream (Acts 16); Jesus ‘had to’ go to Samaria (wasn’t the normal way, wasn’t the short way…the woman had probably been crying out to God which made Jesus ‘need’ to go there.) (BC) There are people already awakened, wanting more and crying out….we just need to tell them about the person of Jesus. (NM) People are waiting for Jesus – if you look, you will see the broken who are ready to see Jesus. It’s like when you look for red cars you see red cars, if you look for white cars, you’ll see white cars. (NM)
We need to offer people an alive Jesus, not just a figure or academic thought. (NM)
We need to be bold and step out in NZ, like we would if we did a short-term mission trip overseas. (JH)
Care for people – really see people, like Jesus did with the 2 travellers going to Emmaus. Don’t be so busy getting attention for yourself that you don’t pay attention to the person. Ask people to talk – Jesus asked even though he already knew so we should definitely ask (not assume we know what their problem is). Acknowledge their emotional state like Jesus did with the two going to Emmaus. (JH)
Engage in dialogue, not monologue. Ask a question, not give a speech. Let them be cynical and rude – Jesus didn’t react to when one of the Emmaus travellers said to him, “Are you the only one who doesn’t know what’s going on?” (JH)
Start with where the person is at. They need to be understood before they can understand. (JH)
The 4 F’s: fulfilment: where do you find fulfilment? Fruitful: Where are you fruitful? Fire: where’s your fire (passion)? Furious: what makes you furious? (Most of the time God gives us gifts to solve the things that make us furious.)
Help people pursue peace. Some people might not know they are not at peace with God. In an appropriate way we need to help people understand that they aren’t.
Cautions
Don’t be enslaved by statistics. Jesus went to the one Samaritan woman. (BC)
Don’t make an alliance with anyone whose life isn’t in submission to God. The slave girl was declaring the truth that Jesus was the Christ, but was in submission to the devil, not God. (Acts 16:16)
Motivation
Life is too short, eternity is too long, hell is too hot and heaven is too real, to not tell people the good news of Jesus. (BC)
Focus on the future, not on the past (non-success at evangelism)…our most fruitful days are yet to come. (TB) We have no past but a great future. The devil has a past but no future. (NM)
Building evangelistic culture in church
Develop a passion for the lost: God will partner with you if you have his love and passion for the lost. (TB) We need big hearts….not big budgets. (NM)
There needs to be an awakening in the people in the church before the awakening can get to the city. (NM)
Every church at the core of its being is to be missional. They need a foreign policy as well as a domestic policy. (TB) We are a movement that exists for its non-members. Be careful to not get pre-occupied with the institution. (JH) “The church that doesn’t evangelise will fossilize” (Oswald Chambers quote). (BC) Let your pastoral work be evangelistic in nature. (Quote shared by Bayliss Conway – didn’t catch who original person was)
Seek revelation from God. (JH) Don’t just be an echo of how some other church reaches the lost. (NM)
How? “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.” Zech 4:6. Need to stay connected with God and follow the lead/direction of God’s Spirit. Not just work in the flesh.
Know your purpose. Don’t work hard at something you’re not designed for. Just like John the Baptist knew who he was and who he wasn’t, so our churches need to know the purpose God has designed us them. Don’t use a wrench for a hammer; don’t use a guitar to dig a hole - you will get the job done but destroy the guitar.
We need to help people experience the ALIVE Christ, not tell people of a figurative or intellectual or academic God. (NM)
Check that you are trying to connect people to Jesus, not your small groups, not your church…..these things will usually follow but the most important thing is that people get connected to Jesus. (JH) Don’t just try and get numbers on your belt. (NM)
Check your structure is strong enough for expansion. Isaiah 54:1 Enlarge the place of your tent…. strengthen your stakes.
Enlarge your vision: ask God what new territory He wants you to take. Don’t get stuck doing the same thing year after year.
Make room for God in our meetings. Take some things out of the programme to make room. Same with weekly schedule of meetings. People need time to connect with God and time to connect with not-yet-Christians.
Check your programmes fit into your vision – don’t do anything and everything. We don’t want to dilute the energy God wants us to put into what is really important. Carefully choose what your church is committed to.
Invite those already doing mission into influence. (Often these people don’t ‘fit our programming’ because they are too busy doing mission.) Develop relationships with them so they trust you and you trust them…so if something gets tricky, they feel confident they can ring you. 2 Chronicles 16:9 “The eyes of the Lord scan across the earth for who is fully devoted…and pours himself into and strengthens them.” Ask them to invite others in your congregation to join them. Those doing it already often don’t see themselves as leaders so envision them, guide them challenge them, train them to lead. Delegate authority to them – delegating jobs just gets you followers while delegating authority gets you leaders. Remember God doesn’t expect anyone to be perfect so we shouldn’t expect perfection from people either. Keep problems in perspective – don’t make things big issues when they are small – this is one of the devil’s tactics. “Control or growth – you can’t have both – so pick one”. (JH)
Check motivation for wanting to get people to join your church – is it for their salvation and development, or for your ego and finances?
Get people to share stories with the congregation about what they have been doing…. stories the congregation can relate to and be inspired by, not amazing stories of great faith that people can’t relate to and therefore keep themselves removed from….”I couldn’t possibly do anything like that so I won’t bother trying.” (E.g. Mother Teresa story is amazing but few feel they can mimic her). (JH)
Give our congregation time to build friendships with people. Make it a priority. Don’t fill up their life with programmes that they have no time left for reaching the lost. (JH)
The Christian movement is a ‘Go and Do’, not a ‘Come and Watch’. If you want to see the Kingdom of God come, you’ve got to go. (JH)
“The hope of the world is the local church” AND “the hope of the church is the local world”. (JH)
Keep the world in front of your church…share and show what is happening in regard to the Kingdom in the community…what you celebrate will get inside your members. (BC)
Let the newer generations experience God for themselves. They cannot survive on just hearing someone else’s experience. For example…when Joshua’s generation died out the next generation “grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10). We need to teach people to hear God’s voice. Possibly this oversight was why the prophet Samuel’s sons did not walk in their father’s ways (1 Samuel 8:3). Don’t just think you’re sweet in your generation and not be thinking about future generations like Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:16-19).
If God said it, don’t let the size of your team stop you. Sometimes God wants us to have less, like in the story of Gideon. Psalm 33:16-20: “No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save…. We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.” (TB)
We are called to be restorers. (NM)
Equipping Ambassadors
Need to stay closely connected to God to get new vision (TB) and hear from him.
God told us to pray “send out workers into the harvest field” – workers, not just evangelists. (Luke 10:2). Not all of the 12 disciples or 72 that Jesus sent out would have been ‘evangelists’. Jesus just needs real people to go. (JH)
Awaken to who you are in God. Develop your relationship with God – develop a deep relationship. Go in the significance of who you are - you are a child of the King. We have confidence when we know that we belong to God, and he is pleased with us. Do not let your ministry give you significance; you need your significance in God and then do ministry out of that. God is pleased with us before we do anything, we don’t need to try to please Him. One of the devil’s tactics is identity theft – he even did it to Jesus. Just after God had said “You are my Son, with you I am well pleased” (baptism), the devil questioned that and asked Jesus to prove himself (temptation of Jesus). (NM)
Awaken to the Christ that you carry. It’s the ALIVE Jesus people need, so present a living Christ to people – Christ in you the hope of glory. We are carrying the presence of God himself. We are carrying the living Christ. Jesus can do what medication can’t do. We need to know how to minister the Spirit of Christ. (NM) A relationship with God is what brings the presence of God…as He is so we are (1 Jn 4:17) so we need to live intimately with God. We need to be so full of God that He flows out of us.(NM) People need to meet a living Jesus, not a stained glass window Jesus. (NM)
Choose carefully what your put into your schedule – don’t do anything and everything. Don’t spread yourself so thinly that you don’t have the energy or time to put into what God wants you to focus on.
Every Christian involved: He who believes will do these things, not just a few. Mark 16:17-18 (NM)
Follow what the Spirit of God is saying. (NM)
Tell stories including your own, stories that your listener can relate to. Help people understand how their story fits the big story. (JH)
Don’t bombard people… When Jesus was talking to the two people on the road to Emmaus, he pretended he was going further…he wasn’t forcing himself and his story upon them. They invited him to stay and continue. (JH) We need to be there for the long haul…not to blast people. (NM)
Make genuine friendships…. join them, join their life. Don’t be a spiritual boss. Humbly join them in what they do and be part of their life like Jesus walked the road to Emmaus with the two people and then joined them for a meal. Help them discover their story and then help them take the next step in their story. Give people time to genuinely process. (JH) Become a friend…. win their heart and then win their soul… Jesus was a friend of sinners. He loved the sinner without loving their sin. Even if a person experiences a miracle…they need friends to help them stay connected with God. (NM)
Determine to live, not just exist. Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord…” Be passionate. As a leading atheist put it, “If what you believe is true, then it is blasphemy before God that you are not passionate.” (BC)
What is the gospel?
The year of the Lord’s favour: In Jubilee year the Jews got their inheritance back, their debt was wiped and they were freed from slavery. This is what God is offering people. (NM)
Mindset
Who are we? We are the Kingdom of God whose war has already been won. We go out as lambs among wolves as we use God’s weapons. We are a movement that destroys evil. We are not insignificant. We are not a ‘minority’. We do not need to be in despair or be discouraged. (JH)
Be prepared for God to stretch you. He knows how much you can stretch…He won’t break you. He needs us to stretch further so we can shoot further (like a bow and arrow). (TB)
God still loves his children even when they are naughty (just like a human parent). (NM)
Don’t judge people. Have the eyes of Jesus and the heart of God. Jesus loved the sinner even though he hated the sin. (NM) Jesus didn’t mind that Thomas doubted – he showed him his hands. Its ok for people to be fearful – the disciples were (Jesus found them in a locked room after the resurrection). Jesus first went to Mary after his resurrection – she was disappointed and in despair. (JH) Jesus kindly explained things to people who were rude to him (road to Emmaus – “are you the only one around here that doesn’t know what’s been going on!)
Reconsider what a person looks like who is ready for Jesus – often the broken, rather than those with their lives looking sorted out and clean shaven enough for church. Go to the broken, the doubters. (JH)
Take time with people. Jesus walked 7 miles on the road to Emmaus in dialogue – not a 7 minute monologue.
See people and care. Jesus saw the two people walking to Emmaus. He didn’t make them see him (their eyes weren’t opened till later). They are the importance, not you. (JH)
Prepare for a marathon, not a sprint. (NM)
Don’t wait until you feel completely ready, just go. Jesus sent out his disciples without their bags, money or extra shirts. Miracles can happen when we aren’t completely ready… Jesus fed 5000 people. (JH)
Go with love, compassion and humility. Jesus told the disciples he was sending them out as lambs among wolves. (JH)
Start somewhere and God can guide you. (BC)
Don’t be distracted. Jesus told the 72 he sent out, “Do not greet anyone on the way.” (Luke 10:4) This was telling them not to be distracted. (JH)
Don’t be so caught up in expecting cultural barriers…there is no cultural differences when we talk on a spiritual level. (Statement on a video of Bayliss Conway visiting overseas)
Learn from the life of an eagle: They fly with grace and ease, not struggling or stressed; use the storms to fly higher; only eat fresh prey (don’t live on old successes or revelations); circle for a while before pouncing (pray first and launch when got a word from God); have strong vision (wait awhile and let the vision grow); go to great lengths e.g. teaching young ones to fly (strategise); can live to 70 if when about 40 choose to take a 150 day change when talons don’t work anymore – else die (need to go through change or die). (TB)
Other
God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches when you are sacrificially give to God. Philippians 4.
Awakening song by Chris Tomlin and Reuben Morgan