Generation Unleashed

 

A dear friend of mine sent me a whatsapp video of his 18 month old daughter taking her first two clumsy, stumbling, and yet awe-inspiring steps on her own tonight. And as he followed that video up with a half laughing, half choked up phone call, I knew that this was a moment he and his wife would tuck deep into the memory bank of things they will never forget.

This past weekend I had the extraordinary privilege to be a part of a moment that resonated deep within me, and has quite possibly become one such marker in my life.
Five years ago I met a couple named Geoff and Jane Kirsten who quite literally birthed dreams and awakened wells in my heart through one very late night of conversation. Coffees were drunk, my mind raced and plans and schemes formed as the embers of the dreamer inside of me were breathed upon.

Five years on, we met up again, four days ago, in a parking lot in Joburg as they squashed me into the front seat of their car bound for a 3 day student camp (a group called Satellite from 3CI) in the bush. Things have changed. I am no longer a skinny, wide eyed, awkward Durban teenager...I am now a skinny, wide-eyed, awkward, Cape Tonian pastor and they have blossomed into parents with wild stories of victories and scars. But as we drove and chatted something burned within me again. A sense of something new. As Chris Wienand says, there was a strange sense of electricity in the air, and the three of us could almost touch it!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday followed as a group of +-150 Pretoria based students and one red-haired, red-faced preacher felt a seizmic shift in our hearts and in our destinies. The stuffy, over-bearing, stiff and powerless imposter of religion was pushed aside as the cosmic, wild and joy-filled Gospel of Christ cut a clear and decisive picture and reality in the deep recesses of our souls and minds. Shallow moments of religious nods and hat-tippings were discarded with abandon for a life of diving again and again into the wild, unpredictable but all satisfying depths of His goodness. Salvations, baptisms, tears, repentance, joy, unhindered worship were the order of the weekend as the Spirit of God shook the bottle and began to loosen the top.

What happens next keeps me awake tonight. Just like 5 years ago, my heart is dripping with anticipation and unbridled excitement. Is it possible that I get to live THIS life?
 I feel like a teenager before a big date.

Or a parent watching breathless as their child takes her first few steps...

A generation is about to be unleashed.

IMMERSED part two

 

Last weekend saw us preach our second installment in our new series "IMMERSED", where we are exploring the fundamental doctrines of baptism that we find in scripture. Week one saw us inviting our church to wade deeper into the depths of real community life as we unpacked what it meant to be immersed into the body of Christ. In week two we painted a compelling and strong case why baptism by full immersion in water is so vitally important for us individually, corporately and for the world, so much so that we abandon the previously held religious connotations and mindsets that come with it and rather embrace the life changing power of obedience that leaps from faith.

The response to the Word of God being preached uncompromisingly was staggering. Multiple first time commitments to Christ in both meetings, mothers who attended the morning going home and bringing the rest of her family in the evening (and the family responding to the Gospel) and a queue of people signing up to publicly declare their fully immersed faith by being baptized this coming Sunday.

 It was a humdinger of a day!

And so tomorrow our journey continues as we seek to dive in deeper into the wild adventure of faith that we have been called to. Our church floor will be soaked no doubt, but our prayer is that that won't be the only thing completely drenched. The thing our city needs most is not more dry religion. It needs wet, wild and alive Sons and Daughters who have fully leapt into the ocean of adventure, forsaking the safety of the shallow-end, and pushed out into being immersed in the pursuit of Christ, community and the mission.

IMMERSED part one

 

We've started an exciting four week journey as a church community with our new series, "IMMERSED". Over four consecutive Sundays, we are inviting our church to explore four fundamental and yet revolutionary doctrines surrounding the baptisms we find in scripture:
The baptism into the body of Christ, baptism in water, baptism in the Holy Spirit and the often ignored baptism of suffering.
Hebrews.6 speaks of these "baptisms" as elementary teachings and yet the vast majority of christendom as we know it are only ankle deep in their understanding and application of these truths.

We believe that God is taking us deeper as a people, as we get ready to go wider in our efforts of discipling our city and the nations. Our prayer for this series is that we would dive into the greater depths of community, discipleship and mission that scripture and the Spirit are calling us into.

 

If you'd like to join us on this life changing journey, add us on twitter, read our blogs, study the scriptures and join us on Sundays 9AM or 6PM. Alternatively, you can check out our website where all this content will be readily available.

www.lifechangers.org.za