June  2015

Re: Watching, seeing, following, worshipping, listening and obeying
Thank you Lynn for sharing this vision & call to prayer, I have also been feeling the call, encouraged by our minister's preaching too. I hope this longing to listen to God, to see, hear & obey His directions, will bear wonderful Kingdom fruit for millions of lost souls, & to His glory!!
Mrs Calow
 
Thank you for this call to prayer which I believe is very timely and true to scriptural example. When Nehemiah heard the walls of Jerusalem had been broken down we read that 'for some days' he 'mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven' (Nehemiah 1:4).Then follows a prayer in verses 5-11 which is the fruit of all the previous prayers, full of faith in what God can do and clarity about the next step required of Nehemiah, no doubt impressed on his mind by the Spirit of God as he prayed.
We can do many things in God's service after we have prayed, but we can do nothing before we have prayed.
Thank you for your call to prayer, we read it at our prayer meeting tonight at Angmering Baptist Church. It was an encouragement.
David Barnes
 
I have just come from a very difficult special church meeting with one item of business - one of our members quoted Isaiah 43:18&19 in support of making space for the Lord - what a blessing when I logged into my email and received your email! Not only that but another member shared a vision of the Lord's little church we are as being an ark that the Lord will fill - we left the church building to find a glorious sunset and a RAINBOW! Praise the Lord!
Sue Best
 
Thank you Lynn. In all my 31 years of Baptist Ministry I have rarely seen such a powerful call to Prayer, with perhaps the exception of Presidents such as the late Douglas McBain. I am currently Pastor of a small Baptist Church in South London and an independent Messianic Fellowship in East London. Praise the Lord, or Yadeka HaShem as we Jewish believers might say!
Stephen Gutmann
 
Thanks Lynn, this call to prayer is great. We have been strongly feeling the same things at London Network Church about prayer and that God is doing a new thing. Is 44: 18 - 19 came to us so strongly as leaders as we prayed last week in our meeting. God's presence was so strong that most of the meeting was spent in prayer. I am really excited to see what God will do across the nation through these beacons of prayer.
Alex Afriyie
 
Thank you Lynn for sharing this. Because we thought our church needed direction, just after Easter we started a prayer gathering on Thursday evenings. A three hour session for people to come and go as they are able.
We are trying to learn to listen. Praise God
Daphne Thompson
 
Yes. Thank you for sharing. God knows what we need at each stage of our journey in His time and for His glory.
Veronica King
 
Thank you for sharing this Lynn. In the church at Battle we too are sensing that having something new and fresh is about to begin. Looking forward to seeing how the journey develops
Dennis Nolan
 
Amazing and Exciting. Lynn. Thanks for the inspiration and calling the Community of Faith to prayer. We watch and wait, looking above. Filled with His goodness lost in His love as we heed this extraordinary call to prayer. AAD.
Akwasi Addai-Diawuo
 
So good to hear so many wanting to pray ?? I find it so hard to be in the world but not of it, praying I will be strong in The Lord - Godbless
Lynn Hunter
 
It does take a lot of trust to say to God 'Here I am,Lord,lead me on.'
Lord ,help me to listen to you and obey you.
Edicula George

Lynn, thanks for being courageous and obedient to the voice of the Lord. Sometimes we need to be challenged to face up to the fact that a new direction is needed. It is SO encouraging to have such leadership and vision at this time. Watching, seeing, following, worshipping, listening and obeying !!! Mmmm that rings so true!
Graham Coventry

Thank you so much for these words of encouragement to pray.
Julie Reilly

Praise God for you Lynn and the wonderful team that work alongside you. I've never been so excited and proud to be a Baptist as I have in recent times. Truly, I can sense this wonderful new thing. We are so grateful to God for all that He is showing us collectively and individually. As we pray and encourage each other, may those beacons shine ever brighter with each passing day and may people be drawn to Christ in their thousands through our faithful witness, in Jesus name.
Sharon Jones

Amazing and wonderful! What great things the Holy Spirit is doing in our day! He is placing the watchmen and gatekeepers around the walls of this nation and we will not come down until his kingdom is established. Let us encourage one another as long as it is called today. I am excited to see what the Lord is doing and I'm sure it will be so much more than we could ask or imagine. Thank you Lynn for listening and stepping out in faith.
Rosie

A group of us have started a house of prayer called 'lighthouse'. We gather for an hour a week and concentrate prayer using four lenses. The first lense is where we ask the question 'where have we seen God in the last week'. The second lense a scripture reading and silent contemplation. The third an act of worship. And the forth lense where we speak out the blessing of God upon our local area.
Andy Kerr

This is a quote from a sermon I preached at Delves Baptist Church,Walsall on May 31st-without having any idea until today of the vision Lynn had.
"I believe there are times when we are called by God to wait –to wait for a new move of His Spirit. We find ourselves restless....dissatisfied, feeling ....that God is wanting to do something new in us and through us. I believe that this is one of those times-and that’s why as a leadership team we have called you to dedicate the month of June to prayer."
I think this is a confirmation of Lynn's vision, given completely independently of her. We have been praying right through June, twice a day and with extra events on weekends. God has been moving in small but exciting ways in individual believers, we are still waiting on Him for His next move in us as a church.
Ruth Wood

Re: Assembly and Communion
My wife and I enjoyed the Assembly in Peterborough. It was a long drive (6 hours) so we went on a two week holiday afterwards to make the trip extra worthwhile. It was good to catch up with old friends and to be part of the wider baptist family.
But what happened to the communion? We had 'instructions to grab a communion kit – a gluten free roll, non-alcoholic juice, and a communion liturgy – gather in groups of around ten, and serve communion to each other'. But no body on our group of about ten saw any thing resembling Communion. Where was it?
Haydn Davies


Re: A reflection for Fathers' Day 
To turn the question around somewhat: If a member of your congregation living alone has a serious physical or mental breakdown, and needs to be cared for at home, who comes to their aid? A member of your congregatiion, or a member of their (unbelieving) family?
We talk about the church being a family, but when it comes to the crunch, what happens?
This sort of thing is frequntly an issue for converts from those faiths where family is an integral part of their lives, and their parents may declare them to be "dead".
Jeff Evans

Re: Baptist Collaboration - what next?
I was added to Baptist Collaboration on Facebook by a friend and left after being appalled by some hurtful comments being made on one thread. The comments were not to myself, but I could tell they were hurting someone else. I am now seriously questioning whether I should be within Baptist context. Maybe this is a good thing.
Carolyn Schofield
 
 
Re: Nothing is ever wasted
Good article. In my experience, it's often only after 10 or 20 years that one can look back and see the positive side-effects of "bad" experiences in church life, or in business.
As a fellow-hoarder, I wonder how many years you father had kept that bit of plastic!
Jeff Evans

Re: True worship hurts
Good point about us giving ourselves in sacrificial service as part of our worship. But I'm not sure how this comes out of Leviticus. The surprising thing there is how FEW sacrifices were made. The burnt offerings consisted almost totally of one lamb in the morning and one in the evening for the whole nation! Far more sheep were needed by churches to keep the candles burning before artificial wax was invented. The vast majority of sacrifices offered in the Tablernacle/Temple were eaten by the person offering them - only the innedible bits were burnt on the altar. So an offering meant sharing a meal with family and friends - more of a celebration than a sacrifice.
David Instone-Brewer
 
 
Re: What does Mindfulness offer the Christian?
I agree that we should not foolishly follow the latest trends. But we should probably work from the open stance that we live in a world where God uses all sorts of people and techniques to bring about people's healing. Was Jesus encouraging his disciples to have this more generous spirit when in Mark 9 he says "who is for us is not against us." And indeed when we use Jesus' name then we more than overlaying Christian words we are pointing to His Kingdom.
Of course the scriptures you have quoted can also be used to dismiss your argument. If something produces good fruit then it must be from good roots? If mindfulness produces good fruit then, it's roots must be good. We therefore must investigate whether mindfulness is effective. If it is, then, why not?
Phil Warburton

Waiting for direction
When I was a child I thought like a child now I have grown up I still need direction from God, and still seek to know my Father's will for me.  I remember going to Rockfest a few years back looking forward to the excitement of seeing Ed Sheeran sing, but changed my mind about camping when I saw some of the free items on stalls as I walked towards the big tent. 
I left the car park (unlit field) by the wrong exit, but where I could see cars. I drove my grey Zafira out into the queue and waited.  The traffic did not seem to move. The car behind tooted at me and I checked my lights etc. all seemed ok.  I checked the vehicle behind to see if it had something wrong with it. Squinting my eyes I noticed what I had completely missed, it was on the car in front too, and every car in the queue, "taxi". 
I was sitting in a taxi rank and they thought I was trying to steal their business when all I wanted to do was drive the 2 hours back home. LOL. Sometimes we go in a direction we do not want to go in, sometimes we just stand still, but it feels much better to be moving forward. Focusing forward and not looking back makes us more positive, more able to serve and more in line with the straight plough furrows of God. "He who puts his hand to the plough then looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God." 
If you don't like the past, don't worry it can't be changed but you can make a better future so get out there and serve in someway, it makes you feel better and often gives an opportunity to share the gospel. If all you can do is invite your neighbours in for a cup of tea, then do that. Make a difference in that person's life, it will make a difference to yours.
Alison Whiteford Bell (previously a Baptist for 20 years)