Colworth (CU) - Worship

No topic was planned for this week, so we met and began chatting about the past weekend and what we had been doing.

I explained about the Moggerhanger meeting and how without anyone leading us, the open meeting had been so wonderful, full of praise and singing and words from the Lord.

David had also been at a meeting, in his case a youth camp near Matlock in Derbyshire. He felt that the key to a great meeting is that everyone present should be focussed on Jesus.

Dud described a service at Canterbury Cathedral. He had expected that it might be a little impersonal but on the contrary found a marvellous welcome by the local people, a really good Bible message, and a group of African bishops in the congregation. It had been a really good service.

Andy told us how he, too, had felt especially welcomed at a church in Lincoln, not far from the cathedral.

We talked about worship, and agreed it's something that happens in our hearts and may result in praise, singing, meditation and so on. But those things are not worship in themselves. So it doesn't always make sense to talk about a worship song, a worship service, a time of worship, a place of worship, or a worship band; we can easily experience all those things without worshiping.

Moggerhanger Meeting - 7th February 2010

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The day was grey and cold, but dry. People arrived at Moggerhanger Park and chatted for a while, then at 13:30 we set out to walk through the woods to look at the snowdrops. How beautiful they are, evidence that even in late winter there is life waiting to spring up wherever it can!

A hot meal
Back in the house we settled down to a hot meal of jacket potatoes with a choice of fillings - pork sausage and apple, or chicken and mushroom.

We sat in a large, double circle for the meeting. I began by welcoming everyone and commenting that church life was like the snowdrops, it has been hidden but is now springing up everywhere in the UK! Even so, most of us feel isolated and lonely in our little groups and it was good to get together like this for encouragement and a reminder that we are not alone.

Three short talks

Peter Farmer - Pete explained how he's been travelling the UK. There are 12 EU regions and he visited them all during 2009, one per month. He met something like six groups in most regions.

A person goes through stages in life, beginning as a child, then becoming a young person, and finally maturing into an adult. Churches go through similar stages, and most house churches in the UK are in the child stage. But Pete is looking ahead, as they mature how will they multiply? Adults produce offspring and churches should do the same.

He pointed out that there's ample opportunity. Ninety-eight percent of the UK population doesn't know Christ and needs to be reached. This is already happening in Asia as the house churches multiply, the numbers are staggering. 300 000 new churches planted in India, with 300 000 baptisms on the Day of Pentecost alone!

Pete lives in Nottingham, for more details see Mission Britain and his personal blog.

Chris Jefferies - I explained the idea behind Church of Two (CO2) and how useful I had found it in practice. It takes about five minutes per person so two or three people will need ten or fifteen minutes and can meet every day, something that is impractical with larger groups. CO2 is based on intentionally listening to what the Lord is saying individually, and then meeting to share what has been heard. The members also share their own feelings for the day under the headings sad, angry, scared, happy, excited, and tender.

In this way the group is daily sharing the Lord's heart and their own hearts with one another. It's then useful to pray for one another on the basis of what has been shared. CO2 is best done face to face, but where that's not possible it can be done over the phone or as a last resort by email.

I'm willing to run CO2 for a week with anyone who'd like to try it, doing it is by far the best way to learn it and discover if it might be useful.

I live in St Neots, you can read more on my website and on the blog 'All about Jesus'.

Pete Stamford - Pete described the excellent work done by X-treme Youth Camps and explained how it all began. He'd been thinking about a youth Alpha but wasn't sure how to approach it. As he was going upstairs one evening he heard a clear word from the Lord, 'What did you enjoy doing when you were a kid?'

The answer was fishing, making rafts, spending time roaming outside in the country, climbing trees. All the sorts of things that can be impossible for young people living in urban housing. Pete was looking for a way of reaching young people for the Lord, and he has found that fun and good food with sound teaching about Jesus is a winning combination. So the camps include canoeing, archery, games, music and more along with very direct, basic details about who Jesus is, why he came, how and why he died, and what this means for us.

Pete lives in Sharnbrook a few miles north of Bedford. I don't have a website for Pete, but this item from 'All About Jesus' shows him at work. The video is a trailer for the 2007 camp and Pete appears in the still, teaching archery.

The Open Meeting
The rest of the meeting was an open session. Nobody led and nothing was prepared beforehand, instead we looked to the Holy Spirit to guide us and show us what to do. He gave us songs, tongues and interpretation, and words of prophecy - some for the nation, some for particular people in the room. As the meeting progressed it moved more towards teaching. The meeting was rich and there was far too much to report in detail, but here are some notes that I took of things that particularly stood out for me. Words in italics were from the Lord.

I will bring a great awakening in this land and I will honour my name through wonders. Depend on me for your sustenance, for food and for water.

I am the River of Life. It's not a question of how much I can provide, it's a question of how much you can receive.

Don't look to yourself, look to him. Our vision is on him all the time.

Stand still, be in the right position, the right place. We need to listen with our hearts (not just with our ears).

There was a word for Paul. You are carrying around something from the past. Only I (the Lord) can fix it.

Proclaim from the rooftops what I have shown you in the morning. If I give you words to speak, now is the time to speak them.

This encouraged me to share some words he'd given me a few days earlier.

There is dislocation in our lives and a constant war between the will and purpose of Christ in us and the will and purpose of the enemy against us. We see this in creation itself, a raging war at times, a tense stand-off at others. A beautiful sunset here, a sudden earthquake there. A song of love here, a starving child there. A kind thought here, a burst of anger there. Within us and around us is the constant conflict of two empires, the Kingdom of Light and the principality of darkness.

I felt that Father calls us to the Light every minute of every day. His Son is the Light, the Light shining in the darkness, Light among humankind, Light in the world. Every moment, in every situation, we can choose the Light or we can choose darkness. We can listen to Christ or we can listen to the enemy. Overall we have made our choice, we have chosen the King of Light, we have chosen life in the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet moment by moment we still fight those tactical skirmishes. They cannot change the outcome of the war - we belong to Christ! HalleluYah! But they may cause short-term retreat as individual actions are won or lost.

The Lord says, Don't despair, don't fight in your own strength but put on all the armour I have provided, be filled with the gifts of my Son's Spirit, and stand against darkness. Stand in the Light! Stand side by side and stand back to back, together you are strong, individually you are weak.

The door is open, take my hand and walk through. I will give you the desires of your heart because they are my desires too.

Someone mentioned Jeremiah 29:11, 'For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'. This was a promise to bring them back from captivity to the land that was promised to them. We too need to remember who the Lord is and admit that we need his help. We should not be discouraged by the forces ranged against us. We need to focus on Jesus, he will provide our strength and joy.

Acts was also quoted and the comment made that they were persecuted, they responded, and the result was amazing. Now is the time for us to prepare for persecution and hardship.

Someone said that as the church we have failed our country, we have failed the Lord, and we have failed ourselves. There has been an inertia, an unwillingness in the church. There was a tongue, part sung, part spoken. Both parts were interpreted, the sung part was interpreted in song which was amazing.

Here are fragments of the interpretations, there was a reminder that we are 'a chosen people, a holy nation... from 1 Peter 2.

The Lord has first loved us, we also love him. He has restored our sight, we can leave our foreskins behind. We can deal with rejection. Because he loves us we can also love him and be full of joy, both in the Lord and in others. We need to strip off the old things and can now put on his new clothes.

Peter Farmer also has brief notes about the meeting on the Mission Britain website.

Next Meeting
We have pencilled in a date for a meeting on 6th June, another Sunday afternoon. The format might be entirely different next time, perhaps a picnic, but the aim will be to have a meal together and an open meeting where everyone can contribute.

More details later, but meanwhile mark 6th June in your diary!

Eaton Ford (day) - Ship building

It was just Paul and me today as Roger and David were unable to come. We began by running through the Church of Two (CO2) exercise - it seemed particularly appropriate as there were only two of us!

I expressed the view that we really own nothing, it is all the Lord's. But we are joint heirs with the Son so we will inherit all these things that we don't own! I had a picture of a field surrounded by hedges and another picture of a housing estate. And Father said, 'Come out from your separated little areas and rejoice together in my presence.

Paul read Matthew 11:28, 'Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.' He said that sometimes we hold our burdens in and they eat away at us. Instead we need to hand these burdens over to Jesus and rest in him.

He won't give us things to do that we can't manage. He knows what we need, and we can do all things in him. He strengthens us. He gave us the word 'love' today. You have to love yourself so you can love others.

Then I had another picture, this time the plan of an old sailing ship, the sort of ship Columbus used to sail across the Atlantic. The Lord said, 'Can you build a ship? No! You haven't been trained to do it, you've never seen it done. But if you have the plan and follow it step by step you can! It's all about the next step. I have a plan for you, to do things you've never done before. But I'll help you and guide you. It's all about taking the next step.

Eaton Ford - Reaching out

We discussed the Moggerhanger meeting planned for 7th February and decided we should reserve Sunday 6th June for the next meeting. This might be a picnic or some other format.

Isaiah 4 was mentioned, what an amazing passage, especially verses 2,3,5 and 6!

Jim mentioned the need for outreach. He told us about Paul, a friend from River Church, who regularly spends time in Africa and is used to tackling issues like demon possession and evil spirits. In the same way in Britain we often need cleansing of things that cling to us from childhood. This is especially true when we've been told how bad, worthless, or useless we are. These things cause deep hurts and are not always easy to strip away.

Sean had been reading from James and had been impressed that poor people are poor to show how rich they are in spirit, while the rich are rich to show how poor they are in spirit.

I said that we need to reach out and share what we've been given so freely. I feel this very strongly now, more and more so as time goes by.

Church of Two - Tested and found useful

Organic Wine - [ Home | Bible | Resources | CO2 | Topics | About ]

CO2 stands for 'Church of Two'. It's a helpful practice that some of us have been testing since early December 2009, and we can now recommend it to anyone who'd like to give it a try.

(Scroll to the bottom of the page for a list of other links on CO2.)

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I brought back the idea of Church of Two (CO2) from the House2House Conference in Texas in the autumn of 2009. It seemed a promising way to go deeper with the Lord and with one another and what I'd seen of it at the conference was quite exciting. I came home really keen to get started with someone here in the UK, to test it and review its usefulness in practice.

It wasn't until early December that I had a chance to try it for real. Sean and I shared in CO2 almost every day for many months. We are agreed that it was more than useful. A few weeks later I began CO2 with Paul and again we have found it an excellent way of connecting at a heart level.

So what is CO2?

There is quite a bit of good information on the web. First I'll describe CO2 in my own words, then I'll list the best resources I've come across.

Church in various sizes - Churches are normally groups of anything from two or three people meeting at home, right up to megachurches of thousands meeting in large, purpose built structures. Larger groups have some advantages, for example great music and a wide range of facilities and programmes. Smaller groups have advantages too, greater flexibility and closer relationships between the members.

What about a church of two or three? Well, it turns out that the smallest possible church has significant advantages of its own. It is possible to meet every day, certainly more than once or twice a week.

Groups of two appear in the Bible, for example Yahshua sent out his followers in pairs.

The Church of Two - A church of two has two simple components.

• Two (or three) people who agree to meet as nearly every day as possible
• Two (or three) simple practices

Two people works well. Three is certainly possible. Allow a minimum of five minutes per person; for this reason larger groups take more time and it's harder to maintain the daily rhythm. The best way to meet is face to face, with a phone call as an alternative when necessary. If face to face is impossible, phone is the next best method, and even email if required. Sean and I use Google Wave, Paul and I meet face to face.

The two practices are called SASHET and Virkler. A third can be added, simply praying for one another concerning the things that have been shared.

SASHET - This stands for Sad, Angry, Scared, Happy, Excited, Tender.

Take turns to share your heart feelings under the headings listed above. You may not have something to say for all the headings, some days it might be just two or three, other days more or even all of them. When listening to your partner's heart, don't offer advice, just hear what is being said.

Virkler - This is a simple way of connecting with the Lord and hearing his heart. It's named for Mark Virkler who originated the method. Each member of the CO2 can do this alone before meeting or it can be done together if a quiet space is made for it. Either way it's good to share the results of this hearing daily.

• Still your mind, clear away worldly thoughts, become calm and peaceful.
• Focus on Yahshua (Jesus). Any way of achieving this is OK, imagine conversing with him, sitting at his feet, walking with him. Whatever works for you.
• Pay attention to the flow of thoughts in your mind. These may take the form of ideas, pictures, or words. Don't expect to hear a physical voice. Jot down the thoughts for later consideration.
• Review what you wrote. What is the Lord saying to you today?

Finally you can both pray for one another.

What has been achieved? - Doing the simple exercise of CO2 daily with a friend, your spouse, a child, or a parent has an effect that builds over time. You will find an increasing depth in the relationship, a growing awareness of how the Lord is leading your partner, and an improving basis for prayer for one another.

It's likely that both partners will develop a deeper and more conscious daily walk with Yahshua too. A group of CO2s makes a natural and strong basis for a cell, small group, or house church of up to twenty members. It can also lead to deeper and stronger community life amongst neighbours or work colleagues, and it can then lead on to sharing the good news in very natural ways.

The Virkler component can be very helpful over a period of time in facilitating people in hearing the Lord's voice more clearly and more frequently throughout the day. Hearing can become the norm rather than a rare exception.

CO2 is very easily learned and easily taught, therefore it spreads easily. Potentially it can spread in a viral manner. Starting in one place with just two people, it can quickly grow into large numbers of CO2s saturating a town or village. It's a great tool. Try it!

More details and resources - Check the following websites and blogs for further information. You can also contact me by email if you want to talk further about CO2. I might also be able to help by holding daily CO2s with you for a week. Actually doing CO2 is by far the best way to learn it.

• The CO2 Flyer - a great leaflet giving more detail on CO2. Good for handing out to people who want to know more or would like to try CO2 for themselves.
• Stories from the Revolution - A blog by John White, launching the CO2 method after fully testing it. This blog also contains a lot of great feedback by people who are trying CO2 for themselves.
• Church of Two (CO2) - post on the Scilla Blog in December 2009. More about my own experiences with this tool.
• Colworth (CU) - Church of Two - sharing CO2 with a group at work.
• You can Hear God's Voice - a brochure by Mark Virkler (in PDF format). This explains the four keys for hearing on which VIRKLER in CO2 is based. It's a link from a CLU webpage. Provided for reference only, CO2 uses a simplified version of this hearing method.
• SASHET Feelings - a psychotherapy technique from which SASHET in CO2 is based. Provided for reference only, CO2 takes the list of feelings but uses them quite differently.
• CO2 is spreading like a virus - a recent news post (Feb 25th 2010).
• More interesting thoughts from In the storyline, a blog post by Charles Kiser.
• Imagine a Daybreak is another blog where CO2 is described.

I'll add to this list as I discover further useful information online. You can also view all the other  CO2-related posts in this blog.

Colworth (CU) - comfort from love

Today, Steph led the meeting on the topic 'What is the Mind of Christ?' This was based in part on a recent e-bulletin from Christians at Work.

With the recent Haitian earthquake fresh in our minds we asked ourselves whether the Lord causes earthquakes or simply allows them. And in either case, is there some sense in which he is displaying his anger when events like this happen?

I explained that this is a view that I, personally, have never been able to accept. It seems very clear to me that we are living on a battlefield and we should expect bad things to happen from time to time. Yahshua is in us, but the enemy is against us, that much is clear. Earthquakes are a necessary part of the process that builds continents and mountains, without these processes the Earth would have been relatively featureless and an ocean world with perhaps no land at all.

Steph moved us on to consider the fragrant aroma mentioned by Brian Allenby in the e-bulletin...

God is utterly perfect, even handed and above all loving in His outlook upon the world. He wants the best for us. But He also wants us to live a life that is pleasing to Him, to be the fragrant aroma, that we so often read about in our Bibles.

We are to be that aroma. However, we can't simply imitate the Lord, if we are to be truly fragrant we must have him within us.

Another aspect Brian Allenby mentions is the need to be humble. He quotes Paul...

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:1-4)

The Lord does not call us to be strong on his behalf, he calls us in our weakness to allow him to be strong in us and through us.