“At certain times and places God will build a mysterious wall around us.  He will take away all the supports we customarily lean upon, and will remove our ordinary ways of doing things.  God will close us off to something divine, completely new and unexpected and that cannot be understood by examining our previous circumstances.  We will be in a place where we do not know what is happening, where God is cutting the cloth of our lives by a new pattern and thus where He causes us to look to Him.  Most Christians lead a treadmill life – a life in which they can predict almost everything that will …

From the time I left the business world to enter full time ministry, I had a conviction that to grow a church I needed to focus on growing leaders who would grow the church. Or as Paul Scanlon has said, “To grow a big church, focus on growing big people.”

This led me to a very important question, “Who is the person Jesus uses?” For I wanted to be a person Jesus could use and I wanted to raise up a generation of people that Jesus could use.

Good leaders know what and who they are looking for and consequently have a better chance of achieving their ultimate goal. Take, …

A Pastor recently contacted me to ask if there was any hope for his church to survive. The few people in his church were aged, and the church was slowly but surely declining in numbers.  My answer shocked him. I said there was great hope for him and his church  –  because the Father was already at work in his town.

I then opened my Bible to John chapter 5 and shared the story of Jesus healing the man who had been sick for 38 years, and who was lying close to the pool of Bethesda. Unfortunately, Jesus didn’t receive rave reviews for what He did, for the healing took …