Dear Urban Life Church

Urban Life church is going through remarkable times! I believe that we will look back sometime in the future and comment about how “unparalleled” these times were. His-Story making times!

There are times that I feel like I am on a roller coaster having the ride of my life and then other times the lack of control, the ups and downs, the backwards and forwards, the to and fro of the moving church is making me dizzy with delight and despair! These are the best of times and sometimes I feel like the worst of times all rolled into one.

I described our church to someone the other day as a Rubik Cube in the Gracious Hands of God. Changes are happening so fast, things are moving around and it does not seem rational or normal, the Hands of God are making the changes and in a few more of His moves and turns, we will see the church, as it should be, delightful and full of splendor!

So much has happened in this year already, it feels like the year should be over! Our building has progressed beyond expectation and we find ourselves delighted to be free from the old low ceilings yet stretching to fill the increased heights that we are experiencing in the new. Everything has changed, and overnight at that! In just a few weeks we crossed over into a whole new season, a whole new experience, a whole new challenge. We talked about change, we wanted change, we dreamed of the change, we longed for the new but now that it has come, it is whole lot different to what we may have expected or thought!

I am so grateful to God for giving me a promise from Ps 32:8 on Wednesday, April 21^st 2010:

“I will instruct you and teach (cast or shoot) you in the way you should go; I will counsel (advise) you with my eye upon you”

This was three days before we had to move out of our old building so that we could make way for the new, the bigger, and the different. This promise has kept me tightly belted to my seat in this thrilling ride. It has brought peace to my soul as God has loaded us into His Catapult and flung us into our future! It has caused me to keep looking daily at His loving eyes for counsel and advice. It has been a season when God has not told us what He is going to do but more us finding out what He has done! The Voice of, “this is the way, walk in it” has been a little silent lately but His gracious and loving eyes have never left us and always given approval and delight in the way that we have embraced the new, the changes, and the exciting future!

The one thing that God did warn or speak to us about at the beginning of the year was, “That He was repositioning for greater fruitfulness”

We have seen so much of that in many individuals but now I believe also for ULC, repositioned for greater fruitfulness, growth and impact into our city and nation!

This season has given birth to a very exciting new meeting that now takes place on a Friday night. A new position for greater fruitfulness, Friday Night Church!!!! Some have described it as the “best thing since sliced bread”. A completely different and new strategy to impact our city with the Gospel of Christ! This has brought a whole lot of new options and variables that will help us make the necessary changes to reach our culture and city. Young and old meeting together in The Barn, church in a new wrapping for the glory of our King!

Our bigger building with high ceilings, (at last) is posing a few challenges that need to be strategically embraced and with unity and agreement taken on together to see it filled with His Presence and People! For so many years low ceilings, small screen, bad sound etc restricted us. Now, the ceilings are high, the screen is massive, the sound is getting better and better, we are not used to this! It reminds me of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. They came out as slaves, oppressed, pushed down and then they had to make the transition into being free, fighters and then farmers! This was a huge change that not all were able to make. In fact, a whole generation died outside the promises because they could not make the change! I came across this Scripture the other day and believe it can be helpful to us.

Deuteronomy 11:10-12 (ESV)

For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables.  But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, land that the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

The new is so different from the old! When they crossed over into The Promised Land, the cloud by day and the fire by night that protected and warmed them and gave them guidance, disappeared! For forty years the cloud had comforted them, guided them, protected them, now they had to follow Joshua, his voice, his commands. The visible disappeared and they had to be comfortable with the invisible. They had to get used to “The whisper of God” and the eye of God upon them to counsel them.

Friends the future is going to be very different to the past! We must not let the future be restricted by our past. The challenge is great, the city is big, the times are tough BUT the eyes of the Lord are upon us!

 For greater impact, we need greater momentum. Greater momentum comes from an increase in speed with purposeful direction. A dog chasing its tail may have great speed but does not have momentum to impact. This is a time when we all need to be flowing together in the same direction with increased passion and purpose. It will not come with our might or our strength but by His Mighty Spirit! (Zech 4:6).

Positioned for His Power to Produce a Pleasing life.

Grace is the power of God exerted upon us, to enable us to do supernaturally what we could not do in the natural. We all need a greater revelation of grace! Grace empowers us to overcome shortcomings and serve God acceptably. (Heb 12:28) Grace gives us the power to live in the fullness of God’s plans and purpose for our lives!

 With this in mind, we believe that what would be right for ULC at this time is to combine the two meetings on Sunday mornings into one meeting at 9am. This is just for a season, an opportunity to increase momentum by being together in unity and agreement and help fill the building with His Presence and people. After we announced this last Sunday, there has been a great response from most and we are trusting God for His amazing grace to help us build increase and momentum in this time so that we can impact our city and nation for Him!

When the time is right and from His counsel, His eye of favour will guide us back to two or more meetings if that is His will for us. This is now a time for increasing our serving and volunteering. A time to multiply ministry, grow in excellence that will honour God. A time to get used to the new and make it an opportunity to impact our urban region with the powerful Gospel! Our mission has not changed – Impact – Grow - Build

I love how The Message puts Eph 4:12-13 to train Christ's followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ's body, the church, until we're all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God's Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.

This is what pleases our God, a body of Christ followers, rhythmically and easily working together becoming efficient through and by His grace, so that we may be fully mature, fully alive, having 100% life and making a great impact for Him. A church that is devoted by “themselves” (Acts 2:42) An Authentic Church that is contending for the “radical middle”, not being blown around on the stormy seas about to be shipwrecked on the fringe of rocky theology but rather under full sail into the vast and deep oceans of God’s magnificent Grace & Truth and Word & Spirit.

Let us be a people strong and courageous, ready to take on the perils of this exciting journey. Let us leave the borders we have just crossed and not settle till we have crossed over this new ocean into new regions. Let us explore with adventure and creativity the unprecedented future that is before us!

God is mapping the chart, He is joining the dots and I don’t want to miss out on anything that He has promised because I want to take some short cuts making the circle smaller rather than “beega”. Even as the secular song is being sung, “Make the circle beega”, I believe it is the cry of our Father to enlarge and cause His fame and glory to be known in the entire world. Let us at Urban Life Church allow the Master Creator and Skilled Captain, open more of His plans to us as He joins us together with one another and with other churches, movements and flows enabling us to bring Him glory and honour!

May MUCH Grace be upon us as we devote ourselves to being an authentic church.

Love Craig