I love hearing stories of people who have helped bring transformation to the life of another person.  Here is the story that Chris and Paul spoke about this morning at The Forge

CHRIS:  I knew Paul from years back when we played in the same football team.  Our paths only crossed again recently when our children started attending the same pre-school. One morning the subject of church came into our conversation. I suggested he gave the Forge a try; if nothing else, his kids would love it here!

Paul came along & started to actually enjoy it!  I invited him to the Alpha and as the course progressed, it was clear that he wanted to become a Christian but for whatever reason just could not get it. I invited him to come with me to hear ex-boxer, Nigel Benn speak about his faith.

PAUL:  I was having a cup of tea with my dad just chatting about life when I received a text from Chris inviting me to a talk by Nigel Benn. I was never a big Nigel Benn fan but Chris thought it might be interesting and I thought it might be fun.

CHRIS:  At the end, Nigel invited visitors to join him at the front if they wanted to make a commitment to kick-starting a relationship with God.  Suddenly it dawned on me that I should be praying for Paul to join him!

PAUL:  When Nigel invited people forward, I just froze; I knew that I wanted to go but I couldn’t move. Then I felt Chris’s eyes willing me to go up, and then something inside telling me “If not now, then when?”

I’ll never forget the look on Chris’s face, he was so happy for me, and I can remember thinking “Why”?

CHRIS:  Seeing him step forward & eventually return with this big smile on his face has to be the highlight of my Christian walk to date.

PAUL:  That night was nearly a year ago, and now I get it!  After being a Christian for nearly a year and knowing what having God in my life has done for me, who wouldn’t be that happy seeing someone else giving their life to God?

Do you have someone that you can invite to a Sunday service, an alpha supper, a social event?  Go on, take a risk.  You never know where it might lead!

Double in numbers – now that’s an ambitious goal to achieve in three years.

I remember our Kids leader, Sam, telling me last year that he’d talked with the kids about our goal to double in numbers and one youngster had said, “All we have to do is get everyone to invite one person and we’ll do it!”

Well, I believe it’s the kids that are really setting the pace on this goal.  I received this email from Tim and Lisa Sparkes.

I wonder how many people you have invited to church this month?
I know how many we have: None
Our two daughters however, have between them asked seven of there friends!
We are not sharing this with you to gloat at the way we have raised our children – far from it! We are sharing this with you to thank you for providing an environment that is so enticing and so inspiring for our children, that they want to share it with their friends.
In the words of Charis to one of her friends: “Come to my church and see how cool it is!”
Please pray for us as we try to match our children’s impact in Haughley and as we look to follow up with their friend’s parents.
Thank you so much for everything you do for the Forge and for my children
Tim and Lisa

How amazing is that!

Picture a run down housing estate on the edge of a city.  Gangs patrol the streets at night and poverty in this district is obvious.  13 year olds play football in the streets when they should really be at school.  But they’ve been excluded from school.  These kids have each other to play with.  They have no father at home, no money, no education, no prospects, they are destined for poverty.  Then one day, Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager comes along and says, ‘You follow me boys and I’ll make you Premiership footballers.’  Would they need a long time to make their decision?

Simon (Peter) was a Jew.  He’d been brought up a Jew.  At the age of 6, he’d gone to school to learn and memorise the Torah.  At the age of 10, when the top children were chosen to go onto the next level of their education, Simon probably wasn’t chosen.  Instead, he did what all ‘not good enough’ kids did – learn the family trade (Fishing).

Only the elite, the best of the best, ever moved on to the next two levels, having memorised the whole of the OT and learnt the art of questioning and debate.  To then become a disciple of a rabbi, the student would present himself to a well known rabbi and say, “Rabbi, I want to become your disciple.” The Rabbi would be very thorough as to his questioning, in order to find out if the student could actually become like him.  If yes, he’d say, “Come follow me.”  Then the disciple would stay close to the rabbi, watching and learning in order to become like him.

Rob Bell writes in his book ‘Velvet Elvis’

“So at the age of 30, when a rabbi generally began his public teaching and training of disciples, we find Jesus teaching by the Sea of Galilee.  He sees four fishermen there – Simon and Andrew, James and John.  Why are they fishermen?  Because they’re not disciples.  They weren’t good enough.  They didn’t make the cut.  Jesus calls the not-good-enoughs…

Can you imagine what this must have been like – to have a rabbi say, “Come, follow me?”  To have a rabbi say, “You can be like me”?  Of course you would leave everything.  The rabbi believes you can do what he does.  He thinks you can be like him…   Jesus took some boys who didn’t make the cut and changed the course of human history.”

These fishermen were estate lads being chosen by Alex Ferguson.  This was a whole new adventure.

And this is what blows my mind.  Jesus still chooses those of us who are not good enough, who don’t make the grade and he says ‘Come, follow me.’  He looks at me and says, “I believe in you.  You can become like me.  You can do what I do.”

Rob Bells sums it up this way:

“God has an incredibly high view of people.  God believes people are capable of amazing things.  I have been told that I need to believe in Jesus – which is a good thing. But what I am learning is that Jesus believes in me.  I have been told that I need to have faith in God – which is a good thing.  But what I am learning is that God has faith in me.  The rabbi thinks we can be like him.”

Now, how does the fact that Jesus believes in you make you feel?   How will the fact that God has faith in you change how you live, how you view yourself, how you value others?

This is truly mind-blowing!

I’m currently with a team from the Forge, working alongside Bex Drake in Denver, Colorado.  This trip is an amazing experience for me as I get to meet Street Kids whose lives have been messed up by abuse, rejection and drugs.  Offering them coffee on the streets, handing out socks and hoodies in the snow, doing workshops in the afternoon all work towards demonstrating God’s love to them and showing them value and dignity.

It is a reminder to me that The Forge has come along way in demonstrating compassion to those in need and serving the poor.  Just look at how many people have spent £1000s on trips to Zambia to help build schools and run camps for orphaned children.  Locally, we’ve been able to support those in need through the foodbank, offering monthly lunches and teas to the elderly, giving practical help where families are struggling. We’ve also been able to meet a need in Debenham through starting the open access youth club called The Base.  Demonstrating God’s love and compassion in this way is biblical and essential if we want to see God’s kingdom come.

It also makes us visible within our community.  Just recently I’ve heard of a number of incredibly positive comments made about the Forge by people in the Debenham community because of the way we are meeting a need and making a positive impact.  I am very proud of the way that Forge people interact locally through serving, giving generously and praying.  Thank you!

In seeing the ethos of ‘Compassion’ being developed over the past few years, it has required a big commitment from many people and it got me thinking, “But at what cost?“

One thing I’ve noticed is a drop off in personal and community evangelism – of us actively sharing our faith and being “ready to answer everyone who asks us to explain about the hope we have.”  We’ve either lost confidence in talking about Jesus or have lost the urgency of sharing Jesus with others.

Personally I find it’s much easier to be kind to those in need and offer support rather than speaking about Jesus and inviting them to Forge services and events.  I’m sensing others feel the same.

Q. Has demonstrating compassion replaced evangelism?

Q. Do we agree fully with St Francis of Assissi when he allegedly said: “”Preach the gospel at all times — If necessary, use words.”

I don’t think that compassion and evangelism are at odds with each other.  Words and actions should work together; our actions give us the right to be heard; they should also back up our words!

So how can we at The Forge hold onto the value of serving our local community and demonstrating compassion to those in need as well as raise our game regarding sharing our faith and inviting people to experience Christian community at the Forge?

These are some of the questions I want us to talk about together on Monday 28^th November at SIM headquarters starting at 7.30pm.  Your involvement and insight will help shape our future strategy for evangelism and growth.  I look forward to seeing you there!

There is a lot of energy around some of our exciting goals included in our 3 year plan here at the Forge.  No-one questions the ambition of doubling our impact, both locally and globally or doubling our depth regarding our relationship with God.  Yet still there’s a nervousness about the third double – double our numbers.  Somehow we Brits are fearful of growth, yet deep down we all want to see it happen.  We long to see friends and family coming to faith in Jesus and being part of the church community.  Growth is one of the signs of a healthy church, along with a passion for knowing Jesus, making him known through our words, actions and serving the poor.

To know whether we’re growing, we need to have a starting point and a way of tracking numbers.  We need to have a clearly defined target group to base the numbers on.

So how are we going about measuring growth? 

I thought it was going to be easy – just write down the number of people attending the Forge in Jan 2010 and see if we get double the numbers in Dec 2013.  But when the staff team talked this through, we found it was more complicated than that!!  What about fluctuating numbers due to school holidays, nice weather, etc?  Should we base the numbers on Small Group attendance, any activity that we run as a Church, numbers serving, numbers on our database or Sunday attendance?

So here is how we have agreed to base the numbers.

1.            We shall use Sunday attendance across the three congregations.

2.            We shall use the average attendance over a 12 month period. (this process reduces big fluctuations in numbers due to holidays, etc.)

NB. We will also keep a record of average numbers at other Forge activities such as SPLAT, Small Groups, those watching live streaming, etc

So how are we doing so far?

The average attendance between Jan ‘10 – Dec ’10 was 275 (this being our starting point)

Mar ’11 = 292

Jun ’11 = 304

Sept ’11 = 318  (16% growth so far)

Our target increase is 26% compound growth each year: Dec ’11 = 347 / Dec ’12 = 437 / Dec ’13 = 551

It’s really exciting that we are growing, and this is without any particular strategy for growth!

But if we are to continue to grow, we are going to have to be intentional about it.  We are going to all have to take personal responsibility in praying for our friends and family, sharing our faith with others, being bold in inviting people to the Forge events.

How can we build momentum with this?  How can we encourage each other to step out in faith and invite?

On Monday 28^th Nov @ 7.30pm, I have booked a meeting room at SIM, Wetheringsett, where I’d love you to join me in talking through these issues and discuss a way forward regarding a clear strategy in how we can actively pursue doubling numbers.  Please do put this in your diary and come along to help shape the way forward.  I believe God has given us this vision for doubling impact, depth and numbers and we have to be prayerful, strategic and participate in seeing all three come to fruition.

It was great to have Joel Edwards (International Director of Micah Challenge) as our guest speaker on Sunday.  Joel spoke with integrity and passion about the issue of Justice and encouraged us all to get involved in whatever issues we’re passionate about – whether it’s education, malaria prevention, sex trafficking, feeding the hungry, etc.  I was reminded that as a Church, we have taken some big steps forward with regards to engaging with some of these issues; primarily through our fantastic partnership with Hands at Work.

BUT, Joel also said some stuff that I hadn’t really heard before; information that made my heart leap and filled me with hope.  It’s this:  The money, the involvement, the pressure on governments to end poverty REALLY IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE.

In his talk, Joel highlighted a great organisation called ‘Live 58.’ I took a look at their website www.live58.org and came across this brilliant video.  Please take a couple of minutes of your day to watch this.

This is great news!!  I honestly believe that our involvement with Hands At Work, our trips out to Zambia, our Simple Christmas fundraising, our giving to the DEC East Africa appeal really are making a difference.  We CAN see the end to extreme poverty in our generation if we take seriously God’s words to us in Isaiah 58:6-9 MSG

“This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts.  What I’m interested in seeing you do is:  sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families.  Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once.  Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage.  Then when you pray, God will answer.  You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’”

It’s been a tough three weeks at The Forge, following the news of Paul Hart’s disappearance and death.  The trauma of this situation hit many people very hard and it’s been lovely to hear some of the tributes written and spoken about Paul’s gentle nature, his strongly held values and his gentle heart of compassion.

I remember speaking during the Deeper series that we will all face those ‘low’ times, when life is tough and hard going, but that we will also experience those highs, when life is good and we see God at work in pretty obvious ways.

Sometimes, when facing tough experiences, it’s hard to take a step back, look up and see what God is doing around us.

Well, just this morning, I was writing an email to a friend and I started to jot down some of what has been happening over the past couple of months and it made amazing reading!   It reminded me that God is at work at The Forge and that it’s worth shouting about!

Let me fill you in on some of the amazing stuff that’s been going on…

Two months ago we baptised 9 adults – take a moment to re-look at some of the video stories coz they’re very powerful testimonies of God at work.

A month ago, three of the older children attending Kids @ The Forge became Christians on just a regular Sunday morning.

We’ve seen answers to prayer re people struggling with cancer.  Following Miranda’s big operation last month, she texted this to me:  “Hi Steve.  I just wanted to share my good new with you.  Just had my follow up appt and results… there was no trace of any cancer remaining!  I’d say the combination of chemo and prayer has worked the miracle we were hoping for”! How amazing is that.

We’ve been able to appoint Phil Clay as our part time Music/Worship leader.  He begins working with us in September.

On Sunday, we’re baptising Andrew Mills and already have a number of people asking to be baptised at Sizewell in September.

At the time of writing this, we already have 136 kids booked into the Holiday Club starting in two weeks

We’ve secured the ‘Youth Provision’ responsibility in Debenham (through Big Society initiative).

We sent a building team of seven men out to Zambia in May to build school roofs, etc and we presently have a team of seven (six now due to Wendy Hill’s broken wrist) doing healthcare training and de-worming around 1000 children.

How amazingly good God is to us.  He really is worth celebrating…

If you were to take a step back, look up and see what God is doing, what would you be blogging about?  Go on, leave a reply…

This week is an exciting week for me as I talk with potential new staff members for the Forge.  Who’d have thought I’d be doing this when we first started 18 years ago and I was employed 2 days a week to lead the Church!   Since then, the Church has grown from 30 to 350 and so has the staff team  (6 full time and 4 part time.)  I am surrounded by so many brilliant people; all of whom are so much better than me at what they do!

When I set out the vision for the next three years (Double in Impact, Depth and Numbers), it was clear that this could only become a reality if we appointed more staff – dedicated time given to move ministries forward.  People gave incredibly generously towards this and so far, the process of appointing has worked well:  Becky Green (local involvement) and Mary Clarkson (Office manager) are amazing!  As yet, we still have the Music role and Video role to fill this year.

But how many paid staff workers do we need?

I was reading a blog by Tim Stevens this morning who said this:

I’ve been at Granger more than fifteen years. I’ve seen it grow from 400 to more than 5,000. I’ve served with a church staff team as small as 5 people and as many as 95. And we have never had enough staff.  Whether yours is a church of a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand, if your goal is to accomplish the Great Commission, you will never have enough staff.

And you know what? Not having enough staff is a good thing. It forces us to our knees. It requires that we get really smart about the priorities of the church. It compels us toward creativity and innovation. And it makes us get serious about leveraging the time and talents of our volunteers.

The Forge has so many highly gifted and motivated people who are passionate about Jesus and His church, whether paid or volunteering.  It’s why there is such energy and vibrancy together and why so much can be achieved.  As a Church, God has given us a big vision and it’s going to take real commitment from both staff and volunteers to see it fulfilled.

It’s true that we will never have enough staff but I also know that if we have too few staff to achieve the goals, it can create burnout or we have to pull back on the vision.  So, how do we know when we have found the right balance?  Is it dependant on workload, finance, office space  or just discernment?

I’m glad this responsibility ultimately lies with the elders and I think they’re doing a fantastic job in getting this balance right; but what criteria do you think we should use to get the right balance?

Hello, it’s me back again after a three month silence.  I’d love to say it’s because I’ve been so busy or had nothing much to say but it’s not.  I’m a complicated person and every now and again I get a mental block about doing something so I just keep putting it off until it becomes too big to face.

Anyway, I’m having therapy for it now, so watch out – the silence has been broken and Fenning will be blogging more often from now on!!

So what’s been going on?  Well, we’ve just come back from an amazing leadership weekend away at Sizewell Hall with 70 of the Forge’s leaders.

Rob Whittaker’s talks were spot on for us as a Church.  He inspired, encouraged and pushed our thinking.  The phrase he used on Friday night sticks in my mind, “Everyone is outstanding at something”   If it’s true, how do we know what we’re outstanding at and why do we find it so hard to say; “I am outstanding at…”?  I’m going to keep mulling these things over.

The group work sessions were focussed around our 3 year plan of “Double In Impact, Depth and Numbers” and how our individual leadership needs to change to enable this to happen.  I was working with the elders and trustees and you need to know that their commitment to the vision and it’s implementation is 100%.  Happy days!

Saturday evening proved to be very significant for a number of people.  Following a meal and desserts party (with cupcakes, chocolate fountains, fruit and other amazing deserts), Rob shared his own story of faith which was incredibly honest and engaging.  As a response to this, the staff and elders made a ‘prayer tunnel’ for those who wanted to walk through and be prayed for.  It was an amazing experience where God’s presence was tangible and He touched so many people.  Some great work was done in people’s lives that evening.

And then there were the baptisms on Sunday morning!  How amazing was that.  Steve Rosier, Mark Beaton, Paul Gunton, Sarah Elliott, Zoe Shears and Catherine Matter all shared their stories of being transformed by God via video and then after all six were baptised in the sea, another three people came forward – Alex Matter, Oliver Westmancott and Rachel Kerridge!  God really is at work in and through the life of the Forge.  It’s such an exciting community to be part of and I’m loving it!

Load of tweets and emails have been sent by those present at the weekend – many summed up by this from Ray Hart

“Thank you and the team for a terrific weekend at Sizewell, from the note on the pillow, the sessions, the chocolate fountain, the prayer tunnel, the baptisms and everything in between.  It was the best weekend at Sizewell Chris and I have ever had.”

It was last September when we first talked to the Church about making 2010 a simple Christmas through making a commitment to:

• cut back on spending so that finances are not stretched to breaking point;
• find ways to bring a more personal gift to people, rather than just give money or buy something for the sake of it;
• choose to not buy gifts for some people but redirect some/all of the money towards the ‘Simple Christmas’ project – water and educational projects in Zambia

As a family we had a couple of ‘meetings’ where we decided how we could make savings, such as borrowing a Christmas Tree rather than buying one, reducing the number of presents we bought for each other, making gifts for our neighbours and friends instead of just buying stuff.

We gave out bottles of water and encouraged people to collect some of the money saved over Christmas and give towards the Zambia project.

On Christmas morning and in the weeks to follow, people brought in their bottles filled with money.  The figure steadily rose as time went on and last week, I was emailed with the total money raised from Simple Christmas.  We have received a staggering £10983.47 in donations with another £1600 at least to be claimed under the gift aid system!

This is truly incredible and will prove to be life transformational for communities in Zambia.  We will keep you posted on developments as this money will enable water wells to be dug and pumps fixed, as well as resources for education – whether school roofs, desks or other equipment.

Thank you for responding so amazingly over this past Christmas.  Once again, your generosity has exceeded my expectations and I know that this money will help to make a positive difference to hundreds of people’s lives in Zambia.