Mobilise 2006: Tom Shaw

Main Session One

At the beginning of a life-changing week, Tom Shaw kicked us off in Mobilise with the phrase "We need to get ready for the promises of God to be fulfilled."

We were reminded passionately that as a movement and a generation we are pregnant with promises. Tom brought some of these to our attention, helping to fuel our faith and unashamedly cath-up those who were new. When he asked everyone who had never been to Mobilise before to raise their hand, it was easily the majority of the Clarendon Centre's auditorium. Wow!

Showing us on a map Paul's missionary journey and the way God was speaking to him and leading him to different places, Tom drew a comparison with the promises God has given us.

1) Conception is Gods intitiative. These are God's promises over our family of churches and more specifically our generation. He is the one who gives direction to our lives. He is the one who plants dreams in our hearts. We mustn't be afraid of specific, geographical direction that God gives.

2) Childbirth is always messy. We mustn't expect it to be an easy ride. We are confident in the promises of God, but we know that things won't always seem as glorious as they may when we are gathered together. We are to be the "fragrance of death" to the world, and that is likely not to bring us an easy life!

Tom drew helpfully from his own experience as an excited expectant father. He described the level of excitement and wonder during the stage of pregnancy, and explained how other people who are already fathers will come and put their arms around him and explain what it's "really" going to be like: sleepless nights, constant worrying etc.

To the question: "Is it going to be magnificent and wonderful, or tough, difficult and extremely tiring?" the answer is "BOTH"! But we must have both. Some might call it realism vs idealism, but the reality is that the difficulties only ever come from the outworking of a promise. Difficulties are to be expected, but our sense of wonder at God's plans mustn't deteriorate.

What a way to kick of a conference! I must admit that my desire to be caught up in what Tom was saying caused me not to take as thorough notes as I had intended, but I was glad I did it that way round! Definitely one to get hold of.

Mobilise 2006: The Broad Sweep

Newfrontiers have been inviting students to the Brighton Conference for the last five conferences. Over the years I have watched these times grow from students simply signing up for the main conference (the only student-specific part being the seminars recommended for students), to 1100 of us gathering in the Clarendon Centre for half the week, whilst still enjoying many of the main sessions in the Brighton Centre. What a difference four years make.

On Friday night I wrote down how I found the week. The first line started "What a week; What a God!" This summarises it for me!

I never cease to be amazed at how, though our vision and values are well-established and we would therefore not expect to hear anything "new" at such a conference, God continues to use it to reveal, and re-reveal his purposes for this family of churches! How helpful it is to be reminded of why we are doing what we are doing, what the final goal is, and how we are going to get there: church planting.

Over the coming weeks I shall be revisiting the sessions I attended and bringing both a representation of what was said and my own response. As I pointed out in my proposition, this is mainly for my own benefit, but hopefully others may find it interesting. The first post will be on Tom Shaw's opening message to Mobilise last Tuesday morning.

Index of posts:
Tom Shaw
Pete Cornford
Terry Virgo (1)
Andy Martin
Wayne Grudem (1)
My Story
David Holden
Wayne Grudem (2)