Seeing dreams come true

"It’s not just dreams that are a gift from God – so are the strategies that must accompany them."

God created us to have dreams, and great leaders are great dreamers. Writer Bill Easum says, ‘Leaders have strong imaginations… they dream and daydream and in their minds and hearts go places most of us have never thought of, and they take us with them.’

Manchester needs people who find God’s grace to dream really big dreams. If we only dream about what we might achieve in our own resources, then our vision will be very small. Therefore we must keep asking God to give us vision.

I love being with leaders who have strong imaginations and the courage to take risks of faith.

One of the projects connected with CCM is the Oasis community project in Gorton and whenever I am available, I go down and wash a few dishes. They work with about 100 adults a week, many living on benefits, some struggling with debt, others with addictions, others with mental health issues.

Being with Victoria and the team from Oasis, seeing a dream they had a few years ago now a reality, is inspirational. And they’re not alone – many people are today running with dreams that just a few years ago were just that – dreams. 

But I’ve found it’s not just the dreams that are a gift from God – so are the strategies that must accompany them.

There are so many illustrations in the Bible about people who had amazing dreams. One of my favourites is Noah. God gave him a massive vision: the responsibility to save the world by building an ark to carry his family and two of every kind of animal. 

But more than this, He also gave him very specific dimensions and instructions, so that in his mind Noah could ‘see’ the finished ark before he had begun. This meant that he could stand against all the ridicule because he knew that one day his dream would become a reality.

Dreams have to be fleshed out in plans and strategies. Wishful thinking and sunny optimism won’t get the job done. Like Noah, the dream must have ‘an ark’ to carry the purposes of God. Having the right flexible structure for the church and churches God has told us to plant is vital for our dreams to become a reality.

Keeping up-to-date with CCM via email

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Keeping up-to-date with CCM via RSS

We have designed our website around 'RSS feeds' - a way of publishing content on the internet that makes it really easy to share.

Thanks to RSS. every update on CCM’s website can come direct to you without you even needing to browse the web to find it. This means you’ll never miss an update and you’ll find out about news as soon as it happens.

A good explanation of RSS is available on the BBC’s website.

You’ll need to download a piece of software known as an RSS, news or feed reader, or your browser may already have one built in (search the Help section in your browser for RSS).

When it asks you for the address of the feeds you want to subscribe to, either hover over the little yellow feed symbol (the three concentric arcs), right click and copy the link location, or cut and paste from the list below:

For the CCM Life feed (with news and upcoming events) - http://www.ccm.org.uk/ccm_life/ccm_life_feed/
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For Colin’s blog - http://www.ccm.org.uk/colin_baron/blog_feed/

If this all seems a little complex, why not sign up to receive updates via email?

Dreaming Big Dreams

"My reply, instinctively and audibly back to the cassette recorder was, I want to plant 20 churches in Greater Manchester."

‘The trouble with many leaders is that they have lost the will to dream big dreams!’

Vineyard church planter Steve Nicholson’s words rang out of my car’s cassette player. It was 1993 and I was on my way from London to the great city of Manchester. ‘What are your big dreams?’ he asked.

My reply, instinctively and audibly back to the cassette recorder was, ‘I want to plant 20 churches in Greater Manchester.’

I may have already been hurtling up the M6, but for me, that moment was the real start of the journey. Suddenly I realised we were about a big thing, a massive vision, a seemingly impossible challenge. I was captivated, and so was the small team I gathered to begin the work of planting not just one church but many churches,

You see, the ‘normal’ strategy says that the way you plant churches is to build a large resource church and then plant out of the centre. Our plan broke those rules. In the first year, while we were busy gathering our first 50 people, we also started two new churches. Even more church plants followed as we took risks and reached out across the North West. Faith was high and an empowering ‘have-a-go’ culture permeated the people as they served and celebrated the successes of one another.

All-night prayer meetings gathered large crowds; daily early morning prayer meeting at 6am were signs of the grace of God. Owning a really big vision caused us all to over-achieve.

Now, as we build our sixth church in Greater Manchester, this time in the under-churched and poorer east side, again we need to emphasise the bigger vision. Small-mindedness and self-interest is a curse: we are always looking to lift people’s horizons, to have a concern for the whole of Greater Manchester, this nation and all the nations of the world. This type of church culture is hard to generate and even harder to maintain. With the passing of time and new people joining the church, it is crucial that we keep highlighting and living out the vision and values that create this life-changing culture.

Over the next few weeks, I want to open up different values that help make this church culture such a great place to belong. 

Sunday 15 February: Launch Day!

This Sunday, we launched Christ Church Manchester publicly at Hyde Town Hall.

What a great atmosphere it was as we celebrated all God’s done through the last couple of years as East Manchester Family Church and set our eyes on the future together.

Balloons were flying everywhere as Graham led a short time of worship to kick off. Faith then interviewed eight of our people about how and why they came to be part of the church – God has really been doing great things in our lives.  Then Alistair briefly introduced the new website.

Colin preached on the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19), pointing out particularly that it was only ‘as they went’ that they were cleansed. Sometimes we need to move out in faith even before we see the thing God has promised he will do for us. We’re stepping out in faith every week by being a relatively small church in a big hall, trusting that God is going to grow us to fill it.

To finish, we had a buffet lunch together while the kids enjoyed a movie.

It’s A New Day!

"This launch is part of a vision to see a vibrant church on the east side of Greater Manchester."

'It's a new day' can be such an over-worked phrase, but I must admit I quite like it. It's a phrase full of hope, possibility and empowerment.

A couple of years ago, Mary and myself drove from Jo’burg to Cape Town via Lesotho and Durban. It was a long drive full of memories, of great hotels and lovely people, interspersed with the occasional tense husband-and-wife moments (‘You gave me the wrong directions!‘).

As part of this journey I spoke at the pre-launch of two new churches. The anticipation in the churches was very high. The amazing buzz that this was ‘a new day’ permeated the people. In Manchester and Boston (US) I have had the same excitement, and fear, as we launched very pioneering groups in people’s homes, hoping and praying that someone will turn up. Then enjoying the real pleasure of prayers being answered and guest arriving.

This month I am part of another launch: Christ Church Manchester (CCM). This is a little different to most that I have been involved in. We have been going for some time under the name of East Manchester Family Church and have grown to around 60 people.

It is amazing how times like this can mean different things, and evoke a variety of reactions in people. For some, they think, ‘What’s the fuss? We are just carrying on being church and reaching out, with a new name.‘

For Simon, the pioneer of the church, CCM is an exciting fulfilment of a vision he has for many new churches and other initiatives that advance the Kingdom of God, and so EMFC has much more to do.  For others, this launch is part of a vision to see a vibrant church on the east side of Greater Manchester having a positive effect on the city.

Last month at one of our prayer meetings, a visitor had a strong sense that God was speaking to us as a church: she saw us like a book and the page was turning. There was a new page opening and God was writing new things about the church.

As she spoke, it came home to me again that even part-way on the journey, there are times when God seems to say, ‘This is a new day!‘