Subscribe to Every Post:England, Here we Are
We have made it here in England. We spent the first day trying to get over jet lag and stayed with a friend of mine, Dwight (above), who lives in Ely, England. Dwight is also the dark hair guy in the first picture of the previous post holding the British flag with me. He came over to travel with me while in college, met an English girl, and eventually married her.
Ely is known as a place with one of the largest Christian cathedrals in the country. As we went inside, it was really kind of a lesson on the history of western church over the last 1300 years. England has all of these intricate and powerful symbols of architecture and religious power – very beautiful and massive.
However, from everything I have read, life transformation from the advancement of the gospel in the country of England has been decreasing for decades. England is a post-Christian society. In fact, life transformation from the advancement of the gospel is currently decreasing in every country within the western world. The church, however, is growing in tremendous ways in the non-western world. More about this topic to come later …
Saturday night we arrived in Sheffield with our host family – a great couple in their sixties who have a tremendous heart for God.
We went to three church services throughout the day yesterday and attended an outreach event with our host family (long day but powerful). They invited all of their neighbors within close proximity of their house to an afternoon dessert. What was amazing is that most of their neighbors actually came. Our host family pointed to each house in their neighborhood to Scott and myself and gave us a bio on each family and how they were praying for that family. Scott and I were amazed.
Last night at one of the services, the church highlighted seventeen Clusters (our term is Team) – a group of 2-5 house churches each. Each coach gave testimony of what God had been doing within their cluster/team. It was very exciting, and the whole church celebrated with great joy!
Lots more to share, but that is it for now.
June 9th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Hola Bro! You look good. Is Dwight packing something?
June 10th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Wow, you sure hit the ground running! It sounds like an awesome trip so far. It’s really interesting to hear how different cultures are reaching their communities in their own ways. I love the idea of your host family knowing every family in their neighborhood by name and praying for them. That’s what the church is all about.
Brad Ruggles // http://www.bradruggles.com
June 10th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
The photograph of that church from the inside is fantastic I love the color and the light. David Crowder had a really good blog about stuff like that one time. I would link it if I knew where it was.
I agree with Brad. The host family knowing all of that about their friends and neighbors is huge. That’s really awesome in so many ways.