This just in from Joel News, one of my favorite subscriptions. Sadly, too late for us to republish in our ezine this week. Fair to republish excerpts here?---------JOEL NEWS 678, 20 March 2009
As the Irish celebrated St. Patrick's Day on March 17, remembering the Irish apostle who helped turn a pagan nation into a hotbed of Christianity, a Vineyard church in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, is helping spread a new wave of spiritual renewal across the nation. "God is moving in our communities in Ireland," says Alan Scott, who with his wife Kathryn leads the 350-member Causeway Coast Vineyard.
Instead of following the traditional model of commissioning couples to plant churches, Vineyard has been sending teams into communities across Ireland, where they set up a banner in the street that says 'Healing', and place a few chairs where people can sit while receiving prayer.
"We go to an area, heal the sick, and see if ultimately a community forms around kingdom activity in that area," Scott says. It's messier, but the results have been dramatic. South of the border in the Republic of Ireland, the team encountered a Gypsy woman who was diabetic and blind in one eye. "The Lord sovereignly healed her," Scott recalls. "Her son was lame in his right leg and was also healed. They all just came from everywhere. It was book of Acts stuff."
The intercessors were invited to pray for others. A boy with scoliosis - a severe curvature of the spine - received prayer and "instantly straightened up." Similar experiences followed as the team visited other parts of the republic. "Every time we go, we see the sick healed," Scott says.
[The] Vineyard leader says the rich heritage of early Irish church leaders such as St. Patrick continues to influence him and his church.
"Part of our reason for existing is that we want to recapture some of that original mandate. There was a group of crazy monks who were so captured by the Spirit of God, they understood that community and mission are inseparable. They had something in their heart that wanted to care for the poor and change the community in which they functioned."
(c) JOEL NEWS, 2009 | republication only with full creditline | www.joelnews.org
2 comments:
I love it! Radical mission, meeting people's needs just like Jesus did and the attitude of "seeing if" a community forms as a result... Fantastic!
I know, isn't that great? Sadly, whenever I share "Joel News" stories with folks at the church I attend in Denver they react with more skepticism than delight. Products of our culture, I guess.
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