Westminster Chapel saw church leaders and Christian organisations from across the UK gather for the annual Ekklesia Church Leaders Conference on Wednesday.
Pastors Chris Frost and Mark Waterfield delivered the keynote address introducing the theme for this yr’s conference ‘In but not of’ taken from John 17:14.
“We wish to construct churches in order that in the event that they were to vanish their loss can be felt profoundly by their area people,” said Frost.
He continued: “We also wish to construct churches that in some fundamental ways challenge the establishment and see people free of destructive cultural norms.”
Frost went on to declare that the Church is “called out” of the world to be followers of Jesus who “live in the stress of being in but not of the world”.
For Waterfield, revival is about playing the long game.
“It goes to take longer than we would really like and be harder than we’d think,” he said.
He continued: “We want the suddenly but we struggle with the regularly. There are not any cheat codes if we would like to see change, if we would like to see society transformed and see revival.”
“We cannot control the suddenly, that’s the work of God, but we are able to control the regularly, that’s what we’re to do.”
Frost urged the conference not to offer up, referencing Galatians 6:9 that at the appropriate time a “harvest might be reaped”.
He went on to say that in the trouble to construct the church, it is vital to speculate in discipleship.
Theologian and creator Lucy Peppiatt led a chat on “birthing Christ in others” wherein she reflected upon and analysed effective leadership and the duty leaders must make disciples.
“It’s an extended process making disciples of all nations. When you take a look at it like that, after all it will take a lifetime, but this long process begins once we are born anew, birthed again as a toddler of God,” she said.
“The leaders are those who’re tasked with birthing Christ in others. In one sense it is barely a piece of the Spirit. Of course it may well only be a piece of the Spirit to birth us anew and make us like Christ.”
Peppiatt touched on Paul’s letters within the New Testament, shedding light on how he compared making disciples to childbirth.
She called Paul a “fascinating character” who “breaks the mould of a lot of our models of leadership”.
She also addressed the tendency for the Bible to be interpreted through a masculine guise when feminine attributes also run through Scripture.
“If rebirth is the start of discipleship and that is the center of Christian living, it’s no wonder really that Paul draws on birthing imagery to assist him imagine what he’s doing in discipling others,” she said.
She continued: “Paul believed he was called to affix in a means of discipling that was like parenting, that involved fatherly and motherly roles to facilitate the forming of Christ in others.”
