Influence in the world



When Dawn and Gary Lacey were up here in Durham they created what I would call a “thin place” a spot where God seems closer, Holy ground without a national Trust sign. It’s a little café next to the Gala Theatre in Durham City Centre.

While Gary and Dawn were here they started their day and the new Officers Cor and Angelique do the same. It has become a God friendly café and you can sense it.

I met with Cor there last week just before I went on the street to meet my War Cry friends, we talked for ½ hour and then prayed together out loud, in the café. Later that day a man came over to me and put some money in the box, he said “I was in the café, overheard your conversation and I just felt I wanted to give you some money”.

I was blown away. We were in a Holy place talking about the workings of a Holy God and a man who had just come in for a coffee was blessed by our conversation.

Over these last few years there has been much talk about Post Christendom and many of the lectures I have been present at see it as a negative position for the Church. For centuries the Church had been the dominant power governed by Rome and then also by Canterbury.  The Bishops were Judge, Jury and often executioners. Rule and Judgment had become the power of the Church and most people jumped when told.

This last centaury put a stop to all that, there were mass exoduses from all denominations, even the new free churches. To look upon the scene would seem to be looking upon disaster.

Now we have a world that just seems to be wondering, looking for stability, peace, joy and spirituality.   Many are falling into the hands of mediums and spiritualists and other new age thinking. Why is it that they now do not look to the church?

Is it because they are not being blessed by the conversations of Christians in Cafés and other public places, Is it because they still see Christians who are judgmental, to whom rules are more important than grace.

Many people come up to me and offer money on behalf of relatives who during the last war were served tea by the Salvation Army in awful places. That cup of tea has influenced peoples opinion of the Salvation Army for more than the generation it served. Influence that has defined the Salvation Army to many.

In Ephesians 3: 20 we have that great prayer from Paul.

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine according to His power at work in us. To Him be Glory.

The influence of God, His love, mercy and grace is at work in us who believe. We need to take it out of Church and into the cafes.

A Song for you to have a look at on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAWeHo8E70E

If we are Hid body.