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AC Talk March 2023
HOW HEALTHY IS OUR CHURCH?
It is not a strange idea to visit your family physician annually for a routine check-up to make sure that your health is okay. If not, you might discover that you have a serious or life-threatening disease when it is too late. In the same way, a church will do well to consider its health regularly.
I deliberately avoid the word “successful” in favour of the word “healthy”. The criteria we select will be largely influenced by a “success” or “health” paradigm. Some people are considered to be successful because they own multiple properties, and vehicles and have great financial clout and influence. Yet, their marriage is shipwrecked, their children are scattered, and they have fallen victim to various coping mechanisms. A public success, and yet a private failure.
What is the most biblical way to define a “healthy” church? Should a church be considered “healthy” when it draws large crowds of people to its meetings? Perhaps a church is “healthy” when most of its growth comes from new converts or has a social outreach programme serving the 0community. Is an effective children’s ministry or youth program the key element for “health”; or perhaps the fact that the church engages well with the culture in the city? There are many different things we could focus on.
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AC Talk December 2022
This Christmas let us press in afresh to His Presence
There have been many stories of sad losses and huge difficulties over the past years as we all faced different consequences of the fallout in the world.
As if Covid was not enough, the world is facing wars and rumours of wars and not in my memory has there been a time of such instability, infighting and division in governments and nations.
Of all these things we have been warned and no doubt it is time to look up and read the times.
I can remember back in the nineteen seventies and eighties how the arrival of the “Day of the Lord” was announced with great confidence and the date would come and go. It seems there is still no shortage of predictions as to when He will return, despite Jesus saying that only the Father knew when it would be.
All we can say, is that it is closer now than ever before!
I don’t think further thoughts of escapism are going to bring peace to our souls, nor another favourite end time theory, of which there are many.
I am fully persuaded that this Christmas, we have all we need in order to know His peace that passes understanding and for us to already live in His presence, which we also...
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AC Talk September 2022
Each Generation Must Discover Its' Mission
The very recent death of Queen Elizabeth and the immediate accession to the throne of her son King Charles, has captured the attention of the global community, with both electronic and print media following every move of the smooth transition from one generation to the next within the monarchy. So apparent has the late queen’s impact and influence been throughout her reign, that commentators refer to her passing as the end of the Elizabethan era and the media’s attention is turning to speculating how the new king’s impact will be in the years of his reign.
The late French psychiatrist and political philosopher Frantz Fanon is quoted as saying: “Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it…” Despite the fact that he wrote this against the background of a very different context and for very different reasons and, while it is to be seen how the two monarchs representing two different generations will be remembered for the way they approached their mission, I couldn’t help being affected by the challenge these words carry, as I apply it to the cause of Jesus Christ for which you and I are called.
These eleven words are charged with meaning and it is worth taking a moment to let the challenge sink in.
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Day of Prayer 2022
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Dear COTN Elders, Leaders and Churches,
Greetings to you all in Jesus name.
Each year at this time, it is my joy to introduce and provide you with details regarding our annual Church of the Nations – Day of Prayer.
I’m sure that most of you will be aware and have already built it into your calendars. This year it will fall on Sunday 11 September being the second Sunday of September. It is where we ask each church to set aside time during their Sunday meeting/service, to unite with COTN churches around the world in a focused prayer celebration.
Our Prayer Day is the only truly ‘combined international event’ which we host each year, where we ask every COTN church to participate.
THEME and KEY SCRIPTURE:
T H E WEAPONS OF OUR WARFA R E ARE NOT CARNAL….
but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. - 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 NKJ
DATE: Sunday 11 September 2022
Background:
At this juncture in time, the world seems to be at a place where it has not been in more than 70 years. There is much tension internationally and geopolitically, with much speculation surrounding natural weaponry and armaments. Yet God and His people are called to respond in the opposite spirit, as are we as the COTN family.
There is a sense that God is commissioning us to stand in the gap at this moment, not only for Europe and the Balkans but also with other nations under attack as well. The Apostolic Council have witnessed with and embraced this call, for us in COTN to join with the broader Bride of Christ in contending in the Spirit at this time.
We will be providing you with prayer pointers and reminders over the next few weeks.
Please mark the date. It’s just a few weeks away!
Every Blessing
David Cape
On behalf of the Apostolic Council
| COTN DAY OF PRAYER Intro Letter 2022.pdf | [ ] | 230 kB |
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AC Talk July 2022
The Relentless Love of God
Regardless of whether people are believers or unbelievers, everyone knows the story of Jonah. Some refer to it as a story about a fish, but in reality, this book is all about the relentless love of God.
Dear Friends,
I believe God wants to use this narrative to shift our hearts for the greater purposes of restoration and recovery. It is vital to allow God to refocus us regarding His heart for the lost and what He wants to do in the world in this challenging season.
Right from the beginning, in the book of Genesis, we read how God set the nation of Israel apart to be a peculiar covenant people. A people that He loved and cared for; a people of promise and blessing which would never remain with them but would flow through them as God’s people. What a privilege it is to know that we are in covenant with Almighty God, who cares for and loves us but also to know that His intention was always that His blessing would never stop with us but would flow through us.
We see in the book of Jonah that God’s people had lost their focus. They became self-focused and self-centered and forgot that God had called them to be a blessing to other nations.
When God called Jonah, the Bible says that he ran from the presence of God and ran in the opposite direction to what God intended for His life.
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| AC_TALK_JULY_22.pdf | [ ] | 688 kB |
AC Talk March 2022
Is this the end, or is it the beginning, or is it the beginning of the end?
As I write this paper, the bombardment of Ukraine continues, Covid 19 still spreads across the earth as, only a couple of weeks ago, the death toll reached the 6 million mark globally. Financial instability and growing inflation in many countries continues to cause great concern for many. As a COTN family we have known loss and heartache through the above and we surround those who are grieving
and facing difficult times. We pray that you will know the Father’s love, comfort and provision. These things can lead to many questions, far too many to answer here, but I trust that these thoughts that we have shared over the last few years, will encourage and give us some focus, as we diligently serve in the advancement of our king’s kingdom on earth.
When I began to share a few years ago that we were entering into a time of seismic shift, I don’t think I fully realized what that was going to mean. I believe it started for me when, for a few years, Marilyn and I visited a German town called Magdeburg, to share with a community of believers there. Magdeburg is about an hour’s drive from Wittenberg, the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation that took place in 1518. In 2018, a few weeks before the 500-year anniversary, I had the privilege of visiting there and was quite moved by the thought of how huge a shift can happen on earth, through a simple beginning, of a young Catholic priest Martin Luther receiving a revelation from God, that the just shall live by faith; that salvation was not obtained by works or religious activity, but by simple trust in the grace of God. A seismic shift took place that radically changed the religious and political landscape of Europe and onto the world.
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| AC_TALK_MARCH_22.pdf | [ ] | 1001 kB |
