A corporate anointing on a company of people to change a city

This is the time of year when we reflect and hear from the Lord about His heart for the coming 12 months. (God Himself is not bound by time, but He gives it to us as a gift to keep us on the journey with Him and to help us move “from glory to glory” [2 Cor 3:18]. So, while time is not necessary for Him, I believe that it is necessary for us and important for us.)

While it’s not a new message, I feel that for our assembly of believers, EGLISE JOSUE in Guebwiller, France, 2010 is a year in which we are called to come into a new revelation and experience (words that actually should be inseparable, but in Western thinking are separate):

  • of our corporate identity
  • in order that we could carry a corporate anointing
  • in order that we could come along side our city (Guebwiller and the surrounding area)
  • in order that we would bless the city
  • in order that the city would become a blessing to the nations

In this audio teaching from Bethel Church in Redding, CA, Bill Johnson explains how God needs a company of people, as opposed to an individual, in order to pour out a blessing and an anointing sufficiently powerful to facilitate transformation of a city or a region. The level of blessing and anointing necessary would crush an individual, but a company of believers who are walking in unity of honest heart relationships can successfully steward such a measure of grace.

I encourage liberal quantities of this teaching while praying for your church and your city. I think this is a word for us specifically, but the same Holy Spirit is undoubtedly saying the same thing specifically to many believers around the world. Start praying and proclaiming the end result now: Jesus, make name-your-city a blessing to the nations!

Practical Steps to Change the World (mp3 9.5Mb)

Short-term missions trip opportunity in France – Summer 2009

The private French Christian school where Angela and I volunteer and our daughter attends, (Collège-Daniel) recently acquired some land with some “cabins” on it. We have a project this summer to renovate those cabins into classrooms and office space for this coming September. We have partnered with EuroTeam, a branch of Greater Europe Mission, to oversee the renovation work.

At present the project is in jeopardy as we lack the workers to actually accomplish the renovation. This post is a call to any/all who might be interested in participating in a 2-week short-term renovation-project missions trip to the Alsace region of France this summer. Individuals and/or groups are welcome.

This printable PDF flyer gives more details and could be posted in churches or Christian schools, etc. Please feel free to pass on this blog post and/or PDF file to potentially interested people/groups.

For those who are interested, please use the contact information in the PDF file as WE are NOT the ones coordinating the team; that is what EuroTeam is doing. Thanks!

Big doings in our new digs…

Our church in Guebwiller, France recently moved into a larger facility. It was mostly unfinished when we acquired it. We rushed to make it “tolerable” in December 2007 for a visiting speaker…lots of moving…cleaning…setup…etc. Then it was obvious that the dust from the unfinished floors, walls and ceiling would soon kill us or our equipment and we (ambitiously) wanted to host the 2008 French Christian Education conference “Mathurin Cordier” in the new building in February.

So, we re-moved and re-setup in our old facility and started a manic rush of finish work (almost all of it done by the church and most by a handful of faithful, talented and insanely hard-working people). Well, we got “done” (enough) in time for the conference these last few days and with a fantastic team effort and a smiling Heavenly Father, we had a wonderful weekend together.

I was up in our sound booth (wow, a real-live raised platform for the sound people now!!!) on Sunday morning where we combined the last session of the conference with the Sunday morning service. Surveying the jam-packed room (good-sized for a French church!), I took this little 1-minute video of the worship with my digital camera…(don’t expect any high-quality stuff!) You can get at least an idea of what it looks like:

8Mb avi video of worship time during the conference