During the second half of 2011 the Lead Pastors of New Life Church (Russ) and Scunthorpe Baptist Church (Rich) believed that God was speaking to them about a spiritual issue facing our area. They began to believe that He was calling them to tackle it together.
As a result our two churches are sharing a joint theme for 2012, titled ‘Raising the Flag’. The focus for us is considering how God wants to see our area set free spiritually and what part we have to play in that.
The issue of territorial spirits is not a straightforward one and can be controversial. Our aim in ‘Raising the Flag’ is to be people both of the word and the Spirit and so we will be digging deep into scripture as well as waiting on God for His immediate, prophetic, voice. The metaphor we are using for this spiritual issue is a cuckoo. A cuckoo egg is placed somewhere it doesn’t belong (in the nest of another bird species). After it hatches it seeks to evict the other babies (who are supposed to be there) from the nest and consume all the resources it can. We believe that this is a picture for what we see happening to churches in our area.
Though we will be engaging with this issue in a number of ways, a key element will be our Joint Praise Celebrations. These will happen roughly every other month and will take place on a Sunday evening. They are a chance for anybody from our two churches, or from other churches, to join together simply to praise God.
During 2012 our churches may be focusing on different issues from time to time and entering into different message series. However, our overall focus will be united and the same; we are about ‘Raising the Flag’. Many churches walk in the same direction, but not many walk together. In 2012 our two churches are going to be journeying together and we are excited about all that God is going to do in and through us.
