by John Baw on September 7, 2008
- Attendance was way up this Sunday. I was not able to get a head count but that was certainly the impression that I got from where I was. I suspected that come September, attendance was going to climb.
- For worship we only had Jaydan this week but he had his new baby with him!!!!! That new keyboard really takes sound to the next level at Living Waters!!! He had his old keyboard with him too and the combination really made it seem as if there were several musicians playing at the same time.
- Worship was militant man! I get the impression that in recent weeks we have been breaking new ground in worship. There is a discernible shift that takes place when God’s people go to war by worshipping the God who is great and greatly to be praised.
- I gave an exhortation on the atonement, and how the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross has bought us every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ – You can read/download my teaching notes here.
- Fatima as translating for me today into Spanish. Man, she is such a gift and provision for me on Sundays. I really feel blessed and sense the anointing flowing really well when she translates.
- I really feel that we need to reproduce her. We could do with a team of translators!!!
- I am now officially teaching in English every week now – we translate into Spanish. It works better for us this way from a Missional perspective. Gibraltar’s youth needs to be reached in English – this is not a political thing, it is a reality that we are addressing.
- After the talk we did something completely risky, innovative and new – we had a time of open prophetic worship where Jaydan moved in spontaneous song for a while and we prayed, prophesied, sung, danced and generally went for it! I think that it went well for being the first time doing this. I think that the people did not have a grid to compare this to so they were a little bit unsure as to what they were supposed to do – if that makes any sense.
- I really feel like we are entering a time where we will move in greater expressions of innovation and creativity in our expression of worship – this will include the arts, and to this end today we had a local artist that has been coming to our fellowship recently set up his easel and just flowed prophetically during worship. I encouraged him to pursue this thing because I see a lot of potential in this expression.
- We had a testimony of a bro getting promotion at work this week and how this confirmed the teaching of this week with regards to trusting the Lord for Divine Justice.
by John Baw on August 30, 2008
- Attendance was up – summer must be coming to an end
- Worship really broke some new ground this morning – One comment / compliment I received from a visitor from the UK was that for a small group such as ours, the sound that comes out of this place in worship really makes you feel as if there are more people worshipping there than in her church which is 5 times larger!!! – Only one explanation for this…..Heaven must be joining-in!!!
- I gave a short exhortation on what often keeps us from being used in Kingdom building and restoration – Three of the most frequent hindrances being a distorted sense of your true identity, discouragement from others , and accusations.
- We then released everyone into a time of ministry and prayer for each other, speaking words of encouragement, edification and comfort over each others’ lives – I was just BLOWN AWAY seeing the people get in on this thing – This is certainly something that we feel led to do more often at Living Waters!
- I am SO ENCOURAGED ! ! ! ! !
- Still feeling that “Holy Hangover” ! ! ! !
by John Baw on August 24, 2008
- I arrived late this morning and the worship service had already begun without me
- The reason for this delay was that God as downloading stuff right up to 11:00am regarding certain transitions that we as a church have to undergo in order to recover a missional focus.
- Worship was FREAKIN’ AWESOME!!! In fact, worship broke me. It really undid me. Mad me realize that Father loves me SO MUCH, that should I stumble or fall, I am CAUGHT in HIS GRACE!!!! That realization compels me to want to please Him more and more! There is an anointing and a presence during our worships times that is just medicinal!! I honestly believe that we are fast approaching a time when anything can breakout in our services just because of the glory present during worship. Can it be any other way?
- Jaydan then shared an OFF-THE-HOOK-TESTIMONY!!!!! – He had been teaching his 6-year old nephew Daniel how to play “Glory, Glory, Glory” on the keyboard at his place. After a while his nephew gets the hang of it and then spends over ONE AND A HALF HOURS just praising and singing GLORY!!!!!! C’mon!!! People, I think we have a little fire starter in our hands.. But there is more!
- Jaydan pulls him away from the keyboard at 11:00pm and tucks this little one to bed – Daniel says that he is still singing in his mind!
- Jaydan then hears this massive choir singing Glory! Glory! Glory! – He thought that he must be hearing things until Daniel says, “I can hear the angels singing!” !!!!!!!!!! C’mon!!! Freaking off-the-hook!!!!!!
- Brian shared another testimony of how he was led to pray for a lady in a supermarket in Spain that had just been diagnosed with cancer, and was able to authoritatively command healing right there in the aisle!!! We look forward to hearing from her with an amazing testimony soon.
- Ladies and gentlemen, supermarkets are now considered a legitimate ministry area!
- This lady was not expecting this “Special Offer” when she went bargain hunting that day – She was not the one seeking, she was the one being sought, by the precious love of Father. I am just amazed by the love that God is placing in or people – they are starting to step out in public places in order to pray for people!!!
- In between testimonies, I managed to share a few words (
) on the Holy Spirit as Helper, and Friends, and the difference between moving in realm sof power and realms of authority.
- When we move in power, God is initiating a wave of supernatural activity that we are responding to – we “ride the wave”
- When we move in authority, we are stepping out in the authority of a son of God and a wave of supernatural activity is created by us! – we “initiate the wave”
- Derek shared on the two heart realities of working FOR God’s favour versus working FROM God’s favour.
- After the message I shared on some sessions that we will be having during September where we will be casting some vision and charting a future course for the church.
- Many changes need to happen if we want to have a more missional focus
- In order to manage these changes I propose to have a Transitional Leadership team set in place in the very near future with a clear mandate to help bring about that change during a time frame of 1 to 2 years.
- During that mandate, there will be extensive profiling and gift-assessments of everyone to assess what areas of church service are most suitable for them.
- After this mandate expires then those on the leadership team will be either confirmed, or step aside on order to set in place a permanent leadership team.
- Please be in prayer for this.
by John Baw on August 17, 2008
- There were a few new faces in the crowd – I love it when we have visitors
- Made some neat connections with a couple of these visitors – I have this feeling that we will remain in touch and bless each other for the long term
- Great worship! – Jaydan and Angel ROCKED the HOUSE! FUEGO!!! Psycoloco!
- Had Fatima translating!!! This is so awesome because we had English-only and Spanish-only people in the “crowd” – Don’t know what I would have done without her!
- Taught from Heb 4:12 on rediscovering the Bible as LIVING and POWERFUL and SHARP
- Shared on Lectio Divina and the practise of reading the bible meditatively and contemplatively and what this means for our transformation
- Cool ministry time after the message
- Managed to pray for my little hero Caleb!!!! We are believing great things for him!
- Our intercession team is slowly taking shape!!!! This is one key strategic ministry for me and for this church!
- Really grateful for those who come every week and give of their time and energy to set things up, take things down, translate, lead worship and so on. This church is being built with guys and gals like you!
- Really pumped about what God is setting us up for!
- Having a 2-hour “nap” on Sunday afternoon really recharges my batteries
- Re-connected with some Spanish friends from Germany in the evening – God has them on a journey and it was awesome hearing where they are at, and where they are going.
by John Baw on November 13, 2007
A little late but you know me………herewith follows a wrap-up of this Sunday’s service:
Worship set:
This Sunday saw us sans worship leader as Angel had gone down with some bug or other and was unwell to attend the meeting. At the church was Martin Hosken of U-Turn fame who promptly shot back home and fetched his guitar. For an improvised worship t6he result was awesome! He pretty much winged-it, and the Lord responded by allowing us another glimpse of His Glory!
Teaching:
I shared onbeing filled with His Spirit in order to walk worthy of the gospel – overflowing and getting others filled by what is overflowing from our cups You can catch all my teaching notes here and download the PDF of this teaching in particular here.
Lord’s Supper:
We then celebrated communion (We normally do this once a month) and it was just incredible to celebrate Jesus’ supreme victory at the Cross – and everything that this victory has purchased for us in His own blood.
Bulletin:
This week’s bulletin can he download from our church website here.
Attendance:
There were more people at the service yesterday than we have had in a long time – there seems to rise a thing within every pastor when he looks up on a Sunday and sees nearly every seat occupied. We have been having more people visiting – some are settling, some are checking us out…..thinking about whether this group is a place they can call home. Come on in…this is your home now – we love you.
Prayer requests:
- Please pray for Diego who is in hospital battling cancer. His faith is strong and he is battling this thing with all that he has. He needs our prayers for a mighty work of God in his body. We are believing for a total healing.
- Eileen is back in hospital with a chest infection – pray that she be totally healed and restored to perfect health.
Technorati Tags: Living Waters Tabernacle, Teaching
by John Baw on October 23, 2007
I know this is a little late (Usually Sunday wrap-ups are supposed to hit the Internet by Monday morning the latest, I know, I know) but time is just slipping from me and my humongous To-Do list does not seem to spare me any mercy viz. the tick tock of my watch. Anyways for you reader who are thirsting and hungering for my updates here goes:
1. Sunday meeting.
Sunday meeting saw us without a worship leader as our awesome Angel is in the UK at a Todd Bentley conference. When we are without a worship leader we get creative. We hooked up an iPod through the sound system and played worship songs (In our characteristic bi-lingual English/Spanish combinations of songs). The worship was actually really good! I was taken aback by this as one would expect a pretty flat praise service. On the contrary it was a very refreshing time for me, and by the looks of it for those who were there as well.
2. Presentation softare
I am playing more and more with OpenSong, the worship software that we use for presentations. I introduced announcements etc with different backgrounds which was cool, although openSong has some limitations that make want to switch. The main limitations are that although it comes with installable bible modules, you can only display one at a time. this does not particularly work for us as we would love to have a program were we could project the scriptures in English and in Spanish together. Another huge limitation is that you cannot edit slide background on the fly – you have to presrt a particular background for each song (not good enough for me).
3. Sermon: Sustaining Passion for the Lord.
I shared on a couple of points related to sustaining passion for the Lord! The new wine is bring poured out and we cannot receive it into old wineskins. I touched on joy and rejoicing and how this is key for us. The friends of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them – and the bridegroom is with and IN us! It is time for joy, even as the Kingdom is 1/3 JOY! (See: Rom 14:17). There is a shift going on in our church – some will not like it. You can get my teaching notes here.
4. Bulletin.
You can now access our weekly church bulletin here. This is a tool that I have begun to use (Even though we are a very small group) in roder to facilitate communication of dates and events, and also in order to help visitors get a grasp on what is going on and how we can better serve them.
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John Baw, Living Waters Tabernacle, Teaching Notes
by John Baw on September 23, 2007
Folks we have had an awesome meeting! I’m a little lost for words at the moment, and all I can say is “More Lord!”. God is setting us up for an incredible victory here. Yeah Jesus!
I spoke on the days of restoration of all things. My teaching notes can be found here. Other teaching notes can be found here. Knock yourself out!
Technorati Tags: Living Waters Tabernacle, Restoration, Jubilee
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by John Baw on September 20, 2007
For the millions of you who read my blog I’d like to announce that my teaching notes for the talk I gave on Sunday (Friends of God) can be found here. Other teaching notes can be found here.
Over and out.
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by John Baw on September 10, 2007
We were very thin on the ground on Sunday, with only a handful turning up for church. This is the skinny on my day:
- We had a great worship set. We normally go through seven songs or so, providing about 45 minutes of worship time. This works for us at the moment. Although some do find the 45 minutes of worship to be too long, I really feel that we are called to spend time in the presence of the Lord in worship – it is one of the key stirrings in my heart.
- Every first Sunday of the month we celebrate communion and after the meeting we order a take-out and eat lunch together as well.
- During communion we celebrated the life of the New Covenant that Jesus bought for us at the Cross.
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by John Baw on August 19, 2007
I love the presence of God. This morning was just another reminder that we have ravished His heart, and He is captivating ours every day. The worship set was awesome – a ministration carrying the life-giving breath of the great I AM.
Derek Hosken shared a line on the men that lowered the paralytic through the roof. He emphasised how in order to press in to Jesus we may be called upon to break some rules. Desperation may call upon us to go the extra mile, to enter the darkest hole all for the sake of a soul.
I shared the second part of the message on the weapons of our warfare. Cool. My teaching notes can be found here. I feel ready and kitted out for the battle. Go Jesus!
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