How to Value Having Fun

The way you feel matters. In Nehemiah, leaders instructed their people to have joy saying, “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” They were calling people to take responsibility and grab a hold of joy. We are blessed with the opportunity to do the same. If you are not experiencing the joy of the Lord, there are many solutions. We will delve into some solutions and remove obstacles that could get in the way. Furthermore, hear about some of the new church plants and an idea of giving away the Father’s love that we are walking out.

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This article is all about walking in our Core Value Number Six, which is to have fun! Thanks to our illustrious founder Papa John, who ten years ago during a Catch The Fire meeting, prior to Catch The Fire being a church planting movement exclaimed; “We’re missing one Core Value. Have fun!” Never forget that the joy of the Lord is your strength and that joy has been one of the greatest hallmarks of this revival. It is one of the best things about the Holy Spirit falling on January twentieth 1994 and continuing to do so up to this day all over the world. Whenever the Holy Spirit falls, joy is the spontaneous outflow from within our hearts.

Nehemiah 8:9-10 | The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength

Nehemiah 8:9-10 reads, “9 Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, ‘This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.’ For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.

10 Nehemiah said, ‘Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’”

Are we still enjoying ourselves in what we’re doing, in our calling? Is there still passion?

A sign of emotional maturity is the speed at which you can return to joy after disappointment.   

New Cluster Groups for New Church Plants: Steve & Sandra

We’ve started a new cluster group meeting every two weeks for the two newest churches that are almost ready to launch publicly. The first is Catch The Fire Manchester, England led by Keiron & Laura Densham who have a court of about thirty five to forty people so far. They’re really close although haven’t yet set a launch date. We’ve encouraged them to not set a launch date for as long as they can so they can keep gathering people and get to fifty leaders before they go public.  

Michael Brodeur, a church planting specialist or pastor’s pastor if you will, recommended delaying going public for as long as possible as once you do, you must have the formalities in place such as a band, ushers, etc. He recommends to focus on raising up leaders and teaching the core values as long as your leaders are happy meeting informally or casually.  It is a race to get to fifty leaders before going public. 

The other new church plant is Catch The Fire Myrtle Beach in South Carolina led by Mark & Jane Burlinson. They’re hoping to launch in September and currently have about thirty five leaders so far and are in the early stages as well. 

Just last week, we have committed to restart Catch The Fire Houston under a new name, Catch The Fire HTX led by a new couple, Keith & Rebecca Telford, who were a part of that church as interns and went to the School of Ministry in Toronto. We don’t have a timeline there as yet but we have a commitment to begin the church again under a different format.

The idea of the New Church Cluster meetings is to streamline the process, teach and educate new pastors/planters on the experiences others have faced along the way to make the process of planting easier. Last week we met with Cathy Harris and Miruna Veenhuis to go through a checklist of sixty four different things that we’re asking the churches to get ready for and think through. We talked about process, board of directors & governance, and are tailoring the cluster meeting agendas to where the pastors are at and what they need the most combined with the insight and experience our leaders have and have witnessed themselves. 

Walking in the Father’s Love & Giving it Away: Duncan & Kate Smith

We’re working on getting more of Michael Brodeur and his teachings and resources for Catch The Fire pastors worldwide, he seems to be happy to help so we’re looking forward to having more of Michael in facilitating new churches to start. 

Michael feels Catch The Fire as a movement is fantastic at the ‘F’ ‘I’ & ‘R’ values but is lacking in the ‘E.’ He feels you can’t really be great at the ‘F’ ‘I’ & ‘R’ without the ‘E’ in the PIH values. He says Catch The Fire as a movement is known for and demonstrates our ability to walk in God’s love but an area to work on is giving it away. He feels the area to work on is communication amongst our churches and the world that we’re passionate about spreading the father’s love and walking in the anointing for evangelism and teaching and equipping outside of the church, in our families, workplaces, cafes & restaurants, etc.

I think (Duncan) that you are cognizant of that, but what I want to see you all doing is to overly communicate that; amplify and augment your outgoing nature and outpouring of your anointing to the world. The ‘E’ part of our ‘FIRE’ values.

Hospitality: Steve Long

He communicated to us during our meeting with him (Michael) that as pastors we need to be hospitable, not in the sense of inviting people into your homes but facilitating meetings that are welcoming and inviting to newcomers, people that are not saved, not from our tradition. Explain the WHY? When we begin to worship for example, explain why people are going to see people worshipping in different ways, explain why we worship; preempt people’s questions and create a hospitable environment for them. 

Apostolic Priorities: Duncan & Kate

• Apostolic: Vision, manifesting the supernatural presence. 

• Prophetic: What’s God saying?

• Evangelistic: Exposition of the Gospel in some form in every meeting we have followed by an opportunity for people to give their lives to Jesus. 

• Pastoral: How is the community going?

• Teaching: Is our congregation being informed.

Joy & Rest

A decision has been reached to take a break for the month of July From all Zoom Meetings with the inclusion of cluster groups and coaching groups. Please note, this does not mean that people will be unreachable, they will still be available via email and other means of communication. The scheduled meetings on zoom are being postponed for the month in order to give everyone a break to focus on joy, rest, to give attention to each other, and others needs as priority. 

Sometimes in order to return to joy you need to limit yourself. Perhaps taking a night off every once in awhile, so you can be at home with your family or have a date night. Making sure you have time to rest is vital; the word ‘recreation’ is two words ‘re’ ‘creation.’ What is it that would recreate your soul, bring you refreshment. 

Catch The Fire Churches are pastored by people that are thriving not just surviving, and that requires joy. The culture you bring will spill out onto your congregation. Make it a good one. 

Many people often feel that their church will fall apart without them there. In that pursuit of dedication and faithfulness we often become stressed in our ability to lead and stop other people from standing up and leading, giving them authority to learn with little to entrust them with a lot. 

When we take a vacation and step back, we give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to lead his church again through the rest of your team. Delegation will build trust within your team.

Facilitating Rest and Joy | Tom & Abi Allsop

Ways in which to honour your team and allow for the facilitation of rest and joy is to make time during work hours (for staff) to enjoy each other’s company, whether going out for lunch or coffee or having a party. Also keeping in mind some staff have sacrificed potentially higher paying salaries in other fields for full time ministry work, so honouring their dedication and commitment is important. Having a hobby is also very important outside your job description. What is something you enjoy?  

PIH Conference Novo Hamburgo: Anderson Lima 

Each meeting was a huge success with about three to four hundred people in attendance from Wednesday evening through Saturday evening. John Arnott and Dan Slade led meetings with powerful messages on the Power of the Cross and Centrality of Christianity and Covenant. The family environment and sense of community was really good.  

Closing | Duncan & Kate Smith

The enemy wants to do two things, to knock you off your mission with distraction within the church, by keeping people happy and overworking yourself. Secondly he’ll try to steal your joy, when you find yourself miserable and unhappy, take responsibility for yourself first and return to joy, return to the joy of the Lord.