in Christ: Andrew Fountain's blog

What does Microsoft have to do with Moses and the burning bush?

Back in the early 90's, Microsoft developed a remarkable piece of software, Windows NT. (Anyone who knows me will know that I am no fan of Microsoft but this product was an exception.)

What was most amazing about this software was that conventional wisdom was that it was impossible to develop something of that size and complexity in the timescale, even with a huge team. In 1994 a Wall Street Journal writer named Pascal Zachary obtained permission to interview all those involved and write a book.

The book is in some places shocking and even a little scary, because it becomes clear that what enables the project to succeed is the cult-like leadership qualities of the project leader, Dave Cutler, and his abilities to motivate his "followers" (employees) to the point where nothing else in their lives mattered, outside of working on his team. Here is a quote from the book:

I was mulling over my thoughts about our vision for Newlife Church and I came up with some key concepts. We want the church to be diverse in culture, age and social level. We want all the gifts in operation. We want evangelism and growth, strong teaching, and a love and care for people that addresses the social problems of the city and gives hope to the hopeless. God’s presence should be our delight and the source of our strength, and finally we want to be a resourcing church that is missions minded and plants other churches, acting as a strong base.

As I was praying about what to preach on, the example in Acts 13:1-3 of the church in Antioch came to me. Then I remembered there was more about the same church in Acts 11:19-30. I read the passages with increasing excitement as I realized that all of my points were found in the description of this church—even the ethnic/social diversity of the church and the caring for social needs. Here they are, (and honest, I didn’t plan there to be seven!)

Last Sunday evening I spoke at TACF on the subject of "What it means to live under the New Covenant" as part of their "Equipping series". Of all the subjects I speak on, this is probably the one that is most important and foundational for the Christian. It is also one that I get very excited about.

I have uploaded the video to Youtube:

If the above video does not play smoothly for you try the following link:

• What it means to live under the New Covenant (Medium Quality).

Please don't be offended at the way I have involved the audience in role-playing some of the scenes. I am not trying to be disrespectful to God, I just feel that there is much more of an impact when people are more involved.

All my notes (fairly detailed), illustrations and Scripture passages are at loveintruth.com/newcovenant - What it means to live under the New Covenant

The video can also be downloaded to your computer from the following links:

• Download medium quality (64 Mbytes)
• Download high quality (174 Mbytes)
• Listen online or download audio (29 Mbytes)

There is a debate going on right now about whether a church that holds to believer's baptism should allow someone who has not been baptized to be a member, or even to break bread together with the rest of the church.
Adrian Warnock has collected together has collected posts from this debate in one post: Sam Storms, John Piper & John Bunyan vs Wayne Grudem, Al Mohler & Mark Dever on Baptism

I find myself very much in agreement with Sam Storm, who writes:

Let me be clear on one thing. I am a credo-baptist, not a paedo-baptist. That is to say, I believe that only those who believe in Jesus Christ should receive the ordinance of water baptism. I also believe that the proper mode of baptism is by immersion. Ligon Duncan, on the other hand, is a Presbyterian paedo-baptist. Because of this, both Mark Dever and Al Mohler made it clear that if Duncan were in attendance at either of their churches they would not permit him to partake of the elements of the Lord's Supper.

On July 22 we attended the Sunday evening prayer meeting at Winchester Family Church. The church building has a superb location in the heart of Winchester and is very easy to find (and to park).

The building was originally a large cinema with one big screen. Through the years it became a bingo hall and fell into a sorry state of repair. Eventually it was bought by the church and a beautiful restoration has just been completed. The church website describes the history of the church which dates back to 1928. The image of the church is fresh and “non-chuchy”, right down to its motto you can see on the sign here: “something different!”

On Sunday July 22 we visited Life Church, Southampton. I was particularly interested in visiting this church because I spent most of my life in this city (we moved to Canada in 1991) and went to Southampton University.

The church is new, being planted earlier this year from Winchester Family Church, with other families coming from Bournmouth, Hedge End, Portsmouth and elsewhere.

The location of the church is very easy to find since it is right on Above Bar St. (the central shopping street). The biggest problem was finding somewhere to park. We spotted some people getting out of a car who looked like they were “going to church” and we were right! They helped us find parking.

We visited Jubilee Church, Enfield (North London) on July 15th 2007. When the church needed to expand from their previous location, there were some prophetic words about a large building with lots of glass windows and about people coming from the north, the south, the east and the west. Not only does the Cineworld cinema complex where they now meet have a huge glass front, but is it located at a major intersection with roads off in the four directions of the compass.

Here is a close shot of the front of the building. In the church is in a period of tremendous growth and is truly multicultural. They describe themselves as "an, informal, multicultural church with people of all ages represented. Whatever your background you should find a warm welcome!" One of the reasons we wanted to visit them is that our goal is to build a multicultural church in downtown Toronto, and so we were very interested in seeing what it looked like. Another reason is that it is the home church of our good friend Adrian Warnock.

We visited Macclesfield Family Church on July 8th 2007. We found out about the church from the website which is very nicely done. We found the place the church meets without too much trouble. It is the Peatfields Centre which is a day-centre on campus of Macclesfield College. It is a light and airy building, welcoming and attractive. The people were very welcoming and it immediately felt like we were part of the family.

We very much enjoyed the worship and felt free to participate. There was a strong sense of the presence of God and although it was not a large group of people, there was a lot of participation.

The church website has a short history:

"I had heard from God in various ways that he had something new for me and my family. We were led by Him to South Manchester Family Church in its early days in 1993 and found it was based on sound New Testament principles. I was involved in helping to lead several small groups in Bramhall and Gatley. Gradually, as more people joined us from Macclesfield, we realised that God intended us to plant a church with the same New Testament values. In 2002 I asked Colin Baron, then northwest regional Newfrontiers leader, for more help as I realised I didn't have the energy to take the church forward in line with our vision. So Keith Gamon was invited to take over leadership.

In February 2003, we started to meet together on Sundays at the Peatfields Centre on Park Lane in Macclesfield."

Keith Gamon leads the church and here you can see him preaching. Our travel contraints meant that we had to leave before the end of the service. Unfortunately the sermons are not online yet because Keith is midway through a series in Daniel and I was very interested in what he would say. Before we left, the people all gathered around us and prayed for us as we plant Newlife Church, Toronto.

My good friend Adrian Warnock is taking a break for the summer. I want to echo the sentiment in his last post:

"Why shouldn't we have churches that are every bit as concerned about doctrinal accuracy and knowledge as John MacArthur, that love relational intimacy with Jesus as much as John Arnott, see miraculous healings that are every bit as dynamic as the ones the tele-evangelists claim to have seen, are as full of vision and purpose as Rick Warren, as skilled in leadership as Bill Hybels, as humble and committed to spiritual maturity as C. J. Mahaney, as relevant to practical life as the author of any self-help book you can think of, that impact social needs in the model of Shaftsbury, tackle political issues like Wilberforce, preach with both the passion for souls of Spurgeon and the passion for God's glory of John Piper, that hear from God as clearly as any modern prophet, are as aggressively missional as Mark Driscoll, have the apostolic drive of Terry Virgo, and yet somehow still feel as comforting as my wife's homemade apple crumble with custard?"

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• This has been one of the most glorious weeks we have ever had!

Joshua 7 — The Sin of Achan

The previous chapter couldn’t have ended with more excitement as Jericho falls and God is with Joshua. “His fame went throughout all the land”