It’s been another incredible year! Thinking back to 30 years ago when our small ministry first started out, I would have done an end of year presentation saying we went into 35 schools for a week and that was it. Back then, we were called Message To Schools as all we did was schools work. Wow, what a journey we’ve been on! Talking about our cornerstone verses from Isaiah 43 helps me look back at all that God has done and recognise all the amazing miracles, but also reminds me to never forget that God says, ‘See, I’m doing a new thing’.
I’ve also been encouraged by Ephesians 3:20 this year; ‘Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us’, and he’s definitely done more than we could ask or imagine!
One thing we’ve really seen God catapult is Advance. At the beginning of the year we had 1,760 small mentoring groups and today there are over 10,000 groups in 91 nations! And in each one, people are getting encouraged and equipped in their evangelism, and they’re seeing people coming to know him. I just love what’s happening with Advance. We’ve just had this amazing story sent to us by a pastor in Portugal saying, ‘Since we started Advance groups, I can see an enormous transformation in the life and mindset of our church. We’re more open to evangelism. As a direct result in the last year, we planted two new churches in the Algarve region of Portugal and we start eight more groups in our local church in Faro.’ How amazing!
Here’s my round up of just some of what’s been happening over the past 12 months.
In January, we were able to start travelling more so the Advance team headed to India and Ethiopia and we saw two new Advance Ambassadors join us in Brazil and Myanmar (where it’s especially dangerous to be a Christian). Locally, we continued to see growth across the Eden and launched two new teams into Wythenshawe (Manchester) and Orford (Warrington) who were perfectly placed to continue providing support their communities as the cost-of-living crisis hit.
In February we continued to grow internationally and locally. Our team travelled to Poland to share about Advance and we started new groups in Guinea-Bissau. We also launched our second Eden team in Canada into Edmonton, Alberta, as well as setting up a new team in Kensington (Liverpool), and even with all this going on, we rolled out two new Community Groceries – one in Bedworth and one in Newcastle to help meet the demand of families needing affordable food in those communities.
March saw us launch our first Scottish Community Grocery in Glasgow. Our mission teams were also back on the road after the tight Covid restrictions. Gearing up for Festival Manchester, our bands went into schools across Stockport, Wigan, Wythenshawe as well as Cardiff sharing their power-packed lessons of hope.
Throughout April, the Advance team continued to travel, encouraging and equipping the church for evangelism – this time in Brazil and Portugal. Back home, an army of staff and volunteers kick started our Love Where U Live projects with a week of mission in Wythenshawe. And as the team showed the love of Jesus in word and action, we saw many give their lives to Jesus and start getting plugged into the local church! We also launched another Community Grocery in Burnley.
For two days in May, the Eden Network hosted their Proximity Conference, and incredible speakers challenged and inspired attendees to focus their attention on crossing social divides and loving everyone around us like Jesus did. Our creative mission also stepped up another level as our bands went into schools in Macclesfield and flew out to join the guys at Message Germany, supporting them in an incredible week of schools and community mission. Back in the UK, we launched yet another Eden team, this time into Dumbarton (Glasgow).
June saw us open three more Community Groceries in Blackpool, Middlesbrough and Warrington. It’s been so precious to love and serve these communities providing families with both the physically food they need but also the spiritual food – the good news of Jesus. As things ramped up towards Festival Manchester, we hosted a multitude of build-up events to share the love of God with thousands of people across the North West. From a gala dinner for business leaders and skate jams, to womens events and banquets for people experiencing homelessness, it was beautiful to share about the hope and peace we find in Jesus with thousands across the region.
July was of course dominated with Festival Manchester which was the absolute highlight of my year. Across the festival weekend, 65,000 flocked to Wythenshawe Park for the fun fair, extreme sports, live music and so much more. And when they were there, everyone got to hear the gospel and had the opportunity to respond – and 3,472 did that weekend! How incredible!
I was blown away to see how churches and communities from across the region came together, motivated by the love of Jesus, to serve and love people. Hearing the stories off the back of Festival Manchester still continues to amaze me. I got chatting with one guy last month who said, ‘You’ve changed Wythenshawe. The atmosphere on my estate is totally different since Festival Manchester, it’s amazing.’ And so many churches have told us that the festival has been catalytic for them changing how they’re doing mission and has strengthened their faith and unity with other churches – how beautiful!
In August, I went on sabbatical which was a beautiful time of rest, pressing into God and spending time with my wife Michele off the back of the festival, but things didn’t slow down for our teams. Message Wales stepped up and out in their local communities with Love Where U Live mission in Cardiff and Cwmbran, our creative mission teams hosted the Genetik Summer School where young people from across the North West came to explore and express their creative gifts and talents through creative workshops, all whilst hearing the good news of Jesus and getting the opportunity to respond, and Eden teams spent the summer serving their communities.
It was marvellous to welcome our new Message School of Evangelism (formerly Message Academy) students in September as they began a year pressing into their calling of being an evangelist.
We launched another Community Grocery in Burslem in October and my wife and I travelled to Johannesburg to spend time with our brilliant hub in South Africa and see all the marvellous work they’re doing.
Another highlight of the year for me was The Message Burning Heart Conference in November where we celebrated 30 years of The Message! It was a power-packed day where incredible speakers encouraged and equipped hundreds of us to go again for Jesus. Throughout the day, we had stories pouring in of all the ways God transformed peoples lives through the work of The Message. It was overwhelming to hear all these beautiful testimonies and I was blown away yet again by God’s goodness, and how he can use ordinary people like us to share about the wonderful love and hope that he offers to the world around us. It really was a spectacular day, and you can catch up on some of the epic teaching on our YouTube channel here.
We had many reasons to celebrate in November as the Mess Café in Manchester was voted the top café in Manchester TripAdvisor. It’s amazing to see how our incredible enterprise team members have turned this café into a place where so many people across the city feel welcome and can hear about the good news of Jesus over a quality coffee. And we also celebrated our incredible team in Germany as Message Germany turned five! It’s beautiful to see all the guys there are doing, and you can read more about what they’ve been up to here.
Rounding up the year this December, we’ve not taken the foot off the gas. We’ve continued the incredible No More Knives Tour heading into schools across Burnley and East Lancashire encouraging young people to say ‘no’ to knives. And we’re seeing young people hand in their knives, turn their backs on a life of destruction and step into new lives with Jesus. Our prisons team also created thousands of packs to give out to those in prisons over Christmas full of resources, testimonies and truth-filled music to share how loved they are by us and by God and to remind them that they are not alone. And that’s not all.
Across the nation, our 20 Community Groceries stepped up and packed thousands of Christmas hampers full of festive treats to bless families in need, and gave them out to grocery members for free at outreach events. In Wythenshawe, we gathered over 1,200 grocery members for a Christmas Extravaganza packed with music from our bands and a gospel message, and saw more than 350 people respond to the gospel and want to come along to church! And in South Wales, our team hosted Comedy And Carols where over 250 people came along for a fantastic event, and got to hear about Jesus and receive a free Christmas Hamper. One mum said to the team, ‘I haven’t laughed for such a long time as things have been so tough at home. I’d virtually cancelled Christmas as we’ve been struggling to pay the bills at home, but now with the food from this Christmas hamper, we can have a really special day together as a family.’
Wow, what a year! It’s definitely been more than we could ask or imagine. How faithful is our God!? It’s incredible to see what he’s doing both locally and globally, and as we step into 2023 and gear up to celebrate our 30th anniversary, my heart feels so thankful for all God has done and I’m so excited to see how much more he’s going to do.
Thank you for being on this journey with us!
