8TH EDITION, JD interview with TOM TAPPING (POSTED 19th November '09)

For this season, by Jon Daniel

“Coastlands, we have a profound past, yet our future glistens as greater.
We have worshipped wildly, yet our wildest moments are still to be experienced.
We have cared for many people, and by God’s grace He will give us thousands more to love and to nurture.
We have fed some hungry mouths, and with God’s grace we will relieve yearning souls.
We have not been perfect, but our Saviour is and will remain to be.
We have bled at times, and some of you have bled with and for this church, but we will not be destroyed.
We have been tested, but we have not been shaken.
We have planted many churches, yet we must plant out even more and in more effective ways.
We have given much, yet we burn to give even more in both quality and in volume.

Here’s to days of leading the way courageously,
whilst being humble enough to follow hard after God;
To flowing in the power of the Spirit and being well versed in God’s Word;
To being solutions to problems; to keeping planks out of our eyes;
To keeping the nations in our focus while weeping on our own streets again;
To possessing audacious faith and not being possessed by apathetic cynicism;
To laying hands on the sick and seeing them healed;
To not seeing people as statistics;
To not attaching the will of God onto the end of our own agenda;
To God being our First Love and not our last resort;
To growth and life in the midst of real pain and authentic challenges;
To fasting and to feasting;
To working closer with more congregations;
To more of the old in their wisdom;
To more of the young and their passion;
To perceiving the new things and celebrating them;
To not over-structuring the wild things of God;
To hearing His voice and being in awe of His grace;
To knowing who we are in Christ (which is far more important than what we give ourselves to);
To eagerly desiring the gifts;
To growing in maturity and wisdom, but never to die in conservatism.

Coastlands, we have a profound past,
yet our future glistens as much brighter.


…………………………………………….
Vision Sunday 01/02/09