My thoughts on the meetings with Apostle André in Birmingham         

 It's been a long time coming. After knowing Apostle André for a few years now, we found ourselves ready to bring something bigger to Birmingham. I've been to meetings with André before, including the fantastic conference that was held in Kilsyth, Scotland which began to clarify things for me, but for various reasons a home-town conference never seemed to take off as an idea. So you can imagine the anticipation that had been building in the Unsworth household up to this event. And for once I was no stranger to that feeling. Having visited Cape Town and having spent time with the people there in the summer, I'd gone from mild interest to full blown hunger. I now knew that not only was reform in the church right but also necessary and that the wisdom and understanding that an Apostle can bring would be vital if we were going to see Christ build His church.

            For those of you who haven't experienced this kind of event there are going to be things that may be foreign to you. Most importantly there was no agenda. Other than picking a few songs to lead into worship we didn't plan any of the content of the meetings. There was no real "theme", not in the sense that I've been used to anyway. On paper, most would probably find this frightening. What if nothing happened for six hours? A financial commitment had  been made, the hall hired, the cakes baked, what if nothing came out of it? Sometimes we love to "play church" so much that we program the Holy Spirit out of things and leave no room for Him to move. With faith, however, we know that He will move in abundance and that faith was not neglected over the weekend.

            The meetings were, for me anyway, about further clarification and revealing of unheard truths. During the opening worship on Friday one of the prophetic phrases that came through was "We are vessels for Your Holy Spirit" and so André prompted us to break into groups and prophesy to each other. The natural flow of worship and ministry amongst the body is something that I still find awe-inspiring (and hope to always find awe-inspiring) and it is one of the things lacking from my experience of typical church. Following a human agenda we move from one thing to the next like a stalling car, never riding smoothly on the flow of God's spirit.

            There were three things that André shared that stood out for me over both days of the meetings. The first thing that really struck me was what André shared about how the the old becomes obsolete and the new is embraced. "The alternative community must begin by critiquing the old and eventually dismantling it." As an English student I know all about critique, it's at the heart of any literature essay. It's not necessarily the same as criticising - not in the harsh way that we are used to - but is more to do with seeing something for what it is. When I write a critical essay I examine the text I'm studying and reduce it to its bare bones. I look through the layers until I find its essence, its "truth". And so I believe this is what God is calling us to do with the church. Only once we have looked past all the trappings of the old and see it for what it is can we dismantle it, ready to build a church with Christ at its head.

            Secondly, the image of grief that André raised was enlightening. It is natural to grieve the passing of something. It is also natural to be grieved by things. It is out of that grief that God will build His church. It is through grief that we let go of things and therefore are made ready to accept whatever God has in store for us. Without grieving properly we don't fully let go, we don't accept that something has finished and we still hold on to what has passed. It is not reckless abandonment of old things, but the gradual awakening to the realisation that it is time to move on. Essentially, we must become mourners so that we can see the old things for what they are.

            The final, and perhaps most previously overlooked thought that really hit me, was that we need to rediscover God's wonder. We have become so used to things that we are no longer in awe of God. André wasn't just talking about obvious things like healings (although I think we sometimes become so desensitised to them that they can sometimes be dismissed easily) but the glory of God in things like the setting sun, time with family and friends and  other simple pleasures that we have labelled incorrectly as frivolous or unimportant. Years ago I wrote a prayer in the back of an old bible asking God to help me see Him in the setting sun and to constantly reflect on His glory. It isn't a prayer that I have kept up, but after this weekend hopefully I can look a little closer for God in the small things as well as the big.

            This is just a brief overview of what I took from these meetings. Everyone sees and hears differently so I encourage all of you to get a copy of the meetings on CD and listen for yourselves. Hopefully you will be as energised as I have been by what God is doing. All I know for certain is that things cannot carry on as they have been and I for one don't want to be an old wine skin, splitting at the seams when I'm needed to fulfil my function.