Editorial: Life begins at forty
Anna Rankin

Comment: Leadership on the move
Stanley McDowell

From the director: The discipleship factor
David W Porter

Four things for leaders to do at the end of the world
Derek Poole

Pastoring people in prophetic living
David Montgomery

Being a servant leader
Diane Clutterbuck

Interview with Maria Garvey: Oil and water
Anna Rankin

Nurturing the next generation
John-Mark Mullan

The Word made flesh - East Belfast
Glenn Jordan

The Word made flesh - North Belfast
Bill Shaw

The Word made flesh - Derry
Sue Divin

The Word made flesh - Enniskillen
David Cupples

The Word made flesh - Poleglass
Martin J Magill

Resisting temptation
Drew Gibson

Review: And now let's move into a time of nonesense
Claire Martin

Review: Christianity for Dummies
Scott Vance

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THE WORD MADE FLESH
Five examples of church in the local commnuity

ENNISKILLEN

THE TOWN OF ENNISKILLEN is beautiful, the pace of life slow, but the spiritual and social problems are the same as everywhere else. My congregation emphasises the quality of relationships, and empowering people for ministry where they are. On his deathbed an old Hasidic Rabbi said: 'When I was young I set out to change the world. When I grew older, I perceived that this was too ambitious, so I set out to change my state. This too, I realised, as I grew older, was too ambitious, so I set out to change my town. When I realised I could not even do this, I tried to change my family. Now as an old man, I know that I should have started by changing myself. If I had started with myself, maybe then I would have succeeded in changing my family, the town, or even the state – and who knows, maybe even the world.' This expresses my vision of community transformation.

First, I pursue personal transformation into the image of Christ. I affirm McCheyne’s famous dictum: 'My people’s greatest need is my personal holiness.' I need to be a pacesetter in spiritual growth, for it is a law of all life and ministry that we cannot give what we have not received.

Second, I continually ask how I can love my wife and family better. Since they are the members of the community closest to me, community transformation begins there.

Thirdly, I pray. Recently, I read several magazines from a Christian organisation eager to change the world. There were no references to God or prayer anywhere. In contrast I am stirred by the words of Richard Lovelace: 'If all regenerate church members in Western Christendom were to intercede daily simply for the most obvious spiritual concerns visible in their homes, their workplaces, their local churches, and denominations, their nations, and the world… the transformation which would result would be incalculable.'

Fourthly, my ministry and leadership consciously aims to empower people. I preach good news, not good advice, emphasising the big story of the Bible as the foundation for a Christian worldview – that through the Lord Jesus the fractured relationships between God and humanity and the rest of creation will be rectified. This empowers people. People live out of the vision of reality which has taken shape deep in their hearts; so I promote a gospel-driven process of spiritual formation and whole-life discipleship.

I try to model healthy relationships with my leaders for, as go the leaders, so goes the church. The best thing the church can do for the world is simply to be the church; and is not the church God’s new society in which loving, harmonious, God-directed relationships are being restored? Incorporation into such a community is part of the experience of eternal life; the presence of such a reality makes God and the gospel visible.

Finally, knowing that the church dispersed in the world is still assembled around Christ, we try to empower people for ministry where they are. Members are involved in charities, parachurch ministries, school boards, and small peace-making ventures. We helped set up a branch of Homestart, the UK’s leading family support agency. We have emphasised a Christian view of work. A church member wrote and delivered a course on this subject in the Clinton Centre. Also off the church premises, we ran Christianity Explored, a Griefshare course for the bereaved, and a course we called 'The DNA of Relationships.' All these drew people from outside the church. In expanding these courses we are working with other churches e.g. in offering a course for divorcees and a course on ‘listening’. Developing listening skills is a simple form of empowerment for people which helps them resolve conflict and improve relationships wherever they go.

Structural change and large-scale church-based initiatives have their place, but my mix of leadership gifts means I am better focusing on quality issues. I want really tangy salt in our town. George Hoffman, founder of Tearfund, said, 'No one person can change the world, but you can change the world for one person.' May God equip my congregation to make a world of difference one life at a time.

DAVID CUPPLES is Minister of Enniskillen Presbyterian Church.

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