Let me introduce my friends to you. Kevin and Ann Pimblott. They hail from Stoke on Trent in the UK. We have been friends for 40 years.  Their story is amazing.  He tells it better than me. So here goes….

There are defining moments in life which change the course of your future. One such moment was a throwaway comment from a speaker over lunch; ’No, you are not in a mid-life crisis, God is simply preparing you for a new kind of Church’. I knew God had called us but it turned into a seven-year pursuit of what would be for us a new kind of church with fresh distinctive.

I discovered the term ‘food deserts’ in the fall of 2017 and began to learn how people were trying to solve the problem of people having no access to food stores and healthy food in particular. Christmas of 2017 arrived and with it, sub-zero temperatures and also came quickly on the heels of my stumbling across a neighbourhood called ‘The Ville’. Once the richest and most entrepreneurial African-American neighbourhood in the USA with the nations first female African-American millionaire it had now gained notoriety as one of the poorest and most violent in the
country.

We began collecting coats, hats, gloves and bedding and searching The Ville for people in need. What we discovered horrified us, haunted us ever since and filled us with righteous anger and has driven us to more action.

What would a gathering of missionaries without the faith factor be?

A gathering without Ian Green!

Paul Gibbs, founder and Global Director of the Pais Movement, circumvented this issue by inviting Ian Green to be a keynote speaker for the Pais Global Summit 2019. As Pais National Directors from 6 continents/13 countries gathered in Arlington, Texas, Ian Green was scheduled to deliver a keynote on faith.

Ian is especially qualified to deliver this message because of the way he and his family have lived their lives in faith. His entire career in ministry has been about unconditional faith. Ian is also a sought after speaker who travels around the globe delivering his message and teaching the tenants of living a life of faith. An author, Ian testifies in his book, Checking Into Faith, about the numerous times faith has impacted his life and the life of his family.

What a weekend!

 Ian & Judith joined us for a full weekend of ministry and our people were blessed at every level that he ministered into.

Our weekend commenced with an informal meal on the Friday evening with our Senior Leadership Team. He related well to our small team of Leaders and their spouses and challenged us to be culture setters, culture connectors, culture carriers and culture confronters. All of the team commented on how equipping the teaching was and we talked long into the night anchoring the thoughts and ideas that Ian had presented.

On Saturday morning, Ian spent a morning with our Department Leaders and some of our emerging leaders. He encouraged them to start moving unnecessary things off the table to make room for greater things. You can start with small things and grow them to larger levels. And once again, people were helped by the very practical nature of the teaching.

At the end of April, Ian had the pleasure of spending the weekend speaking at Genesis Church in Bloomington, Indiana. Speaking with the church leaders on the Saturday and the whole congregation during their Sunday services.

Lead Pastor Timothy Woodcock, gives a summary of the weekend:

What an incredible weekend at Genesis Church with Ian Green!

Several Big Takeaways for Me:

1. Keep the end game at the forefront of our minds – That is the command to Disciple Nations. Yes start with discipling individuals, but how do we transition into discipling communities, cities, spheres of influence that ultimately shape culture.

 A church in the UK that has embraced the transformation message and is making a significant impact in its community is King’s Church, Bolton led by Derek Smith.

It’s mandate is love people, be outward focussed and not church centric, Pastor the community and not just the church. Bolton is a city with a high percentage of low income families and unemployment. With this in mind King’s church has an emphasis of building businesses in order to bring transformation to the city. Job creation is seen as the responsibility of the church and not just the business community. If a person has access to a job, this will increase the ability of the family to be stable and to thrive. For many the journey to employment begins with the person having access to learning new skills. At King’s church they are committed to delivering this training. As Pastor Derek says we are committed to giving people a ‘leg up’ rather than a ‘hand out’.

There are very few people that I have met around the globe who have not only adopted the belief that we are called to Transform Communities but are living it out with commitment and passion. Brian Beatie is the lead Pastor of Freedom House in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. What is happening in that City is nothing short of phenomenal. This article written by Brian will inspire you to believe that this can happen in your community.

‘City transformation wasn’t something that I had always cared about. In fact, I was trying to get out of the largest city in Canada when God called me to commit the rest of my life to the transformation of cities. And… the city that God called us to, was a place where my wife and I had agreed that we would never live. We knew when God called us here, however, that it would be to see transformation that would be a template for other cities around the world.