The Lead Summit Kicked off today hosted by Pastor Dave Gilpin and Hope City Church in Sheffield. It is one of my favourite conferences and each year we take a small team from our Church. Over the years these conferences have proved usually beneficial. Here are my notes from day one session one, be sure to come back for my notes from other sessions and day two.
Faith licks its lips at impossibility – Dave Gilpin
Session 1 Paul Scanlon – Meaning is not found it is forged
The local church is the best idea God had.
- The best thing heaven has is Jesus
- There is no other move, we are the move of God
- The best way to live is if this is it
- We can fail to grow Big People whilst at the same time trying to grow big things.
Genesis 35:1-8
Joseph is reflecting on his life in his mid-life.
- You are not the same person throughout the whole of your life
- We have not been good at understanding the seasons of life
- Meaning is not found it is forged. Anything you can find already exists. We struggle when are are in the midst of things and you can’t understand. In the midst of the grey, there is meaning that will forge the next season of your life.
- Do not let the meaning committee put a meaning on you whilst you are forging your own.
- People want to impose meaning on things they can’t tidy up. Sometimes there is no meaning, it doesn’t exist, it has to be forged. It is yet to be created by you.
Luke 13 (Tower of Siloam – I spoke on this Sunday Night in a message called Fruitful)
- You have to make peace with the fact Bad things can happen to good people…they just can…
- Destiny and meaning are two different things. Destiny is decided by God but meaning is decided by you, therefore meaning is more important.
- The meaning you give to your life and circumstances determines your destiny. It determines our destiny, our identity, our strategy.
- The meaning Joseph forges from his experience was the bigger picture that God had. “You didn’t send me here, God sent me ahead.” “Yes, you meant it for bad, but God meant it for good.” “God put me here for you!”
- This is your opportunity to forge a legacy that will set up the next generation, that will create the next you.
- Paul personally had to forge a meaning in the “Crossing Over” season at Abundant life Church (now Life Church) Bradford. He chose to see himself as a Joshua. That choice was what determined what came next. Had he forged the meaning, “I’m a bad leader, I can’t keep good people. I’ve failed etc. etc.”
- When there are found meanings that sound brilliant whilst you are forging your meaning that sounds pitiful it is tempting to grab the offered meaning.
- You have to listen to your heart! We have grown a culture of external confirmation and the last place we look is often inside. (Dot to Dot illustration: God spoke about the pressure to just join another Apostolic stream but God had spoken to Paul about a cross cultural, international connectivity that would happen if he didn’t fight God).
- What is the meaning you are attaching to your current season?
- Are you satisfied with the meaning you are giving to your life?
- Forging meaning does not make what was bad good but it can make what was wrong precious.
- Forging meaning gives you a vocabulary. A vocabulary that explains you and there’s nothing like having a language that explains you.
Genesis 48: Joseph introduces his kids to their Grandad Jacob
The first born to the right hand and second born to the left hand but Jacob crosses his hands. Joseph had named his kids as a result of what he was experiencing.
- Manasseh 1st – God delivered me from trouble, Ephraim 2nd God made me fruitful…this was the meaning Joseph had forged
- God will edit the meaning we forge of it fundamentally forged. “I do not need to deliver you to make you fruitful. You were always fruitful, fruitful when you were in jail.”
- You in the midst of your nightmare are meant to be fruitful and that fruitfulness is what will deliver you.
- God would much prefer to edit your flow than have to create it…
Paul Benger 