LAUNCH Podcast with Anthony Delaney

Anthony and Graham discussed the importance of integrating faith and sports, emphasizing the need for a holistic approach to ministry that supports athletes beyond their achievements. They explored the challenges and opportunities in engaging with different cultures through sports, highlighting the transformative power of faith and the influence of Christian athletes. The conversation also touched on finding purpose, using one's gifts to serve others, and the significance of perseverance and faith in facing challenges.

Find out more about their work here:

https://christiansinsport.org.uk 

Jon is the co-founding pastor of Community Christian Church in Chicago where he provides leadership in new ventures. COMMUNITY has grown from a handful of people to a church with hundreds of leaders and thousands of people celebrating at locations throughout Chicagoland. Jon is also one of COMMUNITY’s Lead Teaching Pastors.

In addition, Jon led in the launch of NewThing, a church-planting movement which Ivy Church is part of, whose mission is to be a catalyst for movements of reproducing churches, he continues to lead in NewThing as one of the North American Apostolic Leaders.

He has co-authored Finding Your Way Back to God, The Big Idea and Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement, with his brother Dave. He serves on the board of Exponential Conference and resides in the Lincoln Park Community of Chicago with his wife, Lisa, and their two children, Graham and Chloe.

Conversation includes:

It all started with a napkin! How to DREAM BIG and start small.

‘No money, no people, no clue’ – BUT GOD!

Jon’s personal journey in ministry, from preacher’s kid to leader of leaders.

NewThing’s vision and values and how you can connect with ‘friends on mission’ globally to make collaborative movements and networks for the kingdom.

NewThing’s 4 Rs: Relationships, Reproducing, Resources, Residencies.

The power of an ICNU conversation

How to develop a multiplying church.

Learning to lead as God made YOU not as traditional structures may dictate.

Further Connection/ links

https://www.jonferguson.org/about-jon/

https://newthing.org

https://exponential.org

https://www.launchcatalyst.org

Luke Greenwood is passionate about evangelism and discipleship among alternative scenes of the Global Youth Culture. He lives in Wrocław, Poland with his wife Ania and two children.

As Steiger Europe Director, Luke’s vision is to see Jesus proclaimed to young people all over the continent, and to establish dynamic, long-term City Teams in key urban centres, that reach and equip the Global Youth Culture through creative evangelism, ongoing discipleship, and local church partnership. He is author of Global Youth Culture: The Spiritual Hunger of the Largest Unreached Culture Today.

How Youtube etc is defining the global youth culture.

Mindset / lies of the Global youth culture.

Openness to spirituality, rejection of institution.

How Steiger’s ‘Edgy’ street evangelism is both challenging and connecting.

How to train, embolden and equip youth to be ready to live out their faith in teams, share the gospel and be missionaries in their city.

Why ‘relevance’ is not the right target.

The Send – a call to gather and send young people out and Steiger’s part in providing missional and evangelistic opportunities in partnership as part of that in key locations.

Links for further connection – https://www.steiger.org https://www.thesend.uk https://steiger.org/speaker-lukegreenwood https://www.launchcatalyst.org

Geoff has been in ministry for 40+ years as a lead pastor and executive pastor. He was one of the early pioneers of the multisite church movement, overseeing the campus expansion of Seacoast Church and Saddleback Church. He also served as the Managing Director of Exponential and has authored or co-authored four books. For the past 15 years Geoff has coached leaders across the U.S. and Europe (including Anthony!) on multiplication, strategy and structure.

We discussed:

What does ‘success’ in ministry really look like?

How do we keep the main thing the main thing?

What devotional practices can practically help us to stay the course?

What guardrails and what do we need to pay attention to that might prevent us from failing and spoiling our leadership legacy as too many ‘high profile’ men are doing so often currently?

How do we deal with ‘haters’ whether outside or inside the church?

How to make the most of the church by getting women in leadership not on the sidelines.

How to check and discern if YOU have ‘a call’ to Christian leadership.

Go further/ connect: Geoff Surratt - https://www.ministrytogether.com/about-us/ Learning Community - Partnering for purpose https://www.partneringforpurpose.online LAUNCH - https://www.launchcatalyst.org

Daniel Ghinn leads Worship Works, formed from a passion to see business transforming lives and the kingdom of God going beyond an hour on Sunday. 

Paul wrote to the Colossians that when we work with all our hearts as though God is our boss, it's worship. 

Listen in as Anthony finds out more and they discuss the theology of work as a blessing - not a curse, as a calling - not a chore and as God's secret weapon to reveal His ecclesia to the world that everyone can be a part of! 

Find out more about Worship Works at worship.works

Find out more and sign up to LAUNCH at https://www.launchcatalyst.org/

Steve Small is passionate about Jesus and mission, especially in our urban estates and schemes. Steve is part of the staff team at Ivy Church leading us on deployment for mission. He has three young boys and is married to Sarah and together they head up the Eden Network for the Message Trust.   

Anthony says... “When I first came back to Manchester, Steve was one of the first people I met at Ivy Church where he had been a member for some years. From day one, the way he’s always shone is through servanthood. Anyone who knows Steve will tell you he epitomises the phrase ‘servant leadership’, always first to step up and bless others somehow. That kind of leadership is all too rare and that’s why at Ivy we have a phrase that we all want to ‘Be More Steve.’  

God gives grace to the humble and I know you’ll enjoy learning about the call and journey of Steve’s life and ministry to where together with Sarah he now leads the Eden Network, going to the places of greatest need, where the church is in deepest decline, urban missionaries are raised up to live sacrificially, share Jesus joyfully, and build true community.”  

Mary Thomason is the WTC Theology Hub Director in Manchester. She is passionate about theology, people, God’s presence and the Kingdom of God. Born and bred in Manchester, but has lived in Uganda, the U.S, and even venturing down south near London for many years. Mary has a BA and MA in Theology, and has worked in mission, church ministry and in business management. Over the years she has been involved with youth outreach, vulnerable women, the homeless and drug rehabs. Mary is a trustee for Amana, a charity focussed on education and food relief in Uganda.  

In this wide ranging discussion we learn about Mary’s life and call which has led her to not only study theology but live out her faith in numerous challenging and faith stretching environments and roles in various parts of the world.  

Anthony says, “I’m sure you are going to enjoy this one as much as I did! It was great to pick Mary’s brain about her time working with some very broken people in tough places, her heart for the supernatural and prophetic to be the church’s norm for ministry and her infectious enthusiasm that theology be accessible for everyone to help us learn to love and lead better.” 

Check out WTC Here: https://wtctheology.org.uk/  

And their events page here: https://wtctheology.org.uk/events/  

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Today Anthony is the guest, and he asks himself various questions including:

Will the local church make the world go WOW this Christmas (I mean in a good way, not ‘Wow – that’s so lame!’)

How can we make the most of the opportunities of this season?

Can you give us some practical ideas on how to preach and invite a response to God’s greatest gift.

How can we follow people up well and be welcoming to all?

What are the reasons and consequences of getting this wrong?

What are the biblical marks of a church that makes the world go WOW with regard to the Word, Worship, One Another, Wealth and where Wonders never cease?!

If you are interested in joining Anthony on the 6 week coached SUPERNATURAL CHURCH journey with Movement Leaders Collective follow this link - https://t.ly/lvEDg

My friend Patrick O’Connell is the Global Director of NewThing, the network which I and Ivy Church are privileged to be part of, which exists to partner with movement makers and catalyse reproducing disciples, leaders, churches, networks, and movements. 

Here he tells the story of how he came to faith, having met his wife in a punk rock mosh pit, joined the army, he went into business and while finally successful in worldly terms when he finally after 4 years accepted an invitation to go to church and everything changed! 

He went from church goer to church planter, now serving thousands of church leaders and planters worldwide through NewThing’s dream - to see a church planted in every community around the world.

We discuss, among other things - 

How might we help connect people far from God so they don’t just learn to cope, but receive hope. 

What army life taught him about teams and sacrifice, and how that applies to the army of God and ministry ‘in the blood and the mud.’ 

How do we collaborate and form networks that are all about the Kingdom not our own castles? 

The 4 Rs of NewThing 

Relationships

Doing this alone is next to impossible, so we have intentional rhythms for being friends on mission together.

Reproducing

From disciples to leaders, churches to networks, creating and catalysing reproducing movements is at the centre of everything we do at NewThing. 

Residency

This is what NewThing churches call our commitment to train and invest in the next generation of church planters, creating apprenticing pipelines for future church planting.

Resources

Networks pool their people, pennies, and platform to plant church planting churches together.

Come along to launchcatalyst.org and connect in person with NewThing so you’re not isolated and frustrated but encouraged and celebrated for all you’re doing for the Kingdom! 

I met Julian Richards at a wedding recently, and as we chatted immediately he felt like 'a brother from the same Father...'! 

He's the National Leader for New Wine Cymru (that means Wales in case anyone wonders), working together with over 700 other churches to collectively and collaboratively grow to help leaders develop healthy churches to win the nation. 

With his wife Sarah he leads Cornerstone, a high impact church  they founded in 1991 Swansea with a handful of young people in one of the most deprived areas of the city.

Today this thriving church is known across Wales for its community work, people finding Christ regularly and many physical healings. In 2014 they opened Venue2, a former supermarket, as a second Cornerstone site, which is where I met him.

Julian co-founded Gweini (meaning ‘to serve’ in Welsh), representing Christian, faith-based community work to the Welsh Assembly Government and wider society.  

He tells the story as we meet of how from very small beginnings but a commitment to missional growth and effectiveness, many other churches and ministries have been birthed, leaders equipped and local communities  transformed through the power of Christ and his kingdom.

This is a story of miraculous provision and remarkable spiritual openness in our culture that they are seeing more than ever (3700 people prayed to receive Christ in 9 days), but Julian is convinced the answer for Wales (and everywhere else) is NOT for 'another Welsh Revival' dropped down from above, but by disciples faithfully serving, loving and winning their neighbours and nation for Christ. 

We discuss; 

How what you learn as a skint church planter can set you up for a life of faith and impact rather than having it all set up in advance. 

What Bible college never taught you about faith. 

The difference between optimism and faith. 

Why we need courage as well as faith! 

Why we need to change our model of mission and ministry. 

New Wine Cymru - how it's similar and different to New Wine in England and elsewhere, as a non government collaborative model for effective mission. 

Connect with Julian - https://newwinecymru.co.uk/about/whos-who

Or via: 

https://www.cornerstonechurch.co.uk

Julian is going to join us at https://www.launchcatalyst.org and it's not too late for you and your friends and team to book in and join us too whether in the North or the South of England.