At the end of February I was privileged to be part of Gather Conference, held at the The Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick. Gather is a collaboration of unity movements across the UK, served and enabled by the Evangelical Alliance. The conference was hosted by Roger Sutton (leader of the Manchester unity movement -Network), and gathered people from different movements across the country – movements where churches, groups or leaders are working together and forming partnerships to impact their cities.
If I was going to describe the event, I’d probably liken it to a boxer punching above his weight, because although it wasn’t huge in terms of numbers (there were about 130 people there), it felt like it was creating ripples of significance that would go much wider and further than we might expect.
There is always such potential when we come together to work in partnership, each of us with different backgrounds, ethnicities, and denominations. So it was very exciting.
Each day included worship, hearing from different groups about what was going on in their cities, bible studies, and short words from key note speakers. We were continually reminded that “the learning was in the room” and that it wasn’t simply going to be front led. So instead of people sat in rows facing the stage, they were seated around tables dotted throughout the room, and it was a really nice blend of input and shared learning. As I’d been preparing, I’d been aware that I’d be leading worship for people from many different backgrounds, so I’d gone with an open mind, heart, and broad spectrum of songs! But it felt like we were very joined in our worship, and it is always encouraging to see what God does through worship in different environments.
This was really evident for me one evening as we were led by Graham Kendrick. Graham is just beginning to step in to something new and is doing something called BlesSing Over, visiting different churches and prophesying and worshipping with them through the Psalms. He led us this way one evening and it was amazing! It obviously took some people out of their comfort zones in terms of singing spontaneously from the Bible, but it ended up with all of us standing together under a star lit sky, worshipping and praying for the nation. It was quite a moment of unity, and I think we all went to bed inspired that night.
So I am praying that the ripples will increase and have a significant impact on our nation.
