This was a wonderful gathering of the Dunamis Fellowship Britain and Ireland. We met at the Wycliffe Centre outside the town of High Wycombe near Oxford. This was where we did the first Dunamis Track in England in 2000.
The meeting was wrapped in prayer and worship, and the Word of God was preached and taught, based on an excellent book by Henry Blackaby and Richard Blackaby on spiritual leadership. (Called to be God’s Leader: Lessons from the Life of Joshua).
Through conversations, meals, and praying for one another, the community life of the Fellowship was built up.
Our primary focus was on discerning the Holy Spirit’s guidance for how we are to work with Him in the UK and abroad. This was a “working meeting” with hours of conversation and prayer, and the Holy Spirit led us into five projects for the upcoming year.
1. A Mission Team going to Nigeria in August 2009 to complete the International Dunamis School.
The International Dunamis School for equipping national leaders began in London in November 2007 and will be completed in August in Nigeria. James Gray and Funsho Oluro head up the teaching team of Nigerians.
There are about seventy Nigerian Church leaders who have been through our intensive equipping process, and they will be starting their own Dunamis track in Nigeria in 2010.
2. Starting Upward Challenge Youth Ministry in the UK in 2010.
Just as in the USA and Canada, there is a desperate need to reach youth with the Gospel in Great Britain. While there is the inspirational and encouraging event, Crossfire, sponsored by the Group for Evangelism and Renewal (GEAR) and the URC, the UK has no program for teenagers that intentionally provides systematic teaching on the Holy Spirit for discipleship.
The Lord spoke very clearly, calling a group – actually some of the youngest members of the DF – to begin planning for a 2010 Upward challenge in the UK.
Rev. Catey Morrison – a URC Pastor – will take point on the planning, and will be traveling to North Carolina to attend Upward Challenge July 20-25. Her husband’s willingness to release her and to take care of their four children during this visit, and the fact that we were able to get an airline ticket at such very short notice, all provided confirmation that this visit is right.
DFB&I and Upward Challenge team member Nicola Stokes receiving prayer
3. Implementing a new Dunamis Equipping Track in the North East Midlands around Nottingham.
This Dunamis Track has been on Elizabeth and Richard Turnbull’s hearts for a long time, and the Lord impressed upon them and the whole fellowship that it is now time to begin planning.
Elizabeth was called and affirmed as a Dunamis Fellowship Faculty member to begin the preparatory work for establishing and directing this new Track. The time frame for this is not yet clear.
4. Starting a London Dunamis Equipping Track which is intentionally multicultural and would also welcome participants from Africa and Europe.
While the Lord is calling us to go deep in our local areas we are also called to reach out to the world. The World lives in London! There are huge ethnic communities from every part of the globe.
James Gray and Funsho Oluro were called and commissioned to develop the leadership team for this new Track that we hope to have in place within a year.
5. Building the support base for the Dunamis Fellowship itself.
Any movement needs to be nurtured. We spent some time in prayer seeking direction for what the Lord would have us do to grow and strengthen the DFB&I so that we could have the personnel, prayer, and financial resources needed to work for church renewal and missions in the British Isles and to the world.
There were several excellent suggestions, such as developing a regular newsletter. The guidance came to set up some local gatherings around food, fellowship, and prayer that we were given the name for as “Dunamunch.” A number of people from different parts of England have offered to host these “Dunamunches!”
The Dunamis Fellowship Trust
Also at this meeting Chris James gave an excellent presentation about the roles of the Dunamis Fellowship Trust and the Dunamis Fellowship in Britain & Ireland.
Chris is anointed and brilliant in presenting financial administration in a way that shows how it brings glory to Jesus Christ and is critical for advancing the Kingdom of God, and something that could have sounded dull was actually inspirational and encouraging.
This event was strategic for the future development of the work in Great Britain. We are learning and growing together in this whole dynamic of cooperating with the Holy Spirit as He advances the Kingdom of God.
[24:12] Video Clip – The Rev. Cindy Strickler sharing the vision and purpose of the Dunamis Fellowship. This is really great! If you want to know what the Dunamis Fellowship is all about and discern if you may be called to join, then please watch this!
Cindy is really anointed as she presents this. Cindy is the Director of PRMI.
