Author: Nigel Ring

Fruit of Good Foundations From time to time I have the joy of meeting with men and women – particularly those now in church leadership - and the pleasure hearing of how their lives were impacted at one of the Bible Weeks. Maybe that is where they first gave their lives to following Jesus, or where they were baptised in the Spirit. But I am conscious that the Bible Weeks often just provided the opportunity for picking ripe fruit, fruit from plants that had been carefully tended by parents and church leaders over many years. Harvest time, whether natural or spiritual, tends to be the conspicuous time that is remembered, but the hard work that has gone on at home needs to be recognised and applauded! Preparation And talking of…

Jesus had much to say about both the poor and money. Both have become characteristics of the Newfrontiers family – concern for those who are poor or in need, and generosity. The Stoneleigh Bible Week provided an exciting vehicle on which these two could come together, not exclusively but significantly. At each Week we had the joy of putting before people the vision that God had laid on our hearts, whether church planting, remembering the poor (such as famine relief in Kenya or street children in Mexico), training or some other mission. On the last night of the Bible Week we would celebrate as we poured to the front of the meeting during the worship (it is so important to see giving as part of worship) and filled the large…

Saturated in Prayer The Stoneleigh Bible Week was always saturated in prayer. For months before each Bible Week we would be praying, personally, in small groups at our home churches, in meetings of Terry’s apostolic team and with hundreds of leaders gathered at the Stoneleigh Showground during the days of prayer and fasting held three times per year. God often spoke to us in such settings giving direction about the speakers, details about the offering and so on. Once the Bible Weeks began there were early morning prayer meetings open to anyone, ably led by Alun Davies, and before the evening meetings the leaders would gather to pray. Prayer changes things! Prophecy With such a large gathering it was not possible to have an ‘open mic’, but we looked to…

I am fascinated how much chatter my last blog about Stoneleigh Bible Week has produced! Thank you to all those who left comments on the Friends of Newfrontiers Facebook page where I put a link. Lead worshippers Many of you mentioned how much you loved the worship. What an important part worship rightly played at Stoneleigh. After all, that is one of the key ways we can both honour God and hear from him! How grateful I am (we all are!) for God sending us such a wonderful team of musically trained worshippers to give us the lead. In these days, when so much of sung worship has become ‘performance’, I look back on those days at Stoneleigh with great gratitude. To quote Matt Redman, the singers and worship band…

‘Is there a place called C-O-V-E-N-T-R-Y?’ Dr Kriengsak Chareonwongsak stopped in the middle of speaking at the first of our biennial leadership Conferences at the Brighton Conference Centre held in early October 1990. ‘I see a funnel between heaven and earth, and great blessing being poured through it onto great crowds below’. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. He knew nothing of our recent prophetic leading. Acting on the propheticAdrian Willard and I (Adrian had started working with Terry and the Newfrontiers team a few years earlier) had recently visited the National Agricultural Showground at Stoneleigh, just outside Coventry, in response to a prophetic word given in a prayer morning at Terry’s home a few weeks earlier. ‘Start a new Bible Week in the heart…