21Mar 2017 by Nigel Ring

The roots of Newfrontiers – a personal reflection pt 6. A Team is born

Baptism of the Spirit, Coastlands, David Holden, Downs Bible Week, Newfrontiers, News, Team, Terry Virgo
Wise counsel One of our speakers at the first two Downs Bible Weeks in 1979 and 1980 was Bryn Jones, visionary and apostolic leader of Harvestime, later to become Covenant Ministries International (CMI). He had pioneered much through the ’70s and had taken a lot of ‘flack’ for his stance on the baptism of the Spirit, teaching about the five-fold ministries of Ephesians 4 being relevant for today, and so on. To some extent we were caught up in his slipstream.   During Downs 80 Bryn told Terry how he had been observing his ministry and was concerned on two fronts: first that he was in danger of ‘burning out’ and second that he needed complementary gifting around him to share the burden of ministry. He advised him to follow what…
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14Mar 2017 by Nigel Ring

The roots of Newfrontiers – a personal reflection pt 5. Bible Weeks

Dales Bible Week, Downs Bible Week, Newfrontiers, News
Gathering momentum Something was happening across the nation. The ‘charismatic movement’, which rooted back to the early sixties in the UK, was now gathering momentum and house churches were springing up in many places. Through the seventies a new phenomenon was taking place in the UK, summer Bible Weeks. The Keswick Convention had, of course, been blessing people for many decades but now something fresh was happening in the charismatic wing of the church. This new phenomenon drew hundreds of people to gather with tents and caravans on some large tract of land – an agricultural showground or a racecourse perhaps – and meet daily in marquees for a week’s teaching. Personally, we attended the Capel Bible Week (successor to the Abinger Convention), on the land of the Elim Bible College, from…
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07Mar 2017 by Nigel Ring

The roots of Newfrontiers – a personal reflection pt 4. House Church

Church Planting, Newfrontiers, News
Change and Growth Having moved on from our Anglican church we started travelling to Seaford on Sundays to meet with Terry’s church. We continued to meet in our home on Wednesday evenings and became like a railway junction with scores of people coming and going. Many came to hear Terry’s teaching when he visited on alternate weeks. He would bring a carload with him and they sat together to encourage one another as we traditionalists prayed condemnatory/confessional prayers! (I later learnt that this principle of establishing a ‘hot heart’ to which others can be added was one that Terry wisely used on a number of occasions. Like a bonfire, start praying with a small group to create this 'hot heart' and once the 'prayer culture' is established others can be added.) We…
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01Mar 2017 by Nigel Ring

The roots of Newfrontiers – a personal reflection pt 3. Black and White to Colour

Newfrontiers, News, Terry Virgo
Body Life The weekend after Terry visited out home and prayed successfully for people to be healed we were to attend a Stewards Trust conference for people at a similar stage of life to ourselves. What a turning point that proved to be. The speaker, Barney Coombs from Sarum Hill Baptist Church in Basingstoke, and founder of the Salt and Light stream of churches, oozed love and a knowledge of the scriptures we had not previously encountered as he ministered on body life, and on the importance of exercising the gifts of the spirit to bless and edify other believers. He also introduced us to scriptures set to music as a vehicle for worship. At that stage our worship experience included singing many of the fine old hymns, and we greatly…
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23Feb 2017 by Nigel Ring

The roots of Newfrontiers – a personal reflection pt 2. The baptism of the Holy Spirit

Baptism of the Spirit, Newfrontiers, News
Speaking in tongues When we first discussed speaking in tongues with our Anglican friends we were advised to steer clear as they could be inspired by the devil. This was to raise an interesting problem for me. My wife was having difficulty conceiving and was invited to attend a meeting in London led by Jean Darnell. When she went forward for prayer at the end of the meeting Jean said to her that ‘her emotions needed releasing’ and, when prayed for, Janita started speaking in tongues. That represented a problem for me: I now had a wife who some would say was behaving in a way that was ‘from the devil’! Shortly after that she conceived and our first child was born in October 1970. Life was busy and we…
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16Feb 2017 by Nigel Ring

The roots of Newfrontiers – a personal reflection pt 1. We meet Terry Virgo

Newfrontiers, News, Terry Virgo
Increasingly people are joining churches related to Newfrontiers through other apostolic spheres and have no awareness of how it all started. Several have recently asked me for the early history so over the next few weeks I will share my personal story of those early days since I was privileged to be in from the start – indeed, from before the start. A letter One day, on return from our family holiday, I found a letter awaiting me. “Will you be my administrator? I don’t know what an administrator does but I know I need one”. I picked up the phone. “I also don’t know what an administrator does” was my reply, “but yes!” On that somewhat precarious basis a special friendship turned into an employed relationship with Terry Virgo. The continuing deep…
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