20 Years On

This month marks twenty years since being released of my role at Penrith Christian Life Centre. I visited this church yesterday with my daughter to catch up with what God was saying to this congregation but also to see what emotions were released.

I feel very blessed to have served so many years at this church. The people and their love gave me a great start and grounding in my life since accepting Jesus as Lord as a seventeen year old now as I look back  some thirty one years later. It is always wonderful to know that where ever you find yourself on life's journey that there is always people from whom you belong and later can return to. At least this is how I feel when I reflect upon what is now known as Imaginations Church.

Though this congregation has a great future, it is important to know from where we have come and what vision was seen in those early days to bring the hope of something new. It was just a few believers meeting at the Barlow's home in Emu Plains that saw the initial seed of what would first be known as the Charismatic Christian Fellowship. When the Charismatic revival swept through Australia in the seventies many could not fathom the effects this would have on so many people. They came from all walks of life, Catholics, protestants and even Seven day Adventists all without pretensions were swallowed up in this new outpouring of God's Spirit.

Whilst God sees all men as equal, there were a number of men who God chose to lead this new revival, one no more obvious than the late Pastor Gordon Gibbs who with his newly found gifts of the Holy Spirit began to pray and prophecy over the multitudes. Hundreds were saved and healed as a result and it was this new group of believers in Emu Plains west of Sydney that had heard of the amazing transformation God was bringing through this man. Gordon was asked to come and pastor this small but significant group and though first reluctant he finally heard the call.

From this small group to hundreds of new converts of the Baptism of Charismata if the Holy Spirit a property in Orchard Hills was purchased. With only enough for a hand deposit twenty one acres was bought to be the home of Penrith Christian Fellowship Centre. It was here at this property in 1986 that I first encountered God and in a night of His awesome display I received the Holy Spirit as a seal upon my life.

The next few years were a blur as I began study at our local bible school and the following year was asked in 1988 to serve as a youth leader working in our local high schools. It was in December of 1988 that I met my wife whilst ministering with Steve Kelly at Burrendong Dam Recreation Park at a combined Christian youth camp. Over lunch on the 12th of November and five hours of table tennis I fell in love with this amazing Swedish exchange student that would become my wife and the most terrific mother to our two beautiful children.

After visiting Ann-Marie and her parents in Sweden at the end of 1989, we both began study at our local bible college and in October of that year were engaged to be married. Whilst still employed at the church came one of the most difficult yet exciting decisions I had ever made. We would marry in Sweden and put down roots away from my homeland but most importantly away from those people who had become my family.

After two and a half years of living in Sweden and of marriage, Australia and my home church beckoned. We arrived home at the beginning of February 1993 and I was asked to be New Christians pastor by the legendary Gordon Gibbs who had once again taken the helm of the church. For an exciting three years I witnessed God to some of the most miraculous things both in me as a person and in the life of our church. It seemed to be that nothing could go wrong. At least until I received a phone call in the middle of the night whilst on holidays in Sweden. Our church was to amalgamate with another church and it's pastor would become the new senior leader of the new amalgamated church which became known as Penrith Christian Life Centre.

With this new change came all the uncertainty and fear that the enemy could throw at me. Within a few minute phone call my world was turned upside down and faith was turned to fear. The following year and the amalgamation process was messy, not just for myself but many others who like me struggled with letting go of the past and all we knew and allowing God to establish the new. I knew I was in a fight but unfortunately I thought the new pastor was the enemy instead of the true enemy of our souls, the devil. As a result, at the beginning of 1997 I was told that my services to this congregation were no longer needed. I remember the look on the pastors face and his own anguish in cutting off that which had become a great burden to him.

For twelve months I struggled with God, the new pastor and myself and then finally after committing to a project which was birthed in anguish we left once again for Sweden. Naturally our motives for Sweden seemed pure, establish a new outreach in the South of Sweden and see the Kingdom of our God expand. Yet inwardly this was simply a way of justifying my own selfish desires and putting off the true desires of my God to embrace the plans He had for my life.

After two years of knowing, knowing that I must return to deal with my own hurts and pain of un-forgiveness I begin a pattern of uprooting my family which would repeat itself whenever things became too difficult. We arrived back in Australia after the birth of our beautiful daughter in the Autumn of 1999 and after a year of trying to get resettled I have enough courage to approach the pastor to ask his forgiveness for my poor behaviour and for judging him.

A lot has happed since this day, yet one thing is sure, our God is a god of love who desires to reconcile himself not only with himself but also with those around us. Twenty years on, I am pleased to report of the continuing love I have for God but also for my brothers and sisters at what is now Imaginations Church. Even more so, God is continually releasing me to show His love even to those that hate me and His Church.