We read some pretty wild things about the early church in the book of Acts. It seems that God is into doing things by His Spirit that just blow our modern western mindset. When was the last time you heard of someone being physically transported from one location to another in an instant? (Philip and the Ethiopian) Or people lining-up on the street to be healed as the shadow of a man carrying the atmosphere of The Kingdom Of God passes by? (Peter)

Well. I can attest just a little bit to that latter one …

Our friends at Healing On The Streets in Coleraine found out relatively recently that some people get healed just walking by them on a Saturday morning. The “usual” model is that people accept the invitation of a comfortable chair and some prayer in order to be healed. But they’ve only just recently heard some stories of people who have been healed over the last few years simply by walking past them, and hence through the supernatural atmosphere that is the Kingdom Of God on earth.

A bit closer to home I had the privilege of helping someone this week who is struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. During an especially low moment he had looked out of his flat window to see a couple of our Street Pastors walking by on the pavement below. In that moment my new friend told me that he felt an incomprehensible strength to resist his addiction and he heard an inner voice reassuring him and telling him there was hope. As we chatted, he described us as people “possessed” by goodness.

Jesus’ message was a bit simpler than ours tends to be. He said that the Kingdom of God is here and what are we going to do about it? I think He was speaking quite literally, and not figuratively as we have been led to suppose.

Inverness Street Pastors featured on a television documentary which aired on BBC Alba last night. Doda, our gaelic-speaking Street Pastor, spent a night explaining some of our work to camera when we were joined by a film crew in January. As none of the rest of us speak gaelic, we really had no idea what she’d said until we watched the programme subtitles last night. She did a great job!

Check it out on BBC iPlayer

Ankor Light, one of the bands playing at Coffee Affair every Saturday have just got their own website up. It’s still a work in progress but why not check it out ?

Catalyst has been running for a couple of months now and things are starting to gather momentum.

The word “catalyst” is used in chemistry to describe something that helps two other things to connect together without imposing itself on either, and that’s very much our heart for this coffee-shop experiment.

We’re developing an environment in which people can come to connect with the goodness of God, and come to know Him at their own pace, without our placing any artificial barriers in the way – such as an unfamiliar church culture or having to agree with our world-view as a prerequisite. We want to see what emerges when people feel welcome to simply hang out with us, to form friendship and community, to ask us awkward questions, and to connect with the supernatural power of God to heal, to restore, and to reveal.

Many of the people who come to Catalyst have encountered us already out on the streets and in public places. They may have received Healing on the High Street, had a dream interpreted at a local bar or asked for spiritual insights from the heart of God, or simply been helped in all sorts of practical ways when we’re volunteering for Street Pastors. The environment at Catalyst provides opportunity to find out more, to receive ongoing help and support if needed, or to ask questions, without needing to swallow hard and step into an unfamiliar environment such as a local church.

The number of visitors, and regulars, is growing steadily. Many people have received healing. Most people have enjoyed the coffee and the opportunity to just ask questions.

One of our regular visitors first came for emotional healing several weeks ago, before confiding that there was strange spiritual stuff going on in her home and could we perform exorcisms? Not the sort of question that most people would consider asking in a church, or even talking about in public, but this kind of issue, while not commonplace, is certainly not rare either, and certainly no problem for our team, provided we can visit the house – which we did. She’s now looking very peaceful, confiding in us about deeper issues, and asking for physical healing for other people that she knows.

A new visitor today was blown away by the accuracy of the interpretation offered for her dream and immediately asked if there was anything else God wanted to say to her. She was equally blown away by that and says that she has a number of friends who have been looking for spiritual answers elsewhere but this is “the real deal”. We think she’ll be back and bringing some of her friends with her.

Insight had a terrific time in Hoots last week, running two teams on two tables in the popular city centre ceilidh bar.

On approaching our first table, a well dressed business lady leapt up and asked for a spiritual reading (a.k.a. prophetic words of encouragement). She cried through the whole encounter and said to us right at the start “please tell me you have the truth, I have tried so many other things to find it!”. We were able to help her receive peace and God’s presence, talk about Truth, and be part of a really profound experience for her with God, leaving her with contact info and a lot to think about. She told us that as soon as we approached our table she just knew something was “right” even before we said anything!

We also gave readings to three friends who arrived at the same time- a brilliant openness to see their need for God and how much He was already helping them in their lives. Two of them were sisters – one had been at home cooking spaghetti and the other sister saw our posters and phoned her to come down – she dropped everything and ran down to Hoots!

Both our teams had a great time with dream interpretation for different people and we were kept going pretty much non-stop all night.

The manager likes what we do so much that he has agreed to four more gigs over the next four months.

From a graffiti wall at an American university:

Jesus said to them, ‘Who do you say that I am?’
And they replied, ‘You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being, the kerygema in which we find the ultimate meaning of our interpersonal relationships.’
And Jesus said, ‘What?’

Joe Bayly describes this incident in his book, Love to Tell the Story:

I like that.
I like it because it sets the simplicity of our Lord’s words and teaching over against the complexity of some technical expressions of truth.
Not that the theology is wrong. We need deep thinkers who can explain the ramifications of our faith.
But such complexity of ideas belongs in a seminary classroom, not on the hillside where Jesus taught multitudes, or in the room where I teach my Sunday school class.
Jesus was profound, but simple in expression. Ordinary people heard Him gladly, eagerly.
To use an old but true way of expressing it, He put the cookies – or the bread of life – on the lowest shelf, where anyone could reach it.
And so must I.

And that’s why I don’t speak the lingo!