Transform: releasing a nation to transform other nations
For many years Antioch has been involved in various national contexts and been part of media productions and publications that have given language for some aspects of the Holy Spirit’s activity over the last 10 years in Wales.
There is a growing connection with a number of church leaders across Wales who are leading their churches into pressing in for the fullness of the supernatural gospel to be released. Something shifted at conference early in 2009 in Cardiff as 94 people were healed of various ailments in one evening meeting, and the church corporately cried out for a fresh move across the nation. Bill Johnston (Bethel Church, Redding, California) commented that this was the most combustible atmosphere he had been in, in the whole of Europe!
Wales is made up of many sub-cultures and small communities and this is also reflected in the body of Christ in the nation. We celebrate and enjoy the varied emphasis and difference that is a manifestation of the multi-faceted wisdom of God. Alongside the established churches we also connect with those who live out ‘liquid’ church and pioneer other forms of being church who are also committed to seeing the power and the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven impact this world. Where it depends on us we seek to live in peace and in the grace that enables us to walk in honest relationship with those who are different from us.
Establishing communities of faith, hope and love across Wales is a long term goal in seeing a nation transformed for the transforming of other nations. We are seeing an unprecedented shaking of the dominant structural powers, institutions and value systems that have shaped western culture for the last 300 years. These days echo the Fall of the Roman Empire as a major power failed and plunged Europe into the Dark Ages. It was into this context that the Celtic Christian monks travelled across Europe establishing “communities of virtue” and thereby saved the continent from barbarism. The shifts in our culture and the testimony of history makes it possible for God to do this again in our day. We see the opportunity, and we are calling for it!