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| To restore the Beauty of the Lord to His Church - Blackpool and the Nations. |
Our story so far . . . One evening God . . .
 There have been many great times and many not so good times through the years. God has blessed this Church in so many ways and in turn the Church has been a blessing to its community. However, my story started in October 2004 when Helen and I came for an interview concerning the Pastoral leading of BCC. On the first Sunday of March 2005, I took over the Pastoral responsibility of BCC. The rest they say is history.On Thursday 19th June I was driving up the promenade home after spending an evening teaching at the Foundation Course. As I drove, there was a ‘beautiful’ red sunset. God began to speak to me concerning the beauty of Blackpool. The Holy Spirit was communicating to me that the only beauty left in Blackpool was the natural elements which He had made (the sun, the moon and the stars) but especially the sun. I looked at the hotels and guesthouses on the other side and returned to look at the beautiful sunset. I felt such a confirmation in my spirit that the vision for B.C.C. was to restore the beauty of God to the Church and to Blackpool.
Over the next few days, God began to speak to me concerning certain verses in His Word. The main verse in which we are to set the vision is:
"One thing that I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple" Psalm 27:4
"…to gaze upon His beauty…"
I began to ask myself these questions. What is the beauty of the Lord? How do you describe the beauty of the Lord? What vision can you bring out of the beauty of the Lord? There are many other questions that I am continuing to ask and require of the Lord and He is continuing in His faithfulness to answer me.
This is the reason for this course that you may understand our vision and to see were you can best fit in fulfilling this vision.
Our Complaint
Our complaint is that Blackpool is not the place that it used to be. The beauty of this community has become a place where people come for nightclubs; alcohol; drugs; etc. We have one of the highest numbers of teenagers becoming pregnant in Europe; high amount of suicides; family break-ups; homelessness (to mention a few). Somehow the beauty of the West Coast has slowly disappeared. The enemy of our souls has had his fingerprints all over this town and nation for too long. It is time to replace his fingerprints with the Mighty Right Hand of God.
Vision
We recognise that God has an overall vision for His Church (worldwide), but we also believe that He has an individual vision for the local Church (BCC) so it can impact the local community. This is all part of His overall vision and plan for this nation. The words you are about hear and read are words from the very heart of God. These words reflect who He is, what we are to become and the vision for ‘our’ community:
Vision Statement
"To restore the ‘Beauty of the Lord’ to His Church; Blackpool and the Nations." (Based on Psalm 27:4)
Our Aims:
Jonathan Swift: "Vision is the art of seeing things invisible."
Active Members will eat, drink, sleep, & pray until we see the ‘Beauty of the Lord’ in the Church, Blackpool and our nation.
Our Mission
Core Values
B -Being Christ-like (everyone to reach maturity in God)
L - Life development (ongoing teaching and learning)
A - Abiding (continually living in His Presence)
C - Care (care of every member)
K - Kindness (to the homeless and less fortunate)
P - Purpose driven (to see God’s kingdom and the vision happen)
O - Open the Holy Spirit (Holy Spirit as centre leading everything)
O - Outreach (to use every means to reach the lost)
L - Love (to express the love God has shown us)
The Concept of Beauty
The Old Testament has a rich and extensive vocabulary of beauty. God, who planned the Garden of Eden with beauty in mind (Gen.2:9), has given human beings his own capacity to appreciate what is pleasing to the eye, but beauty has it’s problems as well as its blessings. Externals can distract us from a deeper, inner beauty that is most desirable of all.
In one sense, a beautiful thing creates desire in the beholder. In different versions of the Bible, the word beautiful is translated as 'glory'. It is the Lord Himself who glows with true beauty in the reflection of His splendour (Is.4:2; 28:5).
The bride of Christ is beautiful according to Songs of Songs (4:1-15; 6:4). God designed the bride of Christ to be beautiful although sometimes we have committed spiritual adultery with another. God is restoring love to the heart of His bride.
Psalm 90:17 – "May the favour (beauty) of the Lord our God rest upon us…" Isaiah proclaimed it (61:3), "…to bestow a crown of beauty instead of ashes.” God’s intention has always been to pour out His beauty (glory) into His Church.
Even in the days when the enemy has stained our community, God will still place a glorious crown of beauty onto the head of His bride (Is.28:5). God Himself is beautiful, therefore His Presence is beautiful and as a Fellowship we want and ask for His glory (Is.33:17).
Titus 2:10 – "…make the teaching about God our Saviour attractive (beautiful)." Jesus went on to say that those who preach the Good News (Gospel) are themselves beautiful (cf.Rom.10:15).
1 Peter 3:3-5 warns us about being more concerned about our inward beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.
Finally, back to the verse in Psalm 27:4 - "One thing that I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple."
We are asking for His ‘incomparable perfections’ to be manifest in our lives, His Church, Blackpool and the nations. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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