Wednesday 18 November 2015

Ordinary Life...

The last couple of months have been explosive for Eagle's Wing Ministries to say the least, and we want to take the opportunity to say thanks to everyone for their interest and contact with the ministry.

That being said, I feel the need to say a few things as part of my testimony within this project...

The vision for EWM came about in 1999 to be a support for the Church, not any specific denomination, providing teaching, testimonies and advice (both solicited and unsolicited) for leaders and church members alike.

The organisation started with Isaiah 40:31 as a prophetic verse to give direction to the vision. We were to "wait on the Lord". It seemed simple enough at the time, but days turned into weeks turned into months turned into 2011...

That's where the testimony comes in:

EWM is my passion, but I am a simple man with normal human failings that God gives me strength to overcome. One of these is a strong tendency to procrastinate - hence the delay from 1999 to 2011 - and (though I hate to admit it) the constant feeling that I am not good enough to do what this ministry is called to do. I first felt called to write at the age of 19, some 24 years ago. I didn't feel I could fill the shoes being offered to me so I ignored the call and did other things, none of which made me feel fulfilled.

I was offered the chance to speak occasionally at my local church - several over the years - and when I spoke unhindered by structure and from my heart I could feel God's pleasure. Looking back I guess that was where the first inclinations of EWM began.

My heart has always been to encourage the church to truly become disciples themselves, and to make disciples. I felt in recent years that there was a huge gap between what we were called to do by Jesus - make disciples of all nations - and what we ended up doing: making converts. I found people regularly who would tell me they were "saved" twenty years earlier, but they lived very much in an infancy faith, their churches never being equipped to make disciples or never having attended a local church regularly. I've heard preachers refer to these as the "saved and stuck" people.

Billy Graham's crusades for decades have drawn tens of thousands into Christ, but after the crusade moves on many simply fell backwards without the tools to grow. I must stress I in no way am speaking against the crusades campaigns as the church has benefited massively from them. More recently, HTB in London devised the Alpha course, a wonderful tool for leading through to faith and beginning the road to true discipleship. I've been privileged to help lead a number of these courses over the years and have seen the churches running them move from strength to strength.

Many of the contacts I've received in the last months have been from pastors, church members and representatives of groups of churches wanting to join the church of Eagle's Wing Ministries.

It's a huge honour to be in contact with all these people from across the globe and if you've not heard from me personally it's purely because of the amount of correspondence I have to deal with - don't worry, I promise I will reply personally as soon as I can!

What this whole message and the ministry boils down to is one simple truth: I'm an ordinary guy, no more special than anyone else. People have sent me messages of encouragement for which I am incredibly grateful, but some have said how they wish they could be like me.

I put off writing for many years using the excuse that I wasn't CS Lewis or John Eldridge or Max Lucado. I kept praying and God kept telling me to write what He gave me and I kept resisting. Eventually I felt Him saying to me "David, I have a CS Lewis, John Eldredge and a Max Lucado writing for me already. I don't need you to be them - I need you to be YOU!"

It was a revelation. That night in 2011 I began this blog and started to work on the book He inspired me to write. The book is a work in progress as I can only write it part-time, but I try to make time to grow this web page as often as I can.

The Truth is that God has spent thousands of years working through normal, everyday people like you and me to do incredible, extraordinary things.

Don't settle for a "normal" life. Don't be "ordinary".

God wants us to be extraordinary, and if we'll listen and act then there's nothing He calls us to that we can't do.

2 comments:

  1. God is waiting to see what we can do. If we do good things, he saves us from the hell. Here are great examples of theology paper topics that might be useful for everyone who interested in this field. Thanks to organisations like "Eagle's Wing Ministries" people have a chance to find the information they are looking for. Thank you and God bless you!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Daniel, it's always great to get feedback - I wish more people would offer it as it helps me hone what skill God has given me.

      I'm working on a piece at the moment regarding timing that I'd like to share something of in reply to you. Some of the time we need to wait for God to inspire us to move, but I've never met an effective minister who lived by trying to show God what they could do. Rather He waits to see what we are prepared to do.

      As I mentioned in the article, God put this specific ministry on my heart 16 years ago, but He inspired me to be a writer for Him when I was still a teenager over 25 years ago. My salvation from Hell - and everyone's - is secured not by our works, but by His Grace, and by that Grace He has kept the door open for me to create this blog in 2011 and to be going through the process of registering as a charity at the moment, first in South Africa, but I am looking at getting branches in England and America as well. The ministry has always been a vision to be bigger than just one man, which is why it's not named after me and I'm open to submissions of articles for publishing on the blog.

      I'm honoured and delighted that you are blessed by this work, and hope you will continue to be for many years. If you'd like more personal contact I try to reply to every contact request form that comes in from the site personally and I'd love the chance to get to know the followers of this ministry better. As it grows I will need to have support for writing, prayer teams and eventually ministry teams as it moves into the fullness of the vision God placed in my heart so long ago.

      Thanks for taking the time to respond and Bless you

      David (EWM Founder)

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