The Vision

In 1967 an American Evangelist called Jean Darnell had a vision about the future of the Church in the United Kingdom. She saw small lights piercing through the fog covering the UK which turned out to be little fires breaking out all over the nation.

These fires were pockets of people who had been made intensely hungry for the word of God and for New Testament Christianity, those who read the book of Acts and wondered, where is this church?

She goes on to see revival break out across the UK and beyond on a scale never seen before. You can read more about the vision here

Around three years ago I had the exact same vision, I had never heard about Jean Darnell before but on sharing the vision with people I was made aware of her vision. I also found that many other people had also received the same vision which made me realise that God is doing something new.

Covid made us all stop and consider what we are doing as a church. I believe that hungry people gathering in homes is part of God’s strategy at this time and that he is planting that vision into the hearts of many people in his church.

Does this mean the end of the traditional church as we know it? I don’t believe so. There are many traditional congregations up and down the country doing great things with good people in them and it is not the vision of Lighting Fires to pull them down, but rather to work with them and in them. We are one body, not fragmented parts. We are stronger together and there is a lot that leaders who are part of new expressions of church can learn from leaders from more traditional church backgrounds. I do believe however, that church as we know it may be about to change and some will embrace the change and others will reject it. I repeat, we are one body, stronger together.

Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12) and Lighting Fires is all about igniting the fire in us so that wherever we go we can be carriers of his light.