Last Friday, we spent a great afternoon and evening at Edgbaston cricket ground watching ‘The Hundred’ fixtures between the Birmingham Phoenix and the Northern Superchargers. I won’t try to convince the sceptics about this new face of cricket, it’s definitely not the cricket I grew up watching, but it is capturing a new generation. It was a late birthday celebration. I was supposed to be going with our son, Josh, but due to the ongoing series of train strikes in the UK, Ruth came with me instead. Please don’t stop reading, that’s the end of the cricket stories!
The reason I was drawn to mention the cricket, was that tag line for the Birmingham Phoenix team, which is prominently displayed all around the ground, is the phrase ‘Together We Rise’. This was reinforced throughout the whole experience by the 2 event hosts, who were encouraging the crowd to support the Phoenix. For the team to do well, they needed the whole crowd to get behind them, to cheer them and to encourage them, even when things weren’t going well.
As I later reflected on the experience and on our journey over the previous couple of weeks, I felt that the phrase ‘Together We Rise’ sums up where we currently are as Time2. We were thrilled to be able to include a number of face to face visits with church leaders up and down the country during a recent couple of long weekends away. We were able to meet some for the first time in over 25 years and others for the first time ever in person. We’d arranged the visits to encourage them, to bless them and to be able to meet them in their own environments, but we came away blessed and encouraged by each of them. Though some are still going through major storms in their family lives and/or ministries, it was encouraging that some we’ve been walking with for a couple of years, appear to be emerging into new fruitful seasons.
The visits and each situation was perfectly encompassed in that Phoenix tag line ‘Together We Rise’. We all need to be supporting and encouraging each other and particularly our church leaders to build them up and help them to ever greater heights. That is why we will continue to highlight church leaders, to champion them, encourage them, support and love them. Even though we’re still waiting for a house to be our home, that we can welcome them in to rest, relax and be refreshed, we will continue to personally do all we can and will redouble our efforts to encourage everyone else to do take up the mantle, because ‘Together We Rise’.
Read our blog