The Glorious Normal was the title of the FIEC’s five one-day conferences in Cardiff, Birmingham, London, Edinburgh and Manchester.
Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh was the venue for the Scottish gathering of around 120 people, representing more than 30 churches, and in his welcome remarks their pastor, Paul Rees, set the tone for the day with encouraging accounts of new believers during ministry in lockdown.
There were two keynote addresses that were consistent at all the gatherings, the first from Johnny Prime, the head of local ministries for the FIEC. Preaching from Exodus 16:7 he compared the church to the grumbling Israelites, in need of a similar vision – to see the glory of God in the very ordinary.
John Stevens, the National Director for the FIEC, preaching from 2 Timothy 3 & 4, set a wonderful context for the sense that while we live during a period of great change the clear exhortation of God’s word is that there is never a context in which we require a different ministry.
John had earlier reported that 19 of the 30 churches in Scotland had come into membership of the FIEC in the last ten years, a reflection of the faithful work being carried out by Andy Hunter and Andy Paterson, and it was good to have Glasgow pastor Colin Adams from Greenview Evangelical provide the middle address from Revelation 7: 9-17.
