01.07.2025
Turning Point of Crisis – Hopeful Renewal Video #1
At this year’s General Synod, the Pioneer Ministry Council made reference to a gathering as part of its vision to raise awareness about how the Church is growing in many places and to bring in gifted speakers who can encourage us about how there is much hope for the future. Over the coming days, we’ll be sharing five videos from this Pioneer Ministry Hopeful Renewal gathering, to inspire and encourage leaders and members all across our island about the potential for growth.
‘Crisis’, as a word, can be more hopeful than its modern meaning necessarily suggests, Mark Sayers notes in his first talk from the Hopeful Renewal conference recently hosted by the Church of Ireland’s Pioneer Ministry team.
Mark explores its origins in a phrase for a turning point – krisis in Greek – and points to the picture of the Holy Spirit hovering above the waters in Genesis 1 just before Creation. Our world is “infused with patterns of recovery” and this renewal is the constant pattern of how the Holy Spirit “works in a community to contradict the default mode of the human heart – cynicism, decline, melancholy.”
He also discusses some of the tentative signs of renewal around the world, including the high uptake for the Alpha Course and young men coming to church for the first time.
Check back this week to consider the ‘platform mentality’ which is so much a part of our contemporary culture.
If you would like to find out more about Pioneer Ministry and how you can be part of praying for and being more involved, please visit the Pioneer Ministry website – www.pioneerministry.org – or like and follow them on Facebook @pioneerministry.coi and Instagram @pioneerministrycoi