Leadership Announcement By Roger & Faith

If you weren’t at our Fellowship Meeting on Sunday 17th October 2021, you may not have heard about the leadership transition in Ichthus Christian Fellowship. Below is a transcript of the announcement made by Roger and Faith, and the video that was shown during the meeting.

“Hi everyone!  Thank you for all your messages of care and prayer!  We would love to be with you in person, but just at this time our health does not allow it.  However, we are very much with you in spirit, and because of this we want to share with you the way the Lord has guided us in Ichthus over this past year, 2021.  During the previous year, the nation, including ourselves, were battling Covid 19 and obeying the commands to keep strict lockdown when called for.  The Lord, who knew what was coming, had sent Henry and Lydia George and family who were in Thailand, back to the UK in 2019, where they have been an enormous blessing and re-enforcement to all we are doing.  Henry’s understanding of the technical issues involved in producing meetings online and his inspiration and brilliance in this has helped us to keep in touch with our Link churches and individuals and our Overseas Workers and church-planters.   Lydia’s amazing gifting in management, as well as ministry, has hugely strengthened us at the centre, and over the past nine months Henry and Lydia have also taken on the leadership of Belvedere Congregation, as our dear Tim and Janet Wilkinson have stepped back from active leadership.

So now, we come to an important piece of information and encouragement:  Roger and I have been seeking the Lord this past year as to how we pull back from active leadership and management and encourage our brilliant M&M Team to forge forward in leadership of the Movement. 

Over the past two years we have strengthened the leadership role of the Ministry and Management meeting, and have now decided to divide their service into two teams, the Ministry and the Management Teams.   The Ministry Team currently consists of the following leaders (in alphabetical order!) Henry George, Lydia George, Debbie Laycock, Phil Tate, Joel Todd and Abi Willetts.  All of these have significant ministry roles in the Fellowship, including leading five congregations, so we (Roger and Faith) took some months praying and seeking the Lord over which of them should lead the team.  We were partly advised and encouraged by a former Link Church Leader of many years standing, Professor John Gallacher, who spent much time with the team, individually and corporately, to discuss their roles.  We knew we needed an anointed leader to lead the team, and the Lord spoke to Roger and Faith that the person He had selected was Henry George.

We spoke to Henry in June and prayed with him. Henry then took a day of prayer and fasting, (and prayed with Lydia of course) and he came back to us in July to say he believed the Lord had confirmed this to him.  (You will hear more about this from Henry in due course!)

So today we are deeply thankful to hand the reins of the Ministry Team to Henry.  The Ministry Team is a brilliant mix of gifted leaders including Debbie Laycock, Abi Willetts, Phil Tate, Lydia George and Joel Todd, so with Henry George leading them forward, we expect to see breakthroughs for the Gospel and a fresh flow of spiritual life through the movement of Ichthus.

So what about Roger and Faith?  We will remain as Apostles and Trustees of the Movement, along with Professor Rob George (Chair), David Pharoah, James Chapman and Sarah Larkin, with David Steinegger and Professor John Gallacher as Advisors to the Trust.  When our health is stronger, we expect to continue with writing and teaching (Roger) and writing, prayer and pastoral work (Faith).

Faith and I were impressed about the way the Lord led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Red Sea.  He went before His people as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, which became a symbol of God’s presence to guide them on the way the Lord was leading them, but when the Egyptians were pursuing them to destroy them, the cloud moved from in front of God’s people to behind them, so that the Egyptians could no longer see them to attack them, while the fire still gave God’s people light and reassurance.  These verses were opened up to us by the Lord (Exodus 13:20–22; 14:19-20) as we heard Him say “follow the cloud!”   In Exodus, God was leading His people out of Egypt and forward to the Promised Land when they had crossed the Red Sea. His purpose was to forge them into a strong, holy nation, so that they could be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. We believe the Lord is leading Ichthus as a movement into a place where He can reforge our togetherness, renew our vision, and make us a blessing in the earth!”