Be Part of a Miracle: Part One | Archie Coates | HTB Livestream

When I think about this vision, the picture I have in my mind is a little bit like we're in South Kensington here and we have these amazing museums.

So the Natural History Museum is the UK's most popular tourist attraction.

7.1 million people came to the Natural History Museum last year.

But next to it, next to us, is the V&A.

V&A is one of my favorite museums, partly 'cause it's free but also because if you go downstairs to the basement, you will find the Raphael Cartoons.

The Raphael Cartoons are vast tapestries initially commissioned by Pope Leo X for the Sistine Chapel.

There were originally 10 depicting biblical scenes, the times of Paul, the Apostle Peter, and the Acts of the Apostles.

And only seven of them remain and they're housed in the basement in the V&A.

And you can go and sit on one of those wooden benches right in the middle of the gallery, it's a huge gallery, and just gaze at these vast canvases.

And when I think about this vision of HTB, I think of it a bit like that, that there's a canvas that is being painted.

It's called the evangelization of the nations, the revitalization of the church, and the transformation of society, and it's absolutely vast.

And different people are engaged in painting and coloring in different parts of it.

So in that top right-hand corner, what I see is people figuring out, well hang on, 33 million people have done Alpha up to now but what if we could get everybody on the planet with an opportunity to hear about Jesus through Alpha by the second, the 2,000 year after Jesus' resurrection, 2033.

So they're kind of figuring that out.

What would you need in terms of product and distribution and training leaders around the world? And then over here you've got a group of people saying, well 150 churches planted but can you imagine the societal transformation that would take place if it was 150 to 300 to 500 right across the UK, and the multiplying impact that would have.

So how can we figure that out? What buildings do we need? What permissions do we need? What finance do we need? What training do we need? So they're figuring out that bit.

And then here you've got, well here you've got the local university of this local church, Imperial, just had 10,000 new students arrive last weekend.

Well, how do you become a church that creates a home from home for those people, those young people coming all over the world, many of them not knowing Jesus? Well, is there something that we can color in in this vision that can help students get to know Christ while they're at university here? And then here we've got people figuring out because, well, I'm in education, I'm in healthcare, I'm in business, I'm in tech, I'm in the charity sector, and there's other people here who do the same.

Why don't we network together and see what together we can do with our passions and our abilities and the jobs and the skills that we've got? And so they're figuring out the workplace ministry.

And then there's these amazing spaces that we have but also on our streets there's 5,000 people rough sleeping every night.

More people are sleeping rough on our streets than at any time since records began in 2010 but we've got these warm spaces so why don't we open them up at night and allow people off the streets to come and sleep? And that would be the shelter.

So there's a group of people who are coloring in this part and together you've got this vision and this picture that's emerging and I guess, I guess the role of the pastor is to invite everybody to put their signature on the painting.

To help them to work out what is the bit that I color in.

Out of this vast canvas, what is the bit that I contribute and that I'm part of? And there's three things to my mind that all of us can do.

We can pray, and I talked about that last month when I talked about big picture prayer.