Stephen Lungu came to our home and told me his story. He was the oldest son of a teenage mother from a township in Zimbabwe. She was trapped in a difficult marriage to a man more than twenty years her senior. She dealt with her struggles by drinking heavily. One day, when Stephen was three years old, his mother took him, his brother and baby sister into town. Saying she needed to go to the toilet, Stephen’s mother left him holding his sister in the busy town square, while his brother John played on the ground. Two hours later she had not returned. Their mother had run away, leaving the three children in the reluctant care of an aunt. By the age of eleven, Stephen too had run away – preferring to live on the streets. Growing up, Stephen developed a strong bitterness against God. As a teenager he was recruited into one of the urban gangs, called the Black Shadows, which carried out violence, theft and destruction on the streets of Zimbabwe. When a travelling evangelist came to town to speak to thousands of people about Jesus in a large tent, Stephen went to firebomb the event. He carried a bag full of bombs. He wanted to attack the event because he wanted to attack God. As Stephen awaited the moment for his attack, Shadrach Maloka, a South African evangelist, took to the stage and announced that the Holy Spirit had warned him that many in the audience may die soon without Christ. Astonished, the Black Shadows thought someone had figured out their plan. Stephen Lungu was captivated by the preacher. In each of the passages for today we see attacks of various kinds and how God turns opposition into opportunity.

I trained as a lawyer and worked as a barrister. Then, back in 1981, Pippa and I felt that God was calling us to full-time ministry in the Church of England and for me to become an ordained minister. We also felt that we should do our training in Durham, starting in September 1982. I was at the top of the waiting list for the theological college at Durham University. I was told it was almost certain someone would drop out and I was virtually guaranteed a place. Based on this I announced our plans widely, including telling all my colleagues at work that I was leaving. Just before I was due to start we received news that, exceptionally, no one had dropped out that year and it would not be possible for us to go. We tried everything to persuade them to change their minds. We desperately tried to find another theological college that would accept us. We prayed and pushed as hard as we could but to no avail. The door was firmly shut. The following year was extremely difficult. I was given very little work by my workplace as people knew I was leaving and so had no incentive to build my career. It was a huge disappointment and mystifying at the time. In the end, Pippa and I went to Oxford to study the following year and I eventually started as an assistant pastor at HTB in 1986. With hindsight, had we got the place at Durham, the timing would have meant that a job at HTB would have been out of the question and we would not be doing what we are doing today. I am so thankful to God that he blocked our plans and strategically ordered our steps. If you are going through a setback or disappointment, remember that his purposes for you are ‘good, pleasing and perfect’ (Romans 12:2). Nothing happens without God’s permission. God is in control and in everything he is working for good (8:28).

Our friend from Scotland, Dez, told me, ‘I was a doorman; a bouncer. I was quite a violent guy. I took a lot of drugs. I was a cocaine addict. My life revolved around fighting, taking drugs, partying and living in that cycle.’ He said, ‘One night I had taken a massive overdose. I felt like I was having a heart attack. My heart was jumping out of my chest. And I cried out in what I didn’t know then was a prayer: to live. And I woke up the next day and I never touched coke again.’ After that, Dez kept meeting Christians. One in particular was Fiona, who really lived out her faith. He asked her out a few times, but she said ‘No’. Mainly because he wasn’t a Christian. She gave him a Bible and he started reading: ‘I started tearing through it trying to find something and I ended up finding Jesus. Suddenly, my whole life made sense.’ He called Fiona and asked her to take him to church. There he heard about Alpha. ‘On Alpha, I met Jesus and it changed my life. I was this drug-fuelled, violent person and now I love people and love God. I just want to share my story.’ Dez studied Theology and now works for Alpha Scotland. And, he married Fiona. He is now a happy husband and a loving father. Dez sums up his complete transformation: ‘Jesus turned the questions I had about whether God exists into a belief that God cares about me. I have changed from a violent, loveless drug addict to a man who is happily married and full of love. I’m now running Alphas for all types of people, from gangs to grannies, and I’m seeing their lives changed.’

An online survey listed all the qualities that people expect from ‘perfect’ pastors: They preach for exactly twelve minutes. They are twenty-eight years of age, but have been preaching for thirty years. They work from 8 am until midnight every day, but are also the caretaker. They frequently condemn sin, but never upset anyone. They wear good clothes, buy good books, drive a good car, give generously to the poor and have a low salary. They make fifteen daily calls to parish families, visit the housebound and the hospitalised, spend all their time evangelising the un-churched and are always in the office when they are needed. They are also very good-looking! Of course, we all know that there is no such thing as a ‘perfect pastor’. Nevertheless, daunted by the high expectations that people have of their church leaders, on 1 July 2004 (when I had been asked to take on the role of Vicar at HTB in London), I felt both excited and a little overwhelmed by the responsibility. That day, I wrote my prayer in the margin of my Bible in One Year: that I, like David, would shepherd the people with integrity of heart and lead them with skilful hands (Psalm 78:72). This is still my prayer today. In yesterday’s passage we saw how Paul said to the Ephesian elders, ‘Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood’ (Acts 20:28). Pope Francis urged the spiritual leaders of the church to ‘be shepherds living with the smell of sheep’. The task of an overseer is to pastor God’s flock, following the example of Jesus who said, ‘I am the good shepherd’ (John 10:11). In the passages for today we see seven characteristics of good shepherds which are seen in all great Christian leaders.

Recently I had the privilege of interviewing Mojtaba Hosseini. He is a young pastor who was imprisoned, aged 20, for running house churches in Iran. He was imprisoned alongside murderers and drug dealers. He spent long periods in solitary confinement, not knowing if or when he would be released. Mojtaba felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to share the good news of Jesus. So when the opportunity arose, he began sharing his testimony and the gospel with the other prisoners, proclaiming, ‘Jesus is alive.’ He said, ‘It doesn’t matter what situation I’m in. I can work in God’s kingdom wherever he places me. And at that time God placed me among the prisoners.’ Of one fellow prisoner that he helped lead to Christ, Mojtaba said: ‘I heard this message from God: “Mojtaba, whatever you have been through, being away from your family, all the humiliation, all the suffering, all the pain and solitary confinement and everything you will still go through… It’s worth it for this man who came to Christ.”’ The message of Jesus is the most powerful message in the world. It is good news. It changes lives. It changes cities and cultures. Yet it is also a message that provokes opposition. God equips you to pass on this message by giving you the Holy Spirit.

Almost everyone makes plans. We make plans about how to spend our evenings, our weekends or our holidays. Some people plan how many children they are going to have; they make plans for their education. We need to plan our finances and our giving. Individuals have plans. Businesses have plans. Churches should have plans. I love these pages in my own Bible in One Year. In June 1992, alongside the verse, ‘Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed’ (Proverbs 16:3), I wrote the plans we had for ’92/’93. God blessed these plans more than we could ever have asked or even imagined. Every year thereafter, I have written down the plans for the year ahead. I find it so encouraging and faith building to look back at how much the Lord has done for us over the years. It is so easy to forget his kindness and faithfulness.

A few years ago, David (not his real name), a young lawyer, was in our small group on Alpha. On the first night, he told us that he was an atheist and had come with a sole purpose of disrupting the small group, which he attempted to do every time he came. Unlike many who come with this attitude, he did not change at all throughout the course. After the talk on ‘How Can I Resist Evil?’, one young woman, Sarah (not her real name), who was not a Christian, said that she definitely did not believe in the power of evil. This was a major stumbling-block to her becoming a Christian. But later that evening David became extremely angry for no apparent reason and, as if he were taken over by a demonic power, he physically threatened one of the helpers in our group in a terrifying way. Sarah happened to witness the incident. She saw God’s power at work in the gentle, restrained reaction of the helper. Her eyes were opened to the whole spiritual world. She put her faith in Jesus that night. John Wimber defined ‘power encounters’ as the clashing of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. The apostle Paul writes, ‘Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but… against the spiritual forces of evil’ (Ephesians 6:12). God’s power in you is so much greater than the power of evil.

After an Alpha Weekend, a soldier called Quincy Bellot wrote to me: ‘This pain started twelve years ago. After joining the Royal Marines, it became extremely bad. The cartilage below the kneecap was completely gone. Last year was the worst when the ligaments and the tendons were torn and the kneecap went in a forty-five-degree angle. It has been a long and painful journey. I could not sit or stand for too long. ‘Cut a long story short, I decided to try God and try Alpha. I got back from the Alpha Weekend and agreed to come to HTB after much hesitation. I heard people testifying and I was thinking, “yeah, yeah, yeah”. When someone said [a word of knowledge] about the cartilage issue, I took the sharpest breath I ever took. I agreed to be prayed for. I felt God moving in my knee. I dropped on my knees to test it and remarkably no pain. It’s just miraculous. I went for a run last night… it was the first time after a very long time I haven’t had any pain. God is real.’ The email was headed ‘Brand New Knee!!’ God is a God of miracles.

Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie were middle-aged Christian women in Holland when World War II erupted. They resolved to conceal fleeing Jews from the Nazis. They rescued many. But they were eventually arrested and taken to Ravensbrück concentration camp. Betsie died there. Corrie miraculously survived to bear witness to the way in which God can save, heal and forgive. When asked how to prepare for persecution, she used to tell this story about her childhood: ‘When I was a little girl, I went to my father and said, “Daddy, I was afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus Christ.” “Tell me,” said father, “When you take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket? Three weeks before?” “No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train.” “That is right,” my father said, “And so it is with God’s strength. Our Father in heaven knows when you will need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ. He will supply all you need just in time.”’

A few years ago, The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby and Pete Greig (founder of 24-7 Prayer) launched an initiative calling hundreds of thousands of Christians, of many churches and denominations to a great wave of prayer for the evangelisation of the nations during the week before Pentecost Sunday. The week culminated in beacon events in packed cathedrals and churches around the world over the Pentecost weekend. Justin Welby, asked people to pray for three things: ‘That all Christians find new life in Jesus Christ… That all those you meet… might see something of Jesus… For the church to overflow with the reality of the presence of Jesus.’ Pete Greig has described it as ‘a groundswell; a movement from the grassroots up’. He said he had been very moved to hear of one boy who’d prayed for five friends, three of whom had since become Christians! Prayer is spiritual nutrition. Just as the body needs physical food, so the soul needs spiritual food. Prayer changes us. However, the Bible goes much further than this. Prayer is powerful. It is, as Charles Haddon Spurgeon put it, ‘the slender nerve that moves the muscles of omnipotence.’ Prayer has the power to change circumstances, other people and even the course of history.