Who is nicky gumbel

Maybe we can keep online small groups moving forward. What if our next-steps classes stayed online? If people will open up on a deeper level from their home, maybe we should give them that option! Our society has learned what it means to collectively sacrifice for the sake of a few, and we love it.

Moving forward, just know that some of our people love this new normal. What will you keep? How will you choose to move forward? Your people might be ready to sacrifice again for the sake of a few others. Sometimes he calms the storm, and sometimes he calms us in the storm. This is what we've discovered: A whole lot of people who would never go to church are watching online. I would never go back to not having Sunday online.

Just because the novelty of online church is wearing off for people doesn't mean there isn't a great long-term potential. Online ministry scales in a way that in-person ministry doesn't. What I really hope is that our world will wake up to the fact that things can be different. If you want to grow an audience, grow your ability to help people.

The key to sustained, meaningful online growth, I think with integrity, is help people. As a leader, what you focus on expands. And if you're passionate about it, people tend to be passionate about it. Read or download a free PDF transcript of this episode here. Select episodes of this podcast are now on YouTube. Our new YouTube Channel gives you a chance to watch some episodes, not just listen.

The current disruption is showing you how crucial it is to stay flexible as things continue to change. My brand new online training, the 30 Day Pivot , will show you how to develop your agility as a leader and as an organization to position yourself for growth.

The 30 Day Pivot is a simple 3-step process you and your team can utilize every as often as every 30 days to respond to the change around you and capitalize on it.

You can learn more and gain instant access to the 30 Day Pivot here. Sign up now to receive Bible in One Year in your inbox each morning. Bible in One Year comes in three different editions…. Together, they introduced the Bible in One Year commentary in as a daily email for their congregation.

Since then, it has become a successful app, book, podcast and website with a global following. Join them today as they take you through every chapter and verse of the Bible, sharing their reflections and prayers along the way. Find out more. Fantastic resource. Combines inspiring stories from everyday life and history with spiritual wisdom drawn from the Bible. For some people, this involves glossalalia , or talking in tongues. At St Mary's, where we do not adhere very strongly to Alpha's prescription, the weekend is reduced to a few hours, and the atmosphere that eggs on speaking in tongues is downplayed.

Alas, I was unable to attend this day, and thus did not get to hang with God's ghostly third. As penance, I sought out someone far more central to the Alpha phenomenon than the Holy Spirit. The Rev Nicky Gumbel is Alpha's chief architect, and far more tangible.

Alpha is arguably the most successful tool of evangelical Christianity in recent years, and Gumbel is the man who has designed and driven it. It now has a presence in countries, in languages and they claim 13 million participants worldwide. He is a prolific writer, and appears in the myriad DVDs that accompany the course. For many people, Nicky Gumbel is Alpha, and that makes him one of the most influential men in modern Christianity. You wouldn't think it to meet him though.

He's the epitome of an English village vicar, very charming, smiley, chatty, and utterly disarming. When I met him at his home, the Holy Trinity Brompton vicarage, he answered the door with a big dollop of jam on his trousers, which his very charming wife helped him with.

We spoke for 90 minutes and covered a lot of ground. When I ask him how the Anglican communion perceives Alpha, his response was unequivocally positive. I hear it differently. My opinion is that many senior members of the General Synod tolerate Alpha because in an age of dwindling church attendance, Alpha bucks that trend and appeals to and galvanises an important demographic that will soon vanish.

We talk about talking in tongues, and he displays a supremely liberal attitude that it works for some, but it's not for everyone. He seems unaware of scientific research on the subject, and asserts that it is supernatural in origin. Naturally, I disagree. He claims ignorance when I suggest that sometimes it looks just like parishioners being whipped into rapturous Pentecostal frenzy.

For him, it's a form of prayer: peaceful, personal and beautiful. Alpha is evangelical, charismatic and conservative. These are all reasons why some Christians find it problematic.