Dr John Andrews

We speak with Dr John Andrews.

Though called to the UK, John has ministered in over 30 nations of the world with a passion to equip and inspire leaders as well as empower followers of Jesus into effective lifestyle and service.

https://www.drjohnandrews.co.uk/

Apologies for the sound quality, we had an issue with our main microphone and had to use a normal headset at short notice. 

Transcript

Nicola: Welcome to Coldwater Podcast. I’m Nicola Halton.  We all know the importance of getting out there and doing a great work for Jesus. In this podcast, we will learn more about the people are involved in changing lives for good, for God. Today we are joined by Dr. John Andrews. Hi John. Thank you for joining me on Coldwater Podcast For those who don't know you, can you tell us a bit about what you're currently doing? 

John: Oh Currently doing. Well, I live in lovely. North Lincolnshire about 9 miles out of Scunthorpe. We moved here just before the lockdown began last year. Thank God. We managed to get moved just before that happened So I'm part of New Life Church. That's the church. I attend. We're connected into. Its an assemblies of God church and then I spend the vast majority of my time and it's sort of what you might call a trans local context. So I'm travelling the different churches working with leaders. Sometimes leadership groups a lot of personal one-on-one, people use the language “coaching” today, and so a range of teaching, preaching, mentoring, and also writing as well. So, I love to write where I can't, so I try to carry on with that. So that's sort of, that's the extent of what I do really in and most of that largely based in the UK. Before the pandemic of course we were, we were all travelling a little bit more. So I did a fair degree of travelling overseas, but I would say, 80% of what I do in an average year is based in UK churches. So, so that's what I love to do and really enjoying it so far. Even in the lockdown, it's been amazing. You know we've been able to carry on via the internet which has been fabulous. 

Nicola: Yeah, it has changed how people do things. 

John: It certainly has, certainly has. Thank God for the internet Nicola. Honestly, if we haven’t had the internet I don't know what we would have done, so it really has been a lifesaver in terms of ministry and teachings. Right? I've, once church has got over the initial shock of the lockdown last year where I saw a lot of cancellations. In my, my calendar, then they started to sort of recover confidence. Then a lot of my ministry opportunities came back online. As churches  said,  “can you do a prerecord,” or “can you do a live zoom event” or whatever? So, so I've been, I'd say of what I had in my calendar during the lockdown. 80% of it sort of survived in the sense of pushing to a sort of an online forum in one form or another to that's been great really. That's been fantastic. 

Nicola: That’s wonderful. I’ve learned more especially from you and Peter you know, its been great. Just quite a few questions really? Because you're in an interesting, you know, you're interesting.

John: Laughs, go on then!

Nicola: Did you come from a Christian family? And how did you become a Christian?

John: I love that question. Yes, is the short answer? I had the immense privilege, and I really do thank the Lord every single day, without exaggeration. I thank the Lord for being born into a wonderful Christian family. My mum and dad were both followers of Jesus and by the time I came along, my brother and sister, my older brother, and sister were followers of Jesus. So we were raised in a Jesus following household where the Lord was honoured, were he was put first and everything. I remember my sister coming home after getting her first job and putting, in the days when you got your paid an envelope. You didn’t get paid  your bank and my sister, literally put the whole of her first pay packet on the mantle piece and said that's for God. As a first fruit. That was just sort of  home we grew up and I had the privilege of being exposed to  I would say really the best side of the church from being a young boy and but interestingly enough, it wasn't in the church, I grew up and I became a Christian, it was in a children's event in a city mission, just across the road from my house and every Tuesday night, they ran fantastic children's service, and I loved it. And I remember going one Tuesday night, three rows from the front, end row and the guy was speaking from revelation chapter three, “behold I stand at the door and knock” and I remember just beginning the vision Nicola of Jesus standing outside as it were the door of my life. He said to me, “let me in” and it was just as simple as I was only eight years old. So as a child, it was very simple language and I remember turning to my friend and saying tonight, I'm going to become a Christian. And I did what and I remember kneeling down. The pastor led us in a prayer, kneeling down in the vestry, little blue cushions. I could remember even the smell of that office. 

Nicola: Yeah. 

John: And walking out of that having had, I would call, I didn't use this language then, but as a child, but I would use the language now, that I had a revelation in. Jesus was the son of God, and I've never moved away from that. I'm now, 54 years of age and I've had ups and downs and ins and outs over that time. But I've never ever lost faith in that revelation in Jesus is the son of God, and he wants to be Lord of my life and it was a direction changing moment in my life. So, yeah, that's that's sort of how I came to be a follower of Jesus.

Nicola: It's wonderful. And it's a good testimony to… for how you can reach children. It's it's a, you know,

John: Oh it's totally. I mean my dad was 10 when he became a Christian. He was the first child and his family to become a Christian. So my grandmother, on my daddy’s side was a Christian, my grandfather at that point wasn't, he was a wild man, came back from the war completely… well, we would say, had post traumatic stress syndrome and it was completely wild. When he came back from the war, he became gloriously, got gloriously saved and became a Christian, but my dad was the first member of his family to become Christian. My mum became a Christian 15 and my sister, became a Christian, a follower of Jesus at six and I think my brother was six or seven years of age. My wife who I'm married to, she was in single digits when she became a follower of Jesus as was I. So my oldest daughter gloriously is a children's pastor so she works in New Life church as the children's pastor, so we absolutely believe that children's ministry isn't just an art on ministry or to keep kids entertained. We believe the children can have a dynamic experience of Jesus and have their lives transformed because our family literally is evidence of that reality.

Nicola: Yeah. I mean I just, I yeah,you you your family are amazing and yeah Laughs. You have got fabulous website.

John: Thank you.

Nicola: and on it. You've got proverbs, 19:8 He who gets wisdom loves his own soul. He who  cherishes his understanding prospers. What arguement would you give for lifelong learning a particularly in the Christian community?

John: That’s a wonderful question. I think, I think the term lifelong learning is a fairly modern one. So it feels like that's that's sort of relatively new language, but the idea of continuous learning is a strong biblical one. So if you think about what we call the Old Testament, you know, the Jewish culture, Hebrew culture, it is absolutely education based. I mean Moses is is not known as Moses later or Moses the military commander, he's known as Moses, the teacher and and one of the formative figures in for example, Judaism and the Old Testament out of which, you know, Christianity has emerged is that of teaching and learning and you know before Moses built an army, he built a school, you know, so, so if you look at our Hebrew roots, from a biblical point of view, our Jewish roots from the biblical point of view,  you have a relentless commitment to understanding the learning, you know, “by wisdom a house is built,” proverbs says, “by understanding, it is established and through knowledge. It is filled with rare, beautiful jewels.” You know that wisdom, understanding, knowledge. They are the very heart of the sort of idea, biblically, and when we carry that into the new testament, you've got people like Paul saying, you know, “train yourself to be godly to devote yourself to doctrine because it'll not only save yourself, but also to others. You've got Luke, Dr. Luke saying of Jesus, that Jesus grew and that word means to grow intentionally and deliberately, he grew in wisdom. He grew in favour, with God, he grew favour with man. He grew in stature. And so, once you see this in the biblical text, you'll see it. This constant movement and trajectory towards not just learning once, but continuous learning. And I think that's an idea at the very heart of a Bible world view. I think it's at the heart of really all dynamic Jesus orientated spirituality. I think the idea that you can become a follower of Jesus and sort of, then stands still is a really alien one. As far as the Bible's concerned, the ideas always. You are growing. You are progressing. You are learning. You are adding to, you’re going from glory to glory, faith to faith. And so, I would say that actually even outside of a Bible world view continuous learning is just a really wise thing to do. To quote the proverb you’ve quoted, it’s a sign of self-love. So the pursuit of wisdom is one of the most you know… this generation talks a lot about loving itself but if you want a real demonstration of self-love.  It is the pursuit of wisdom, which enhances your life and in fact, if you flip that over self-harm, from a proverbial point, or proverbs point of view is living, a foolish lifestyle neglecting wisdom and not following her lead, because wisdom in proverbs is it's a female form, a feminine. Now you get that idea of, of leaning into that and so a general life principle, I think it's a non-negotiable but I would argue from a Bible world viewpoint, it's absolutely, it's a relentless idea, through the whole of the biblical text.

Nicola: Yeah I know once Jim, Jim Wilkinson once said to me ,if you stop learning you stop living. Oh that's what it is. I'm bored.

John: laughs

Nicola: And you know, you need to, you know, I mean you've just encapsulated that wonderfully and so thank you and you've written books. And I've read a couple and I aim to read them all. And  Face to Face is you new book.

John: It is

Nicola: and it's very valuable and I've read it twice as like to type a book you can read and you can put on the shelf and pick it back up again and read it again and get something new out of it and it questions our relationship with God and encourages to have a personal face to face encounter with God and that's that's just me not doing it justice and but I'm trying to put it into and nut shell. And I've got a few, a few quotes. If I can  dig them up and it's you know, you halfway through the book you put in the space, the space in between teaches anything. We learn that the Lord is patient with us and persistent and pursuing us. He does not want us to live under the tyranny of pretence or burden of someone else's purpose. He will do, all he can to bring us freedom of our God-shared identity and return us to the fullness of God design destiny. We must be willing to become and return. That to me, encapsulates, what the whole book is about. It just jumped out at me, but he wants us to have a true encounter with him. And can you talk a bit more about that, as well if that’s ok? 

John: I love to I'd love to. I mean, I think, I mean, I love that idea. The reason I wrote that sort of the book in general was the idea over 30 years administrative met, so many people who are almost exhausted by trying to be something they are not and trying to maintain that before God. And I think that is absolutely if you put the sort of energy in the living authentically. So we put in the pretence, you know, with our lives that be changed and I use the story of Jacob, I think in Jacob you got two massive identity events. You've got the first one where he's before his father, Isaac. He's disguised himself or his mother has, and he pretends to be his brother in order to get the blessing. And the argument I make in the book is that you will never have to pretend to be somebody else to get what God has for you. And then 20 years later, Jacob is in the garden. He's wrestling with the Lord and you get an echo of that event in the garden. When the Lord says to Jacob, what's your name? And that's a strange question. God knows his name of course, but of course, if you read the whole of the story of Jacob, you cannot help but make the link between. What's your name and Isaac asking 20 years before when Jacob enters the room disguised. Remembering Isaac is blind. And Isaac says, who is this? And Jacob says, I am Esau your first born. So, 20 years later now, God has got a hold of Jacob. And he asked him, a really strange question. What is your name? Because the Lord wants to know how Jacob will answer. And because Jacob answers truthfully honestly. He says, Jacob in in Hebrew, he doesn't even say. Yaʿqob He says, he says, Jacob. And he doesn't need to say, I am Jacob. It's like he, it's just. I was a Jacob, the minute, he is honest with God. Then God can truly do what he wants to do in him and Jacob's, honestly allows God, then the call, as it were Israel out of him calls something greater out of him. So the story of Jacob in the first part of his life, he's grasping, grasping, grasping, grasping and he always seems to be grasping for more than himself, but then when God gets a hold of Jacob what does he do? He's not grasping, he's calling something out of Jacob and calling something out that was already there and God needed Jacob's, can I say that reverently? God, needed Jacob's honesty in order to call that greater as it were, expression out of him. So that's really the idea of the book God's patient and generous pursuit of our real, the real person that he's made us to be, not the person we want to be, not the person's society wants us to be or not even the person that actually, sometimes people around us, tell us, we are but the God shaped person, the God designed person, he wants us to be that. That's the person, the Lord's after and of course through the death of Jesus on the cross. That's the person he sought to redeem in the person he wants to bring to the light. So so that's the heart of the book really in terms of that face to face encounter with God and you get that beautiful expression in the garden. Jacob says, I saw God face to face first time in the Torah that phrases used pain in el panning. I saw God's face and yet my life was spared and I think there's something beautiful about that face-to-face encounter which sets us free into authenticity. 

Nicola: Thank you, Thank you. I mean I have read the book and there's loads in it. Thi struck me. The Lord who we serve is the creator of the universe and he owns everything within it. As such, he could write a cheque and supply the means for every scheme and plan. But the scriptures shows that the Lord leaves room for contribution, not because he can't supply, but we must learn to invest. 

John: Yes.

Nicola: Now I'm working with children at the moment. So as you can see, I can understand what God is trying to draw from me, just how I amd trying to draw that out of children. You've put that beautifully.

John:  If we can grab that idea. Nicola that, that the Lord is amazingly generous. And he has a greater plan for our lives than any of us can even imagine what that plan will always include calling something out of us. And as it were, can I say this carefully, demanding something from us, when say demand, I don't mean demand in a negative brutal way, but what I mean is he's, he's that what the Lord has for us, will always mean that I have to step forward into something. His grace makes the way, his grace provides everything that I need but it will always still require something of me to step into and it's recognising that as we step into that, what we're really doing is we're investing our lives into something bigger than ourselves and that truly transformational. 

Nicola: Thank you. Its choice. 

John: Absolutely it is. 

Nicola: Thank you. I’ve found your devotionals on your web site and Im going to put a link on the show notes. And what is the aim for these devotionals because you've always done it on Facebook as well.

John:  Well, and yeah, just really simple. Um, I love reading the Bible every day. So as I said, I've been a Christian since I was 8 years old. I'm 54 and I, and I still have a Bible reading plan. I still engage with the biblical texts at a devotional level every single day. Birthdays holidays, Christmas days, good days, bad days, ugly days. So I I just have trained myself that the Word of God is the only book I own that has the breadth of God and it it's, it's a special unique inspired book filled with God's wisdom and life. So for me, if I believe that then I, I must I must make time for that every day. As part of my normal practise. I've been doing that and it really got by accident Nicola. It was probably about four or five years ago. And I remember putting one of my little thoughts on twitter originally cos I called them tweetvotions because twitter back then was originally 140 characters I think its been extended to 270. So I tried to do this little summary thought in 140 characters and I got such a response to it that I thought okay, I'll just keep going and, and so that all I've done since then, probably, this is about the 5th year I've done it. So all I do is in my daily devotions,  so today I was in Galatians chapter 6, and so I just did a summary thought, one little thought from that chapter, just a blessed people. And it's amazing over the years people have responded to it. They just that, I liked it or they said I Amen to it or sometimes people say well, that was just what I needed and so I don't know how long I'll keep doing it for. And I'm almost finished this cycle of reading the Bible through. So I'm about to you know, move into that the book of Ephesians and then and then when I get to the end of the New Testament, I'll review whether I keep going for about five years but it's just blessed people and to be honest it's a great exercise. It's a great devotional exercise for me because it helps me to think about what I've read and summarise the main idea or one of the main ideas that I've read into a simple thought, which is great for meditation and sort of, you know, review and rehearsing the Bible. So it's been a bringing little personal exercise for me and I'm like, I got started and that and it's sort of blesses people. So goes on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. And, and if people want it, it's there. As a little devotional thought, it's called a tweetvotion. 

Nicola: And its lovely. And I love them and I love them as much as Dr John’s kitchen. Laughs

John: Thank you

Nicola: I’ve had the honour and privilege of sitting under your teaching. Your sermons have made a big impact on me and some people have said, you know, you can remember how some one made you feel but you can’t often remember a sermon. But I can remember one of yours when you were talking about how your daughter made you buy some gloves for a homeless person.

John: Wow yes.

Nicola: And that struck with me because you were very honest about how you felt. Christianity is not always about sitting in services. What would you say was about?

John: Oh absolutely I mean I think I think if you want to summarise the essence of what it means to be a Jesus follower, it's it's got to be not only that we claim to believe or receive something, but the evidence that we believe or receive that thing is that we engage in an outworking of that faith in our world. So so actually wherever we are, whatever we're doing that there are outward expressions of that faith. So I I'm passionate believer that if I believe something you will know, I believe that thing by what I do. So, a biblical idea would be that if you like believing is doing. So, so it's the in many ways, it's the fruit of my belief. 

So what what Christianity and sometimes this happens in streams of Christianity or other religions is that it becomes a very head-oriented thing. It's stuff you know, it's it's intellectual rather than practical but but if you look at a biblical world view of faith. It's always about taking something we claim to believe and actioning that into our world. Jesus said that if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. And actually, our faith is demonstrated not just by what we say or by which church we attend. But our faith is demonstrated by how we outwork those values in our society, in our job, in our family, in our relationships, in the nitty-gritty of our lives. And I think that that, you know, there's a beautiful three-way dynamic to our spirituality. There’s an upward looking face which is to the Lord where we have a relationship with him. There’s something that’s also personal and inward looking but we mustn’t stop there, there’s also the outward looking to the community and the world beyond and if any of those elements are missing in our spirituality it tend to impact the whole so if I’m only looking up, I think I’m missing a dynamic dimension and I think I would argue, when I am looking up it will always cause me to both look into my own heart but then look out to the responsibility of my world. So for me its about not only believing, I believe something, Jesus is Lord and a lifestyle that demonstrates Jesus is Lord by the way I serve my community and by the way I touch my world and I think that’s at the heart of our faith journey. 

Nicola: Thank you. And this is only one tiny question that I really want to ask. Now when it's anybody who didn't know Christ and they were listening, How would you point them to Christ? 

John: I  would just, I would just say that Jesus for me, Jesus is not only Lord and Saviour, but I believe he is the hope of the world. And I would say to anyone listening to this who's not a follower of Jesus that they simply would be open up their heart to him, if you're in a searching place and you're, you're wanting some answers. Then if you've got access to a Bible, to listen to one or to read one, look at those wonderful stories of Jesus and what we call the gospel's, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and just saturate yourself and that to read yourself in Jesus. But but I would say here's a great prayer to pray. If you're searching Lord, open my eyes, but that I would see Jesus through the eyes of your heart. And and by that, we don't explain, Jesus makes your physical eyes and front of you. But what I mean is, you see Jesus with the eyes of your heart and to just invite him into your world, invite him to draw close, reach out to him, without the heart. That is both humble and hungry. And if you do that, I I believe he will respond to that. You know, the Lord loves hunger. He loves humility, and he loves honesty. And when you look at the Bible, he responds always positively to those three things. When a man, or a woman is hungry. He responds when a man or woman is humble. That is a recognised. They can't do it on their own, and they need some help, he responds. And when a man and a woman arehonest. He responds and the Lord loves one or all of those things in combination in the attitude of our heart. And if we will just position ourselves before Jesus, then I believe he will respond to you. He will draw near to you and he will reveal himself to you.

Nicola: Thank you, Thank you. That's absolutely wonderful. Thank you for joining me tonight.  Thank you for listening to the cold water podcast, to subscribe and join next week.