CT: What expectations did you have coming here and were they fulfilled?EA: I prayed I would have three really good contacts with people who would be important for my ministry. What goes on in the conference room is important but it’s the contacts and the people in the coffee queue that you accidentally meet that can be the most advantageous and strategic and God more than answered that prayer and I’m excited by that.
I did expect there would be more discussion because we were told it would be a working congress. And there’s been a lot more upfront presentation than I expected. A lot of the presentations have been challenging, encouraging and exciting but as a mission leader and mission thinker there wasn’t enough time to think ‘ok, what do we do with this?’. There was a little bit of tension between what one person said and what another person said and so for me it was ‘how do we work that out?’
CT: The UK delegates were spread out over many different tables. You had a meeting at the start and one at the end of the Congress. Did you find that useful?
EA: I found it really helpful to have these meetings – I could actually see who’s here! Because with 4,500 people, you don’t always see everyone and I’m short! It was good to hear some of the similar concerns that we share and although we didn’t spend long, we did pray together solidly because I do think that time in prayer is something that has been missing in the congress.
CT: How do you feel going back to the UK?
EA: One of the things that have come through the Congress is the way we have to work harder to involve people who are not like that. British churches are for the main part white middle class and that’s not what Britain is like. The British church needs to be much more reflective of British society. That was quite a strong pull. We all felt that here.
CT: Did Chris Wright’s call for integrity resonate with you?EA: Yes. As a mission leader who is responsible for fundraising and publicity. It is so easy and so tempting to make the stories always that little bit better so that they will tug at the heart strings. And something I’ve been working on is trying hard to make sure that absolutely everything is honest and straightforward and that we give God the glory and not ourselves. Chris Wright hammered that home again. We have to have integrity and if that means saying we failed or we tried something and it didn’t work then we’ve got to say that and we shouldn’t be ashamed.
