So, your church is Gospel-centered. But is it Gospel-scented?

Have you ever had someone come into your church and name an atmosphere that you felt intuitively, but hadn’t yet found words to articulate? 

It can be a profound gift. 

This happened to me last year. We had invited a wise and gifted leader who helps coach churches around theology and worship, to come and spend the weekend with us. He attended our weekend gatherings and also spent some time speaking with our music teams and worship leaders. On the Sunday night, we gathered around a fire pit in my back yard with some of our elders to hear his impressions of our church and reflect on how we could grow. 

He said one thing that stuck with me. 

“I want to try and name an atmosphere in your church that exists not only among your leaders and musicians, but in your people as a whole. I have been to plenty of churches that have good worship and strong preaching. I would include yours with them. But there is something else in the air that I smell beyond your preachers and musicians. It’s in your people.”

I could barely contain my curiosity. “What do you smell?”

“I smell the aroma of expectancy.” he replied. 

We have often read the account of Mary, the sister of Lazarus, who poured out perfume worth a year’s wages on Jesus’ feet. She was chided by Judas for wastefulness, but Jesus jumped to her defense, replying , “Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for my burial.” (John 12:7) 

I am arrested by John’s description of this act of worship. “And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” (John 12:3) The word fill here means to be fill completely, so as to intoxicate. It is the same word that the apostle Paul uses when he exhorts the church in Ephesus, “Do not get drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit.”(Eph 5:18) There is something more going on in this house than the mere smell of expensive perfume. It is the intoxicating aroma of worship. Mary’s worship gives off the scent of adoration and expectation that pleases Jesus and offends Judas. In fact, Mary’s worship was a prophetic act pointing to Jesus’ death and resurrection. 

I wonder if churches like ours, that place a high value on being gospel-centered - that is, we want all of our preaching, worship, community life and mission to maintain the centrality of the gospel - are also putting a high value on being gospel-scented?

In other words, do our churches carry the scent of unbridled devotion and expectation for the presence of Jesus in our midst? I have been in too many churches that take pride in theological depth and orthodoxy but the aroma of their worship is one of stale stoicism and even judgmentalism towards any act of worship that is overly demonstrative. Dare I even say it, more like Judas than Mary? 

I carry deep conviction about gospel centrality in our churches and our worship. But if we understand that in the gospel we have been forgiven lavishly by Jesus, it should surely result in us loving lavishly? When we get that, it will change the scent of our churches. They will be filled with the aroma of the presence of Jesus.

(AN EXCERPT FROM "A FIRE BY NIGHT" : Becoming a people of God's presence)

       A Fire by Night: becoming a people of God's presence

Introduction

“And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.” Exodus 13:21  

"Jacob, why are we alive? "

A few years ago, I  took our daughter to see  Jacob Collier play the iconic Hollywood Bowl. It’s my favorite live music venue because it’s an open air amphitheatre, so you can take a picnic basket with you and you can see the Hollywood sign up in the hills beyond the stage. Our sons teased me because the prodigious British jazz/pop musician is quite eccentric and they see him as pretentious. To be fair,  it is definitely musician’s music. Every song has multiple key and time signatures. You might call it snob rock. But the concert was magnificent - an outpouring of joy and beauty from a humble genius. It was a memory making night of joy  with my daughter that I still treasure today.  Around this time I watched a conversation  on YouTube that Collier had with some of his fans after a similar concert in Barcelona. I was arrested by his approachability. The multiple Grammy award winner stood there on the curb without any entourage, surrounded by fans, in no rush to escape. Impressive. The conversation was mainly about his music until one of his young fans took a sharp right turn down Philosophy Street. 

 “Jacob, why are we alive?” she boldly ventured. 

Visibly taken aback and speechless for a moment, his hesitant reply was a sincere, yet hollow echo of our cultural moment. 

 “It’s so fun being alive. We must be open to the world and the world will be open to us. It’s hard, but that’s what love is. Being open and trusting the world. Why are we alive? There is no reason. Not even one. But it’s worth celebrating.”

I’m not sure the fan was satisfied with his answer. I know I wasn’t.  But it was a poignant reminder that genius is not the same as wisdom.  All the talent and fame in the world was not able to answer the universal cry of the human heart.

How would you answer that burning question if it were asked of you? 

Why are we alive? 

Fun, open experiences of the world, for no particular reason? Is that why we are alive?  

Thankfully, no. 

Do you know that if you can answer that question rightly, you are far more wealthy and wise than any Grammy award winning, platinum selling genius who says there is no real reason to be alive?

Eli Wiesel, the Jewish Holocaust survivor, famously wrote, “If you can find your why, you can survive any how.” 

Perhaps you’ve given up in the midst of hardship and pain because you don’t know your why? Perhaps you feel frustrated and empty because you’ve spent too much time sweating over your what, where and when, but have never stopped to do the hard work of your why?

One reason for this is that most of us are swimming in the murky waters of post-modernity, which tends to reject any grand coherent telos or reason behind our existence.  It’s your narrative versus my narrative. No transcendent truth. No overarching reason and therefore, no ultimate hope. 

The German theologian, Helmut Thielicke described human history as a dramatic play, in which God is the playwright. There have been acts and scenes before us. We’re born. We come out onto the stage of history. We have no idea what the story is. We have no idea who the heroes and villains are. We have no idea who the playwright is. We have no idea when the story began or when it ends, what our role is or what lines we’re supposed to say. And so, we end up with a life of great confusion and perplexity. This, contends Thielicke, is the human condition, and in that sense Jacob Collier has hit the nail on the head. 

Enter the Biblical story. Thielicke proposes that the Bible tells us our origins, our Author and our future. That we come from God. That God is the playwright, and that we’re going to God. And in the middle, we’re here to be in relationship with God. In fact, he argues that God desires so strongly to relate to His creation that the Author writes himself into the story!  When we meet the playwright and learn the plot and come to recognize the heroes and the villains, we find that we do, in fact, have a meaningful part to play in the author’s story.

To put it plainly, Thielicke contends that you and I are here to know God. That’s the ultimate reason we are alive.That is our why. 

You may protest, “But, I do know God.” To which I would reply, “You may have met him, but you and I have not even begun to plumb the depths of what it is to know God.”  We will spend eternity getting to know God. Jesus said it plainly in his high priestly prayer to his Father on his disciples behalf. “Now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)

Augustine of Hippo, the 4th Century African Church father, was converted after drinking deeply from the cisterns of worldly pleasure and coming up thirsty. Having finally been satisfied from the fountain of Christ’s presence, he famously concluded:

“Almighty God, you have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they have found their rest in you.”

Thielicke was riffing off the bold thesis of Augustine. If we are made for God’s presence we will only find our rest in God’s presence. 

CS Lewis, the 20th Century British apologist, co-signed.

 “Human history is the long and  terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.” 

This virus of restlessness and unhappiness from which we suffer today is because we are on a fool’s errand to try and find rest and happiness apart from the presence of God. The only cure for us is to become a people of God’s presence.

I realize that some of you may be doing the proverbial eye roll right now because this all seems quite mystical. Perhaps even simplistic. A people of God’s presence? Downright impractical. How does knowing God help me choose the right career? Help me find a life partner? Solve my debt problem? Relieve my anxiety or my addiction? Heal my broken marriage or my depressed child? Grow my church? Deal with the political mess we’re in? Are you suggesting endless hours of solitude up on a mountain?

Well, solitude would do many of us a world of good. But stay with me, won’t you? 

Your why has a huge bearing on your what, your where and your when. It offers you the priceless gifts of perspective, resource and hope. Knowing God means knowing  Someone greater than your current trial and stronger than your current storm. It means drawing from Someone deeper than your deepest longing.  It means hearing from Someone wiser than your current complexity.  Jim Packer, in his seminal book Knowing God, summarized what I am trying to say in this way:

 “Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life's problems fall into place of their own accord.” 

While knowing God does not seem that practical, it is the most fundamental root that resources us for every practical issue we face, enabling us to bear fruit in the most adverse conditions. As the prophet Daniel, whose dreams and interpretations in exile solved the conundrums of the King of Babylon declared, 

“The people that know their God will be strong and do exploits.” (Daniel 11:32)

Dear reader, this book is firstly about your why. Every one of you is created for the presence of God. Of this truth, I so desperately want you to be persuaded. The prophets of the Old Testament spoke about their oracle. For instance, Jeremiah the prophet talked about an oracle concerning false prophets and false shepherds. (Jeremiah 23:1)The Hebrew word here is, massa, which means a weight or  burden from the Lord. I have written books on worship, church planting, revival and emotional health. But I feel that the common burden of these books, the massa that I carry, is for the Church to be a people of God’s presence. Of course I want you as an individual to encounter God’s presence. But  I pray as I write, that the story of the cloud by day and the fire by night would melt away any individualistic view of God’s presence, igniting your vision for the Church as a people who encounter and carry God’s presence into the world together. One cannot read these passages of Scripture without acknowledging that God dwells among a people. God leads a people by his presence, rather than merely, a person. 

 Hence, the burden of this book is to convince you of your great why and help you to live confidently from that why, by recognizing and responding to God’s presence in your life.  I intend to do this by narrowing in on the wilderness years of Israel, following their dramatic Exodus from slavery in Egypt. While there are many instances in the Biblical narrative in which God demonstrates his presence with His people, few are as vivid as God dwelling with Israel as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. (Exodus 13:21) I chose this portion of Scripture in particular because life seems to feel to many like a wilderness. The heat of our day and the darkness of our cultural mood are pervasive and oppressive. Yet, the cloud by day and fire by night stand as a sacred billboard, selling us on the promise that God is ever present with His people, even in wilderness seasons. Perhaps, particularly in wilderness seasons.

This is also the reason I settled on the title, A Fire by Night, instead of the more exact, ‘a cloud by day and a fire by night.’  For a start, A.W. Tozer had already written a book by that name. For the sake of brevity I will refer in this book to the mysterious phenomenon as the fire-cloud.  But I chose to emphasize the fire by night as a reminder that God’s presence does not depart when night falls. 

 The fire-cloud powerfully demonstrates that God’s presence not only dwells with his people, it also moves before them. It is not only a comforting presence. It is a guiding presence, leading us as God’s people on his mission. Canaan awaits, but God’s people must break camp and follow the fire cloud when it moves, if they are to cross over the Jordan.  So, the fire by night connects God’s presence with God’s mission. They are inseparable.

They are why we are alive.  

Song: People of your Presence

A Call to Apostolic Partnership

A Guest Blog by Dr. Andrew Butterworth      

Churches & the Ends of the Earth

Is your church having an impact beyond your city? In 1900, Nobel Peace Prize winner John R. Mott wrote a booklet called: ‘The evangelization of the world in this generation’. It was a bold call to action – could Jesus’ mission to reach every tribe and tongue be completed by the people living on the earth at that time?

 

Mott’s generation has come and gone, and now the baton has been passed to us. It’s the tension that every local church should feel. We have our ‘Jerusalem’ that we focus on, but we need to keep an eye on ‘Judea, Samaria and the ends of the Earth.’ (Acts 1:8)

 

In my own church’s new members’ meeting, we tackle this head-on. As a local church, we get to reach our ‘Jerusalem’,we say, but through partnership with our global church family, Advance, we get to help reach ‘Judea, Samaria and the ends of the Earth.’

 

The New Testament Pattern

Partnership multiples impact. Have you ever considered what the best model for churches to partner together to do this is? Personally, it’s something I don’t want to leave to chance to get right. If Jesus has given us an approach in Scripture, then I want to back it – because I know there will be wisdom in doing that. 

 

When I read the New Testament, I see churches planted and elders (in the plural) set in place by travelling teams of Ephesian 4 ministers (Eph. 4:11-13). In the Book of Acts, we see that Paul goes on mission, launches churches and then travels back to care for them. 

 

Once the number of churches he looked after became too large, Paul sent delegates in his place, such as Titus,appointing elders on Crete (Titus 1:5), Timothy going to Corinth (1 Cor. 4:17) and Epaphroditus to the Philippians (Phil 2:25-30). Even when Paul wasn’t with those churches, we read that he was thinking about them and praying for them(2 Cor. 11:28, 1 Thes. 2:17, Phil. 1:3-11). Paul carried these churches in his heart and used his team to convey that care and concern to them when he couldn’t. 

 

We see Paul’s heart for local churches in Acts 20. The mission calls Paul onwards, but such is his fatherly concern for the elders he has set in place in Ephesus that he asks them to journey 50 miles to the port at Miletus so he could say a tearful farewell to them and give them some final instructions. We see a similar parental heart with John when he writes to the churches he looked after in Asia Minor, referring to the believers as ‘my little children’ (1 John 2:1).

 

This is the apostolic model. Over time, this model evolved into something more static and pastoral. By the late second to early third century, most cities had churches led by elders that were then overseen by a city-wide overseer or bishop. It was these bishops who gathered to form the first councils: Nicea(325 AD), Constantinople (381 AD), Ephesus (431 AD), Chalcedon (451 AD), etc. The church was organised and busy fighting heresy, but it lost its early momentum. 

 

The Apostolic Model Today

Picture churches led by plural eldership teams, maintaining local authority, yet influenced by experienced leaders who carry the heart for the broader mission. These leaders don’t dominate – they aren’t interested in wading into local church issues. Instead, they serve, equipping the church and encouraging it to stay missional. Local churches respond by getting caught up in this mission, releasing leaders and resources. Could the approach we see in Acts be meant as a blueprint for churches today?

 

Discrete, independent churches that voluntarily choose to be interdependent for the sake of mission.

 

You might think that this is simply a description of how many church networks operate. And I understand that because there are a lot of those around with genuine desires to see churches planted and strengthened and the mission of God continued.

 

But there’s a big difference. While these networks offer peer-level support, they typically lack the kind of fathering dynamic seen in Paul’s ministry—a relational authority rooted in mission, not structure. Many networks might describe themselves as offering a ‘brothering’ or fraternal connection. But the apostolic model goes beyond this.

 

While the apostolic model has these brothering relationships,it has, in addition, fathering relationships too. I understand that this sort of language can get into really dangerous territory really quickly. But just because something can go wrong it shouldn’t mean we avoid it together. The solution to misuse is not ‘no use’ but correct use (1 Thess. 2:11). And when I look at New Testament leaders like Paul and John, I am not referring to their unique role as Scripture writers, I am referring to their trans-local, Ephesians 4 role of caring for churches beyond their own. If the ascended Christ gave gifts to ‘build’ his body (Eph. 4:12), shouldn’t we, as local churches, make use of them? 

 

Eldership teams can still be the final authority of governance in their local church but also receive fatherly input for the sake of mission. In my 20s, I grew up in this type of movement, which birthed the movement I am part of now.One of these leaders of this earlier movement wrote a book on what this should look like titling it simply: ‘Fathering Leaders, Motivating Mission.’

 

The Need for Fathering

When I talk to young planters, this is what they are desperate for – fathering. In its absence, this void is filled by coaching or mentorship. Or failing that, finding older leaders in church networks who can give a form of informal fathering-style input. While I know this helps, this isn’t the apostolic model we see in Acts. The danger is that mentorship or coachingwithout catching people up in a bigger missional urge can become more therapeutic rather than spurring the missiononward. To use the title of the book, leaders need fathering,but they also need motivation towards mission. 

 

When our church faced a leadership transition, we invited a fathering leader from within our movement, Advance—someone with four decades of ministry experience, who had planted multiple times. He brought a sense of stability but alsokept the community on the bigger vision. Genuine apostolic leaders will always do that—it’s how God’s wired them.

 

It's people with big, let’s-do-this visions that have kept our church looking outward. In 2021, we planted out into a neighbouring suburb. In 2024, we sent a young family to the coast to start a church in the city of George. And in 2025, we sent a young family to plant north of us in a suburb called Edenvale.

 

If I am honest, if I had just become a pastor of a church that wasn’t part of this kind of movement, I am not sure our church would have taken some of those risks or borne some of those costs. But it had been helpfully imparted to us that we exist for something bigger than ourselves, that we have a part to play in the Great Commission that starts in Jerusalem, but finishes at the ends of the earth. 

 

Why Apostolic Partnership Still Matters

Our church needs to be part of something bigger. I need to be part of something bigger. And for me, it needs to be more than a brother-to-brother connection. We need experienced fathers in the faith, who have been there, done it and made the mistakes along the way to mentor us, assist us - and exhort usto look beyond our city. 

 

That’s the goal of the apostolic movement or apostolic family of churches. It has its flaws, like anything else. But since I came across this at university, I haven’t looked back. It’s the model I hoped for. It’s what I see in Scripture. And when it’sworking well, it feels like we are back in the days of the early New Testament church - churches multiplied, leaders released, and the gospel advancing to the ends of the Earth. 

 

In that kind of environment, rallying cries like Mott’s don’t feel idealistic. They feel necessary.

The evangelisation of the world in this generation? Let’s do it! 

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