The Vision

In 1967 an American Evangelist called Jean Darnell had a vision about the future of the Church in the United Kingdom. She saw small lights piercing through the fog covering the UK which turned out to be little fires breaking out all over the nation.

These fires were pockets of people who had been made intensely hungry for the word of God and for New Testament Christianity, those who read the book of Acts and wondered, where is this church?

She goes on to see revival break out across the UK and beyond on a scale never seen before. You can read more about the vision here

Around three years ago I (Ali Loaker) had the exact same vision. I had never heard about Jean Darnell before, but on sharing the vision with people, I was made aware of her vision. I also found that many other people had also received the same vision, which made me realise that God is doing something new.

Covid kind of made most of us pause and rethink about our lives and what we’re actually doing - especially as a church. Since then, there’s been a sense that God is nudging many people in the same direction bringing spiritually hungry people together in homes as part of what He’s doing right now.

Does this mean the end of the traditional church as we know it? Not at all. All across the country, there are traditional congregations doing great things, full of good people, and the heart of Lighting Fires isn’t to pull them down, but to work with them and within them. The church is one body, not separate parts, we’re stronger together. There’s so much that leaders in fresh expressions of church can learn from those in more traditional settings. At the same time, it does feel like church as we know it is starting to shift. Some will embrace that, others may push back. But the truth still stands—we are one body, and we’re stronger together.

Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12), and Lighting Fires is all about igniting the fire in us so that wherever we go we can be carriers of his light.