When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Scotland in March of 2020, the Pioneering Initiatives (PI) team in Glasgow realized the network of microchurches they were helping to start, collectively known as The Gathering, were going to need to adapt. As they started to focus more on prayer and God's supernatural work, something surprising happened. According to Andy Ashworth, one of the leaders of The Gathering, the churches became “stronger than they were before.”
Andy, his co-leader Adam, and about 30 other committed followers of Jesus, had set out to form an outward focused expression of church in Glasgow a couple of years before the virus hit, but it had taken their community more than two years to deconstruct the Sunday-centric beliefs about church holding them back from authentic mission (read more of this backstory in part 1).
“We were just getting to this point pre-COVID where we were multiplying from that group of 30 people into much more focused microchurches that had each identified places God wanted us to be on mission,” Andy shared. “Last August we started encouraging our people to dream. We were working toward a Sunday called Stand-Up Sunday. We wanted to just get three people to stand up and say, ‘I have this dream...to see this particular patch of Glasgow reached with the gospel.’ As a group we’d decided to never go alone, so even if it wasn’t our particular dream we’d go with them to make it happen. By December we’d formed three groups and in February we had a big [pre-launch] weekend away where we encountered God. One week later we had lockdown.”
“We had this months-long process of ‘We’re going!’ and then suddenly ‘We’re not going’ because of COVID,” Andy concluded.
“The [lockdown] season brought a lot of frustration because we were on fire, ready to go,” added Adam.
While challenging, the pandemic became a defining moment for this fledgling community of believers.
“Instead of saying yes to frustration and letting that lead us into apathy and hopelessness, the community as a whole has really stewarded the fire and momentum we gained before lockdown [and moved] into prayer together,” Andy said.
Andy went on to explain that one of their core values as a community is to normalize the supernatural, to be “naturally supernatural” people in their lives and relationships. “To not do that denies who we are in Jesus. He is, in his nature, supernatural; and we, in our nature as believers, are also supernatural—we’re carrying the power of the Holy Spirit. To not engage with that is actually to deny part of our identity in Christ.” (Pioneering Initiatives’ founder, Bill Randall, has a great book on this topic: The Life Jesus Made Possible.)
“There was never a point where Jesus’s response to a natural situation wasn’t supernatural,” he said. “Jesus comes up against someone sick and he heals them. He comes to the woman at the well and has a prophetic word that opens up an entire town. He has a big crowd of people in front of him who are hungry, and the disciples say, ‘Send them away to get food.’ And Jesus says, ‘No, we’ll feed them.’ Everything he comes up against, he responds to in a supernatural manner.”
“Yet for us, it’s become the exception rather than the norm. That doesn’t make any sense! If we’re trying to be disciples and imitators of Jesus, why would we tend to respond 99% naturally when he did the opposite? Responding supernaturally is an aspiration that is integral to our community’s missional strategy.”
The lockdown season became a unique time of pressing into that supernatural value for each microchurch. “We went on this journey of intercession, because that’s all we had; it was the only way we could be missional, the only way we could engage with the world,” Andy said. “It’s a great lesson for us to learn at the beginning, before we get boots on the ground. We pay lip service to prayer, but I think in our heart of hearts we don’t feel great unless we’re out there doing stuff.”
That pivot to prayer was crucial for Andy, Adam, and their people.
“We prayed a total of 150 hours in lockdown corporately,” Adam shared. “We did 24 hours of prayer together three days in a row, early morning prayer three days a week, and late night prayer. I think that’s the main reason our three microchurches are in a strong, aligned place with Jesus. [As a result of listening prayer] one of our microchurches now has five different tangible missional assignments to do as soon as they’re allowed to be out again; there are [specific] people and places they’re going to be looking for. We’ve gained a ton of insight in prayer.”
One of those insights was a conviction that there would be a unique opportunity once lockdown eased up that wouldn’t soon be repeated. “There’s a spiritual openness and a felt need now in Scotland that hasn’t been there for a long time,” Adam said. “The Lord is saying, ‘Get out there. Go the boldest route possible. It's win-win. Go and be bold, be audacious, and see what I will do.’”
Adam described what that boldness will look like: “We feel pulled to reach others through prophetic evangelism. Instead of just looking for people to share life with and hoping at some point there will be an opportunity to share Jesus, with prophetic evangelism we’ll go in pre-armed. We’ll be seeking the Holy Spirit in the moment, asking, ‘Lord, what are you saying about this person that you want to tell them through me?’ And then be obedient to tell them.”
Whether that message is as simple as “God says he loves you,” or as specific as, “Ten years ago when you got in that car accident…” their community is convinced that connecting people with the supernatural power of Jesus in that way will be an important catalyst in their ministry efforts.
“The microchurches have really surprised us with how alive they’ve become,” Andy marveled. “Even though they haven’t been able to be together in person for months, they’re tighter as a group of people than they ever were before lockdown.”
Learning to operate as naturally supernatural people, committed to prayer and listening to God, sustained and strengthened The Gathering community during the isolation of lockdown, and has positioned them to seize every opportunity to share the hope of Jesus in the days ahead.
ABOUT
Andy Ashworth is 39 and is married to Julie. They have three children: Mollie, 11; Sophie, 8; and Zach, 5. Before ever thinking about church planting or ministry of any kind, Andy dreamed of being a doctor. He went to medical school where he met his wife and best friend Julie, and after graduating and working full time in medicine for a couple of years, he felt he heard Jesus call him into worship ministry. He joined a small church plant called Re:Hope where he became the worship pastor (amongst other things!) and was there for 11 years before setting out into the unknown again, following the Lord’s call into church planting.
Andy and Adam, along with their wives Julie and Charlotte, co-lead The Gathering, an aspiring network of microchurches loving God, living lives on mission, and normalizing the supernatural. Andy recently returned to medicine as a doctor during the global Covid-19 pandemic—a wonderful reminder of what it feels like to work outside of the church “bubble.” Andy’s greatest dream is to see a movement of the gospel, fueled by the supernatural move of the Holy Spirit, spread like wild-fire through post-Christian Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
Adam Penketh is 34 and he and his wife Charlotte have been married for 10 years. They have two firecrackers of children: Ari who’s 5 and Asher who’s 3! Adam grew up on the outskirts of Liverpool, England, experiencing some life-shaping encounters with God as he navigated the pain and trauma of his dad leaving his mum and younger brother at an early age. Adam took an unconventional route into vocational ministry; playing both the trombone and piano, Adam moved to London and studied at the Royal College of Music. After nearly five years in London, Adam accepted the position of Principal Trombone in the Orquesta Filarmonica de Santiago, Chile, where he and Charlotte lived for two years before moving back to the UK and living in several cities before feeling a very clear and confirmed called to put down roots in Glasgow, Scotland.
Throughout this journey his closeness to the Father deepened, as the Lord took Adam through many moments of growth and hidden training. Having been a catalyst in forming a vibrant Jesus-centered youth community in Santiago, by the time Adam returned to the UK again he was sold on the fact that God was calling him into ministry—to utilize his creativity and natural connection to the voice and heart of the Father to do something new and different for the church—and seven years later that’s exactly what’s happening!