They say (whoever they are) that to attract people to what you want to say, you need a title that will catch the eye. I hope this one did and I hope that by the time I’ve finished this blog, you will see what I’m saying.

John & I have been leading churches for 37 years. It’s such a unique, hard, privileged, emotional, nightmarish, wonderful, blessed call. If you lead church, you will understand all those emotions! Some days you drive home feeling on a high and that you’re about to take the land for Jesus and other days, you wish you did ANYTHING else! 

The story goes of the late Wynne Lewis, that in his early days, very often he would post his resignation letter on Sunday night and then on Monday morning he would be waiting by the post box to take it back! I don’t know how many times he did this, but it is a sentiment that every single leader of a church will relate to.

It’s true that we must learn to just obey God, point people to Jesus and sleep well. Sounds simple, and it is, but it isn’t easy. I read a great quote from a book called ‘deliverance’, by Jon Thompson. “If ministry is causing you sleepless nights or restlessness, then you’ve picked up a responsibility that is not yours” We who lead churches are called to equip people for works of service, we cannot change them. Only God can do that. I’m going to try harder to live by this.

John and I were awake very early today and by 5.15am, I was into my daily Bible readings, I read this and it sparked this blog. 

In the twenty-seventh year of Israel’s King Jeroboam, Azariah^[a] son of Amaziah became king of Judah. ² He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah; she was from Jerusalem. ³ Azariah did what was right in the Lord’s sight just as his father Amaziah had done. ⁴ Yet the high places were not taken away; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.

A strange few verses from 2 Kings 15:1-5. But let me say what I felt God speaking to me about in these verses. 

If you know the Old Testament, then you’ll have read similar verses to this many times during the time of the Kings of Israel and Judah. “They did what was right in the Lord’s sight, BUT the high places were not taken away.”

So many churches are doing what is right – social action. Food banks, clothes banks, breakfast clubs, after school clubs, warm spaces, and the list could go on. 

Are these things right, absolutely! But should the church be doing them at the expense of leaving the ‘high places’ alone?

If I were to translate high places to today, for the purpose of this blog and what I felt God speaking to me about it would be this: High places are where leaders need to go to take on the powers of darkness; to get prayer as the central engine room of our churches; to preach the whole, convicting, deep truth of God and not a 15 minute ‘ditty’ that keeps the majority happy – there is a place for a 15 minute light sermon, don’t get me wrong, but if that is the norm, so we don’t upset anyone, then the high places won’t be moved. The high places could be the challenge of lifestyle that is contrary to the Kingdom of God or the challenge of character where a person is highly talented but is an objectional person. ‘Oh but they’re such a talented worship leader, so we just overlook the ‘high place’ in their life – if we challenge it, they will probably leave’. And here lies a massive reason why we don’t tackle the tough things. ‘If I challenge that, they will probably leave and what will that look like on my returns to HQ?’

Numbers have the potential of keeping us leaders on the track of just ‘doing what is right’ at a certain level but not ‘doing what is right’ where the high places are concerned.

Numbers are important. If no one is following you, then you’re probably not a leader. Numbers give a denomination the knowledge of where it is at. But what numbers give us the real picture?

A church could record 200 (“if everyone is there” – haha – have you used this sentence, I have!) on a Sunday, and the prayer meeting numbers are 30 – What’s the real number? I would say, the prayer meeting. They are the people that have signed on to take on the high places. Sunday numbers aren’t the core. The mid-week stuff shows you who is, those who are in the trenches with you seeking to advance the kingdom. We have found every church that we have served in has a core, maybe we should just count them? Maybe we should just count those who have signed up to do church as they did in Acts?

Acts 2:42:

“They devoted themselves to 1. The apostles teaching; 2. Fellowship; 3. Breaking of bread; 4. Prayer.

Does your/our church reflect that?

Churches that we’ve either led or been a part of, until we changed it, ‘scored’ badly on at least two of those things, namely, the breaking of bread – once a month or every other week and Prayer, again – once a month or every other week.

If you only do these foundational things once a month, people could go through their church life not doing it at all. Holidays, sickness, work, these things all get in the way so if you miss it once, you’ve gone two months without cooperate prayer and communion. 

If you picture church as a jigsaw puzzle, how many pieces are social action and how many are spiritual taking down high places?

Social action is the right thing, but it must not be instead of or in the place of pushing back the powers of darkness, preaching the full counsel of God and challenging people’s characters and/or lifestyles that are not in obedience to God. 

The world can do social action; only the church can do spiritual action.

I’m only interested in the high bar that Jesus has set us. Do we want churches that are a mile wide and only a centimetre deep or the other way around? I know what John and I want and it’s what we will plant or re-purpose in Wales. On January 25th, 2026, ‘Kingdom Life Church’, Porthcawl will be born. We will begin with the high places as we always have, and we will only do social action as God calls us to it. The high places will be the largest pieces of our jigsaw. 

If you lead a church, do an inventory. What is taking up most of your time? Has your daily time with God gone by the wayside because you’re too busy doing what is right? If you have a lot of social action jigsaw pieces, and you can say we had ‘hundreds through the doors’, but you don’t have a prayer meeting, maybe you need to re-evaluate. 

Maybe your jigsaw is just right. Well done. Keep going. If you’re not getting hundreds through the door but you have some dependable, Kingdom-minded disciples, build with them. Our master only had twelve. 

If we need to, let’s raise the stakes and do better. The world needs a strong church. 

Until next time

D x