Conference Messages | Four12

As pastors, we need to be faithful and effective ministers of the Gospel, always thinking how we can weave the Gospel into our preaches and always throwing out the net for people to get saved. We need to think about bridges to relationships - what kind of messages will reach business people, the youth, etc? We also need to consider the language we use when preaching, avoiding "Christianese" and us...

God never intended for our meetings to be good “productions”, but meetings led by the Spirit of God. We need to let God choreograph every meeting, expecting and allowing for the unexpected. Every meeting is a God encounter in which He wants to reveal Himself and interact with His people. As elders, we need to be attentive to His heart and His voice, ready to shift direction to wherever the wind of...

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." (1 Peter 2:9, NIV).    As believers, our identity is rooted in the fact that God loves us and has chosen us as His own. He has made us all ministers (priests) unto God and each other. This means that t...

It is good to desire and exercise the gifts of the Spirit, but our motivation for the gifts should always be love for God and for people. Supernatural love releases supernatural power. If you want to walk in the power of God then love people the way Jesus loves people.

The “method” we follow to build healthy church is to follow the ways of the Holy Spirit. We need to create space for the Holy Spirit to move and lead, not just follow our own predetermined programme. God is looking for more than faithful hard workers – He is searching for servants filled with faith and fire.

It is possible to become so used to a particular wineskin that the wineskin can become a hindrance. Having a plan (liturgy/wineskin) that brings order to our services and direction to our churches is essential, but our plans are written in pencil and must change as the Spirit leads us. It isn’t wrong to prepare, but it becomes a sin if we rely on our preparation instead of relying on the Holy Spir...

Jesus promises that “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Truth is demanding. Truth insists that we change and conform to the ways of Jesus. The world cannot accept the truth as it did not accept Jesus. The world will crucify truth so that it can continue in its blind, compromised state. For the follower of Jesus, the truth highlights our failings, our faults, our...

As children of God, it is important that we know not just “Who am I?”, but also “Who are We?” We need Jesus, but we also need the Body of Christ. We become more like Jesus as we connect to Him (the head) through the Body (the Church). While courses and programmes are not bad in themselves, God has called us to disciple people through the family of God. We are created for interdependence, not simpl...

A panel discussion focusing on the value and role of women in the church, and in particular what women can do (within the bounds of Scripture) to play their part in being ministers of the Gospel and building up the Body of Christ. God’s design is for men and women to work alongside each other as a team - fulfilling different roles, but each needing the other to reflect the nature and person of God...

The church is not made up of “random citizens” but of people who are known, loved and accepted. It is not simply a Sunday and Wednesday gathering, but a community that is active seven days a week. Andrew teaches us to pursue a culture that is transparent, where our troubles are not hidden in darkness but exposed to the light. The church is a community that is a safe place to openly confess our sin...

God’s desire is for the church to multiply, just as it did in the book of Acts. Multiplication comes when believers are:  “unity champions”,  bold in the face of persecution,  focussed on others, in apostolic partnership, and  distinct from the prevailing culture.

Every person experiences mountaintop and valley seasons on the journey of life. Sometimes it is easy to misunderstand the shaping God is applying to our character as the trials of life come against us. Jesus produces good character and hope in those who learn how to remain under pressure during the stormy seasons of the Christian experience. Devotion develops as we behold and remain in Him in ever...

Due to technical difficulties, we are not able to share the video footage from this session. Please enjoy this audio recording and we apologise for any inconvenience. "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace." (Numbers 6:24-26, NIV) If we want to walk in the blessing of God, we need to be a pe...

One of the lesser recognised attributes of God is His humility and willingness to take a lower place to serve. Although Jesus was a King, He entered Jerusalem riding on a lowly donkey. Knowing who He was, He got down and washed the disciples’ feet. Although Jesus Himself is God, He submitted His will to the Father, even to the point of death. Likewise, the Holy Spirit is equally God, yet He always...

The New Testament likens our faith in God to an endurance race in which we are athletes who require focused and disciplined training in order to win the race of faith we have entered through our acceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. In this session, Brad Verreynne highlights the fact that we need to make every effort to be conformed into Christ’s image, because He has given us ‘entry’ in...

‘What is instinct to one generation needs to be handed down to the next.’ - Ashley Gabriel Priscilla and Aquila took the time to explain the way of God more accurately to Apollos (Acts 18:26). Likewise, Ashley encourages one generation to pass its wisdom on to the next - to look out for our versions of Apollos. He exhorts both the young and mature to work together, as there is greater power when t...

Church hurt is real, but there is an answer - and it starts with you! The church is the most beautiful community on earth, but when we gather people from different demographics, social contexts and cultures with a multitude of different outlooks on life, there is inevitably going to be a mess! People will get hurt in church, it is just part of life and can’t be avoided. So how do we deal with it?...

God’s desire is for the church to reach, and maintain, unity in the faith. Unity, however, takes hard work and requires each person to put their carnal nature to death. In this session, Andrew reminds us that sometimes ‘the road to unity is paved with war’, through trouble and division, which God allows (and even brings about Himself), to reveal what is inside us and to force us to choose whether...

To sustain and multiply the Great Commission of making disciples of all nations, in and through His church, we need to constantly be raising up godly leaders. This was Paul’s modus operandi and it should be ours too. In this last session of the RSA Four12 Conference, Ryan Kingsley takes a look at how best to do this by exploring the seven C’s: Calling Character Compassion Competency Capacity Chemi...

Mervis speaks on the Father of Mercies, and the importance of beholding the presence of God as believers. He too illustrates the balance between fear and mercy, and how we can’t hold onto one aspect of God without the other.

A beautiful testimony from Peter De Korte as he shares the challenges faced when planting a church during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the support and equipping they received as a Four12 partnering church. Two and a half years later, their church is now alive and activated in the Holy Spirit.

During this session, Brad teaches how to disciple believers through difficult conversations. The input is aimed at giving leaders practical ways to communicate correction sensitively and lovingly, in order to reflect Jesus.

In this session, Andrew explains with reference to the Scriptures that the nature of God is to be humble. Even within the Godhead itself, each person (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) exists to honour and glorify the other. As image-bearers of Christ, we are to reflect what God is like by being humble. If we are humble as God Himself is humble, He will lift us up and invite us to share His throne of g...

With the rise of cancel culture, Euan speaks of the importance of following Jesus and challenges us not to dilute the message of God simply to promote a palatable version of the Gospel - one lacking in transformative power. He too implores us to stand firm and faithful to the end.

Brad unpacks the importance of Deacons in the house of God and the characteristics they must have in order to work effectively - in conjunction with the elders. He too stresses the importance of having a heart that is fully submissive and abandoned for Jesus - with the Kingdom as a priority.