My burning desire to rejuvenate church...

An instruction in the Old Testament to rebuild God’s house was reissued to The Flame church in Blackheath during the pandemic. Dan Jarvis tells how obedience to the call has revived more than just the building

“Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses while this house remains a ruin?”

This was the challenge issued by God to Israel’s leaders in the book of Haggai, and the Lord directed the same question to Dan Jarvis in his early days as senior leader of The Flame in Blackheath, West Midlands.

“It was 2020 and our building was tired and in desperate need of love and attention,” says Dan. “We had a big hole in the ceiling, for example, and if it rained you’d get wet. It was horrendous.

“God spoke to me through Haggai. I sensed him saying, ‘Dan, I want the building to be looked after; I want my house to look like my house, to be warm and welcoming and to feel like I want people to come here.’”

Dan shared this word with his leadership team. They told him that funds were available thanks to the recent sale of a second building. “You’ve got the vision, here’s the money, make it happen!” they told him. Dan is amused that God chose him for this task.

“I can’t stand decorating; my wife will attest to the fact I’ve never decorated any rooms in our house!” he says.

Yet he had a real vision for the project, he recalls. “It was a God thing and I had a clear picture of what the church should look like.”

With churches shuttered for the pandemic, Dan was free to arrange a dramatic change.

Dan had long sensed that God would call him into ministry, but when the day finally came it was a financial miracle that made it possible.

“I’d been in leadership positions most of my life – as a mechanical engineer, at Christ for all Nations then at Youth for Christ – but I’d always felt I’d eventually go into ministry,” he says.

So when Dan’s pastor Chris Siviter was looking to step down and asked if Dan would step up as leader, he agreed.

One thing was certain, though: if Dan was going to become senior leader he wanted to do it properly, with theological training and ordination. But the family couldn’t afford it. How could Dan and his wife fund two school-aged daughters and a mortgage while he trained?

“I needed to do my MiT to be ordained; and before that came the Exploring Elim course and the Ministry Foundation Certificate at Regents. All this would cost £4,000. It’s a long process too – the MFC alone normally takes two years.”

If this was what God wanted, Dan and his wife Marie decided they would trust him for provision. They prayed, but God already had the problem solved.

“The year before, a lady in the church had told Pastor Siviter: ‘God has asked me to give £4,000 to the church. It’s to pay for Dan to become a minister when he realises that’s what God is calling him to do.’

“And when I talked to my boss at Youth for Christ,” says Dan, “he simply asked how he could help and gave me all the time I needed to do my MFC around my job.”

Dan was able to do his MFC in just one year, then complete his MiT while running The Flame.

“God paid for my training and I gained the experience I needed because I was leading the church throughout it. He removed every obstacle!”

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.