'We Intend to Keep Showing Up'

 There is a church in west London built in 1829. Same stone walls. Same Gothic arches the Victorians raised with their own hands and their own offerings. It is called Holy Trinity Brompton — HTB for short. It is home of the Alpha Course, begun in 1977, and one of the most influential Anglican churches in the world. Since then, it has planted 184 new churches and reached over two million people through its ministry in 146 countries — all of it out of a building someone else

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Rev. Jonathan Beck
'There Is Always a Herod'

n 1971, historian Robert Conquest published The Great Terror, his landmark account of the Soviet prison system. What he found wasn't simply brutality — it was architecture. Walls, guards, systems layered upon systems, each one designed to make escape not just unlikely but logically

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Rev. Jonathan Beck
'The Barnabas Effect'

“Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means ‘son of encouragement’), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.” — Acts 4:36–37

 We meet Barnabas in two verses. Not a speech. Not a sermon. A transaction. Barnabas — a

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Rev. Jonathan Beck
'The Great Disruptor: What God Wants to Interrupt in Your Life'

You hear the word everywhere. Disruption. It's the golden calf of our age.

In boardrooms, it's thrilling—the way Uber disrupted taxis, the way Google disrupted research, the way startups keep disrupting last year's billion-dollar companies. Disruption equals progress, innovation, and winning. We celebrate it. We chase it. We build business plans around it.

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Rev. Jonathan Beck
'Praying for Boldness: A Prayer Initiative for Our Church'

"Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus." After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly." — Acts 4:29-31

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Rev. Jonathan Beck
'Same Spirit, Different Responses'

Whenever God is at work, a response is unavoidable. Luke tells us that on the day of Pentecost, as the Holy Spirit was poured out, the crowd was “amazed and perplexed” and asked one another, “What does this mean?” (Acts 2:12). Just one verse later, we’re told that “some, however,

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Rev. Jonathan Beck
‘The 13th Disciple’

Every great movement of God requires new leaders. In Acts 1, after Jesus had ascended into heaven, the early church found itself in a moment of transition. Judas, one of the twelve apostles, was gone. The circle was broken. The witness was incomplete. And the mission of God was

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Rev. Jonathan Beck
'The Invitation'

Every invitation asks a question. Not just Can you come? but Will you come?

Anyone who has ever planned a wedding knows this. You can prepare the food, set the tables, polish the silver, and send out the invitations—but the celebration only comes alive when people respond. An invitation left unanswered is a celebration unrealized. A feast prepared for no one is not a feast at all.

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Rev. Jonathan Beck
Willing to Take Action

“When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife” (Matthew 1:24).

G. K. Chesterton once wrote in What’s Wrong with the World, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” Joseph knew just how

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Rev. Jonathan Beck