I wrote my book on the End Times, entitled ‘The Forerunner Cry’ back in 2019. For the following ten months I had some great opportunities to share at conferences and events and in media interviews. The last ‘in person’ event I spoke at was the World Prayer Centre conference in March 2020; I share again about the themes of coming global shaking and glory, just ten days before the first national Covid lockdown. Little did I know the prescience of what I was sharing.

During the spring and summer of last year I felt inspired to write a draft of a new book about the marks of the church in the End Times. If it gets published, the themes will look at how the Lord is preparing us as his beautiful bride in the years before his return. I believe the bible foretells that all the turbulent events of crisis and the wonderful happenings of coming revival will aid this transformation in the body of Christ worldwide.

Part of the stirring of this End Time bride of Christ comes from a realisation of the times we are living in. If we think we are living in ordinary times – if we consider this global pandemic to be just a blip on an otherwise steady timeline of calm history unfolding – then we just revert to life as usual or some novel innovations of church and discipleship that continue our assumption of life as usual. If, however, we glimpse that we are living in extraordinary times – that the end of the age is not too far away, that this destabilising of the world is an early indicator of End Time shaking, and that the revealing of God’s glory is on the increase – then we start living in a more focused and prepared way, in a way that is helping to prepare the church and the world for his coming, whether it is a few years or decades away. Maybe this pandemic is a ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ moment, from an eschatological point of view.

I am grateful to have had some fresh opportunities to share about the signs of the times and the End Time message in 2021. I spoke to a group of Methodist Evangelicals, in the middle of their internal church conflict over gay marriage, as they are wrestling with what kind of church God is calling us to be in these days. I have also had the privilege of writing a series of devotional bible studies. The focus of the studies is on being ready for Jesus’ return; it for the You Version bible app which my publishers have helped with. These will hopefully reach a wide audience of christians in the context of their bible devotional reading.

Perhaps most interestingly I have had the opportunity to work with the youth radio platform X Rhythms and its producer Rejoice, in creating a young adult video discussion series about the themes of ‘The Forerunner Cry’. We recorded it in April with a group of five participants, sharing in six sessions of questions and conversation about what we think about the End Times in the light of God’s word and the world around us. The discussion was both lively and deep. The series is being released throughout this autumn on the X Rhythms. I am very excited about this because it brings these issues to a young adult audience, the very audience I felt led to aim my writing at. I will post the links to these new resources on social media, as they come live.

Young or old, I hope there are many opportunities for christians in this season, to think about the state of the world, discern the signs of the times and rise on the wind of the Spirit. In this wrestling about what the Christian faith means in this new normal, I pray that we will be those that Jesus asks us to be in Matthew 24v32 – those who see the fig tree budding and know that the summer is near, and that his coming is not far off. I trust him that he will speak to us and equip us to become his beautiful people who live well in extraordinary times.

Thanks for reading.