The pastor using miracles to drive his church planting and evangelism work

Stephen Kerry, senior pastor of a collection of Elim Network churches, has seen God answer many of his prayers for miraculous healings. Now he’s keen to equip others to “do what Jesus did”

As an optometrist, Dustin Black understood why he was blind in one eye. So, when God restored his sight, he understood how huge the miracle was.

“I was completely blind in my right eye. My optic nerve is – or was – full of scar tissue, so there was no room for partial vision there, but now, for some reason, I can see!” he said following his healing.

Stephen Kerry, senior pastor of the three-strong Family Church network in Billinge, Westhoughton and Skelmersdale, prayed for Dustin for this healing and backs up how significant God’s miracle was.

“A firework had damaged his eye, but scans showed Jesus had given him a completely new one – it wasn’t just restored but had new innervation of the optic nerve and a new blood supply network too – the before and after scans are remarkable,” he says.

Dustin’s healing is one of numerous miracles Stephen has witnessed over the past few years and he lists many other amazing examples of how God has moved.

“One guy had metal all through his leg. His foot had been fused in surgery and he couldn’t bend his ankle. The metal must have melted in his ankle, or something back in it again.”

“Then there was a girl who was dying of sepsis. She was sedated and on a ventilator. I whispered in her ear, ‘Wake up!’, then the power of God hit her and she woke up. She was out of hospital in two days!”

There was also the critically ill baby boy Stephen was called to pray for in Manchester Children’s Hospital.

“When I arrived, three medical professionals were holding clipboards and making observations. They opened the incubator and I touched his thigh and said ‘life’.

“Immediately, his arms and legs stretched out like he had been electrocuted. He then opened his eyes for the first time since birth and looked directly at his father. It was a special ‘God moment’.”

Stephen had been given medical scans of someone’s brain growing, blind eyes being healed and cancers disappearing, and says being used by God in this way is a ‘grace gift’ that is freely available to God’s people to continue the works of Jesus today (see John 14:12).

With this in mind, he adds that he loves to equip others for God to use them in this way too. “I often get children to pray for the sick to show it’s not a special preacher but Jesus the healer. And sometimes, when I’m ministering in other churches, people who’ve never seen miracles or healings move in those gifts for the first time too.

“Jesus said in John 14 that anyone who believes in him will do what he has been doing, so I try to pass that on to the church.”

The miracles have helped Stephen in the church planting and evangelism work he is passionate about.

“One thing I like to say is ‘we are always stood among the harvest’, which is what drives me to plant more churches.

“The harvest is ready and we need more churches raised up in towns and cities to get that harvest in,” he says.

“It’s the best way to evangelise a locality, too, knowing the people you reach will be cared for afterwards, both spiritually and practically.”

Family Church is a member of the Elim Network and is led by Stephen Kerry, an ordained Elim minister. The church has branches in three locations: Billinge, Westhoughton and Skelmersdale.
 

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

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