(HT: Charles Crosland)
Then this from Brian Mowrey, ‘we (Jubilee Church St Louis) have spent more money on evangelism in the past, yet were less effective at reaching the lost and adding them into our community than we are now. The main reason why that’s true is because we focused most of our energy on DOING evangelism versus BEING an evangelistic community . . .’
Read the rest here
In our area of 15,000 people there is 1 Catholic church, 1 Elim Church, 1 Anglican church (with 2 congregations) and 1 Newfrontiers church (with 2 congregations). The Methodists closed down years ago and joined with the Anglicans, the FIEC recently joined with Newfrontiers.
Eight years ago the Newfrontiers church did not exist and now regularly gathers 80+ children and adults, many of whom are new believers plus another 20-30 in the former FIEC congregation. To me those facts alone justify church planting. Eight years ago I could have looked and said there are already 4 churches here, we don’t need another one. But there are still 15,000 people to reach with the good news of Jesus.
It’s likely that many of the 70% are living under some false assurance, some false notion of eternal safety not rooted in Christ. There are 15,000 people who need Jesus, there are 300 workers.
This might whet your appetite:
“I tell you one thing though. I simply don’t buy the line that this is a postmodern world, where people don’t believe in truth. I don’t buy the line that the majority of people are either hostile of indifferent to God. What I do think is that people just haven’t heard the Good News and that we are in a time of enormous evangelistic opportunity. People are lost and hungry, but we need to be where they are.”
It’s always good to get an insight into how others see you – does Alpha really have a ‘mathematical niceness’ about it? Is it too nice? Is it endearingly flaky?
They showed some footage of the Toronto Blessing and my most dominant emotion as I watched it on my own was one of embarrassment. I heard a man I respect speak in tongues and I cringed. Alpha would be easier without those things but at the same time knowing God is unlikely to be an encounter that fits neatly into my cultural world view, it should blow my mind or at least blow away the cobwebs. Worth watching.
Mark Mittelberg is passionate about seeing people trust their lives to Jesus. You can’t read Becoming A Contagious Church and miss that one.
It’s the sort of book that America and the guys at Willow Creek does so well – energetic, inspirational, aspirational, motivational and other words that make you want to get up out of your chair and change the world. Being British, we may first have a cup of tea and wait for it to be a bit warmer, which sort of takes the steam out of it a bit.
It certainly has food for thought, I liked the fact that it started with prayer and ended with a real clear understanding that it is God who saves. It wasn’t simply a book that said if you do my course in your church you’ll become a megachurch in 5 years! Thankfully it avoided those pitfalls.
It had some ideas that I think would work in the UK which is always a benchmark for me, how culturally ‘locked in’ is it. So while the style probably doesn’t move that well, the substance could.
Basically it starts with the leader, for the church to care about those beyond its walls the leader must care. For the church to invite friends and speak to non-believers the leader must invite and speak, for the church to win the lost the leader must live it as well as speak it. As the leader of my church is me, that’s challenging stuff. Am I stuck in the Christian ghetto and am I scared and silent when I’m not amongst Christians? I don’t think so, but I needed to ask the questions.
Then bit by bit you work the circle outwards, find a co-conspirator, find a few more and then from amongst this group of passionate soul-winners you start infiltrating the culture of the church. Simple really.
If you’re involved in evangelism or leadership then this book is worth considering, and whatever the application the passion in this book should motivate you.
Perhaps, if we talked more to those beyond our doors the church in this country may not be as it is and perhaps then the nation would also not be as it is. That phrase is bugging me, a moment where God took the words of an unbeliever and pierced the walls of my soul.
Which is why it was a real joy to take part in another Alpha course led so well by my friend Mark Cuthbert. It was great to have 5 guests there all hungry to know more. It was our first week and I’m buzzing – what an amazing privilege it is to share Jesus with people.
During May, we held a guest service where we preached the life changing message of Jesus Christ and prayed for the sick, with hope and expectation that God would heal. We’ve seen a number of people blessed by God in this way, so we decided to do an invitation/flyer to our community, which we called Beautiful News.
The service came and went, and although no healings occurred on that day, we were glad to step out in faith and pray for those who are unwell, and we thought that was that until we next held a service of that nature.
Two weeks later I receive a letter from the ASA who informed me that they had received a complaint about our flyer. You can read the details of the complaint, the issues the ASA had with our advert, our response to them, their adjudication and the action they’ve requested from their website here.
Following that the local paper picked it up here and on the BBC here. I was also interviewed on the local radio, you can listen to the interview here (it starts 41 minutes in and lasts about 5 minutes). Somewhat bizarrely the story is also reported on the website Bad Homeopathy!
The Evangelical Alliance have been very supportive, and framed this response;
The Evangelical Alliance has noted the adjudication of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in relation to the North Shrewsbury Community Church. We affirm the important role of the ASA in maintaining honesty and decency in advertising, but have some serious concerns with regard to the judgement and, in particular, regarding the requirements being laid upon the church in respect of future communications. We shall be taking up these concerns directly with the ASA. We believe that God can and does heal people today and will engage with the ASA to explore ways of expressing the Christian faith within the boundaries of the advertising codes, and without diluting its message and beliefs.
And a few days later I received this email;
I read about your case (vs ASA) on the BBC website. Christians who claim to be able to do miraclous gifts of healing today should be exposed as fakes, since that it all it is. What does it say in Matt 24? "Lord Lord did we not cast out demons in your name"? More should be done to highlight this abomination. I guess you have lady preachers? homosexual ministers? All against what a new testament Church should be. David
I think he meant Mt 7 but never mind. Well, our position is that God does heal, that this is good news to the community and that letting people know about this is not ‘irresponsible’ but in fact good practice for a church! That’s the facts and the places I’ve found it being reported on the web so far, I’ll comment on it as I go along.
Jonny Mellor from Church Central, Birmingham visited with us on Sunday and served us well. Although, I’ve not yet heard of anyone reporting healing, we did see 6 respond in different ways, and on guy – a neighbour of mine, respond and clearly give his life to Christ. That’s exciting. Exciting enough for angels to be celebrating.
At the same time we live with the reality of some who long to be free from the pain and suffering they’re in. Their issues are ones not easily solved by the medical profession and yet healing hasn’t come to them. Would it be easier not to pray? Probably. But if our hope truly is in God, then we must keep coming to a loving Father, trusting Him with all our needs and remaining faithful regardless of the outcome.
Sunday was crazy for another reason, with about 55 adults there we also had 35 under the age of 18. That’s nuts. But great fun.
Flipping heck, it’s taken me nearly a week to complete this, where does the time go? I’m too busy posting comments on other people’s blogs, that’s my problem.
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| Let’s Go |
This is a bit of a cheat as Day 3 happened a few days ago but ‘better late than never’ according to my mum. Actually being late wasn’t a great idea on that front so I’m not sure she’s saying what she really thinks.
I am exhausted after another amazing day! We began with worship led by Gareth LeLong-McKean, where again we really sensed God’s presence with us. Plus teaching from myself and Terry Hotchkiss on how God could use even a single conversation to change someone’s destiny. Stirring stuff.
I believe Jesus when he said 'life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions'. I believe he offers something better. This blog is mostly about that search.
I'm also a husband, a father, church planter, keen runner, reader, and motorcyclist. These and a few other things make guest appearances from time to time.
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