Paul's evangelistic strategy as outlined in Acts

Most of this last year we have been looking at God’s desire to reach our societies and communities with the gospel and the challenge that faces us as a church in the UK (and, specifically, us at MCF) at this time. As part of this we have just started going through some of Paul’s so-called missionary journeys in the book of Acts to look at how he engaged with the culture and societies of his day. Chris recently gave an excellent message on this from Acts 13 and I just wanted to take the opportunity of posting his 9 points here (with some extra thoughts) as a resource to help us in this process.

 

Nine Points from Paul’s Strategy for Mission

1.      He went to them. The days are long gone when Christianity heavily influenced the lifestyle and choices of people in the UK. Essentially church is either irrelevant or an oddity. In this context we must shift our mindset away from expecting people to come to us to find out and, instead, work on going to the people God longs to reach.

2.      He waited to be asked. While, in our culture, if we did this it is pretty unlikely anyone would ever ask (!) two things ring true about Paul’s approach as revealed in this passage. Firstly, he lived out the ‘fruit’ of the Holy Spirit in his life – not barging in, not shouting out angry messages of hell and condemnation but reflecting love, joy, peace, patience etc in his whole approach. Secondly, he took time to build relationships. This is key in our day and requires sacrifice to spend time with individuals – letting them see your Christianity is authentic, has integrity and is 24/7.

3.      He established common ground. The benefit of building relationships with people is that you learn what is common between you. Of course, this may also flush out the lack of common ground! But Paul seems to be someone who is prepared to change in order to have common ground as the basis to build a relationship and talk about the truth of Jesus.

4.      He spoke their language.This is less about using “Yo Dude !” as a current greeting and more about the language with which we communicate Jesus. Shouting Bible texts for which people have no context or speaking in a King James’ language is completely out of touch for our times. It seems like every industry, hobby, philosophy and religion has their own jargon that those ‘in the know’ understand but, essentially, excludes those on the outside. We need to strive to rid ourselves of Christian jargon and find current language to convey the timeless truths about Jesus Christ.

5.      He explored their hopes and longings. What were the things that made these people tick? That’s one of the things that Paul laboured to understand so he could start from where they were. In the world at large and our locality, in particular, what are the driving forces behind people’s lives today? Real and imagined. Explicit choice and unconscious action. You might think about the endless pursuit of pleasure as an end in itself, the cult of the individual, people’s desire to be ‘in control’ and to have choice, to be a consumer or the pursuit of wealth. There are many others but what’s important is, like Paul, take time to understand the society around you – watch the TV they watch, read the local papers – ask what is God saying in all this?

6.      He introduced Jesus. Paul didn’t talk about church, or his home group, or how ‘modern’ the worship was (or not!). The crux that needs talking about always was and always will be - Jesus. We need to introduce people to Jesus – and talking about Him is just the start. But here’s the rub! What is Jesus doing in our lives? What are our stories about Jesus? What have we got to say about the effect of Jesus in our own lives? Bizarrely it still seems a struggle to talk about Jesus even among Christians but we need to get past that – what is Jesus doing in my life? What purpose has he given me? What challenges is he helping me to overcome. How does he make my life different? If we can’t get to this even among Christians – how can we seriously expect to talk about Him with everyone else?

7.      He made it direct and personal. We see this time and again with Paul. He moves from the conversation being about something – about Jesus, about what happened 2000 years ago, about his life story etc to being about you. The message of Jesus is hugely personal – in it’s simplest form you were born cut off from God, you need to respond to Jesus, your eternity (starting now) is dependent on your decision about Jesus. (if we struggle to talk about Jesus and what He’s doing in our own lives then to talk to someone else about this will seem like some clanking gear change). We need the winsome ability to present this challenge to people today.

8.      He emphasized the importance of the choices made. Paul did not shy away from explaining the repercussions of the choices made – whether you choose for Jesus or against (there are no other options!).  Neither should we. But notice, as above, this is not a ram-it-down-your-throat “choose Jesus or you’re going to hell” approach – that basic content was there but the manner in which Paul delivered it, and the manner in which he reached a place to deliver it, demonstrated the fruit of the Holy Spirit in his life. It should in us too.

9.      He understood where they might have doubts and talked about the facts behind his faith. This is really important. There’s a huge tendency in western society today to perceive faith (any faith) as some sort of blind faith – a vague hope and trust in something that can’t be proven just but “it’s your thing and that’s ok”. We need to emphasise the substance behind Jesus. Can you talk about the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus – from a historical perspective as well as from your own personal story? Can you talk about the historical validity of Scripture? Books like “Evidence that Demands a Verdict”, “Who Moved the Stone” and the Alpha course session on this are a great help. We should personalise these and bring them into our discussions – let people be faced with the historical evidence of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

 

24 2 prayer

A couple of weeks ago we once again created the space and opportunity in our building for 48 hours of continuous prayer. This time we prayed for the local community in particular and the developing work of our church, the  “lengthening” and “strengthening” process that we believe God is putting us through.It was a great time for those who got involved.

 

I was challenged during the weekend when I watched a dvd of the work of 24/7 Ibiza about how much can be achieved by so few when prayer is at the heart of what we do. We have a tendency as evangelicals of being proactive in our mission and work and then reactive in our praying (“bless what we’re doing please Lord” ). My understanding of  Jesus was that he seemed to be firstly proactive in prayer (not my will but yours be done Father), and then reactive in mission ( In response to the Father’s prompting). I tend to think that we get things the wrong way round…

I’m also amazed at the wordiness of my praying, not letting God get a word in edge ways. Maybe we all need to learn to listen to our Father that little bit more and respond to the moving of His Spirit?

unexpected generosity

Surprise presents are often the best, particularly when they come from unexpected sources. When they come from strangers whom you’ll never see again there is a real element of grace about them. Its “undeserved kindness”  in action.

Last week my friend Martin wanted to take me out for breakfast for a belated birthday present. We duly arrived at Millhouses café ready to tuck in to a traditional fry up. I sat down whilst Martin ordered. He then shuffled over and asked me if I had any cash. He assumed the café would take plastic or a cheque and didn’t. We fumbled in wallets and pockets and found a few pounds between us, but not enough.

A lady was on the next table and must have overhead. She came over offering us a £20 note to pay for our breakfast. My first thought, trusting man that I am, was it must be a forgery! She then explained that the previous week she had been at Crufts Dog Show and someone she didn’t know had given her an unused £15 ticket. We thanked her of course, gave her the change and offered to pay her back if she’d give us her address which she declined to do.

As far as we know she wasn’t a Christian, and  she hadn’t seen some light in the sky before offering us the cash but her actions were a blessing to Martin and I, a grace-gift in a very real sense. Its prompted me again to think of the profound effect it has on us when someone does an undeserved act of kindness to or for us. There is also a “feel good” factor in doing something like this for others too, its as if we are pleasing God and sense His smile. Whatever the motivation in us, generosity and kindness are to be passed on. The more these values flow the happier our society will become.

You can't choose your family!

I sometimes get the feeling that behind some of the rush to get involved in a “fresh expression” of church is not so much the passionate desire to incarnate mission so much as to get out of the straitjacket of church structures and the fact that a local church is more often than not made up of people one may not naturally choose as friends!

 

However, I have a growing feeling that we might be missing the point. Jesus, after prayer, appointed 12 people who were regularly at each others throats and had major disagreements. There were problems between greek speaking and Aramaic speaking jews in the first church at Jerusalem which were not conveniently answered by “multiplying” into 2 congregations. The church at Antioch which first sent out Paul and Barnabas on mission had a very diverse leadership group if you research it.  The church at Corinth whilst overflowing with spiritual gifts had major tensions in the ranks but no desire to form several “new churches”  (one of  Apollos, one of Cephas, one of Paul and one of Christ) to deal with their disagreements. Early Churches also had the social tensions which only a slave owning community could imagine. How does a roman “master” recognise a slave as his brother or even elder? That’s without a debate on the role of women!

 

Yet it was into this notion of the “one church” community, warts and all, that Jesus and Paul’s teaching on unity is given. “We are all one in Christ Jesus”. It seems to me that today we may think unity is best served by endorsing social or mindset divisions. A solution is to put those people together who think the same, whose lifestyles are similar, whose jobs are alike and who have similarly ages families. Instead of wrestling with our differences and “preferring one another” , “serving one another”, “denying ourselves”, and “walking humbly with our God”  we choose to take possibly an easier road. This might be a pragmatic solution, but maybe its really attaching a veneer of unity to the church. Maybe we don’t wrestle as we should with the challenge of preserving the unity of the Spirit with those whom we disagree with. It takes a life of sacrifice. However difficult the road less travelled is, I do think we miss out on the creative tension that occurs on it, and there is so much we can learn when we are able to agree to disagree with one another.

 

the miner's strike and unforgiveness

I was listening to local radio on the 25^th anniversary of the last Miners Strike. This strike and the repercussions have had major implications for South Yorkshire where the mining industry was decimated.

A man was being interviewed who as a result of the strike had not spoken to his sister for 25 years. He had been on strike, his brother in law, a fellow miner had continued to work.

He admitted he had never spoken to his 23 year old niece either. 25 years ago something happened that fractured a family with no signs of any desire on the man’s part to put things right. Everyone has missed out in his family as a result of the ongoing feud.

We can gasp with horror at the sadness of it all, but then we need to remember the church! I know Christians who won’t talk to each other, who left a particular church/fellowship years ago and still aren’t reconciled nor show any desire of being so.  I think sometimes we just don’t know how to start the process of reconciliation, or it just seems too costly and time consuming so we just get stuck. However, Jesus told us to take the plank out of our own eyes before seeking to remove the splinter in someone elses. The desire to work well with other churches and Christians; to seek to “agree to disagree” without falling out with people of different persuasions; and to forgive those who have hurt us in the past are high values but really important to avoid the devil getting a foothold and ensuring we all miss out. In our communities in South Yorkshire there are too many Christians, let alone miners, who have ceased to have any meaningful contact with their brothers and sisters! 

someone is watching you! (pt2)

You meet many people same time same place when dog walking. Most mornings I see a student on her way to school. I don’t know her name, I have never spoken to her, but for some reason every morning when I see her I prayer for her. She never makes eye contact, is always looking at the pavement, is always alone and always seems uncomfortable within her own skin.

I’m praying for her to come to know Father God. When I see her it reminds me of our Father’s love for me. I was an awkward angry teenager, bent low with a load of hang-ups when God revealed His love for me. I was never deserving of this, but God’s nature is pure love and kindness. His compassion melted my hardness and hurt.

Altho’ I know nothing of this young lady she seems to represent to me so many in our world who are unaware of  God’s love. I doubt I’ll ever speak to her, it just isn’t appropriate to do so, even if I had the opportunity, but my prayer is that God would reveal himself to more and more people like her.

Who are you watching and praying for?

Someone is watching you (pt1)

It happened this Christmas. I had the honour helping to officiate at a friends wedding. This friend happened to be a parish priest getting married in his own church to  a member of our fellowship. It was a great day, a Christmas wedding with carols as the hymns and a packed church. The local media picked it up and it was reported in the local press. The papers mentioned I’d helped to take the service. It wasn’t front page stuff but a nice report.

The interesting thing was what happened the following week. As I sat down in my seat at Sheffield Utd a man who sits nears me lent over and said “Are you the Jonathan who married that vicar?” Firstly I pointed out that I had not entered into a civil partnership with my priestly friend but then told him that I was that man. Now he knows I lead a church (he thought I was an accountant at first! Me??), but somehow he’d made a connection through one article in a paper. I was astonished.

2-3 days later I went into a local pet shop. I often chat to the shop owner about dogs and life but again although I’ve told her what I do as a job its gone no further. She didn’t even know my name! Again the same question.. “did you take that wedding for the vicar?”

Someone is always watching us! Not just the CCTV, Speed cameras, and the data they have on us all on computers, but REAL PEOPLE. Those who we see in our leisure time, at the shops, on our street. I wonder what they are seeing in you and me?