Lost along the way but still looking!

A number of years ago I got very excited about the emergence of something called conversational evangelism. Alongside things like servant evangelism and ordinary people doing ordinary things, it seemed to me that we were on the verge of recapturing the simplicity of evangelism as an act of sharing our lives and stories with others. No complex spiritual laws to apply and no carefully crafted answers to the 7 main objections or whatever it was.

That conversation appears to have moved on given the quick internet search I did this morning. Conversational evangelism seems now to be defined as pre-evangelism and even appears to have drifted into the old area of apologetics. Now I don't have a problem with apologetics as such, I just wonder how you can effectively argue a logic, reasonable case for faith in a post-modern world. does post-modern man or woman really want to be convinced about absolute truth?

Perhaps I'm doing the journey a disservice, but I'm concerned that as evangelicals we still only have a single way of measuring our kingdom effectiveness and we can't see the bigger picture of a person's move towards God in any other terms than those of a prayer of commitment. I'm all for people putting their lives into the hands of God and acknowledging their need, but does that mean that any other conversation, i.e. conversation that doesn't lead to conversion, is nothing more than the preamble to the real thing? I hope that's not where we are headed.

As I continue to struggle to work out what it means for me to live a kingdom life in partnership with God o his mission, I often find myself wondering about the value of the things I do. But do I really want to return to the guilty life of failed attempt to turn the tables in witnessing.

Somewhere along the line there is a place for an intentional conversation, but knowing when and how to do that is never an easy task and ought not to be the determining factor in how good or bad I am at evangelism. At the very least let's acknowledge that there are many links in the chain that leads someone to faith and sometimes we are privileged enough to be there when the final link is added. But often we are just one link in many, and our goal should be to make sure we don't leave behind anything that blocks the next link in the chain.

So, if apologetics has become the defining factor in describing conversational evangelism, then so be it. I will need to look for a new term. On the other hand  it might just be that we can rescue a potentially significant thought and recover the idea that reaching others for Christ is a process not an event and all our conversations matter. For me conversational evangelism remains a process of sharing and hearing stories and exploring the kingdom links within them. The truth is that we don't all have all the answers and our evangelism ought not to be passed on any assumption that we do.

Evangelism without the red pen!

Being a student again I've noticed how little I like being told I'm doing something wrong! It's not that I think I'm doing things right all the timer, far from it. I just don't like to be corrected from a perspective that leaves me feeling inadequate. Much better, it seems to me, is to be encouraged to find a better way of doing what you're currently doing somewhat ineffectively or inefficiently.

It's as if the right versus wrong approach is a red pen way of teaching. Ticks are good, crosses are bad, therefor strive for more ticks. The only problem is that ticks don't necessarily help you improve they just focus your attention on the colour of the mark!

This gets me thinking about evangelism and something that passed across my eyes while reading something earlier today. Put simply, evangelism ought to be more about connecting people than about correcting people. So much of the evangelism training that we do is predicated on the principle of correcting the flawed theology of those whom we encounter. Okay, so their theology is flawed, but does it need correcting or does it need connecting? Does it need to changed by revolution or by evolution? Perhaps the reason things like Alpha work is because it doesn't seek to correct flawed thinking about God, rather it encourages the development of one's thinking about God. It's a series of step changes rather than a quantum shift.

We might argue that the final step of faith is a quantum shift for everyone given the darkness to light transformation that takes place, but how we get to that step, well maybe that is better explored through connections than through corrections.

How this changes the way we do evangelism if self-evident inasmuch as we no longer need to be either ultra-agressive or ultra-defenisive. We can simply be who we are and look for opportunities to connect with people and, in turn, to seek to help them connect with the God who misses them most. We do this through conversations, through listening to their story, not just of their life but of the bigger meta-narrative of life by which they interpret the world around them. Rather than jumping in to correct the flawed character of their point of view, we look for ways to connect their story to the Biblical story that unfolds God's love and compassion towards us.

I've done a few funerals recently, which usually means reflecting on Psalm 23 a lot. This last week the theme I chose to explore through those reflections was the image of God. David could have chosen from a whole range of images. He could have gone for warrior, or mighty king or judge. But instead of those he chooses shepherd. If you grew up with a view of God as a judgemental old man sitting on a cloud and just waiting to cast a thunderbolt in your direction, then how does seeing God as a shepherd change that view?

I could simply offer you a corrective to your flawed image of God. On the other hand I could invite you to explore an alternative. I could offer you a connection rather than a correction.

Connecting with the missing

As anyone who reads what I write or listens to what I say, one of the things that bothers me most is the issue of connecting with the people Jesus misses. Sometimes we call them lost, although I know from personal conversations that this is not a word they would use to describe themselves. In fact, for some, lost was what they felt when they did go to church! That aside, and the vocabulary issues relegated from a priority position they probably don't deserve, the question remains: How do we connect with, spend time with and generally reach the missing? Couple this with the concept of being a missional community that focuses on people rather than programmes, and although the question doesn't go away, it asks us to make some shifts in our thinking.

In the traditional pattern of being the church, we'd most likely look to a programme by which we could get these missing folk into church. We'd assume that if only we got them through the doors, the rest would be fairly straightforward. Preach a clear gospel, invite a response and there you have it. Instant Christians. But we all know that this isn't how it is.

Now I'm not saying that these things are not important. But I think we'd all have to agree that the major missing ingredient in all of this is that we just don't get people into church. So no matter how good our celebrations might be, how clear and compelling our gospel presentation might be, they are just not there to hear it.

So how do we rediscover connecting with ordinary people in ordinary ways that, by the grace of God, might lead to gospel conversations and opportunities to help people find faith? I think one solution lies in the antithesis of the Christian ghetto. In other words, we have to spend quality and quantity time outside of the church community, and here's one suggestion about how to do that.

Find something you really like doing and do it with unchurched people.

Are you interested in learning a new skill? Find an adult education course, go, make friends, learn the new skill and maybe an opportunity will arise. Instead of starting a church-based walking group, join the local ramblers or start a community walking group. No evangelistic agenda, the kind of thing that requires an epilogue at the end of each walk, just a group who go walking together.

I remember Jim Wallis saying something along the lines of: Find out what you do best, and then do it in a way that makes a difference. Perhaps we need a similar motto for rebuilding our friendship base in our communities.

Do what you love doing, but do it in a way that builds relationships.

So, with that in mind, I guess I ought to start up a social tennis group in the local park, given my recent foray into the sport!

Continuing reflections on church

As I continue constantly to reflect upon the nature and purpose of the church, upon the need I see (and desire I have) for simpler expressions of church life and the questions I have about the structures we impose upon the movement we have made into an institution, I can't help wondering what questions we should be asking and what questions we ought to avoid. All too often we ask church centred questions rather than gospel centred questions. We ask what the church should be in order to reach our wider community more effectively. But ought we not to be asking what the gospel looks like in our modern cultural setting?

I'm not suggesting changing the core message, but surely we have to agree that only church people think in terms of the role of the church. Most people outside the church see it as little more than an irrelevance. At best it's where you might consider getting married, if the setting will give you nice photographs.

Our structures also bear little relevance to the world beyond the bricks and mortar. I have a Masters degree in theology. If I wanted to teach in a theological college I've been told I would need a doctorate or at the very least a published book! But neither of these qualifies me for anything in the wider world. Outside of the church these degrees and diplomas mean nothing. It means very little to very few people.

What does matter is that I'm there when a member of the family passes away. What might matter is that I'm there to cheer them on when everyone else has given up on them. What could matter is someone being available when they need friendship. And you don't have to be a minister or pastor to do that!

Perhaps the gospel looks like the community we say it is but often fail to live out in any real sense. Like everyone else we've become too busy in our individual world to be connected to anything beyond ourselves.

All this rambling brings us again to the need to live the gospel and not just preach the gospel. For we preach the gospel in isolation to the already converted for the most part. And all. The while, those who desperately need to both hear and experience good news are beyond our reach because we don't have the time in our busy and complicated expressions of church to spend any quality time with them.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Shut up and Listen Evangelism!

Leonard Sweet has written a new book Nudge and this video interview explores the ideas in and behind the book. If you are familiar with ideas like partnership with God in his mission and doable evangelism, then this will sound reassuring!

During the interview you will hear the contrast between the traditional "Go and tell" strategy for outreach and the "Shut up and listen" strategy that Sweet talks about. I think the book might be worth a read!

30 Days of Prayer

Starting today, Evangelism Coach is blogging a 30 days of prayer for personal evangelism. It's aimed primarily at church leaders from first glance, but anyone could adapt it to their situation. I thought today's first entry was very helpful.

Stories to tell

I thought this insight into outreach by Tim Chester was really interesting:

Everyone has their own version of the ‘gospel’ story:

• creation – who I am or who I should be
  
• fall – what’s wrong with me and the world
  
• redemption – what’s the solution
  
• consummation – what I hope for

The obvious and simple point here is that everyone has a story to tell. We can connect their story with the gospel story and our story through these intersections.

I wonder how our conversations might change if we listened out for these connections.

Desperately seeking connections

As I sat in my favourite public place yesterday I began to wonder how I might connect with people far from God. They were all around me and yet I knew none of them and stood little chance of getting to know any of them either. Simply being there is not enough. But how do I connect, what can I do?

I've had a couple of ideas. A book club is one of them. Not a Christian book club, just a book club. Read a book, talk about it, build some relationships. I always remember Bill Hybels talking about choosing to sail with an unchurched crew, and I think Rick Richardson says something along the lines of doing the things you enjoy doing with folk who are far from God.

As I look at my diary and all the church focused things that I do week by week, I realise how intentional I must become in order to be amongst unchurched people. In fact, if I don't go out to the coffee shop or to the gym, then I am more than likely never going to be anywhere where God could use me if he wanted to. Apart from a few brief conversations at the checkout in the supermarket, I'd always be church-bound.

And that's not good.

If God chooses not to hide in heaven, why should I hide in the church?

So I'll continue to do things others might feel should be reserved for my day off as part of my daily routine in order simply to be available for the work of the kingdom beyond the confines of Christian community. Says he, writing this from the safety of his church study!

Where are all the Christians?

I believe Bruce Logue was the guy who used to look after the Doable Evangelism blog when  I first came across it. In fact I think it was Bruce who first invited me to contribute a story to the blog. I'd been wondering what he's been doing since moving on, and today up popped a story from him. 

The story is about doing a wedding for someone he'd met while doing some radio work. You can read the whole post here, but I just wanted to draw your attention to his comment about Christendom:

What was striking to me was that most of the “christians” at the ceremony stood around in their own groups (the few that bothered to come anyway). A golden opportunity to grace others, and they huddled together. This is my critique of christendom: It is AWOL from the community at large. What’s sad is that the community at large is open-armed and happy to let us in when we behave ourselves.

-Bruce Logue

As I look forward into 2009, I hope that I will take the challenge to just walk across the room as Bill Hybels would say and make myself available in any way that God can use. A few weeks ago, while preaching,  I quoted something I remember the late John Wimber saying. It went something like this: I'm just small change in God's pocket to use how he pleases.

Penn says

Ed Stetzer posted this very interesting video on his blog.



Listen to what Penn says carefully, it's very interesting.

Conversational Evangelism video

I took a quick look at the Conversational Evangelism website this morning to what was new. Sadly no dates for conferences next year yet, and I still hope and pray that we might one day see the conference come to the UK.

If you're new to the idea or have just forgotten about it, here's a video that was produced for the most recent conference in Kansas.

Christmas CD

Okay, so I may be jumping the gun here, but I received an email today from someone called Eddie with an offer that looks very interesting and I wanted to pass it on. If, like, me you tend not to open unsolicited emails, then you may have had the email but rejected it. I don't blame you, I normally do the same, but this time I took a chance and read it.

The idea appealed to me straight away. 

I'm always looking for something to give away, especially around our village and especially at Christmas. This year I'd thought about doing little notebooks for shopping lists, but this CD at 53p a copy, might be a really good alternative. Looking at some of the comments on the website (I'll do a link in a minute), a lot of people have been impressed. That's why I'm posting this now before I've had the chance to even listen to the CD.

So. please forgive me if it turns out to be a dud, but I just get excited when I see an opportunity like this. I quite like Celtic music, so I'll probably like the CD anyway!

Here's the link to Beacon Music

Probably a good idea, but mock with caution

Christians welcome Atheist London bus campaign

So reads the banner headline for an article on Christiantoday's website. 

Whilst it's good to see Christians taking a positive and dare one say humorous view of the proposed campaign, I fear that we are in danger of going over the top. The more we ridicule atheism, and who doesn't find humour in the proposed wording that  there "probably" isn't a God as if even the atheist can't be sure, the more likely we are to alienate them from meaningful discussion.

Personally it looks to me like a great opportunity, in the right circumstances, to actually ask people what they think. I just hope we don't add fuel to the fire by getting drawn into some great debate and, heaven forbid, a series of special prayer meetings to pray against the campaign. Some of us remember the calls for prayer about the EU and the beast!

Simon Barrow suggests that the campaign slogan: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" is the unbelievers equivalent of "God may very well exist. Now have a nice day" in case anyone is short of an idea for an answer or an alternative publicity campaign.

Sobering thought

If you are going to reach the people other people aren’t reaching, you will have to do things other people aren’t doing.

In order to do the things other people aren’t doing you will have to stop doing what other people are doing.

These two comments from Craig Groeschel seem to cut to the heart of one of the biggest questions facing the church today. The simple truth is that the church doing what it has always done is simply not reaching the vast majority of the people whom we say we’re trying to reach. In fact one might go so far as to say that given that more than 90% of the general population doesn’t come to church, most of what we do must be wrong if the goal os to reach people, all people, any people, for the kingdom of God.

Sobering thought isn’t it!

Right answers, wrong questions?

So, I'm pondering the whole question of the gospel still, as I continue to prepare for Sunday. To be honest it's got me a little foxed. I know what I'm expected to say, and I know what I want to say that may be unexpected, but bringing the two together in a way that is meaningful and helpful to everyone in church who hasn't been thinking about this for days, and reflecting on it for a long time, is quite a job.

This drew me to cast my eye across my over-full bookcases to see if there was anything there that might help me shape my thoughts more coherently. As I scanned I came across a book called The Provocative Church by Graham Tomlin and I started to read. Originally I bought the book for Ally last Easter because I thought it might engage her mind. She'd not long read Shane Claiborne's book, the title of which escapes me, and enjoyed that, so I thought this might be interesting to her. I promised I'd read it later, and now I was picking it up to give my mind space to think.

Within a few paragraphs I was hooked.

Here's one quote that caught my attention:

… he [the postmodern person], doesn’t sense a need for God to forgive him, teach him the truth, or to satisfy his curiosity about the origins of the universe. Instead, he needs something or someone who can help him learn how to give, to be kind and to love.

This is his reflection on a quote from Douglas Coupland's book Life after death, a book I cannot claim to have either read or heard about before. But the point is fascinating and begs a very very big question about the gospel we preach and the way it connects with the world we are trying to reach.

Now before I get in trouble for appearing to suggest we preach a different gospel, that is not the point towards which I'm travelling. I still preach and will continue to preach about the love, grace, mercy and forgiveness of God that can only be found through the cross of Jesus. But if I go up to the man or woman on the street and ask them a question like, "Can I tell you how to find forgiveness for your sin?" it's highly likely that they will not understand what I'm talking about or even consider it something they are in need of at this time.

If the postmodern person is actually looking for answers to a different set of questions, then maybe it's time to start with those questions rather than our preferred answers. And here's the rub. We might actually have to start living a quite different lifestyle in order to win the right to be heard.

Changing lives

A friend sent me this story by email.

The great evangelist H.A. Ironside was interrupted one time by the shouts of an atheist. The atheist yelled, "There is no God! Jesus is a myth!" and finally, "I challenge you to a debate!"

Ironside responded, "I accept your challenge, sir! But on one condition. When you come, bring with you ten men and women whose lives have been changed for the better by the message of atheism. Bring former prostitutes and criminals whose lives have been changed, who are now moral and responsible individuals. Bring outcasts who had no hope and have them tell us how becoming atheists has lifted them out of the pit!

"And sir," he concluded, "if you can find ten such men and woman, I will be happy to debate you. And when I come, I will gladly bring with me two hundred men and women from this very city whose lives have been transformed in just those ways by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

Ironside knew that atheism doesn't change lives. Jesus changes lives.

Me and mission

On Sunday coming my preaching theme is "We believe in the mission". Now I don't know if I'm unusual or not, but throughout my Christian life I've been torn between figuring out what it means to be a follower of Jesus fully committed to fulfilling his missionary mandate, and yet not being an evangelist. Of course some are immediately wondering why I should actually feel compelled to link these two in this way, whilst others immediately identify with the sense of being torn over the question.

When your heart is to see people discover the deep and life-changing love and forgiveness that you have experienced, you can't help but see the evangelistic process as a large part, if not the larger part of a mission priority.

So, as I struggled to integrate and broaden my understanding of both the missionary mandate and the evangelistic challenge, it was inevitable that I would seek to understand what exactly mission meant to Jesus and the early church. I'm not sure I worked that one out yet, but I still keep trying!

You need also to understand that central to my call to ministry was my personal heartache over the church as I perceived it back in the late 1970's. At that time I saw contemporaries giving their hearts and lives in God's service in some of the toughest countries of the world. My heart was broken because I wondered how connected these people would be able to remain with the church that sent them out as missionaries in the first place. At that time I saw a church that was disengaged from what I've always believed was it's primary purpose for existence–fulfilling the missionary mandate of Jesus. I wasn't sure how much it cared about the mission let alone the missionaries.

So here I am 30 years later and I'm still wondering how connected to that core mission we are in the local church. What journey have we made? Despite all the innovative thinking and all the emerging theology and terminology, are we any closer to being a truly missional church?

Very interestingly, and it wasn't planned this way, we're going to pray for a group of folk who are planting a new church in Marston Vale in the coming weeks. They already been hard at work developing links and serving the community in one of the villages and now it's time to take the next step towards establishing a church.

Perhaps this will inspire the rest of us to look at the opportunities God is putting right in front of us. I hope it doesn't have the opposite effect of making people complacent, believing we are somehow involved in mission because these church planters are involved.

We cannot do mission vicariously through others.

10 ways to live missionally

From the same interview mentioned in the previous post, here are Philip Nation's ten ways to live missionally:

Understand the gospel

Take an external view of people

Be friendly

Watch for a chance to serve

Be truthful

Love like Jesus

Be on guard

Live missionally at home

Show patience

Do it for one reason-the glory of God

Theology and application

A quote from Todd Hunter's Three is Enough blog:

When it comes to connecting our inner life with an outward focus, I like the way one church leader from The River Church puts it: It’s better to be ankle-deep in application than neck-deep in theology.

Church Planting Conference

For those who might be interested...

The cost of this one-day conference is £20 and you can read more about the conference here. Bookings are here.