Innie or Outie...

Recently in Church we have been looking at missional communities and looking at a visual representation of them as triangles. Looking at how they might operate and using the term: "UP, IN and OUT."

The UP is obviously that groups are focused on and lead by Jesus and God's will. 

The OUT is about looking outside the christian community, 

The IN is about ministering into the community. 

I was talking this week with someone who went to a church where a similar triangle was used except there was something missing. There was UP and there was OUT but no mention of IN. Not that there was any suggestion that the church wasn't looking after its own but I guess looking at evangelism perhaps  it wasn't seen as significant to mention. 

I can sympathise with that. Trying to motivate a church to look OUT can be hard when people often attend because of the ministry IN. People can readily become consumers of Church - they want and come to expect an experience of worship, or preaching and teaching or friendship and fellowship that meets their needs, or maybe their wants, so that they enjoy the experience and feel fulfilled. We like to feel nurtured, loved and supported.

But maybe this misunderstands the purpose of IN. Just as in an earlier blog we looked at Matthew 28 and evangelism as making disciples rather than converts, once a person moves from OUT to IN that process of making a disciple doesn't stop. 

So in encouraging each other towards discipleship when we move towards missional communities what will the IN look like? Most of us don't like change, especially if it disrupts our somewhat cosy routines, but what positive moves can we take to make disciples of each other?

Evangelism- "Man of peace"

One of my favourite passages is Luke 10 which gives us a helpful hints on how to evangelise and it really takes the pressure off. Find some who;

- receives you in to their house

- feeds you

- listens to you

- you connect with (my paraphrase for your peace resting on you)

You don't even have to go door knocking, check out verse 7. Phew!

Mind you there is always the moment when you want to share the reason you follow Jesus and all that his death and resurrection mean to you but wonder what doing this is going to do to your relationship.

That moment of risk when they might not only reject Jesus but you as well. So we end up putting it off, "waiting for the right moment" and that "right moment" never seems to come.

Maybe there is never the right moment and we just have do what the sower did and scatter the seed praying that the time we have spent building friendship and relationship has ploughed the ground enough to make it good soil.

What Jesus does make real clear in Luke 10 is that we do not have to worry about people's response just "shake the dust off our feet" if they do not respond to Him.

How do I share? What do I share in that "moment" ? Jesus helps us in Luke 8:39 " Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you!" We all have a story and yours is enough!

Evangelism and Evangelists

The bible sometimes presents apparently confusing or conflicting perspectives on issues.

One area where this can appear to be the case is in the area of evangelism. 

Ephesians 4:11-12 suggests that God gives people special ministries one of which is to be an evangelist: "So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up."

Similarly 1 Corinthians 12 talks about different spiritual gifts and then uses the analogy of body parts to explain the different roles that members of the church have in order to make the church function. 

These two passages are sometimes used to explain how some individuals have a special gift for reaching the lost or a heart for evangelism. Some people are blessed with the confidence or the courage to just insert Jesus into everyday conversations and some people have an ability to present the gospel in a way that the Holy Spirit uses to speak into people's lives. There are some very famous evangelists. 

Of course this allows those of us who struggle with purposefully sharing the gospel a bit of a convenient excuse. If other people have a special gifting then of course it would be much better and more effective if we left them to it?

The fly in the ointment is the 'Great Commision', In Matthew 28, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Because this is clearly directed at all believers not just Evangelists specially skilled at sharing the gospel.

There is something to be said for noting the difference between evangelism and making disciples. John 16 makes it clear that the Holy Spirit brings conviction of sin and the knowledge of Jesus and we have to ask the question can anyone be intellectually convinced of the gospel? However both before and after that point we can be actively demonstrating God's love and showing discipleship to people and it is clear that we should all be doing this. 

To use another analogy, I love analogies, the bible makes reference to spiritual warfare and armour. If we are in a squad of soldiers going into battle we may have a marksman in the team but aren't we all very likely to have to load our weapons and get ready to use them as well?

Driving Change......

Our Church has spent most of this last year slowly preparing itself for change.

I've not been going there for that long but I'm reliably informed that the vision from the leadership hasn't really changed over the years, but the an understanding of how to acheive our shared goal is emerging from the experiences of other congregations, the wisdom of other leaders and inspiration from God.

In the quest to seek out a way of expressing the vision of the church as simply as possible there is an inevitable search for a pithy phrase that leads to some simplification, however the result expresses very basically what our church exists to do: Win Worcester and The World.  

So if the end point where we want to be is clear (that is Worcester and the wider world brought to faith and repentence in Jesus and living according to God's plan) how do we get to that end point? 

In the journey ahead we have to look at the mode of transport. There are many, many models of church that outline how a congregation is structured, when, where and how they meet and what they do when they are together. 'Church' is only effective when it is a vehicle for acheiving its vision, and when we are looking at vehicles we have to do a reality check and examine the components and check for roadworthiness. 

I say reality check because sometimes we let our heart rule our head when it comes to choosing a vehicle. If we use the analogy of cars we wouldn't choose a two door sports car with a drop top to take a family of five on a two week winter holiday to Scotland. Space, luggage, fuel consumption are just a few factors that would make it an unwise choice. By the same consideration, if we had a choice we wouldn't want to try and park a long wheel base Landrover in the Asda car park.  

In looking at the options for our vehicle to acheive God's vision, sometimes we overlook big important things and pay undue attention to what can be minor details. It might seem important to us to have the right colour and make sure a car has air conditioing when in fact ensuring the brakes work and the engine runs smoothly should be our priority. While we may want a comfortable ride in church our need is for a vehicle that can safely get us to our planned destination across the terrain and obstacles that we know we might encounter.

So if we are building a bespoke vehicle, a model of church to win Worcester and the world, what features would we be looking for in church? What things do we need, not to make for a comfortable congregation, but to make us effective warriors for Christ???