God's still in the hot seat on UK buses

English blogger, Chris Goan, posted this yesterday on the current atheist advertising campaign on UK buses. I posted on this back in October last year, when the campaign was first announced.

Chris draws a couple of interesting conclusions at the end of his post, including pointing out the unfortunate way aspects of Britain's evangelical right seem to be dealing with it - adding fuel to the atheist's fire in the process. Chris also links to an interesting story on the BBC website about a Christian bus driver who refused to drive the buses featuring the atheist'
s bill boards.

I wonder how long it will be before the same campaign is run somewhere in Australia? How would you react if it did run in your home town? Should Christian's hold the monopoly on use of the media for evangelistic purposes?

Picture nicked from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/7832647.stm

Christians live no differently to non-Christians

Rick Meigs has posted another challenging gem.

His claim, based on the research of the Barna Institute, is that;

Simple observation confirmed by numerous studies have found that how American Christians live and their basic beliefs about life are no different than those of the non-Christians.

He says the majority of American Christians operate out of the credo - "live your life, share your faith", but contends the missional imperative is to "live your faith, share your life".

I think the Australian church is in pretty much the same place.

You can read the whole thing HERE.

Poverty in a sea of affluence

Considering my last post dealt with the collosial amount of money both Christian and humanist organisations are seemingly willing to throw away on advertising I thought this story may present a contrast for consideration.

While finishing off a good feed at our fortnightly Alternate[Or] BBQ at the Jetty Baths in Bunbury, smack bang in the middle of the towns most upmarket, water front suburb, we were confronted with a heartbreaking scene.

A man, in his mid 20s, dressed in unwashed clothes and barefooted, walked into the park and made his way among the well dressed families and couples lounging around, enjoying their bbq dinners and sipping their wine and boutique beer. He made his way from rubbish bin to rubbish bin, looking for left over food he could take with him. He didn't waste much time. He was methodical in his approach and disappeared into the bushes almost as quickly as he had appeared.

I was left thinking about the contrast this guy, and his life, presented as he made his way among the manicured garden beds in the shadow of million dollar mansions. I thought about the leftovers we had in our esky and started to chase after him with the goal of offering him our food but wasn't quick enough and thought better of making a scene and embaressing him.

I think in future we might try and do something (low key, don't want to embarress anyone) with the food we have left. One of the purposes of our fortnightly social is to provide a way for some of the young single (and homeless) guys we are involved with to get a decent feed. Even in doing this we often have a fair bit left over.

So my question to you is, and I'm looking for inspiration, how do you serve the least in your area? How do you go about reaching out to people like this guy, without strings or church centred expectations?

And, what do you think about a church culture that will raise 100's of thousands of dollars for high profile, event and media based "evangelistic" activities while not directly addressing the needs of the "least of these" living in their own backyards?

We have met the enemy ... Them & us in the institutional church

I've been speaking on John 17 for the last few weeks. We're working our way through the whole chapter, which is actually an amazing, inspiring, information packed prayer of Jesus'.

Somewhere between the upper room and the last supper and the Garden of Gethsemane and his arrest, Jesus prayed this prayer in the presence of his disciples. In the precious last minutes of his life with his beloved friends Jesus poured out his heart to God.

A few years ago I was asked to speak at a church camp on the subject of evangelism. One thing that came out of the workshop's I ran over that weekend was the way so many of those gathered viewed those who were not fellow Christians. It was clear that, for the most part, non-Christians were seen as the enemy.

Yet when it comes to fellow, clean, middle class people with similar ethics and values, to those of the predominantly middle class, evangelical church it was easier to let the thoughts of "enemy" pass. But what about people of other religions, or other socio economic or racial groups (especially those with a different culture to our own)? Or people who are quick to point out the failings of Western Christianity? Or homosexuals or atheists? Or people who criticise the church? With these "kinds" of people many are quick to draw a line in the sand. They may even say, these people are wordly, and we are not. They are the enemy, they are not God's!

In John 17, as Jesus prays for his disciples, he makes a subtle, but interesting point. It's so subtle that it could easily be overlooked - I had to point it out during our discussion at yesterday's gethering.

Jesus says "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word."

Where did the disciples originate? Jesus says they came from "the world". Jesus also says, at this time, before they were "given" to him, they belonged to the Father. I think this says something about the people who are not yet aware of Jesus or are yet to join him as a disciple. It says that even though we like to draw lines and put people in boxes and find enemies to excuse our lack of action, God doesn't. Before these guys were taken from the world they were the Father's.

If we look at what Jesus is saying here about the disciples, and if we make the (reasonable) assumption that the disciples where no more or less special than you or I or anyone else then, I think, it becomes clear that there is no one on the planet who isn't already God's. There is no enemy among the people of planet Earth.

When we look at people through the framing story of God's love, even people who exist, day to day, without an understanding of God or his love, we see things differently. A world of action opportunities. Not opportunties to preach or coerce or manipulate, but opportunities to serve, and stand along side and love and support and befriend. Opportunities to share in the work of the "Word", which was passed to the first disciples by Jesus and which has been handed down through the generations and over the centuries to us, today. It is a work that goes something like this;

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

As Walt Kelly's comic strip character Pogo once said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us"!

Action!

The whole idea of 21st century people observing their way to faith (see my last post) is incredibly important to understanding evangelism and discipleship. This is one area that keeps spinning me out in terms of our Bunbury experiment.

We made action an important part of our group from the start. This has included things such as a street-side awareness campaign on child cocoa slaves in West Africa, and collecting money (our weekly 'offering') to give to local organisations involved in helping people at the street level. We also talk about it a lot at our meetings - why it's important and the way it's intrinsically linked to the message of Jesus.

It's really exciting to see these values rub off on the young blokes, and even more so to see them willingly and actively taking initiative in their own lives in this area. It goes to show how critically effective the "observing and talking" side of things is when compared to the more traditional discipleship approaches.

I think when we try and separate action from discipleship (someone recently commented that action wasn't "spiritual") we end up with a lopsided, ineffectively narrow version of the gospel - one that may make sense on an academic level but is difficult to apply to life in the real world.

It's also really encouraging (although not essential to our commitment to action) to hear the stories we get back from the groups we have helped. Stories of making a real difference in individuals lives. These stories spur us on and encourage us to keep doing, in Jesus name, the things we are doing.

Talking and observing the way to the faith...

Most people are seeking a spiritual aspect of life. Spiritual transformation into Christlikesness has always been the right thing to do. We now know that the reputation of Christianity and thus effective evangelism, hangs upon it. Current research shows that un-Christian, un-Christ-formed faith and practice is the single biggest obstacle to making new disciples of Jesus.

It used to be that people primarily listened their way into the faith; today they tend to talk and observe their way into the faith. Thus two primary roles of Jesus’ followers are listening and embodying authentic Christianity. Through re-practicing Christianity we can break the negative word-of-mouth of what has been called an “un-Christian” faith.

From Todd Hunter's "Three is Enough groups" blog.

Can TV Advertising Entice Non-Believers into Church?

I want to be really careful how I write this as I am aware it could possibly illicit an emotional response, but, given my experiences over the past couple of weeks I really feel I have to say something.

I received a letter in the mail yesterday from an organisation calling itself "Jesus all about life" (JAAL for short). It wasn't the first time I had received something from them. I have been the recipient of unsolicited emails from them for a few months now.

JAAL are running a sophisticate, national church marketing program with the goal of engaging the "unchurched" community in church run activities. The crux of the campaign is a series of television advertisements which will be broadcast in W.A. throughout the month of October.

Churches can register to participate in JAAL for $100. Registration ensures any prospective seekers responding to the TV advertising will be directed to the JAAL participating church closest to them, and also includes a JAAL pack participants pack which has a DVD evangelism course and ideas for running "special" JAAL events.

Now the whole thing is pretty standard, attractional/evangelical church fair. It's based around the "build it and they will come" philosophy of church growth. Nothing new or terribly thrilling in all of that.

Some of the adverts (you can view them on the JAAL website) are ok in their content and all are professionally produced. And, according to the information on the site, it seems the JAAL crew have put a fair bit of time and effort into researching Australian's attitude towards the church and Christianity. So, while the JAAL project is obviously a genuine, well intended effort at raising the profile of Jesus Christ in the general community and getting new people into the church, I predict the real results are going to fall way short of the expected outcomes. In this sense it looks and sounds like so many other recent attempts at faith marketing that, when critically assessed, have all fallen flat - the recent push by Churches of Christ to get an intelligent design video to every secondary school student in Australia, Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven" campaign and Nicky Gumbel's Alpha, to name a few.

What really grabbed me about JAAL, and perhaps what is ultimately the difference between this campaign and most of the others, is the overall cost of the campaign. Until receiving yesterday's letter I hadn't given much thought to how the JAAL team were going to get their adverts onto the box. I guess I assumed they would be aired for free like the (cringe-worthy) Christian Television Association announcements of the 80s and 90s - used as fillers in the early hours of the morning and during kids after-school programming. But that's not the case at all. JAAL is a prime-time, hit 'em in the face, campaign. And as such, the JAAL team are requiring a minimum financial commitment just shy of the $500,000 dollar mark (that's half a million dollars if you are having trouble counting all those zeros!).

When I read this my attitude towards the project changed from mild amusement to irritated frustration. I find it incredible that after 15 years (at least) of failed church marketing programs and projects, the JAAL crew can justify raising and spending this kind of money on something that, given the track record of all the others before it, is unlikely to produce anything that even remotely resembles value for money. Especially at a time when the community services sector is chronically underfunded and underserviced.

This is particularly irritating to me at this time because the successful youth drug and alcohol program I have been managing for the last 3 and a half years has just shut down due to lack of funding. And mine isn't the only one.

It makes me wonder how much could be achieved for the kingdom if the same amount of time and effort put into this project were put into encouraging the church to participate in and provide funding for community based programs that actually transform live - and have track records to prove it! Half a mil would have kept Kick Start (my program) running for another 3 or 4 years. Yet the track record of the church when it comes to these kinds of things is abismal. They simply aren't interested.

I wonder if, when the hoohaa fades away and the dust settles and churches begin to take down and pack away their "Jesus All About Life" banners and coffee mugs if anything really will change? Or will it simply be a matter of time until another genuine group of well meaning Christians come along with another expensive way of "guaranteeing" bums on church seats?

What do you think?

Blog Wrap - Week 1

I use Bloglines to keep up-to-date with my favourite blogs. For those who don't know, Bloglines is a blog reader. It takes all of the latest posts from the blogs you tell it to access and collates them all in one place. It makes it quick and easy to get the latest news from your favourite bloggers.

Bloglines also allows you to save posts for future reference.

Something I've been meaning to do for a while is link to some of the many interesting posts I've saved in my Bloglines account. They date back a while, and I have quite a collection happening, but, thought that I would start sharing them around with a regular "Blog Wrap".

So here goes - this weeks interesting blog snippets are:

Christian Radio on Glenn's Re-Dreaming the Dream blog.

Some interesting and original thoughts on "Respecting Strange Gods" from Matt Stone.

A new blog (at least it was new when I saved the post back in April) on "Lectio Divina for the Ipod Generation" from Emergent Village; and David Fitch takes on Mark Driscoll's claims that the Emerging Church doesn't have any convert (he should come and see what we are doing in Bunbury - most of our regulars are brand spanking new believers with absolutely no Christian background!) in this post also from Emergent.

An "Ancient Celtic Prayer" from JR Woodward at Dream Awakener.

"10 Reasons Why Men Should Not be Ordained for Ministry" from Helen at Conversations at the Edge.

Rick Meigs from Blind Beggar responds to the all pervasive "Come and See" mentality that exists in much of the Evangelical church around the world.

And finally:

A post on a very current and important topic from Hamo at Backyard Missionary, "Radical Hospitality and Incarnational Mission in Suburbia".

Enjoy!

What does real evangelism look like?

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Being nice to people doesn’t get them saved. You need to present them with the bad news about their sin, tell them about Jesus and the cross, and bring them to a point of decision. That’s what Jesus called us to do, and anything short of that is just a cop out.

As quoted by Randy Siever - Doable Evangelism - Busting the Myth of "Pre-Evangelism"

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A few years back I would have whole heartedly signed up for this statement of mission. I was convinced the only way to see people saved was to hit them with the bad news about their final destination and the Good News of the cross.

The reality was, even though the theory seemed to make a lot of sense, the practice really wasn't working.

Looking back I think I had been convinced that faith was a commodity of sorts that had to be "sold" - in fact the approach I had been taught to take was one very closely aligned to that taken by network marketers.

Now network marketing is something I have tried on a number of occaisions without much success (I know it works for some - it didn't work for me and, thanks, I'm not interested in going there again!). I know quiet a few people who are into it and I have many times seen the end result of the standard approach - broken or damaged relationships!

Generally, the approach is pushy, demanding and offensive (I know not all network marketers work this way). The assumption is the prospect "needs" what you have to sell and it is your job to convince them of it. Sometimes this requires a feined attempt at friendship (the network marketer's equivelent of what Siever is referring to as "pre-evangelism" in his post) in order to win the prospect over.

In my personal experience, the "friendship" is often quickly forgotten when the program is rejected. I have spoken to many people who would describe themselves as "victims" of this kind of high pressure approach to business.

The approach has a conditioning effect. Once you have been "hit up" by a network marketer once or twice you get to know the warning signs. Out of the blue contact by an old aquaintance who "wants to catch up and talk to you about a business opportunity" is enough to send cold shivers down your spine. The warmth generated by the out-of-the-blue contact of an old friend is readily replaced by an overwhelming desire to do bodily harm to the person on the other end of the phone.

Unfortunately I know just as many who would describe their experiences with Christians in a similar way.

The pursuit to be like Jesus

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[Emerging churches] do not believe in evangelistic strategies, other than the pursuit to be like Jesus in his interactions with others. They do not target people or have an agenda but rather seek to love all those whom God brings to them. They do not hope for a belief change for their conversation partners as much as a life change. Because of their high level of engagement with other cultures, the sacred/secular split is overcome as they practice the kingdom in their midst, in community.

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Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger cited in Scot McKnights, A community called atonement (Abingdon Press, 2007).

Aussie Missiology/Ecclesiology

Hamo at Backyard Missionary is back in business after a 6 month hiatus and he hasn't wasted any time getting back into it.

THIS POST is a ripper. I had actually already started knocking something together myself on exactly this subject but think that his post says it all so will save mine for another day.

The Australian church has to get it's blinkers off, there is absolutely no doubt about it. We pay way too much attention to the US way of doing things in this country, and that is reflected in mega-churches like Hillsong and Riverview as much as it is reflected in aspects of the emerging church (like the emerging rum rebellion!).

The Aussie culture is post-Christian and the church must come to terms with this if it is going to become relevant to the average Aussie.

Pastors, is your flock not showing you the honour you deserve ...

...then why not consider nominating yourself as the "featured pastor" at the Australian Pastors blog? You can also vote in the "How would you describe yourself" as a pastor poll. There were only two votes in the "emerging" category when I dropped by!

If that's not quite your cup of tea, have a read of this! It comes from Preaching Re-imagined by Doug Pagitt from Solomons Porch Community.

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The pastorate has changed dramatically over the centuries. Once primarily thought of as a calling, it's now often seen as a career. This professionalization of the pastorate has had an interesting impact on both pastors and parishioners...

I've talked to medical doctors who are bothered by the amount of health care information that's available on the Internet. One doctor said, "I have a more difficult time doing my job when people come to me with a self-diagnosis and treatment plan already in mind. I'm the professional. They simply cannot learn what I know just because they look on the internet." This frustration, while real to doctors, leaves them in the minority. People make better patients and healthier people when they're more involved in understanding their health. The medical profession must train doctors to know how to interact with the changing patient of the information age...

There are far too many pastors who take this same perspective - feeling threatened by the idea that regular people might have something to contribute to the spiritual formation of the community. but it's a good thing when people want to be more engaged in their spiritual lives. Look - churches will always need pastors., just as patients will always need doctors. Thus it's logical to expect that as the medical profession needs to adjust to its expectations of its patients, the pastoral profession should also be willing to rethink the role of the parishioner in the life of the church.

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The book which this quote comes from is well worth a read, especially if you find yourself challenged by the role and purpose of the sermon in fellowship life. I might post a little more about this book later on.

Thinking about planting a missional church?

Rick Meigs at the Blind Beggar blog posted this list for would-be missional church planters a couple of days ago. It's good value, as is the on going discussion about the list on Rick's blog:

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• Select carefully those that will form your core group. If they are not committed to engaging the culture in a “go to them” life, then they would not be part of my core group.
• Don’t make the Sunday gathering your organizational focus. If you spend most of your money, peoples time and emotional resources on the Sunday gathering, you’ll have little to devote to community engagement.
• Your Sunday gathered should be for the purpose of worship, encouragement, story telling, teaching, training, and to seek God’s presence and to be realigned with God’s missionary purpose. It should not be focused on the needs of the not-yet-Christian.
• Plant your faith community in the heart of the area you want to minister. (And if it were me, all leadership would be required to live in the immediate area, but I know that would be hard one for most.)
• You and your core group should spend lots of time exploring the needs of your community and how you can join your community in meeting those needs.
• When considering community needs, I’d be looking for those that center on the hurting people in your area. The gospel is about walking a new path and those that already know that their current path in life is a dead-end are the richest harvest ground. Get involved with the working poor, AA, NA, prisons, immigrant poor, etc.
• Be desperately dependent on prayer.
• Don’t become a CEO. Your faith community is not a business. Leave the American capitalist organizing and marketing principles for the business world. Your faith community should be organic.

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Backyard Missionaries Required for Down-South Ministry

Just over a year ago I published an advertisement calling for interested individuals and families to consider moving to our community in order to work with us (the local church) in order to help serve the community and grow the kingdom of God.

My original advertisement was edited by the leadership team and things about our location (on the beach, close to schools, golf course, etc.) were added in what was seen as necessary incentives to lure people to us. Our hopes, I guess, were centred on reinvigorating our flagging Sunday morning service and adding some new goods and services to our menu of programs.

I knew that Sunday morning services were not the key to our success as a church. I had been preaching and talking about this for several years with our members and leaders, but I allowed myself, for a moment, to fall back into the old attractional way of thinking - maybe if we just gave it one more shot, maybe if we just found a few musicians for our one-woman-band, we might at least be able to attract back some of the local Christians who had abandoned us for the mega-church down the road, or the Christian families who move to town and don't even give us a look in?

The end result of our advertising? One reply - an older guy looking to retire somewhere on the coast, who mistakenly thought we were looking for a pastor and was prepared to offer his services to us free of charge. And that was it.

On the upside our ad sparked a debate on a prominent Aussie blog which made me look harder at something called the "emerging church". Little did I know that the road God had me travelling was very close to that of many others who were now associating themselves with the emerging-missional movement.

Today - well, things haven't changed much, except that I have a new vocabulary which I have been able to share with the leadership team, and I am now on a not-so-lonely journey, with our leadership now among the fellow travelers on this missional adventure. But we are still resource strapped.

So, 12 months on we are trying again - but this time with a revamped "want ad". Feel free to distribute it, publicaly argue about, debate it or slam it!

Are you being called to a cross-cultural mission-field in your own backyard?

If you know the words “missional” and “emerging”, see the kingdom of heaven as something more than just a future event, and understand that sharing the gospel involves living it as much as speaking it, then we would like to hear from you.

Our community suffers from disease and poverty, but our diseases are those of affluence and our poverty is spiritual. Overall our biggest problem is apathy – but we aren't sure that anyone cares?

We are a small number of Jesus’ followers with faith in the power of Jesus Christ to transform our town, however, while the harvest is plentiful the workers are few.

If you think this could be the thing for you and would like more information you can Skype our ministry team leader (Andrew) on deepsky1971, email him at deepsky@oceanbroadband.net, call him during the day on 0413 995 280 or at home on 9720 1215.

Blogging Africa - Uganda and Rwanda

In 9 days time I will be on my way to Africa, first for a week in Uganda at the Amahoro Africa (emerging/missional) gathering and then another 2 weeks leading a team from Australia in Rwanda.

While away, and particularly during the week of Amahoro, I will regularly update Moved Mountains. I am also hoping to interview some of the key players at the gathering, inluding Claude Nikhondeha, Brian McLaren and other indigenous (African) leaders.

I think Amahoro is going to be incredibly important in building missional networks in Central Africa and establishing missional (as opposed to colonial) partnerships between western and African followers of Jesus.

I am really excited about being able to go to this conference and to learn more - and better - ways of interacting with our African brothers and sisters - but also, hopefully, about interacting with the church and broader community here at home as well.

I'll leave you with an interesting quote from a paper by South African theologian H.J. Hendriks from Stellenbosch University (the paper is entitled Evangelism in Africa and is Amahoro pre-reading). The paper looks at the way colonialism, mission and evangelism have taken place in Africa over the past several hundred years and makes an astounding conclusion - since the end of colonialism, the downscaling of western (as opposed to local/native) evangelistic efforts, the spread and effect of the Gospel has actually increased well beyond the borders of the colonial period.

Here's the quote - the illustration given may be around 100 years old, but the effect still speaks for itself!

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Bediako (1995:91f) compared the work of an Anglican missionary with that of an African, the legendary William Wade Harris (1865-1929) of Liberia. He calls Harris the first independent African Christian prophet. This Anglican missionary worked for nine years and led 12 people to Christ. Harris preached the gospel for two years and 120,000 adult West Africans believed and were baptised into Christianity.

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Hopefully we can all begin to think differently about how we approach evangelism - locally and abroad, particularly as it pertains to the role of the "native evangelist" in winning his own culture for Christ.

Africa - Bring it on!

Can I Pray for You?

I found this post on prayer evangelism while browsing the Off-The-Map stable of blogs this arvo. (Update - This topic was originally posted here.)

This kind of thing actually scares me silly. But ... there are always opportunities for me to do this, particularly as I work directly with people and their problems.

I have been digging deeper into prayer this last month or so - it is an area I struggle with, more so at some times than others. How to have consistency in my prayer life, how to pray, how to pray when I don't want to pray, how to pray publicly, how to pray spontaneously?

I am reading a great little book on prayer at the moment - I think it is the kind of book you could give to a seeker or spiritually inclined person, as well as read and find value in it yourself. It's called Prayer-Centred Life by Dudley Delffs.

Grab it if you get the chance.

Kingdom over Empire

Kingdom thinking asks "to whom do I go and how do I reflect Christ when I arrive?".

Empire thinking asks "What must I do to get them to see us and how do I then make them come?".

Attractional thinking is empire thinking - it encourages us to think only in terms of certain regular rites or rituals such as a Sunday service, Bible study groups or sinners prayers. Empire thinking encourages professionalism in public worship, and a way of life that sees numbers as a hallmark of success. It is about showing the world Christ in the hope many will take notice and come to church.

Missional thinking is kingdom thinking - it encourages us to reassess our rites and our rituals, to desconstruct or do away with the uneccessary and to constantly and critically reassess our own lives in light of Christ and the mission he has left for us. Kingdom thinking encourages us to go into the world and to be human, living Christ in the hope some will take notice and want to follow Him wherever it is he wants to take them - and in the process, become the church.

Coffee in the Arvo Mark II

Our attempt at Binningup to create a "proximity space" is happening again this weekend; our second "Coffee in the Arvo" cafe afternoon at the community hall.

The last one was a bit of a success - we got a good turn out from the community and got to meet some new people, who hopefully, will be coming back.

I think I have ruined the coffee though - the people we hired the coffee machine from oversold us coffee the last time, which meant I had a heap left over. When I had my cafe I never had enough coffee left over to have to worry about storing it ground, so I wasn't sure what to do with it. The guys we bought it from said to just keep it in the fringe (of course they wouldn't take it back) - however it's in a brown paper bag and, judging from the lack of that rich aroma freshly ground coffee has, I think it has gone stale! It cost me 30 bucks a kilo and I have nearly 2 kilos left, so I am pretty annoyed about this.

Will post the outcome of Sunday afternoon's cafe, if your in the vicinity, feel free to drop in - 4pm till whenever at the Binningup Community Hall.

Evangelism: Shifting Focus

The practice of evangelism is something I have been reconsidering lately and I found a couple of great posts on this topic on the Backyard Missionary and Smulo Space blogs.

In Some Points on Missionary Work in Suburbia Part II Hamo makes the point, as well as "living" Christ we also need to be intentional about "speaking" Christ with those we are seeking to lead toward the kingdom.

...some people will not like our choice to follow Jesus and to speak of him in conversation. Some people will simply avoid us. They won’t invite us to parties. They will classify us as ‘religious folks’. And at times that will hurt. We have had that experience up here already and I’m sure we will again.

But let’s not let the occasional rejection stop us speaking of Jesus!

And I use the words ’speaking of Jesus’ intentionally because while actions do speak louder than words, there is still a place for the verbal communication of the gospel, for speaking of how Jesus has revolutionised our life. We don’t need to be evangelistic nutbags to speak of Jesus, but if he is in our lives then inevitably (if we are being true to who we are) he will ‘leak out’.

Truthfully I believe some of us have become so soft that the slightest ‘knock’ for being Christians causes us to withdraw and never venture down that road again.

Time to toughen up folks!!

And in Reimagining Evangelism, John Smulo gives us another list based on Rick Richardson's book, Reimagining Evangelism

* Collaboration versus Activism
Here we look to clues where God is already at work.

*Community versus Individual
Rather than a salesperson approach to evangelism, we build witnessing communities.

*Friendship versus Agenda
The old model of evangelism has an agenda, which is about downloading content and closing the deal. The reimagined model has a friendship.

*Story versus Dogma
Not merely dogmas and beliefs, but storytelling about God's reality in our life.

*Outside the Box Jesus versus Cliche Jesus
Rather than sharing with people a Jesus they think they have figured out, we share a Jesus people have yet to discover.

*Good News About God's Kingdom versus Good News About the Afterlife
This involves not merely talking about being forgiven and a one-way ticket to heaven, but God's rule and reality in this life.

*Journey versus Event
It's not so much about who made a one-time decision; not so much about who's in and who's out. Instead it's about who is journeying toward being a wholehearted follower of Jesus (other's might say "Jesus-follower", but we don't want to be anal about that--smile).

What are your experiences with "relationship building evangelism"? I know this stuff is covered elsewhere on the web but I am interested in hearing your practical examples of this kind of thing at work. I think the more sharing of the practice, rather than just the theory, of this kind of thing the better. Our communities and the kingdom can only benefit from it.

Growing Christ Centred Youth - The Final List

Back in October I asked a few questions around the topic of growing Christ centred youth. The last few years have been a particularly challenging time for me in this area and the questions I asked reflect my experiences and local context. While I didn't actually get too many responses to the questions (probably a reflection of my complete lack of experience in this area and 'lameness' of my questions) I did find the process of writing them down and thinking about them worthwhile.

With that in mind - here are the questions and their (tentative) answers. Thanks to those who did participate and feel free to come up with suggestions, fixes or complete makeovers!

Question 1:

How do we grow/disciple youth in a way that is biblically grounded and "deep" in a culture that seems to think it needs entertainment?

Answer:

Keep working with the ones that are making the moves in the right direction and encourage them to become "salt and light". A committed few is better than a non-committed, entertained multitude.

Question 2:

How do we get youth that are churched or do profess a commitment to Christ to look beyond their own (perception of their own) needs?

Answer:

By loving them, modeling a Christ-centred life of service to others, by teaching them about Jesus Christ and his way of living and by allowing the Holy Spirit to work in them as they mature, as humans, and as followers of Jesus.

Question 3:

How do we effectively reach unchurched kids in a way that is going to lead them into relationship with Jesus Christ? I certainly don't find it hard to get involved in non-Christian kids lives - I do it everyday and have great relationships with many of them - but I have no idea how to get them to think seriously about eternity.

Answer:

By living missionally and entering into their world and building genuine relationships with them. By loving them, accepting them, modeling a Christ-centred life of service to them, teaching them about Jesus Christ and his way of living and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in them and draw them closer to God's kingdom.

Question 4:

Is it too much to expect a committed relationship with Christ (see question 2) in the teenage years?

Answer:

No! A committed relationship is not too much to expect, but it is too much to expect them to do it own their own. The road to, and with Christ is not a road travelled in isolation (Romans 15:1). We also need to remember commitment isn't neccessarily going to look the same in a young person as it does in a mature adult - there will be times when the spiritual thermostat will be high and many other times when it'll be low. The main thing is that there are other, mature, committed Christians around to set standards, to carry the load and to care when needed.