Leading in mission

'Let me say without any fear or favour, that any church leader who is not leading in mission loses his apostolicity - simple. The apostles were church leaders because they were leaders in mission. Anytime you get to the point where you’re a church leader and you’re not leading your people in mission, you’ve lost the leadership. You can own the title, drive the cars, own the houses, but you’ve lost it - as far as heaven is concerned.

And I think church leaders need to know that so that they can really be the leaders in mission and create the enthusiasm. Let me tell you: if you are a church leader and you got out on witnessing, and the bank manager sees you and the people see you, it will not be long before your diocese or your circuit or your presbytery begins to say, 'Hey guys, we’d better join this man.' That’s why you’re put there in leadership!'

- Archbishop Ben Kwashi, of Jos, Nigeria

What's so good about the gospel?

When the sun rises and warms the birds, they sing. And so, when our hearts are warmed by being reminded of the love of God, we cannot but speak of Him. The gospel - God giving himself in Christ - really is stupendously good news. 

Mike Reeves on John 20.19-23 (and assorted other passages), from UCCF's Forum conference: download here.

Billy Graham in 1974

The fascinating and challenging keynote address by Billy Graham to the Lausanne Congress on world evangelisation in 1974, is available to listen here - Why Lausanne? In this wonderful snippet from evangelical history, Graham addressed the opportunities and challenges of the time, as well as speaking of how mistakes of the past led into a lack of evangelism due to liberal theology. He introduced some central expected affirmations of the congress and the interplay of evangelism and social action which was so key in Lausanne. Not a dry introductory session, either, but Graham on fire preaching with vision! Slightly at random, a taster from the middle:

"The source of salvation is grace.
The ground of our salvation is the atonement at the cross.
The means of our salvation is faith.
The evidence of our salvation is works."

[The covenant produced from that '74 congress is well-worth a read, too.]

Don't tell people what to do!

I met a lady today and tried to invite her to a Priceless event. She replied that she goes to church. I asked her what it means to her. She proceeded to tell me off rather forcefully, saying that religion was a private matter, and that I should never tell anyone else about it because that was to force it on them. It was horribly wrong to do more than inform someone of church and let them be. I suggested with a smile that if I didn't tell anyone of the priceless treasure I'd found Jesus to be, it would be horribly selfish of me.

The lady disagreed - apparently, it is selfish not to let people continue with what they each privately believe. Going to church is the important thing, after all. (I'll tell that to my doctor friends - you each have your private convictions about a person's diagnosis and cure, but don't selfishly tell anyone! Keep them to yourself. The important thing is that they're attending a surgery.)

Now this lady told me in no uncertain terms, with increasing volume and repetition, that I must go to Taize. I absolutely must experience Taize. It seemed that at Taize I would be enlightened of my bullish insistence of sharing with others the joy of knowing God in Christ. I said I knew something of Taize worship experience, and found that whatever the style and experience, the Bible says that Jesus is all we need - He is our wisdom, our goodness from God, our increasing goodness lived out... She interrupted loudly: You must go to Taize. There they tell you not to go around doing this: not to go around telling people what to do!

There are moments when irony turns on a light and sadly, you see the blindness.

Free at Aston - day 4

On this final day of Aston CU's focus week, the campus was rather strangely deserted! But while flyering was hampered, conversations continued using questionnaires and at the stall in the uni' foyer, the lunchbar ("Is God a kill-joy?") was still mostly full, with great discussions afterwards, and Pizza Hut was so full for 'True Freedom' in the evening (around 80 people) that they had to send some CU members to the other PH in town to get more dough. This did leave a nice gap in the pizza consumption, just right for the talk, before the second round of pizza appeared.





A visiting crime writer was intrigued by our stall's display:
"But it's probably not what it says," he said. "It is what it says," I replied, "but it may not be what you'd think!"
A student of another culture asked the best question I heard all week: "The main things of Christianity," he asserted, "are that we can be forgiven, our sins atoned for, through the death of Jesus on the cross, that Jesus is the Son of God, and that God is Trinity." (At this, I wished that all Christians were so clear.) "Yet Jesus doesn't emphasise these in the gospels - he doesn't state them explicitly. Why do you give these such a key place if they aren't emphasised in the gospels?" As he had to rush off before the talk, I talked with Him about how Jesus reveals to his disciples who he is, in Mark's gospel - not so much in explicit statements, but in His words and deeds, gradually. The disciples spend much of the first half of their time with Jesus confused and fearful, wondering, "Who on earth is this?" Then when they 'get it' - he's God's promised King! - Jesus starts explaining that God's King must die. He gives it to them gradually, and all the time, every incident turns or focusses on who Jesus is and why he has come. The student understood this, but as the talk started and he dashed off saying he may come to the follow-up course, I wished that I'd said the obvious.

We don't get our understanding of Jesus and his work simply from the gospels. Jesus didn't come out of the blue (haha). God spent 2000 years setting up history so that we would have concepts by which to understand the Person and work of the Christ. 2000 years promising that the Lord, YHWH, would come, 2000 years of atoning sacrifices, 2000 years of failed 'sons of God' (we had discussed this earlier in the conversation). For all, there is enough information in the gospel account to get who Jesus is and what his work achieves. But if you're speaking with someone who believes the word of the prophets, you have it on a plate - even just with the opening of Mark, from Malachi 3-4 and Isaiah 40.

Far less importantly, I got my exercise of the day when the lifts broke down in one of the residence tower blocks. Having reached the 17th floor flat, I thought I'd show you the view (witness how deserted campus was, at a usually busy time of day!):

I was praying at the start of the week 2 Thess 1.11-12:

"To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."

God has answered that prayer abundantly - friends of CU members on the point of trusting in Christ, many students signed up for the course following on from this week, Globe Café increased by 300%, and so many significant conversations and gospels been distributed. CU members have grown more confident in Jesus Christ, and more aware of the truth and wonder of the good news.

FREE at Aston - day 3

Today's FREE at Aston took the shape of freedom from suffering (lunchtime - a full room with both friends and people come from flyer invitations) and freedom from guilt (evening, in a large Guild venue). The CU also held an excellent British Culture event, with a gospel talk, fish & chips, and a viewing of Her Majesty's coronation! I suspect the talk was appreciated more than the traditional British fare! Tomorrow, final day, is Free to live: isn't God a kill-joy? at lunchtime, and True Freedom in Pizza Hut in the evening.

FREE at Aston - day 2

Free at Aston day 2 started with an early morning prayer meeting of course, and I discovered that it takes twice as long to get into town at 8am than for 9. The lunchbar on Free to choose: do all religions lead to God? was well attended by non-Christians, who listened well and asked good questions - and also discussed with Christian friends afterwards.

The quiz night in a local pub was well-run and well-attended, but difficult with background noise and some talking over the talk on the greatest question - what is our greatest need? And the answer from Jesus in Mark 2. Still, some listened, and heard the good news that Jesus is God become man, to forgive our sins, and may continue talking about it with their friends.

We're having good discussions with some Muslim students.

FREE at Aston uni: Day 1

Aston University this week, and the CU's first focus week in 6 or 7 years. It's a fantastic campus, compact and in the city centre, with halls of residence on campus, and friendly Student Guild and uni, making it easy to hold events and flyer with invitations to those events. In fact, the Guild even sent an email round the student body, advertising the week of events! The CU members are all actively engaged in various societies, in halls and on their courses. The courses are hard, with plenty of work and lectures, but many CU members have worked hard to clear their diaries as much as possible for this week.

Today is a warm-up day, starting with stalls in the Guild and Uni foyers 9-5, with separate flyering in the lecture changeover times, some use of questionnaires, and "tower raids" in the afternoon - visiting all the flats in the halls of residence tower blocks, to offer FREE gospels and chat about Jesus. Then there's a girls' night in the evening, with a film followed by a talk by a CU member, picking up on themes from the film, and sharing how she became a Christian.

Give thanks for the good relations with the student Guild and the uni, for CU members keen to be on the stall and flyer, and yet also good at inviting friends along. Give thanks to for the discussions already going on with friends, for those reading Mark's gospel already, and for the couple of friends who have recently become Christians, are engaged in local churches, and are now taking advantage of a mission week for the first time, to witness to friends!

Tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday there'll be lunchbars and evening events, at which John Newton Webb is speaking, so pray for him and for the other CU Guests, that the gospel of Jesus Christ would be clearly proclaimed, and that God would work powerfully by His Spirit to bring life and fruit from the seed as it is indiscriminately sown. The student population at Aston appear to be around a third East Asian and a third South Asian origin - whether British or not is hard to tell, but please pray especially for all those from a Muslim background, that they would consider Jesus, seeing in Mark's gospel that He is the Christ, the Son of God.

And for now, back to the stall for some questionnaires!

FREE Wolves!

Last week Wolverhampton CU had their first ever week of FREE events, giving students on campus the opportunity to hear talks and ask questions on a variety of topics - Free to believe: is faith blind? Free from pain: How can a loving God allow suffering? Free to choose: Don't all religions lead to God? Free love: What does God say about sex? And Free to follow: What do Christians actually believe? Although it was small, we were encouraged as people came to all the events, asking good questions and engaging in discussion with Christian friends and coursemates during the week. We spoke to some using questionnaires, too. There's been a good precedent set for future events, and CU members continue to give their friends copies of Mark's gospel, some reading them together. So we look forward to more Wolves students seeing who Jesus is, and finding that to be ruled by Him is perfect freedom!

"Foster carer should prevent conversion"

A 50 year old Christian foster carer has been struck off the register because a 16 year-old girl in her care became a Christian (reported here and here). I imagine that the social services are concerned that she could be rejected from her Muslim community of origin, because of her decision to be baptised. Perhaps they are concerned that Muslims will not trust social services to care for children if this is 'permitted' to happen - perceived proselytism. But as social services don't comment on individual cases, and as neither of those reasons are really ones that may be voiced aloud, we'll probably be left to guess. It seems to be assumed that all the religions are wrong - after all, it's just to do with culture. Faith should be ok - culturally expressed. But what good is faith in something untrue, unreal? Surely a healthier position in the biggest scale of things is to believe in the truth, whatever it is? But if we rule out of question that there is a bigger Truth, then we must cry horrors when someone changes from one view to another - because clearly that's just cultural imperalism.

How much can a carer preserve the culture of origin? How much should they treat a child differently to the rest of the family? Surely you'd expect a child to be welcomed in to share in the family. So a family I know foster babies - and usually, because no-one else seems to want to foster them, mixed race baby boys. Welcomed into the family for however long, they build up a photobook as requested by social services, for the child to have a record of their childhood. So do you want photos of their first Christmas, surrounded by the loving family, having fun, photos of the boy in church, being looked after by everyone, or should they be photos of him on his own, just in case he doesn't end up in a Christian family? Photos of him definitely not taking part in Christmas, in case he is later adopted into a Muslim family? What about if he's older, and asks to come to church with the family? What if...?

In the Republic of Ireland, it's illegal to be involved in an under-16 year old changing religion - including changing conviction from Roman to Protestant. Not few are the teenagers who come to trust in the finished work of Christ yet are made to continue to attend mass by their parents. It's hard. I always thought we were more free in Britain - or anyway, that we cared more for the right of the individual than for the preservation of the community. That's not necessarily an intrinsically good thing, but apparently, all it takes to change that is for the community to potentially not be happy. Then we run scared. At least in Ireland, there is an official age at which a child is 'permitted' to convert! After that, only social pressure will be exerted. Here, it seems the arm of the law will be exerted. The authorities have said that the 16 year old 'should stay away from church for 6 months'. She's caught a disease, and must be quarantined. It's as if they've learned from other countries who try to stop conversions - isolate them, don't let them near other Christians; tell them they're abandoning their own culture, tell them they'll lose their family. The only thing that's missing is jail.

You can't play make-believe with your whole life: when you welcome a child into the family, you share your life - not just some 'material' aspects. That would be bad parenting. If you believe that God doesn't exist, you will raise the child accordingly - and I consider that to be bad parenting, as it suppresses the fundamental reality of the universe. But you have the right to believe and live that faith position, whether as a parent or foster carer - you can't pretend otherwise. If you believe that Jesus is God incarnate, and will come again to save us from God's wrath and rule over a new creation in loving righteousness, then you will raise or care for a child accordingly - and some may consider that to be irresponsible parenting, as they think that is a fairy tale. But you have the right to believe and live that faith position, whether as a parent or a foster carer - you can't pretend otherwise.

Now, I might be wrong here, but would social services really want to alienate or get rid of all the Christians from their register? I'm sure there are some others who foster...

Join the party!

(AKA Free with BUECU, day 5)

God's throwing a party - come and join! Actually, with the number of people in every nation trusting in the infinitely worthy Person and precious work of His Son every minute, God must be constantly joyful. In this instance, a girl studying at Birmingham University decided today to repent from her own ways and trust in God to justify her by His Son. She came looking for something spiritual, and has now found Jesus.

There are hundreds of students at Birmingham Uni now reading Mark's gospel: some with flatmates or coursemates who're in CU, some having chatted with a CU member during the week, some having come to events, most having asked many questions and received some answers - but all reading Mark's gospel. Pray that for many more, they would see that Jesus is the promised Saviour-King, the Son of God, and would repent and believe this good news!

Free with BUECU - day 4

There seem to be a lot of francophones around this FREE week - a fact that Marion, Tom Trump & I are enjoying rather as we surprise them with witness in French! I spent the evening at the quiz event talking with a French girl about Jesus, faith, the cross, and Mark's gospel - one genuine question after another, from which she concluded that she really must read Mark's gospel. Brilliant conclusion! Jonti's mid-quiz talk on what it means to believe in Jesus was spot on and fitted exactly into our ongoing conversation.

The lunchbars continue to be well attended as Paul Clarke expounds the gospel from Mark - each day we rearrange the seating in the marquee to try to fit more people in, as today we hit 120 in one of the 2 repeated sessions. But more than attendance, people are really engaging with what's said, reading Mark's gospel, and spending time asking questions of Christian friends or CU Guests.

More joy than midnight snow

Have you ever been out before anyone else, and alone in the still air, crunched across newly-laid snow as flakes fall thickly around you? It's a thing of beauty and joy in the early morning, when the snowy sky is red with dawn, but this time, it was beauty and joy at midnight, with not a sound on the street.

It was for a very practical reason - I was coming home from BUECU's FREE week acoustic night, and need to get back to campus for an 8am prayer meeting in the morning, so as it was snowing heavily, I parked my car in a nearby street which is on a bus route, in the hope that it will be safer to drive from there tomorrow morning. But it's a lovely touch of grace that I have a car to drive in and give lifts - when late at night, cold and snowy - and that I got to enjoy the snow for a few minutes, until I shook myself like a wet Spaniel in my porch, and my coat shed its candyfloss and returned to charcoal grey.

On a not-completely unrelated note, in an excellent acoustic night, Matt Churchouse spoke in the vein of C.S.Lewis and Augustine, with a note of personal testimony, on finding satisfaction. It resonated with me as he shared of his teenage search for satisfaction in the jazz, until he realised that it was an god that didn't deliver - and by considering that all the good things we pursue are temporary, pushed us in the direction of finding Jesus to be our satisfaction and joy. Some non-Christians who came were struck by it, one girl telling me she totally agreed but found herself still living in pursuit of those temporary things anyway (pray for her & her Christian flatmate as they continue this conversation), and another saying Churchy should've said more: pray they'd come back for more about Jesus! Satisfied in Christ, we're free to have such joy in beauty as above. It doesn't have to be spoiled by the fact that it's temporary. It can be received with thanksgiving to the Creator, and enjoyed in hope of Eternity.

Free with BUECU - day 2

Following a hitch yesterday with the projector in the marquee (a lens cap was still on), this morning we had a heater breakdown! After much prayer and trial, it turned out it was just out of fuel. So, on with the show (and with trips to the petrol station with jerrycan), Paul gave us "Free from Guilt" from Mark 2, twice over, with around 90 in the tent each time. There were few questions this time, although we adopted the 'text a question' idea for those who'd be scared of the roving mic - but people were talking about what they'd heard with those around them, instead.

One girl came to me on the literature table before the 2nd lunchbar, interested in the historicity of the gospels. She'd had a look on wikipedia about Mark's gospel in particular, so we discussed how the Bible was compiled, and the reliability of Mark composing using Peter as a source. But the main point was one Paul made yesterday in the lunchbar - these guys really thought that life & death hung on Jesus' words, action and ultimately, his Person - so however or not you agree with them, recognise that they were very concerned to record with absolute accuracy what Jesus said and did! They thought eternal life hang on this, so they must get the word out truly.

We used questionnaires in the afternoon to chat to people around campus about freedom and Jesus, with most willing to take a gospel and investigate it further. This evening is an acoustic night, where Churchy will talk us through satisfaction, music, and Jesus.

FREE 1 - BUECU

This week, see buecu.org/free

I may be able to blog something of what goes on during the week, but see the timetable on that site and pray for us.

Quote of the day: deafened by the love of music

As music keeps courting my heart, Richard Simpkin in EN reports on using music well to reach the musical with the gospel. This he commends, but notes from experience how some of those non-Christians who attend such things will not hear the good news as they're blinded by love of music. I think my Nigerian colleague might suggest music is more likely to deafen than blind, as my team went to a friend's gig last night (I rather enjoy the excellent musicianship of Mr Bones and the Dreamers; but admittedly in some PA set-ups it's harder to hear than others). Anyway, Richard quotes a composer J.A.C.Radford:

While music is a wonderful gift, it makes a very poor god. It can sing of redemption, but it can't provide it.

True.

Casting Pods to the glory of God

Is evangelism the most important activity for Christians? What society should Christian students prioritise joining on starting at university? How do we engage with culture without assimilation or separation? Clive addresses these and more in the latest evangelism podcast from UCCF.

Quote of the day: personal relationship

R.C.Sproul, on White Horse Inn:

Atonement is a non-negotiable concept. What do you put in its place? What happens is that the gospel becomes, "I can have a personal relationship with Jesus." The devil has a personal relationship with Jesus. But what kind of personal relationship? And what is the ground of that personal relationship? Obviously, being a Christian involves having a personal relationship with Jesus, but there's content to that relationship that defines that relationship, and to just call it a "personal relationship" I don't think's very helpful.

And now for some hilarious illustration of what the good news most certainly isn't:

[Extra points for spotting full-blown Pelagianism and Holiness teaching. And it just gets creepier.] Ah, it'd even lead me to sign up to Blanchard & Lucarini, but not for their reasons...

Over-boiling it down

For a while now I've been summarising our basis for evangelism as two points:

Jesus is Lord, so we must worship Him.
This is the Bible's teaching come to a point: it starts with Genesis 1.1 - there is one Creator-sustainer God, and Psalm 96 which most clearly links this with the call-command for all the earth to worship Him. It comes to the peak in Jesus, that he is announced as Lord in His gospel, and is due worship. See Psalm 2. Sometimes this has been forgotten - pietism tended away from it towards personal me & my relationship with God piety which possibly de-emphasised the global, communal and holistic nature of Jesus' Lordship. But that Jesus is Lord isn't good news to rebellious, ungrateful creatures seeking independence and autonomy, seeking to establish their own righteousness and be their own lords! Some people have made Jesus is Lord out to be the good news in its entirity, but this is not good news to us. Thus our second material foundation:

Jesus is Saviour, so we can worship Him.
This is crucial to the good news! Such creatures as are called to worship God, in Jesus are saved to do so! It starts in Genesis 3 (well, it's agree to to the glory of God's grace well before then - Eph.1.4) with God taking rebellious, autonomy-seeking people he created to love, and clothing them to cover their shame having shed the blood of an innocent animal in their place. He doesn't announce to them His Lordship: that is all too clear. In grace He announces to them a Saviour, a serpent-crusher. Thus there is the possibility in Psalm 2: "Kiss the Son (enthroned as Lord over all), lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him."

Such good news I cannot possibly capture in a few paragraphs - and I was only seeking to sum up the foundation of the good news and our evangelism, not the whole thing. Yet easily we slip into reductionism. At the White Horse Inn they discussed N.T.Wright and "New Perspective on Paul" and this cropped up, in an enjoyable conversation.

Faithfulness and programming

Catching up today in a wedding with a long-term church-planting missionary in Belgium whom I much respect, we talked a bit about ministry as modelling - how in a country churches may not grow as they could because those who minister have only had the one model of ministry for the past century. But that is the gospel modelled and gospel ministry modelled in a variety of ways - as Paul did among the Thessalonians. In the absence of this, people are so keen to turn to programmes and products, and serve them rather than use them. Perhaps this is because rather than moving between countries, living out the faith and ministering, in the way Paul commended, we see church maturity as 'We can do it on our own now, without outside help.' So the churches in one country then ponder, "Hm, how do we do evangelism?" and inadvertantly find their eyes drawn to the church in surrounding countries. What do they see? Programmes and products - not that that is what is predominant, but because it's most easily seen from outside. You don't see one-to-one discipleship, older Christians teaching a new Christian how to study the Bible, personal evangelism in the workplace, inviting someone to read the Bible with you, etc., etc.: you don't see those sorts of things from afar. Besides, programmes and products seem more manageable, tangible, and promise to deliver results. Long-term, patient personal ministry cannot be managed by a time planner, isn't countable or materially tangible often, and doesn't have a results tick-chart. And yet we're told to go and make disciples of Jesus Christ. Not, 'stay in one place because you're independent of outside help now, and put in place programmes to mark your progress'. Go and make disciples of Jesus Christ.

A missionary doctor working with Muslims writes a post which is helpful for all of us, whether 'missionary' or not: Nothing works, so try everything.