How on earth to we do mission in 2007/8?

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Permalink Reply by Nathaniel Freeman on November 27, 2007 at 2:42pm

keep doing what you're doing I'd say. Looks like you're doing an excellent job, just keep being Jesus, keep praying and things will happen and change. Don't give up my friend!!!

A good book to read, which I've just finished, is "The Intelligent Church" By Steve Chalke. I'd reccomend it, it should encourage you in the direction that you're going and maybe give you a few ideas and pointers.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Edwards on November 27, 2007 at 4:11pm

Pray.

Sounds like the passion, willingness and effort is definately there so just keep doing it! My advice would be to pray over everything you do and it *will* succeed. Verses of encouragement would be:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." (Philippians 4:6-7). "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" (James 5:16). "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints" (Ephesians 6:18).

Just keep sowing seeds, sowing seeds and know that one day there will be a harvest (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). Maybe your church or life is going through a time of sowing now - embrace that and don't be discouraged. Also remember that many of the changes and influences in peoples lives you may never actually see yourself or in your church but the Kingdom will be growing and that's all that counts. Read this story for inspiration (http://www.spiritlessons.com/Man_from_george_street.htm), not sure whether this particular account is actually true but it will bring a refreshment to your tired spirit. Keep the faith bro! :0)

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Permalink Reply by Lee Houghton on November 27, 2007 at 5:25pm

Hi Gavin

Myself and a few others had exactly the same desires and frustrations. We wanted people to come to our church, to learn who Jesus is, but no matter what we were doing and what outreaches we did it didn't seem to draw people in.
The doors of a church seem to be an incredibly strong barrier to many, many people!

We started to pray about why this was, and what we could do to fix it. God's answer to us was that we needed to give people what they wanted. The UK in general sees Christianity as boring and irrelevant, it's up to us to change this perception.

As part of a ministry called Prayer Week (www.prayerweek.com) we had been praying for 8 years for harvest, now God was telling us that we were the answers to these prayers and it was time to reap.

So we started a church in a pub, because this is where the people are. It wasn't working trying to bring the people to us, so we started taking church to them. On Easter Sunday 2006 we started a church called i61 (www.i61.org) - short for Isaiah 61 - The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour....

It's all about taking the bad stuff that is going on in people's lives and bringing Jesus into the centre of it.

We have taken the tradition out of church and gone back to basics, we asked the question, "God, what do You want us to do?" rather than "how do we usually do things?" We also looked long and hard at what we did in church on a Sunday that you wouldn't even consider doing on a Monday at work.

At i61 we don't get people to hold hands and pray, we don't try to hug people we don't know, wedon't use language others won't understand, we don't share communnion we don't preach for an hour about things non-Christians don't understand. Not because we don't believe in these things or think they have value, but because every week we want to be a place where you can bring your friend and know, without a shadow of a doubt, that they will enjoy their experience, and not be scared or intimidated by what they see.

Every single Sunday is now an outreach, a chance to show people what Jesus is really about.

We're not watering down Christianity, far from it, we have many groups during the week aimed at discipling people as they grow in their faith.

We started with about 20 people, and now get over 100 regularly. We baptised 10 at Easter and we have another 10 being baptised in a couple of weeks. This kind of fruit says to me that what we're doing is working.

Over 70% of our church are new Christians or hadn't been to church for years.

People are comfortable bringing their friends because they know nothing weird is going to happen, all we say to them is "come and see" and the majority who come once keep coming back.

I believe this is something God is doing across the UK, he's making church accessible to everyone, time after time I meet people and God is challenging people with the same questions we have been faced with.

I hope this is of some help, check out our websites if you'd like more information on what we've been doing. All it takes is a willing heart and an openness to change.

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Permalink Reply by Gav on November 28, 2007 at 1:26pm

hi lee thanks so much for that its great!

God bless,
gavin.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Edwards on December 3, 2007 at 2:43pm

Hey Lee, this sounds awesome. Mark 2:17 rings out in you church format as well "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Just a question of a practical nature, how do you ensure continual growth of Christians who are more mature in their faith (i.e. moving from milk to meaty teaching) if the Sunday is fairly low level? Do you have a cell group structure in place?

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Permalink Reply by Lee Houghton on December 3, 2007 at 4:18pm

Hi Stephen
Yes, we run a number of groups during the week with the primary aim of helping people grow in their faith. Different groups are aimed at people at different stages of their walk, so we have a simple Bible study group we encourage people to attend once they finish Alpha, but we also have groups where the teaching is much more in depth. Different groups have a different focus, so hopefully there is something to appeal to Christians of all levels of maturity.
To ensure all the group leaders are working from the same page, we have also developed short courses (usually about 4 weeks long) where we teach the basis principles i61 adheres to. This way everybody understands our aims and goals and we can keep a level of commonality between the groups whilst allowing them to head in whichever direction God wants them to go.
Added to this we hold regular midweek meetings too where both the worship and teachings are much deeper, so this isn't just confined to small groups, but is also for the church as a whole.
What we have found is that, although the aim of a Sunday is always to appeal to the first time visitor, the more mature Christians are also being challenged and learning and growing from the messages, purely because they are always biblical and always applicable to every day life.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Webb on November 28, 2007 at 1:34pm

I would argue that mission isn't something you do, it's something you live.

Your activities in terms of outreach are a good way to show kindness to people and to provide an opportunity to start conversations with people, some you've perhaps met before, many strangers who you may never see again.


Outreach is good and can be fruitful, but unless it is followed up, then it is at risk of failure

Try this analogy:

Two people try to light a fire. The first person gathers up all his wood, soaks it in petrol and then sets light to it.
There's a massive flame as the fuel ignites, but it's burnt off so quickly that the wood does not have time to catch so the fire goes out.

The second person forgoes the petrol and lights a fire using the smallest of tinders, it is nurtured and supplied with the oxygen it needs to burn. As the fire gets a hold, more kindling is added so the fire can sustain itself. Once the fire is established, it can burn the largest of logs.

The key factor in the success of the second fire is the sustained presence of heat. In terms of mission, our one-off events are a bit like the first fire. We put these events on, people come and occassionally some will respond - but it's a bit 'hit and miss' and if we don't follow up and disciple people then the 'fire' goes out completely

If we do mission in the communities we are in with our friends family and workmates -, living and sharing in their joys, sorrows, hurts and pains, if we can provide support for those in need and if we can pray with (not just for) people who ask us then that to me is setting the smallest of fires, then because we're living with these people we can offer contuinued support, continued prayer - continued heat. Just by being an example, offering pastoral support and sharing our faith with them in the opportuinities we are given.

Summed up in a sentence - Don't try and 'do' mission, try and 'live' mission.

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Permalink Reply by Gav on December 7, 2007 at 8:49am

thanks alan,

good post. it causes me to ask another question, how do we live mission then?!!

God bless,
gavin.

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Permalink Reply by David Bull on February 3, 2009 at 10:05pm

Hi Everybody,

Well 2007 and 2008 are over now. I'm sure a lot of the problems still remain but how did 2007 and 2008 go?

David Bull.

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