Category Archives: Mission and Evangelism

A Missionary Elephant

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I found the following interesting paragraph in an article Myanmar:a hidden harvest by Tim Houghton, grandson of pioneer missionaries in the north of what was then Burma. I received this as publicity for the mission society Crosslinks, formerly BCMS. In fact I found the full article online.

In 1942 invasion by the Japanese meant that the missionaries had to escape from Burma by sea, air or, most remarkably, by foot across the northern ranges in what has become known as ‘The Muddy Exodus’. At the heart of this legendary trek was Maggie, the faithful BCMS elephant, who for years had kept communication open through the Hukawng valley in both monsoon and dry seasons. In her finest hour, Maggie helped both missionaries and soldiers through the Naga hills to safety in India.

It is interesting to see some of the different ways which have been used to spread the gospel, and in this case to save the lives of God’s servants.

Todd Bentley and Broccoli

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I have no time to write much tonight about Todd Bentley or anything else. So I will give little more than a couple of links.

Dan Curant writes about the Broccoli Revival. His main point is simple: broccoli grows better when the first sprout in the plant is cut off. Similarly, he predicts that the “fall” of Todd will lead to even greater outpouring worldwide. He concludes:

The number one lesson might be, Don’t be offended, find the good, and keep on keeping on pursuing Him.

It’s only going to get better!

Richard Steel writes that the Florida healing outpouring revival is for global evangelism. Certainly it should be, and he correctly writes:

It is important to remember that this has been a sovereign move of God, and not about any one person.

Plant churches that are shaped by their culture, but reflect Christ

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David Keen, a Church of England vicar, has some interesting quotes from Graham Cray, Bishop of Maidstone and lead author of the Church of England report “The Mission Shaped Church”. These quotes are specifically about church planting but also relevant to strategies for an existing church. The emphasis is probably David’s.

You will need to go where they are, you will not get them to come to you. Plant churches that are shaped by their culture, but reflect Christ. The Christian distinctive stays, but otherwise the shape of the church is substantially decided by the actual lifestyle and circumstances of the people you are trying to reach. The very shape of church we are used to can be a stumbling block to the gospel. No one expression or shape of church life will fit the whole of our diverse culture. I suggest that to have in mind what a church plant will look like probably won’t work. We need a baptised imagination in the practice of mission, not just dreaming up what we think we are going to do under God as we begin. …

The first stage of our strategy is to reach people where they are, in the form of community they actually live in, and not the ones we believe they ought to live in. You plant churches in networks, communities of people who do have a relationship with one another, not in streets of people who ought to have a relationship with one another.

A Buddhist views an evangelistic event

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Jeremy Myers has an interesting post on the reaction of a Buddhist friend who he took along to a supposedly evangelistic event put on by Christians – not so much about the content but about the culture. This was the Buddhist’s conclusion:

It just a big show…a production. I thought Jesus was about serving and helping other people, not about lights and loud speakers, and trying to act like Britney Spears. I’ve spent many years investigating all religions, and tonight had convinced me further that Christianity has nothing I want.

Are the evangelistic events we put on (yes, we can include Todd Bentley here) similarly full of Christian culture and foreign to those who we claim to be trying to reach? Jeremy concludes:

Have you ever tried so hard to do something for people who are not Christians, only to find out that only Christian come, and those few non-Christians who do come don’t stick around long? Maybe you should step back and take a look at what you are doing and how it might look to someone who has not grown up in the church. It truly is a bewildering spectacle.

"Church people" and "God people"

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From a post by Jeremy Myers, which I had bookmarked to respond to and have just come back to:

When it comes to people who claim a connection with God, there are “church people” and “God people.” Church people focus on what they are doing for God, and God people focus on what God has done for them. Check out this quote from David Bosch’s book Transforming Mission:

Kingdom people seek first the Kingdom of God and its justice; church people often put church work above concerns of justice, mercy, and truth. Church people think about how to get more people into the church; Kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church; Kingdom people work to see the church change the world (p. 378. He is quoting Howard Snyder, Liberating the Church).

And here is what gets me the most: In my experience, there are not a lot of “God people” or “Kingdom people” in the typical Sunday gathering of the church. Most of the “God people” we’ve ran into recently don’t “attend church” at all. Why do you think this is?

I am glad to say that in my church there are “God people” and “Kingdom people”, as well as some “church people” but we are working on them. I don’t think I would continue to “attend church” if it was full of “church people”. But we are still struggling to get beyond the mindset that the best way of getting people into the kingdom is to get them through the church doors.

The greatest obstacle to the advance of the kingdom of God?

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Despite what I wrote in my last post I have found something to blog about, courtesy of Eddie. Hamo the Backyard Missionary has written a provocative post The Problem is Christianity, about the Christian scene in his own Australia but also largely applicable here in England, and I dare say also, even all the more so, in North America. Eddie quotes Hamo’s own summary of his post, so for variety I will quote some different parts, with just an extract from the summary:

The greatest obstacle to the advance of the kingdom of God in most of the West is … a resurgent Christianity.

Here is part of his explanation:

The Church of England Newspaper May 26, 2008 says, “Islam is being institutionalised, incarnated, into national structures amazingly fast, at the same time as …. the ‘excarnation’ of Christianity… out of state policy and structures”. Whilst this may be sad for those who sentimentalise about the loss of the fides historica (inherited conventional religion), it is surely a sign of the judgement of God on the human construct of privilege and compromise called “Christianity” and a preparation for a return to radical Christ- centred faith that disappeared from Western society long ago.

I was especially struck by this point:

The people of God can only know their deepest inward identity as the Bride of Christ through an immediate and passionate awareness, in the Spirit, that Jesus is their Bridegroom (John 3:29; Rev 19:6 – 8). Where this is lacking, much of what transpires as Christian spirituality is simply “spiritual masturbation.” It may have the appearance of godliness, but is part of a religious culture that lacks the interpenetrative power of holiness (2 Tim 3:5).

I wish I dared to use “spiritual masturbation” as a post title, but I don’t want to seem too shocking. The verse referred to is this:

having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

2 Timothy 3:5 (TNIV)

Does Hamo really mean that we should have nothing to do with these practitioners of “Christian spirituality [which] is part of a religious culture”, the supporters of “the fides historica (inherited conventional religion)”? That is certainly a strong challenge. If Hamo is right, we who are looking for the kingdom of God (I hesitate to say “we Christians” because that makes us sound like supporters of the Christianity that Hamo criticises) should abandon any attempt to preserve the institutional Christian basis of our society and instead accept with joy the role of outsiders with a prophetic message.

If this is right, the latest Church of England report Moral, But no Compass is fundamentally flawed. This report calls for a reverse in the decline of the influence of the church within the government corridors of power, even for the appointment of a government “Minister for Religion”. I don’t suggest that the report has no value, for it has clearly identified some of the ways in which the British government is failing to take proper account of what Christian churches are doing, especially in the charity sector. But in so far as it is at least in part a call for the re-establishment of church influence over the state, and inevitably vice versa as a corollary, this report seems to be an attempt to restore “the human construct of privilege and compromise called “Christianity””, also described as “the greatest obstacle to the advance of the kingdom of God”.

So let us, as believers in Jesus, set aside both the spiritual adultery of looking to the state for support and affirmation and the spiritual masturbation of looking for it in our own religious culture. Let us instead seek our spiritual satisfaction only in God, in worshipping him in holiness.

The least effective form of evangelism

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Quote from Dave Walker’s The Cartoon Blog:

I have found that evangelism is probably the least effective form of evangelism.

If that doesn’t make sense to you, this is how he continues:

If you want to communicate your faith to someone else the best way to do it is not to try.

I’m not sure that I quite agree, but I certainly understand his point! So I will not call this an evangelistic blog, even if the Christian Blogging Awards might classify it as such.

Dave continues:

The fact that someone does not evangelise on their blog could mean that they are not really interested in evangelising, or it could mean that they are evangelising using a non-evangelising method.

Neither of these, Dave. I am interested in evangelising, and it would be great if this blog had that effect (although somewhat surprising given its subject matter), but I am not using any method, not even a non-evangelising one. I mainly discuss Christian and theological matters because that is the purpose of this blog. I aim to do so in a way accessible to all, not as part of a method, but because this is respectful and (hopefully) as an example to Christians of how to talk about their faith without using impenetrable jargon.

Dave asked:

If you have been converted to Christianity by this post please say so in the comments.

I would say the same (!) but would also add that if you read this blog regularly but are not a Christian please also say so in the comments, as I would like to write things which are relevant to my readers.

Maintaining a good witness about the atonement

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In a comment Dave Warnock reminded me of the importance of Christians maintaining a good witness to outsiders as they disagree about the atonement. Dave believes that the split between Spring Harvest, UCCF and the Keswick Convention is a bad witness. In my comment in reply I did not disagree, but noted:

Perhaps here the marketing, if not entirely open and honest, is managing to avoid too much of a bad witness.

In other words, it can only be a good thing in terms of Christian witness that the organisations involved are not publicising their disagreements, but presenting this more positively as an opportunity for God’s work to be broadened.

But in that case perhaps those of us who are blogging about the split, such as Adrian, Dave and myself, are being the bad witnesses by opening up this issue in public, by washing Christian dirty linen in a public forum. Should we keep quiet?

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