Living His Story Together
Living His Story Together
By Hannah Steele
Being a community of missionary disciples
What a brilliant quote from the Acknowledgements chapter ...
"A Christian is one who points to Christ and says "I can't prove a thing but there's something about his eyes and his voice. There's something about the way he carries his head, his hands, the way he carries his cross - the way he carries me."
Frederick Buechner
In the Introduction chapter Hannah asks the question "where does the church take its cue from? Do we carry on with business as usual, preserving the faith, or are we required to listen and respond and even adapt to what we see and hear around us?
I am shocked by these statistics from the 2021 Census ...
The number of people ticking the 'Christian' box was 46.2%, the first time the figure has fallen below 50% of the population.
More people attend the mosque each week than their local parish church.
The greatest area of increase is in the 'nones' - those who profess to no religion at all - which has tripled since the millennium to 37%.
Hannah challenges the reader with the words of Philippians.
"Paul begins his letter "Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi." The Philippians are residents of a particular place and the church in Philippians is finding local expression among real communities constituted by real people. However as the letter developed Paul writes "our citizenship is in heaven and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." Dual citizenship. The Philippians knew all about this. Philippi had been the location of a significant Roman battle in which rebel forces against the emperor had been defeated. It was considered a 'colony of Rome' or a 'Rome in miniature' and its people experienced the privileges and rights of Roman citizenship as though they were on Italian soil. While those in the Philippian church lived fully as Philippian citizens they knew that ultimately, they answered to a higher authority; that their 'kingdom in miniature' awaited the return of the King.
In our present day in whatever location the church finds itself it is the visible and corporate witness to the new world God is ushering in. We are 'pilgrim people of God'. As God's people we are always to be on the move, never becoming tired and static and stuck in a particular place but remembering we are on a journey and that our ultimate home is with God in Christ."
Personally speaking I think we have lost this vision. We have become too comfortable in our own little bubbles and it is no wonder that people are no longer coming in to our churches. Why would they? Would they be welcomed? Is there anything to attract them to come in? We have an enormous privilege to live out the message of Christ but have we lost that humility and challenge to do it? This moment in time gives us many opportunities to build God's church but are we prepared to take up this commission? Are we looking for signs of new life and growth that only God's Spirit can bring?
Hannah talks about her church, Anglican, of which she has been a member for 25 years. It has moved from potential closure to being (at one point) the fastest growing Anglican south of the river in London.
She challenges us to think critically and creatively about the identity, purpose and mission of the Church.
Hendrick Kraemar said "the church is always in a state of crisis and its greatest shortcoming is that it is only occasionally aware of it."
Maybe our awareness of crisis is our current strength.
Hannah says that the answer to the decline of the Church in the West lies within the church and not outside it. What if we met predictions of impending extinction by believing more in its power - the power we as members of the Church have to live out the gospel story as a community together?
Too often we think of the church as a retail outlet with a product we need to market and sell. Or as a social foodbank providing a service for those in need. Or as a leisure club - a place to connect with other like-minded people and have a great time. The reality is that the Church is the community commissioned by Jesus to live and speak his good news in the world, to be the continuation of his 'good news for everyone' ministry.
Wow!
I love how in the opening chapter of her book Hannah takes us back to the bible to really understand what the word "mission" means. She draws out 3 meanings in relevance to its original definition - sent.
First - sending by God the Father of his Son Jesus into the world.
Second - sending of the Holy Spirit
Third - sending of the church into the world by Jesus.
Mission is more about a direction or orientation less of a strategy.
More about receiving a divine gift less about targets and numbers
More about an outward looking posture towards the world.
You might be wondering what is my reaction when I read Christian books. Do I just read them, maybe highlight them and perhaps even do a few postings on them then put them on a shelf somewhere?
Well I always ask God to help me as I read. Before I open a book I ask God to really use this book to help me understand what the writer is talking about. I pray that I might really benefit from the books I read, that it will benefit me to the extent I will be left thinking how it can be applied to my life both now and in the future.
Then as I read I will occasionally stop and ask God to really make some truth that has been presented come home to me so that I can put into practice what I am learning.
Case in point - today's book has left me thinking about what I see as the definition of mission. I always would have thought of those who are sent away from home or family as being very true to God's commission to go and make disciples. But as I have been reading God brought it home to me - if I am one of his disciples then I am also sent by him, I am as much a missionary as those who leave home. We all have different callings and vocations but it is how we use and respond to those that God has been teaching me today. I have been challenged by my enthusiasm to serve God where I am right now, not just in the formal setting of the Church but in my own life both personally and socially.
I love how Hannah weaves in stories from every day life to make her point across. In drawing 4 principles from Abraham's life as the first great missionary of the bible Hannah shows firstly how mission starts and ends with God. The missionary initiative lies not with the Church as the one who sends missionaries into the world but in the God who is himself a missionary. God calls Abraham to leave Ur because God is the living Lord, the Creator and Saviour of the whole world - not of just one particular tribe or people group.
In the story Jesus tells of 2 sons we see a powerful picture of a God who has eternally decided to be for his creation. You know the story I am referring to - the Prodigal Son. The father is out looking for his son, in fact he never stops looking for his son since the day he left. Mission is not our idea, and it will not be our clever strategies that triumph, for mission finds its origin energy and strength in the divine mission of God and also its manner and pattern. A baby is born in obscurity to a teenage girl without fanfare or wealth ... our mission as the Church today must take heed of that and nothing else.
Hannah then refers to an episode in Call the Midwife. One of the pupil nurse's is being scolded for keeping a secret the fact that she had a daughter born outside of marriage. In the midst of a barrage of chastisement, the elderly sagacious Sister Monica Joan cuts through with the striking insight that if the nurse's actions have cast her out to the edges of society, then the edges are where the nuns should minister and work.
Another amazing story Hannah tells in her book ...
"When I was a student worker, I used to see Eleanor every week for a bible study. She had not been raised in a Christian family but had met Christians at university who had introduced her to Jesus and he was slowly and wonderfully transforming her. We would meet in the cafeteria at Goldsmiths University to read and discuss the bible together which was an entirely new experience for her. Having been brought up with very little knowledge of Jesus' life, she had loved discovering his healings and parables in Mark's Gospel. One week, we were planning on looking at the beginning of Ephesians together. I was a bit apprehensive, wondering what she might make of some of the opening chapter, which talks about God's election and choice. We took time to read silently through the opening verses of the letter and as she came to the phrase, "he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world", Eleanor asked "Does this mean God chooses people?" She immediately looked down at the bible again and in the silence, I noticed tears welling up and dropping down onto its pages. Then she said "I just can't believe God would choose me."
I was in tears at this point - do I have the same realisation today?
5 times throughout Genesis we are reminded that "all peoples" will be blessed through the Abrahamic promise. In Revelation 7 verse 9 and chapter 22 verse 2 this same phrase is repeated. The scene is set - all nations are gathered around the throne of the Lamb and the leaves of the trees in the heavenly city are for the healing of the nations. Who might be those "all peoples" we could be a blessing to? Who are the "all nations" situated in and around our particular churches that we are being encouraged to have in view, to pray for and to seek to be a blessing to? As Abraham shows us, one of the most crucial foundations of all mission is the recognition that those who have received blessing from God are to be blessings to others. Mission is ultimately rooted in generosity.
Now is that not a challenge!
Again Hannah refers to a television programme we are probably all familiar with - Who Do You Think You Are? Why do we like this programme? We are drawn to the discoveries made because we are a story people and knowing where we came from and what has shaped our family's past helps us to understand who we are here and now.
The people of Israel were people with a story - a truly remarkable story. Remember how they endured oppression in Egypt, forced to work as slaves making bricks out of straw. In the midst of their suffering God heard their cries and through the unexpected leadership of Moses staged a spectacular rescue. For any Jew after this time, their answer to the question "Who do you think you are?" would be "a people set free by God." This story would be passed on down the generations, rehearsed from old to young.
God had a special relationship with Israel - he called them "his treasured possession" and he reminded them that "the whole earth is mine." The people of Israel were to represent God to the people around them. They were to do this through the way they lived, by pursuing holiness and distinctive living, through the pursuit of justice and righteousness and through telling the story of God.
Today we are ambassadors for Christ - 2 Corinthians 5 verse 20. It does not involve having a uniform we can slip in and out of. It concerns our whole lives. Our character, our actions and our words should all point to the reality of a living and loving God.
Hannah's friend Sarah said to her one day "The way you live your life makes me believe there is a God." Could the same be said of us?
Chapter 1 of Living His Story Together by Hannah Steele has been all about mission - Does the Church have a Mission? Yes believe it or not I am only finishing chapter 1!! I think I have read this chapter half a dozen times and there is so much depth to it. Hannah draws on the message of the bible and makes it such a study that you have to pause and say "I never thought of it like that before". Why? Because we have never really drawn from the Old Testament in particular the idea of mission and how the Church responds. From Genesis to Revelation God has been encouraging his people to step out in faith to follow him and in doing so to reach out to others around them - that is their mission. An individual one that affects us still today. That story of mission is so relevant to me and to you if we would only pause and consider it. The challenge at the end of chapter 1 is so applicable ...
How good have we been at telling the story of God and passing on this message? How good have we been at embodying the story of God's redemption and restoration? How can we get the good news out in our communities and sing the message from our rooftops?
Chapter 2 Church on the move: Engaging with the world around us
Chapter 1 was all about mission, now we turn to culture. How do we relate to the surrounding community as a Church?
Hannah quotes some surprising statistics ...
National Church attendance had fallen by 12% in the past decade, to less than half the levels of the 1960's
Around 40% of church's clergy will retire in the next decade
An 81 year old is 8 times more likely to be a church attender than a 21 year old
This last one is the one that I am seeing more and more recently.
There are so many "walls" being encountered by many as they look at church ...
Like us "please" - the pursuit of relevance
"Keep out" - how do we welcome people
Shape us - come and put your own mark on us!
Once again Hannah goes back to scripture as we look at how the Church engages with those around it, in culture.
Firstly through the creation story we see that culture has always been a part of human life. God saw everything he had made and it was good. The character of God and the nature of God are revealed simply in the way the world is. The book of Psalms continually remind us that God looks after and sustains creation. We are made in the image of God. We are designed to be in a relationship with God, with one another and with creation.
We have the capacity to image God in whatever work or non-work activity we do.
We are also told to be fruitful and multiply - creation is not yet complete. There is more to be grown, built and established.
We are to occupy creation. By this we mean we recognise that all is not well in God's created world and our task as Christians is to point to God's future coming.
The Fall teaches us that culture has the potential to image God and hence lead us towards him in worship and wonder but it also has the potential to lead us away from God and image sin and destruction rather than goodness and hope. Genesis 3 shows how all aspects of the world are impacted negatively. We cam emphasise this aspect too much in our cultural engagement. It leads to the assumption that everything outside the Church is negative.
Culture is ultimately what is made of God's world and humanity itself is a mix of what has been described already.
What are the principles the Church should practice in seeking to witness in the present day?
Firstly - discernment. What does this mean? Listening to the world around us. This doesn't mean we jump in with answers to the problems people face constantly but rather we sit back and take time to hear what people are saying. Secondly we affirm. This means we are not judgmental. We get involved in practical solutions to problems. Thirdly critique. Yes we speak out against injustice in society. Knowing when can only be done as we immerse ourselves in scripture.
Secondly we need to recognise the margins that are our location. We cannot sit back and remember the good old days. People are not coming in to churches and we need to acknowledge that. The things with the greatest potentials happen in the most unlikely and unusual settings.
Thirdly translation is our language. Hudson Taylor learned Mandarin before he set sail for China. Then when he lived in China for 5 decades he learned many other regional dialects even translating the New Testament into one specific dialect.
The Church needs to constantly translate its message to the world around seeking actively for connection points with the gospel story.
As I posted my last interpretation from Hannah's book I was reminded of the story from the gospels where a certain rich man was preparing a marriage feast for his son. They sent out invitations and the people starting to make excuses why they could not attend. The rich man had to become creative in his invitation but even that did not work. He asked his servants to go out to the highways and byways to compel people to come. Perhaps we need to think again about moving from within our walls of church life to bring people in to hear the greatest story ever told. How we do that may be different than we ever dreamed possible before.
I was also reminded of the Keswick at Portstewart Convention. Last year they supported a project called More Than an English Class. This missionary outreach was reaching out to those of different nationalities and languages to teach English but at the same time show God's love in action.
Different translations of God's love is how we need to rethink our approach to mission in todays world.
The fourth practical way the Church can seek to be a faithful witness is - hope is our currency.
"But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defence.to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you." 1.Peter 3 verse 15
What gives you hope? Our missional task in today's complex culture is to be bringers of hope into the world around us. We should do our best to live authentically together.
As Christ's missionary disciples we are to be bringers of hope, living our lives publicly and boldly, serving with compassion and drawing people into family from all walks of life. This is our prophetic task in this cultural moment.
Maybe it's not the hope that kills you but the hope that keeps you alive.
Hannah quotes examples of churches reaching out providing food to those slipping into poverty in the community around them.
Another amazing and challenging chapter with a very practical aspect of how as Christians we should engage with the world around us.
Hannah says in her chapter entitled Church on the move: Engaging with the world around us: "I remember being in a seminar where it was taught that the highest form of living was to be in full-time Christian ministry and if that wasn't what you were called to do, then your job was to earn money to fund Christian workers. This limited concept seems to fail to take note of the creation call to all people to image God. There is no place for saying the accountant is doing secular work, but the Christian minister is doing 'God's work'. We all have the capacity to image God in whatever work or non-work activity we do."
To be honest this is something I heard when growing up. There was a great emphasis placed on young people to consider whether God was calling them to "full time ministry" ie being either a missionary or a pastor. For others it was securing a good vocation so that you could tithe a large proportion of your salary to support missionaries who had given up their lives to serve God on a foreign field. So this idea Hannah puts across really does resonate with me. But if we do not see all jobs in life as opportunities to glorify God in how we perform them then why do we work at all? We can demonstrate God's love and compassion in all aspects of our lives - but when was the last time you actually heard a sermon about the importance of putting Christ first as you go out into your daily life, not just witnessing at home but in our jobs too?
Chapter 3 Church as presence: Being a successful church
Hannah tells the wonderful story of John Wesley. He was born in Epworth in the Midlands in the early eighteenth century. His father was an ordained clergyman in the Church of England and his mum Susannah a formidable source of spiritual nurture and encouragement especially in John's early years. Th church of wesley's day was not entirely unlike our own, being in crisis, with fewer people attending, the rise of science and rationalism presenting new challenges to the idea of faith and an increasing number of church buildings and livings to maintain. However it was also a season of new opportunities and innovation and emphasis on personal choice. This was a time of contrasts, as Dickens described:
The best of times, the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
At this moment of crisis in the church, Wesley and others like him preached a courageous message of personal repentance and faith in Christ. This message was so refreshing and new, accompanied as it was by manifestations of the Spirit and the call to respond personally, that thousands would gather in churches and public buildings (or fields and open spaces when there was no room inside). It was a watershed moment in the Church in Britain, leading to a nationwide movement of revival and transformation.
At the figurehead of the revival, Wesley attracted droves of people to heat him wherever he turned up to preach, often having ridden hundreds of miles on horseback to get there. One gathering was particularly significant - at Epworth. Wesley had been born in the vicarage there and was only a young boy when a fire had broken out. All the children - and there were lots of them (15 born to Susannah) - escaped from the burning house except for John. He appeared at an upstairs window crying for help. His parents fearing it was too late, fell to their knees and prayed for him.
Some men from the village gathered and standing on one another's shoulders reached up to the window just in time and managed to rescue John before the roof caved in and the entire rectory was engulfed in flames. Wesley's tomb contained the epitaph "a brand plucked from the burning" and he always had a sense of being saved for a particular purpose.
It must have been moving to return to the scene of his childhood and to preach in the very church his father had done some 30 years previously. It would have been typical for many established congregations of its time - apathetic and dispirited and despite the popularity of his mother's somewhat unorthodox kitchen bible studies, experiencing little apparent fruitfulness and growth.
In 1742 John's reputation as an "enthusiast had proceeded him and he found himself persona non gratia. Despite offering to preach, he was not welcome and so decided instead to minister outside the church on his father's tombstone, after the evening service had finished.
Wesley stayed in Epworth for several days, sharing from his father's graveside the good news of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins available to all. Crowds began to gather from far and wide, eager to hear and respond to his message of new life in Christ.
"At 6 I preached for the last time in Epworth churchyard (being to leave the town the next morning), to a vast multitude gathered together from all parts, on the beginning of our Lord's sermon on the Mount. I continued among them for 3 hours and yet we scarce knew how to part. O let none think his labour of love is lost because the fruit does not immediately appear! Near 40 years did my father labour here; but he saw little fruit of all his labour."
What Wesley knew in that moment was that God required his faithfulness just as God had required the faithfulness of his mother and father some 40 years earlier. Fruitfulness was down to God not technique or charisma.
If we aim for numbers or focus on our own activity in mission we run the risk of losing sight of the one whose mission it ultimately is. Success is not down to us. God does not judge us by numerical growth or the number of people we have led to Christ. What he requires first and foremost is our dependence upon him, which is borne of prayer and reliance upon the Spirit.
In her chapter Church as Presence: Being a successful church, Hannah addresses the question of numbers - is this proof of a successful church?
Hannah again draws from the story of Thessalonica. In Acts 17 Paul had a very successful missionary trip to the city. We are told that there were many new believers - "The devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women". But then some decided to stir up trouble and incited mob violence, instigating a riot in the city. They accused Paul and Silas of defying the emperor. They were arrested and released on bail but the new believers felt it was too risky for Paul to stay. They persuaded him to leave overnight. Suddenly they have to leave unexpectedly.
When Paul wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians Paul was quick to set the record straight. Some might have thought this was a failed missionary endeavour. Had Paul heard that thousands had been converted and flocked to the new church after he left? How did he define a "good result"? Those few converts had clearly led to significant growth and there is now a recognisable Christian church.
For Paul the defining characteristics of a successful church, the identity markers of what it is to be the Church of Christ. And it's not about size; it's about character. This is the first time he mentions the triad of faith, hope and love. They are not just inner characteristics but involve practical outworking. Faith produces work, love prompts labour and hope inspires endurance.
Paul considers his mission trip to be a success not because of the individual conversions that took place but because there now exists a community which embodies the gospel and demonstrates this through the faith, hope and love it shows.
Chapter 4 Church as community: Being the body of Christ
Hannah tells a story of a couple who moved just before Covid. They had been involved in a large church, he with the youth and she with outreach. The children loved their activities as well as the all age services. A job made them move and they couldn't find a new church to settle in. Then during lockdown they listened in to their old church but when it lifted their routine had changed so much that they stopped going to church altogether.
Sound familiar? Too familiar?
This couple are not real but the scenario is one Hannah has seen many times as people move away and go through different seasons.
Someone said to Hannah recently "I do have faith in Christ but it's a personal thing. I don't feel I need to go to church anymore. It's my own private faith.
We need to listen to those who have left and ask - and seek to understand the reasons - why they have done so.
How important is the Church bit? How necessary is it that we introduce 'Church' to people? Shouldn't we just seek to draw them to Jesus and the rest can follow?
What is the Church?
The word "ekklesia" is a Greek translation of the Hebrew word "qahal". When Jesus and some of the New Testament writers use the term ekklesia, it carries with it important overtones from its Old Testament usage.
Exodus 19 God gathers his people at Mount Sinai to establish his covenant with them. God calls them his "treasured possession". Out of all the peoples of the world they were special and belonged to him The assembling of God's people was significant because they did so in the presence of God, hearing from him - Deuteronomy verse 10.
The prophets after Moses looked back to this significant time of assembling before God but they also looked forward to a time of future assembly when all would be gathered - Joel 2 verses 15 and 16.
The idea of gathering together in the presence of God is crucial to the idea of Church, and it is given new meaning by Jesus in his provocative statement - "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." Matthew 18 verse 20.
Church is defined b the presence of the risen Jesus It doesn't have to be in a particular place or done in a particular way or be of a particular size.
However, the reality is that our ideas of Church are governed by our personal preferences - and even a consumer mentality. We go to a particular church because the worship suits us or we like the preacher. But how do such things sit with a New Testament view of the Church?
While there are things we can learn from the early incarnation of church life, it's important to remember that, at this point, there aren't really any Gentiles persent, so we can't see it as a perfect blueprint for what is and what isn't Church. Paul gives attention to issues like the order and structure of worship and offers some teaching on ministry gifts and the importance of the Lord's Supper but it's fair to say that detail is somewhat lacking.
The most common way for the New Testament to talk about the Church is through imagery and pictures.
Paul Minear's book Images of the Church in the New Testament shows that the New Testament writers use about 96 different images when talking about the Church eg family of God or body of Christ. He says that images also serve the purpose of directing our actions and priorities as a Church. When a local church selects one image as dominant, it will tend to focus on that over and against others. So for example if the church sees itself primarily as "the family of God" they will prize relationships and unity. The church that sees itself as "salt and light" will tend to focus on distinctive interaction with the world around it. Studying the images of the Church in the New Testament is crucial if we are to understand not only what it is, but what it isn't. Although these images express different aspects of the church's corporate life, they are meant to be taken as part of the whole picture and together create a mosaic of what the Church really is.
A family - 1 Timothy 5 verses 1 and 2 and Ephesians 3 verses 14 and 15 emphasises unity and oneness and expresses a sense of nurture and care
A bride - Ephesians 5 verses 25 to 32 and 2 Corinthians 11 verse 2 conveys the Church's loving connection to christ and sense of joyful anticipation
Agricultural images of the vine - John 15 verse 5 and the field - 1 Corinthians 3 verses 6 to 9 communicate the significance of dependence on Christ for our flourishing and fruitfulness.
The house - Hebrews 3 verse 6, pillar - 1 Timothy 3 verse 15 and temple - 1 Peter 2 verses 4 - 8 all point to th importance of Christ as foundation and our connectedness to him and to one another.
3 dimensions of the Church stand out in these images. These are what makes the Church unique and distinctive from all other human communities. They are ...
vertical - our relationship with Christ
horizontal - our relationship with one another
cosmic - God's missional purposes for the world
Vertical - connected to Christ
The idea of faith apart from community is alien to Christianity. To be born again is to be born into community. Salvation is a work of God's Spirit in which we are simultaneously made new and incorporated into God's family. Becoming a disciple of Jesus, in New Testament terms has both vertical and horizontal dimensions. You can't have one without the other. If our own individual and personal faith in Christ is strong we may ask whether we need the Church and what purpose it serves
The relegation of faith to the sphere of individual preference and private choice is one of the legacies of the Enlightenment. This division between sacred and secular has led to phrases like "We don't do God" as faith becomes a purely personal affair. It is manifested in the backlash when prominent church leaders "dare" to interfere in politics. Many people feel that their Christian faith is private - they believe in God but don't need to go to church to prove it.
Now we must make a distinction between church as something we do or go to and Church as something we are. Our identity is often explained in terms of our job or activities. It may be more helpful to think in terms of Church as something we are, rather than something we do. Our identity as disciples of Jesus is governed by relationality. we are in Christ.
Worship put on as a programme aims to entertain people but authentic worship shapes and forms disciples.
"God's presence is made real in the gathering of people, in the preaching of the word, in the action of the symbols and in the sending forth of the people." Robert Webber
Becoming a Christian is a supernatural and spiritual act in which we are incorporated into Christ and sealed with the Spirit.
Horizontal - connected to one another
The most familiar image of the church is the body of Christ which Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 12. This image demonstrates the interconnectedness of the Church and our dependence upon one another. No part is too small or insignificant, everyone has a role to play and we are impoverished if a single person is missing. "If one member suffers, all suffer with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it" 1 Corinthians 12 verse 26
The interconnectedness of the body is so complete that when one part experiences pain or hurt the whole body feels it. What does it mean for the Church in the West to be "one body" with the Church in other parts of the world that are facing such turmoil? How can we pray and love and serve in such a way that demonstrates when one suffers, we all suffer together?" The image of being one body shows that our connection is not about a shared interest - such as a gym club or a pottery class - but a deeper, more visceral bond of shared life together.
The metaphor of the body demonstrates well the distinctiveness of the 2 dimensions - each part of the body needs and is connected to every other. There is distinction in function in the different gifts that the Spirit gives to the Church, but there is an organic unity of purpose and being.
What the body and so man other images of the church profoundly express is the significance of the unity of the church. Unity is a gift of the Spirit - 1 Corinthians 12 verse 13.
The unifying connection between the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the Church is the Holy Spirit who joins together into one body those of different genders, races, and ethnicities, making all one in Christ.
The Church as the creation of God by the gift of the Spirit is most clearly demonstrated at Pentecost. As the disciples receive the Holy Spirit they begin to proclaim the good news of Jesus to those who have travelled into Jerusalem from far and wide. People are able to hear the good news in languages familiar to them, and we read that "that day about 3000 persons were added" - Acts 2 verse 41. The phenomenon of speaking in tongues or glossolalia demonstrates a key principle at the heart of the horizontal dimension of church - unity without diversity.
All were welcome, whatever their social status, ethnicity or gender. However incorporation into this new community also involved a radical turning away from your previous way of life and sense of identity. Not optional but integral, it brought you into relationship with those who were different to you, sometimes in every way imaginable.
There were many different religions offering salvation in the Graeco-Roman period of the first century, only christianity offered the ekklesia, an assembly for all. Paul's letters frequently address the remarkable cross-societal communities that are gathered together in churches throughout the ancient world.
"The question of social status was rigid and divisive and the Church's revolutionary way of bringing those with very little financial status together with wealthier members of society was a relief to both groups, for whom loneliness and societal alienation was challenging. The Roman Empire contained the perfect conditions for the early church to thrive. As the gospel was good news for all, it brought together those who needed help and those with resources at their disposal." Wayne Meeks
The horizontal dimension of the Church is a supernatural gift o the Spirit, drawing people from different walks of life, ethnicities and social statuses together into one community.
Such community is based on a stronger connection than simply having "things in common": it is a spiritual demonstration of the power of God in bringing together what was previously divided. Throughout the book of Acts, it is the Holy Spirit who is constantly pushing the Church into new and more diverse territory, crossing boundaries of culture and race. Think of the meeting between Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10. Peter is sent by God to the house of a Gentile centurion. According to the social systems of the day, these two should not meet and yet Acts records the most profound encounter of both vertical and horizontal dimensions. To the complete surprise of Peter and his companions the Spirit falls onto the Gentile and his family, without Peter having to do anything. It is a remarkable demonstration of the Spirit going beyond the limited possibilities of our imagination. It is a landmark moment in the history of the Church. In the following chapters Peter tries to make sense of what he has experienced and attempts to convince those who had not been present that what happened was the purest and most perfect expression of the gospel. Peter finds a rationale in the experience of the Spirit, stating simply "if then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?" Acts 11 verse 17 It is the Spirit of God that transcends human, societal and religious differences.
Cosmic - called to the world
Ephesians 1 positions Christ on a cosmic scale, as the one in whom and through whom all things are redeemed and reconciled. This letter shows the cosmic dimensions of our human interactions.
Paul uses a number of images of the Church in this letter to make clear his point that God's work of salvation in Christ results in a new community in which Jews and Gentiles come together. Paul is doing the theological work of explaining the significance of Cornelius and Peter meeting in Acts 10 using the image of the body (Ephesians 2 verse 16), the household (Ephesians 2 verse 19) and the family (Ephesians 3 verse 15). Paul is quick to note that what is significant about the church as one body is that it is a new creation. It is not the case that Jewish Christians have made concessions and allowed Gentiles to belong. A community where Jew and Gentile belong together is a spiritual work of new creation, unlike anything else that exists in the entire universe.
When consumerism seeps into the churches, we become accustomed to thinking of Church in terms of what we like or what suits us. Paul here reminds us that Church isn't meant to be easy. It is spectacularly ambitious in its endeavour to bring together those who are so different that our very existence in the world can make us hostile to one another. Unity isn't primarily about making concessions to allow the other to coexist. Unity here is about a completely miraculous work of he spirit to create a new humanity, a body of people who are recipients of Christ's peace and the gift of the Spirit and so live in unity with one another. Paul claims this in the following chapter, "so that through the church, the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places." Ephesians 3 verse 10
In the creation of this new body, "the wisdom of God in its rich variety" is made known, Paul says. In other words, God is shown to be all good and all wise: God's character and beauty is demonstrated. But to whom? To the "rulers and authorities in the heavenly places". The rulers and authorities are those evil and demonic spirits that scheme against Christ and the Church. In other words, Paul is saying that when those divided in our world today come together in Christ, it declares God's goodness and wisdom in the cosmic realm. Unity here is not pitched as "you'd better stick together as there's not many of you now" but "you'd better stick together because Satan trembles when you do."
The idea of the Church displaying and declaring things in the heavenly realms also points towards something important about the purpose of the Church in the world today. At the Last supper, Jesus says these poignant words to his disciples "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13 verses 34 and 35
Jesus hints here at the new body that will be bought to life by the initiation and gift of the Spirit. He shows that love will be the way and rule of this new community. And then, in the words "by this everyone will know" he shows the outworking of love in community. Through a genuine, authentic and deep-seated love for one another, the Church will influence the world. Through love lived out in sacrificial, practical and thoughtful ways the Church will be known as belonging to Jesus.
What might this look like in practice? 4 principles ...
View community as a gift
The Church is never purely for our own good feeling and sense of community, for we're aware of the constant, outward momentum of a missionary God who longs to draw in all people. Church is both a demonstration of God's goodness and an invitation to be incorporated within a community of divine love. If church is our encounter with the risen Jesus, deepened by our encounter with others, then love becomes both the demonstration of that and the means of invitation. It is an act of love to welcome others into such a community. Church in the everyday is both a sign pointing to God's love and a portal by which people are invited to know God's love for themselves.
The Church is uniquely positioned to provide a space in which we can and should encounter those who are different from us. the heart of the New Testament idea of church is a unified community in which those who look, think and are different come together. A Church that draws people together from all walks of life can be a gift to the world.
We need to recapture the sense of the Church as a gift to the world, a place where all can belong and find a home, a place where everybody knows your name. This gift is good news for us as individuals, drawing us into a physical community , when so much of our time is spent online through various apps and social media channels.
This gift of Church is also good news for our world enabling us to bridge some of the divides such as not knowing people who vote differently to us or look and sound different. Of course while we assume the gift of community is about Sundays, there are seven days a week during which the Church can be a gift to the world.
Practice hospitality
Generosity needs to be at the heart of the church life. Hospitality is a manifestation of the church's presence in the world. Missionally speaking, it is relational rather than about an exchange of goods.
We are familiar with the concept of hospitality as something we give or do to others. Christian hospitality requires the Church to be both host and guest. It is not a one-way street.
Sharing meals was central to the ministry of Jesus. In a culture where mealtimes were governed by rules of separation (who you ate with) and cleanliness (what and how you ate), Jesus' approach is entirely boundary-crossing and revolutionary. Jesus sharing meals with people is something that occurs repeatedly throughout the Gospels, and it's interesting to note that on several occasions he found himself the guest rather than the host. Positioning ourselves as the guest is a powerful way for the church in the West to recognise its marginal status. It is not simply the case that we need strangers as an outlet for our love; strangers allow us to learn and grow and see ourselves differently.
Creating spaces where genuine hospitality, meal-sharing and boundary-crossing can take place is part of the Church's gift to the world. At the heart of this vision of Christian hospitality is a willingness to spend time in the presence of others.
Hospitality , where we both give and receive, is one of the most precious gifts the Church has to offer to the world. Such friendships can form in your own home, in the homes of others, in local community spaces like libraries, sports clubs and volunteer organisations, or in a church-facilitated space. Hospitality allows strangers to become friends and friends to become like family. Mission like this is not an exchange of goods, a service done to another or the passing on of vital information but a life shared - "So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us." 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 8
Cherish diversity
The issue of hospitality naturally raises the question of diversity: who are we being hospitable to and from whom are we receiving hospitality? Christian hospitality will always be defined by boundary-crossing friendships. The importance of friendship in crossing cultural and ethnic barriers cannot be underestimated and carries a prophetic and eschatological power. Friendships which transcend barriers of disability or neurodivergence speak powerfully of God's new society, where all are valued and all have something to contribute and offer.
The most powerful apologetic of the gospel is a community that authentically and generously lives out the good news in unity and diversity. This should no mean seeking to minimise difference but rather celebrating and cherishing it.
The Pauline vision of unity in the Spirit is not about obliterating differences but celebrating and cherishing them. How do we live this in practice?
Look - look around your church, then your community. Who is in the community but not in the church? Who is missing from your church? We need to pay heed to the places of influence in our church. Who leads from the front? Who gets to speak, to pray? Who is working behind the scenes in the background? Are they being noticed? The first stage is simply opening our eyes, so we are aware of the reality of our churches and where imbalances or gaping holes are present.
Listen or learn - genuine friendship requires us to listen to one another and learn from one another's experiences. The most important listening is done in relationship. Through creating those hospitality spaces where genuine, boundary-crossing friendships can form, we can learn to listen to one another, to hear the pain of exclusion and racism and to be changed by our interaction with others.
Love - Love drives us to act and to do. Listening and learning means that we need to be active in our pursuit of racial justice, seeking to uproot the ugly stain of racism wherever we find it, in our own personal lives or in our churches Loving our sisters and brothers means that pursuing justice has to be at the heart of what it is to be a missionary disciple. Loving one another means that we will not just "put up with" diversity but will actively seek, cherish and celebrate it. We may look at our churches and think they seem relatively diverse, but who is conceding to whom? Are those in the minority simply expected to secede to the majority culture? Is different cultural expression allowed in the side room but not centre stage? We are not seeking here a lowest common denominator where everyone is happy with everything but rather a community which celebrates and champions one another's differences, allowing each to shine as collectively we make manifest the glorious body of Christ. This will compel us to ask difficult and uncomfortable questions about everything from our Sunday services to our discipleship programmes, from our leadership structures to our hospitality. It will undoubtedly involve us taking a hard look at the role of power in our churches It is all too easy to seek a veneer of diversity while still prioritising and trusting those like me.
When Peter visited Cornelius, he discovered the power of encounter with someone who was different. We can't contemplate the present existence of the Church without this exchange. And yet, nether can we contemplate its future existence without the replication of that moment in countless communities and places throughout the world.
See the bigger picture
As disciples of Jesus we are part of a community which stretches across the world. We are connected members of one global family. Paul writes that all were baptised into one body. This sense of oneness was lived out on both a micro and macro level.
The Church in Acts lived out this sense of being one part of bigger whole through their financial support of one another. In Acts 11 verse 29 we hear of the church in Judea having a difficult time and the church in Jerusalem sending both financial aid and people to encourage and support it. It's tempting to skip over the endings of Paul's letters because they tend to contain lists of people we don't know but so often those names are an expression of one Church, connected in Christ, through different locations. People were being sent to encourage and serve one another.
Chapter 5 Church as witness: Living the gospel story
In his book Recovering the Past: Celtic and Roman Mission, John Finney contrasts the Roman way of mission with the Celtic one. The Roman model was built on the idea of presenting the Christian message and someone then deciding to respond to Christ and being given an invitation to church. It is not hard to see ways in which this model has influenced many of our Western approaches in evangelism, particularly the large stadium outreaches in which the preacher calls for an immediate response. By contrast Finney suggests the Celtic model of mission was to establish a community and invite people to join, to allow space for them to explore faith and then offer an invitation to follow Jesus. This might also be described as a "belonging before believing" approach. Arguably, such a model of community-evangelism was hugely successful in the Celtic mission among the pagan Scots and Anglo-Saxons. Finney questions whether, in our increasingly secular society, the Celtic model might hold some wisdom for us.
New Testament scholar Kavin Rowe has studied the book of Acts intensively and has come to the conclusion that the word ekklesia (meaning assembly) is not about the particulars of church; rather the book of Acts is concerned with how the early Christian community shows what "witness to the Lord Jesus Christ in a world that did not know him" looks like in practice. Instead of presenting us with a blueprint for Church, the book of Acts demonstrates the impact that growing authentic Christian communities had on the ancient world. To live as a Christian involved a completely new way of being, both in allegiance to Christ and in relationship to God's family, the Church. Living this way was radical and distinctive, and impacted the first disciples' private and public lives. It was both radically inclusive - everyone was welcome - but also essentially exclusive - you had to renounce your former way of life in order to follow Jesus.
A common way of thinking about the Church in such terms has been to talk about the church as a "herald" of the divine word. You can trace its origins to the Reformers (Luther and Calvin). The model is that of John the Baptist, the great herald of the gospel, who points to Jesus in word and deed. In the same way, the Church through its life and words points towards Jesus. It is not only that the Church is made up of evangelists and witnesses but the Church itself is both evangelist and witness to the gospel of Jesus.
This means that the Christian Church is all about the gospel of Jesus Christ - it is a gospel community. The word "gospel" in the New Testament is evangelion, which translated means "good news". It is obviously the root from which we get all the words connected with "evangelism". The church is a community formed because there is good news from God. It is the community that is both to embody (in its worship and action) and proclaim the evangelion to the world.
There are 3 aspects of the gospel that will help us think about how the Church shapes its identity and purpose in the light of it.
The gospel as public truth
Ou tendency when we think about evangelism is to assume it is always individualistic, one person to another. However the gospel isn't just truth for individuals, it is also public truth and it shapes the world we find ourselves in. It is public truth for ever epoch of time, culture and society.
The people of Israel were called to live out their communal life with God in public. It was to impact and "bless" those around them. The Thessalonian church was praised for the way in which the message of the gospel "rang out" (1 Thessalonians 1 verse 8). They were known publicly as being people of faith, love and hope. The Church's calling as a witness to the gospel is to point to and also to demonstrate - an alternative way of being.
Acknowledging that the gospel is public truth means that the Church cannot stay silent on issues of injustice and sin.
"Being alert" is a helpful image for thinking about the public witness of the Church. In the Old Testament the prophets are sometimes described as "lookouts" or "sentinels" who stand on a high place keeping watch (Isaiah 21 verse 6 and Ezekiel 3 verse 17). Unlike the military watch person who would scan the surrounding area for impending physical attack by the enemy, the prophets were to stand on the lookout and to speak about and for God.
In Luke 4, Jesus enters the synagogue in his home town and startles those present by reading from Isaiah 63 on the Old Testament scroll. What is surprising is not that Jesus reads the passage - that would have been the expected behaviour of a Jewish rabbi - but his conclusion that "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4 verse 21) The Old Testament passages that Jesus quotes are from Isaiah 61 and Isaiah 58 which point to a time of future hope. "The year of the Lord's favour" is spoken of frequently in Leviticus 25 as the "Year of the Jubilee". In Jewish thought, the Jubilee came to be associated with a time of coming deliverance. And so, in claiming to fulfil these scriptures, Jesus is transforming a prophecy about God's future deliverance of his people into a present reality and announcing that his ministry heralds a new era of Jubilee.
The good news Jesus proclaims is all-encompassing, involving liberation that is physical and spiritual, political and economic, individual and nation. It extends to all spheres of life and not only to the state of our souls.
In its public ministry the Church witnesses to this new way of life that is to be found in Christ. It is a radical message of hope and liberation that challenges the dominant narratives of our world today.
However, the recognition that the gospel is public truth and its claim that "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3 verse 28) means that the missional church needs to live out in its life together.
Recognising that the gospel is public truth means that the missional church needs to take seriously its vocation to be courageous in calling out all that continues to oppress and hold people captive in our world. it is to speak out against the injustice of racism and prejudice - whether in the world around us or on our doorstep. The church's vocation is to proclaim the life-giving and provocative words that all can be redeemed and made new in Christ. The good news of Jesus Christ has the power to break through the darkness, offering hope and new life to all who would receive.
The greatest gift the Church can offer to the world is to be a new social order, to embody a new way of being community together which challenges th powers and principalities of the world.
In the face of such vast global challenges, the church, even on a local level, has great opportunity to demonstrate what it means to be a new way of being community to those on the margins and to those who are displaced.
The gospel as story
Telling the story of the gospel to the world is not simply passing on information, like a government information broadcast that issues the latest set of rules and guidance. Instead telling the story of the gospel is an invitation into a new way of being and seeing the world.
The gospel is both a wondrous and dangerous story wondrous because it narrates the incredible love of God in Christ - the lengths and breadths that God has gone to in the person of Christ to make his love known and present to a broken world. But it is also a dangerous story that threatens the other stories that govern our lives and rule our world. It challenges racial prejudice and pride, consumerism and individualism. It bids us die in order to find new life in Christ. It has the power to turn our lives - and indeed our world - upside down. The gospel is truly the most wondrous and dangerous story there is.
For a long time, we have tended to think about sharing the gospel with people in terms of conveying information about Jesus or verbally convincing people of the truth of the bible. Evangelism as story-telling has been a prominent model of witness in overseas ministry but in the West our models have been more reliant upon rational apologetics and persuasive arguments.
"To become a Christian is to join a story and to allow that story to begin to narrate our lives." Brian Stone
In addition, we all have our own experience to share of how living within the Christian story has shaped our lives. This doesn't have to be a grand or dramatic testimony (although it may be) but an honest and authentic account of how God's grace and goodness is woven into our everyday lives. It might look like speaking to our friends about answers to prayer we experience, being honest about the struggles we face and talking about the sense of peace which Christ brings in the midst of troubles. Churches can enable this approach by creating a culture of story-telling through Sunday services, home groups and midweek meetings. Hearing one another's stories of hope builds faith and helps those less familiar with this approach think they may be capable of trying something similar.
The gospel as discovery
The way in which our own personal discovery of the gospel is something which impacts the way we live and share our faith with others.
Being a Christian means that we believe and trust in the gospel. Jesus' call to his first disciples was to "repent and believe the good news" (Mark 1 verse 15) Our discipleship journey begins with believing the gospel and our task as missionary disciples is to witness to the gospel of Jesus. While we know and understand the gospel it is not a finite thing that can be sealed and packaged neatly we are on a journey of constant discovery to understand the gospel more fully: the Church hasn't yet grasped all that the gospel means.
This perspective challenges one of the biggest assumptions we make when we think about sharing our faith. We tend to assume evangelism is a one-way street and that the onus is on church, as the possessor of the truth, to do all the talking. We can think that we have a message to bring to the world and all we need to do is deliver it. However, when we recognise that the gospel is of infinite depth and value, we realise that we also are on a journey of discovery
Of course we have the amazing truth of Jesus to share with people - but we still have things to learn ourselves, and there will always be more to discover about Jesus.
For some people their journey to faith is: God simply intervenes in a miraculous and undeniable way and their life is changed by that one significant encounter. However for most people, the reality is that in our secular culture, the journey to faith is more circuitous and complicated and can take a significant length of time. And in any case, we can often find that those who have a dramatic or miraculous moment of healing or encounter have encountered people or milestones along the way that have prepared them for that moment. For most Christians, witnessing to their friends is like accompanying them on a journey up a zigzag mountain path, with twists and turns. We can be sure, however, that the end destination - new life in Christ - is well worth keeping in view.
Evangelism is an invitation into the story of the gospel and even if we have been Christians for 40 years, there is so much more we still have to discover and experience.
Recognising that the gospel is about what we are discovering too means that witness is always done from a place of humility and openness. The most common answer to what holds Christians back from sharing their faith is fear of coming across as narrow-minded or bigoted. It is also distressingly true that people have been seriously harmed by the Church.
Our witness can only begin from a place of personal indebtedness to grace and a willingness to listen.
Remembering that the gospel is also there to be discovered afresh by us means that we recognise we are receivers of the gift of grace before we are givers. It is interesting that the apostle Peter, when encouraging the early disciples to "be read to make your defence" for the hope that they have, couples this instruction with "do it with gentleness and reverence" (1 Peter 3 verse 16). Peter knew that the posture of the evangelist was as important as the words spoken, if not more so. We're all aware that it is possible to win the argument but lose the person. Authentic faith-sharing always involves a willingness to accept our own faults as well as a respect for other people's perspectives.
The Church is all about the gospel and cannot conceive of itself without this good news. This gospel is both public truth and a profoundly personal story in which we are on a constant journey of discovery.
As we seek to live out and proclaim the truth of the gospel, let's consider 4 principles for practice.
Start with what you've got
We actually need to begin with what we have, with what's already "in our hands" - and that is us. We need to begin with the people we have without our church community, whether that's 10 or 200. When Jesus commissioned his disciples to go into the world and make disciples, he didn't issue them with a spreadsheet full of targets and hand them a wedge of cash. No, he simply appointed a group of ordinary people, including some who still doubted (Matthew 28 verse 17). We don't have to have life all sorted and we certainly don't have to be free of questions and doubts, to be appointed and commissioned. God isn't looking or perfection but he is looking for those who are willing.
So before we consider events, publicity or courses, we need to think about empowering our churches to see themselves as everyday witnesses to the gospel. A few simple ways your church could do this ...
- Teach people the gospel
- Normalise stories of how people come to faith
- Find creative ways to pray for people
- Gather people according to their place of work and let the discuss what witness might look like as an NHS worker, an office worker, a stay-at-home parent etc. Invite them to pool their ideas and share these with the rest of the church.
- Identify the capital "E" evangelists and encourage them to mentor someone else in the church.
- Audit how much time people are spending on "in-house" church activities.
A few ways you could turn up the evangelistic temperature in your church ...
- Start praying intentionally for people in your local community, particularly those who connect with your church's activities. Pray for them by name!
- Work on your welcome.
- Use the Christian festivals creatively.
- Create brief but punchy content for social media.
- Focus on children and and young people.
- Ask what might need to stop in order to create a space for something new.
- Audit your community
- Write down all the activities the church undertakes - "What one thing could we do to increase the opportunities for sharing the gospel?"
The steady, prayerful and courageous work of being intentional about reaching out in new and creative ways is at the heart of missional church.
Pursue creativity
Sin, salvation, redemption and sanctification are not topics at the top of people's discussion lists. This lack of interest in Christian theology must not be mistaken for a lack of interest in the spiritual per se, however. We are all interested in ultimate meaning and purpose, in discerning what is of value, in knowing how to have inner peace and future hope. The issue is that many people do not think the Church will be able to help with any of those quests. Our task as a witnessing community, therefore is to create bridges between people's experiences and relevant concepts of the gospel story, so that they might be able to hear and receive the invitation of new life.
Paul in Athens is a master of this approach. In Acts 17, he carefully takes in those aspects cherished in the culture around him and uses them as his starting point as he shares the Christian story. For us engaging with books, films and music can be a great way of bridging the gap and making connections between issues people are thinking about and the deeper themes of the gospel.
We need a new generation of engineers to design bridges between church talk and everyday talk where the gospel is unfamiliar and its significance unrealised.
In our churches, we can create spaces which prepare us for those conversations, weaving into sermons and bible studies some kind of engagement with these cultural moments, so the whole church is better equipped for moments when they arise.
Create spaces for people to explore faith
In an unpressurised and supportive way. Creating spaces, whether that is through established courses such as Alpha, Christianity Explored, Pilgrim or in a more home-grown way as outlined here, is crucial for the missionary church.
Develop a strategy for discipleship
While Jesus didn't dole out a 10 step handbook to his close followers on how to make disciples, he did nevertheless give a clear indication that making disciples wouldn't happen while they were sitting in their PJ's watching Netflix. Rather he required them to go, to teach and to baptise people who would follow him wholeheartedly.
There are not many in our culture today who are actively seeking Jesus or who have questions about the bible, but there are many looking for meaning and purpose, asking how and where they can find happiness and fulfilment. The huge increase in the wellbeing industry bears this out. We know the one who said "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10 verse 10). We know that he has so much more to offer than a gadget which might make your life more effective, streamlined or even entertaining. we know the one who can truly make us whole and offer life in abundance. Going to church is one of the ways in which people can taste and see and experience something of that life. But for many there are barriers to attending and changing that won't happen overnight.
We need to take seriously the task of discipleship because none of us is a blank piece of paper, simply waiting to have the gospel story written on us. Rather, we are complex tapestries of stories, experiences and ideas that have shaped us, some in good ways and some in negative, harmful ways. Unpicking those threads is a costly task and one we need to be prepared to accompany people through as we introduce them to the one who takes our brokenness and weaves it into something beautiful. We need to acknowledge that in our post-Christian world there is no quick fix discipleship; there's no 6 week course that will sort out everything. We have to be prepared to invest time, build community and journey with people.
If our churches are to be places where people can find their way into new life in Christ, then we must take discipleship through community seriously. We need to heed the call to build friendship and create space for people to belong and to be loved. In our post-Christian world, the church is not just an add-on once someone has made the journey to faith. It can be the very place where faith is introduced and nurtured, sometimes over a significant period of time.
The church community itself is not only the vessel of the message of the gospel but the means through which the gospel is proclaimed, embodied and ultimately encountered.
Chapter 6 Church as dependent The role of the Spirit in mission
In the last chapter of her book Living His Story Together Hannah Steele looks at the Holy Spirit's role in mission.
Jesus tells his disciples to wait for something very important, a special gift. For some this was easy to huddle away and wait. They felt scared at the prospect of being identified as his followers and staying indoors was a welcome relief. For others it was frustrating. They were ready to spring into action but they had been told to wait. What for? Didn't they have enough to get on with the job?
We can experience these same emotions in the Church today. When we see the church decline and there is an increasing antagonism and apathy towards the Christian message it can be tempting to hide away and wait. Maybe a better season is ahead so we should just focus on keeping our house in order preserving what we have and maybe venture out again when we feel strong enough. Driven by panic mentality we grab whatever last chance there might be to grow the Church, presuming that doing something is at least better than doing nothing.
But Jesus told his disciples to wait - for the gift of the Spirit.
This command rebukes our tendency to assume that 'good results' are dependent upon our strategy and skill and even our enthusiasm.
Have you ever noticed the link made between the mission and the Church and the gift of the Spirit in the book of Acts? These were disciples of Jesus who were hiding but on the day of Pentecost the Spirit propels them out of their hiding place to the gathered community outside where they speak the good news of Jesus in familiar and unfamiliar languages. Talk about using a local event to the benefit of God! This is marketing first century! Not only do the disciples benefit but the nation's are also intended recipients of the special gift. God orchestrated all this perfectly. His timing is impeccable.
This was the same dynamic and creative "ruach" now available in the unprecedented way the prophets had foretold. Imagine what it must have been like to be present on that day and to still celebrate that event thousands of years later. There has been talk in the past 24 hours of a famous pop duo coming together for a series of concerts after so many years of being split. People are already booking accommodation at ridiculous prices just to be able to attend the concert nearest them. Reliving a time when things were so good. I wonder if we had been present on the Day of Pentecost would we not have wanted to relive it over and over again? To talk of where we were on that particular day and what happened. To have listened to Peter preaching the good news. Maybe that was the day someone realised who Jesus was and it was the first day of their new life in Christ. What a testimony to have!
Watch what happens as a result of the Spirit coming ...
Philip is transported to a different place after his encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch on the road to Gaza
The disciples perform miracles of healing and speak with boldness to rulers and authorities
The Holy Spirit is given to the church for the task of witness. We need that same concern for mission and witness today.
At the end of the book of Acts, Luke makes clear that while one chapter might be closing, this is no finale. His recording of Paul's journey might have come to an end, as we see Paul finally make it to Rome, the economic and political capital of the ancient world. However, the mission of the Church was only just beginning. Luke records Paul talking about the Holy spirit speaking through the prophet Isaiah and closing with these words "Let it be known to you then that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles: they will listen." Acts 28 verse 28 Paul might have made it to rome, but the work of the only spirit was not yet done. In fact it had only just begun.
"The work of the Spirit in mission is not limited to the events of Pentecost only, but that the ministry of the Spirit at Pentecost is the culmination of all that the Spirit has already been doing through the Old Testament. Missional church today cannot hope to move forward without rooting itself firmly in the Spirit of mission. Without the Holy Spirit, the Church is left waiting in the upper room. The Spirit is the engine of the missional church." Amos Yong
Since Jesus' life and ministry was entirely dependent upon the work of the Spirit and the first apostles were also reliant upon the infilling of the Spirit, so we too need the empowering gift of the Spirit. In his final conversations with his disciples, Jesus makes clear that he will send another like himself to continue to guide them - John 16 verse 13.
This connectedness between th Spirit of mission and the life of the disciples means that we cannot contemplate the idea of Church apart from mission. Mission simply cannot be an optimal extra for the Church; nor can it be only for particular kinds of churches or special people who might engage in certain mission activities. The Spirit's ministry is both ecclesial and missional, both church-shaped and mission-shaped. This requires a shift in our mindset from imagining mission as something the Church does or as, in some way , one of the many options available to it. Mission is integral to what it is to be a community indwelt by the Spirit.
This focus also realigns us, prompting us to recognise that all our missional endeavours are dependent upon the Spirit of God.
Both are best and worst efforts are entirely dependent upon God's gracious breathing of his Spirit afresh into our lives and our world. Strategy is important but ultimately, it cannot save us, only God can.
Spirituality, therefore, proceeds strategy. What we desperately need in the church today is not a new or better strategy but a renewed spirituality. At the end of the day, mission is a matter of the heart rather than a matter of finance and numbers.
3 ways in which a theology of the Spirit might shape the way we think about the missional task.
The Holy Spirit is at the heart of human relationality
In reflecting on the opening words of Genesis, where the Spirit of God was hovering above the waters at the beginning of creation - Genesis 1 verse 2 - not only is the Holy Spirit transcendent above creation, he is also immanent within it, since all living creatures are constituted by god's "breath of life" - Genesis 1 verse 30. Furthermore we read in the subsequent chapter that humanity (Adam and Eve) is brought to life through God's own breath - Genesis 2 verse 7. The Hebrew word that conveys breath, ruach is often used to describe the Spirit of God in the Old Testament. In Greek, the corresponding word is pneuma, which gives us pneumatology, which essentially means a theology or study of the Holy Spirit. There is a connection with the book of Acts and in particular, Paul's statement in Athens in which the notes that their poets write, "in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17 verse 28). All humans have this shared breath of God in common with one another, since it is integral to our very humanity.
The emphasis on the horizontal as well as the vertical dimensions of the Spirit's ministry can be a helpful starting point in mission, preventing us from too easily slipping into an "us and them" mentality, where we tend to focus on our differences rather than our shared humanity. The recognition that all of human life begins with the breath of God gives us confidence that, while we seek to impart the good news of Jesus, there are connection points with the world around us. It enables us to focus on our shared humanity in our relationship with others, rather than our difference, which is a powerful apologetic in a society that tends towards increasing polarity and division.
The Holy Spirit is transnational and transcultural
The Old Testament is full of missiologically-directed promises of what the Holy Spirit will one day do. For example Joel foretells a time when all people will receive the Spirit in a different, powerful and dynamic way. In Ezekiel, we see how Spirit-filled foreigners are now incorporated into the people of God. In the famous passage of the dry bones - Ezekiel 37, the Spirit is poured out upon Israel in a way that is visible observable to a watching world.
This sense of the Spirit being poured out in such a way that the world watches and takes note is of course magnified in the book of Acts, where it is precisely the Spirit who constantly prompts the newly Spirit-filled disciples on an outward trajectory. The book of Acts makes spectacularly clear that it is the Holy Spirit who brings to fulfilment the Old Testament promises that God's people would be given a new Spirit and that this Spirit would go out to the ends of the earth.
The list of nations in Acts 2 verses 5 to 11 is a shortened list of the Old Testament "table of nations" in Genesis 10. What is happening at Pentecost really is the "ends of the earth" receiving the gospel. Throughout the book of Acts that impetus of the "ends of the earth" is driven b the ministry of the Spirit, prompting Peter to visit Cornelius and blowing through the physical storms of Paul's missionary journey until he ends up at Rome itself. From the very outset, the Spirit of God is intent on crossing boundaries of race, culture and class and weaving the nations of the world together into a rich tapestry. This means that in our thinking about mission, there always has to be consideration of those who are not like us, those who are excluded, on the margins or beyond our current scope. The Spirit of God is the boundary-crossing breath of God.
The Holy Spirit is concerned with the whole of human life
The Spirit is engaged in the concerns and cares of daily human experience. The outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost impacts the whole of human life. What the Spirit does, through the translation of the gospel into multiple languages, is to draw both Jew an Gentile believers into a "new thicker whole, where "all the believers were together and had everything in common" Acts 2 verse 44, reorientating the ways they undertook economics, family and social activities - Acts 2 verses 45 - 47. The Spirit in Acts is not only manifest in verbal witness but also in justice. In the same way that Jesus' declaration in Luke 4 (often called the Nazareth Manifesto) made clear the social and economic impact of the good news of the gospel, so throughout the book of Acts, the ministry of the Spirit is seen both in the preaching of the gospel and also in social and economic ways, such as the daily distribution of food (Acts 6 verse 1) and in Paul's speaking truth to power and insisting that powers act justly (Acts 16 verses 35 - 40).
The book of Acts ends with a strong sense that the Spirit who was at work in conversion and social justice through the first disciples is still at work today. For Christians today, this gives us confidence to look for signs of the Spirit at work in the world around us and to understand our discipleship not only in terms of private devotion but public words and action. Many churches have begun to take creation care as a serious contribution to their missional approach, which is entirely appropriate when thinking about the missional Spirit. There is work to be done. The missio Spiritus is still on the move.
4 principles for practice of a missio Spiritus for the Church today ...
Be imaginative
A missional spirituality has innovation in its DNA. In the Old Testament, it is the Spirit of God that is frequently connected with the new thing God will do - for example, in Ezekiel when God speaks of the new covenant, it is a "new spirit" that will usher in this change. It is the Spirit, who shakes up the established ways of doing things - for example, in the Joel 2 prophecy, it is through the ministry of the Spirit that previous distinctions of age, gender and social status are eradicated.
Tradition and innovation go together
Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 12 verse 3 "no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" which Jesus makes clear to Nicodemus in their night time conversation that "no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit." John 3 verse 5 The Spirit is forever bringing people to new life in Christ. However, the Spirit is also the one who brings us into connection with one another.
In as much as the Spirit leads us imaginatively into new things, the Spirit is also the one who draws us to Christ and roots us in the faith once proclaimed by the apostles. It is this message of new life in Christ which never changes or goes out of fashion.
The Great Commission itself is a call to both innovation (making disciples of all nations) and anchoring (baptism, teaching and obedience). Innovation and tradition work as partners with one another - encouraging us to be creative and courageous in finding new ways to share the gospel, while also keeping us rooted in Christ and Scripture.
The Spirit both anchors us to christ and connects us to one another, but also calls us out and beyond to new and imaginative expressions. It is the work of the missional Spirit to enable the Church to proclaim afresh the gospel story in word and deed and liturgy in each generation. However, in our pursuit of the novel and the fresh, we would do well not to ignore the treasures at our feet. Cherishing the liturgical worship that has ben handed down from generation to generation might prove to be our salvation in an era of constant change and the pursuit of the new and the temporary.
Step outside your comfort zone
The missio Spiritus does not reside in the static and the comfortable, but is on a constant journey to accompany the gospel to the ends of the earth. For the first apostles, the infilling of the spirit was a huge dose of courage - a great encouragement in that very moment to leave behind the safety of their holy huddle and to become early morning preachers on the streets. The transformation in Peter alone is remarkable - from one who was so afraid he denied Jesus 3 times, to one who stands before a crowd of thousands and declares "Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified" Acts 2 verse 36 Peter is no longer timid and afraid, but courageous and bold. The difference is the Spirit.
The Spirit's work in this regard is two-fold. First the Spirit equips disciples with boldness to step outside of their comfort one (towards the ocean!) and to speak confidently of their faith with renewed courage. Jesus promised his disciples that this would be one of the things that the Spirit would do among them.
The second way in which the Spirit moves us from the shore to the ocean is by prompting us to look in unexpected places for signs of God's presence and grace. For Peter, his journey from comfort zone to missional adventure didn't end at Pentecost. When he visited Cornelius, he crossed barriers of culture, race and social expectation. And he was surprised to find that God had got there before him! God was already at work in a surprising and unexpected way and God's Spirit had gone ahead, forever committed to the task of the making disciples to the ends of the earth. it is significant that, for both Peter and Cornelius, this encounter originated in prayer. In Acts 10, Peter is on his roof at noon praying when he falls into a trance and sees the bizarre vision of unclean animals. He hears God telling him that 3 visitors are arriving and that he must go with them. He is taken to the Gentile centurion Cornelius' house and entering - an act that would have been considered unthinkable for a Jewish man - discovers that 4 days previously Cornelius had also received a vision from God. This course of events and the revelation of the Spirit to both Peter and the Gentile stranger before him causes Peter to announce "I truly understand that God shows no partiality but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him" Acts 10 verses 34 and 35.
For Peter to declare there is no partiality and that Cornelius is an equal recipient of the grace of God is revolutionary ... it is an epoch-defining moment in the life of the Church. And it is the work of the Spirit who has led Peter here, prompting him both physically through miraculous signs and also moving his heart from prejudice to recognition that God's grace is broader and wider and deeper than he had hitherto imagined. In this moment, Peter sees that the Christ who gave him a second change is the God of second chances for all who would cry out to him. As if to underline that this miraculous coming together of Jew and Gentile is a work of the Spirit, the Spirit falls upon them all and collectively they praise and worship God.
And so Peter discovers that the Spirit goes ahead of him preparing the ground, stirring the hearts of those he is calling to himself and all Peter has to do is follow and seek the signs of God's Spirit already at work. It is only by the work of the Spirit that Peter has courage to leave behind the familiarity of the shoreline and step out into the oceans of God's grace, poured out in unimaginable and miraculous ways.
Prayer is the starting point/the secret place
The missio Spiritus calls us to recognise that all the energy and direction for mission and its ultimate effectiveness stems not from our own efforts and creativity, but from God.
Participating in the missio Dei means we are empowered by the Spirit but that does not mean the missional task will be easy or constantly successful. The presence of Christ within us is often made visible through weakness, and our hope is that the extraordinary God works through our ordinary efforts.
Missiology that is dependent upon pneumatology starts and ends with praer. Prayer is the discipline of a missional spirituality. Prayer is the engine of any strategy for mission. After the initial hubbub of Pentecost preaching, the first task of the early church was prayer: "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers" Acts 2 verse 42.
The devotion to prayer was not individualistic but done in community, as the early church gave themselves also to the apostles' teaching and the breaking of bread. This pattern of consistent and corporate prayer happens again and again throughout the book of Acts. When Peter and John have their first run in with the authorities, the church gathers together in prayer - Acts 4 verse 2. When James is killed and Peter imprisoned, the church prays fervently for his release - Acts 12 verse 5. when Paul and Barnabas appoint elders to lead the fledgling church plant in Antioch, they teach the church to pray - Acts 14 verse 23. Paul begins nearly all his letters with the assurance that he is praying for those to whom he is writing: "We always gave thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers" 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 2.
Such devotion to prayer is more than a transactional exercise or habit, by which we present our requests to a divine slot machine in the sky, hoping for a good outcome.
In a culture which preaches self-reliance and empowerment, humble dependence upon God in prayer is a radical choice.
It remains a fact of the history of Christian mission that periods of most intensity and revival seem to be always accompanied by a renewal of prayer.
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