The Institute of Evangelism

Every Church an Evangelizing Community!

Good Idea is our online magazine where you’ll find inspiration, tips, ideas, and stories of how God is working in other churches. Every month we offer one good idea to help churches grow in sharing the faith.

Good Idea!

“First Preach”: Homiletics with Training Wheels

by .

A pilgrimage in Turkey prompts a reflection on how we learn to preach—and how we encourage others to learn preaching.

Our intrepid group of pilgrims wilted under the midday sun and stumbled over the rocky landscape of rural Turkey, awash in the deep crimson of late spring poppies. The bright lights of Istanbul were long behind us, along with its fading memory of Constantinople. Exotic Cappadocian cave churches lingered in our minds, their frescos of Christ like stones shouting, “The gospel once thrived in this dry and barren land!”

Now, I invited our pilgrimage group to join me in the footsteps of Paul on his first missionary journey. East of the more famous Ephesus, congested by cruise ship passengers, sits a quiet archaeological site called Pisidian Antioch. It was here that Paul came in Acts 13:13, as an evangelist with training wheels on, to share the gospel.

Paul’s rookie sermon

We had the place to ourselves. We walked slowly down the old Roman roads, paulpisidianantioch3imagining a passionate yet amateur apostle, feeling his way forward with the help of the Holy Spirit, burning in his desire to share the Gospel with others. Near the end of the walk sat the ruins of an ancient church and the excavated ruins of the synagogue where Paul preached his rookie sermon. In the delightfully loose translation from Turkish to English, the sign boldly declared that place to be the site of “Paul’s First Preach.” I liked that. As I preached in that space to our pilgrimage group, I found myself reflecting on how one gets started in the proclamation of the Word.

If you are a preacher, do you remember the first time you preached? Perhaps it started with a testimony in church. Or was your first time when you were put on the spot in the church to give an account of the hope that is within you (1 Peter 3:15)?

I still recall my “first preach.” It was a couple of years after my own teenage conversion from the cultural Christianity of my childhood to a passionate discipleship to our risen Lord. My pastor asked if I would take on preaching at a new evening service, led by with our praise band. I was 18 years old—just young and foolish enough to say yes. Those poor, sweet people who showed up in suburban Winnipeg to listen to my “first preach.” Of course, they didn’t show up to hear me, but to encounter the living God in Christ who is revealed in Word and Sacrament. Thank God (literally) for that.

The risk of trusting others

Sure, my “first preach” was awful. At least, I would mark it so now as a seminary professor. But that’s not the point. My pastor loved the Word so much that he was willing to risk placing that “Holy Hand Grenade” in the hands of a teenager. Then again, God risked placing the Word in the womb of a teenage girl in the backwater of Galilee.

In these curious post-Christendom times, forming disciples who can live and speak their faith into our increasingly pagan culture is critical. Many years ago, I believed that the ultimate goal of evangelistic preaching was conversion. But today I believe that only to be the penultimate goal. Surely the ultimate goal of evangelistic preaching is that at least some of the converted become evangelistic preachers themselves. These evangelists then help people take steps towards faith in Jesus in the places where they live, work and play.

In other words, part of the pastoral leadership we strive to offer today is to enable people, awakened by the Holy Spirit, to find ways to do their own “first preach” with training wheels on. In many ways, this mirrors the objectives of the Missional Christianity movement which continues to bubble up across North America today. Because we are firmly convinced that the church doesn’t have a mission, but that God’s mission has a church, we continue to help make disciples for Jesus who will join God in the living and sharing of the gospel in neighbourhoods they call home.

Growing in our preaching

Just as we trust that God accepts us just the way we are, yet has no intention of leaving us the way he found us, so too we strive by the Spirit’s power to become more seasoned and effective in our proclamation of the Word as disciples. Paul’s letter to the Romans is a wee bit more sophisticated than his “first preach” in Pisidian Antioch in Acts 13!

How has God shaped and grown your preaching over the years? If you were to look back on your “first preach” could you see signs of “sanctified stretch marks” in your homiletical footprint today? Who is the last person you encouraged to take the leap of faith to speak publicly about their faith in Jesus in this sin-sick world? Who might God place in your journey this week that needs that gentle, grace-filled nudge to form the words for their “first preach?”

With our feet sore, our lips parched, and our hearts full from worship and wonder at Pisidian Antioch, we boarded our pilgrimage bus and continued on our 2,000 km journey to Corinth. But in the days that followed, our conversations returned to that quiet and meaningful space in the Turkish countryside. How might God grant us a bolder vision of speaking about Jesus back home in Canada? How might we testify to the one who is living water in a dry and barren spiritual landscape? How might we help others experience their “first preach” and, in the process of sharing Jesus, be converted again and again by the One who grants life before death and holds life beyond death?

Ross Lockhart is an Associate Professor and Director of Ministry Leadership and Education at St. Andrew’s Hall, UBC.

The Heart of a Vital Church: Five Suggestions for Developing Passionate Spirituality in Your Congregation

by .

What is the engine that powers the church’s life? Harold Percy suggests it is something to do with our spiritual vitality—and tells us, from his long experience, how we can nurture it.

In my conversations with clergy a question that frequently arises is “How does one go about developing ‘passionate spirituality’ in a congregation?” The question often arises because many congregations that participate in the Natural Church Development self-analysis and development program find that they score lowest in this category. In fact, in the last five years, Passionate Spirituality was the lowest scoring category in 41% of responses from nearly 1000 surveys across 37 denominations!

This does not imply that the members of these congregations are not faithful Christians or that they are lacking in faith. It is just that there seems to be something missing that could bring more vibrancy to the life of the congregation and more, well, passion, to the spiritual lives of the members.

This is extremely important because in congregational life “passionate spirituality” is arguably the engine that drives the car. Without it, not much of lasting significance will happen; with it, every challenge and obstacle can be overcome.

So, if you find yourself thinking about this issue, here are five suggestions for your consideration.

1. Pray for it

In preparing his disciples for their future ministry Jesus cautioned them, “Without me you can do nothing.” We should not try to prove Jesus wrong in this. I have had enough experience in my own ministry of becoming so busy with good things that I overlooked the importance of deep, longing prayer. And in my conversations with many parish clergy over the years I have learned that this is quite common. Spiritual transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit and, if we want to see it in the lives of our people, we really do need to long for it and to pray for it on a daily basis.

Check out St. Paul’s prayers for his congregations in passages like Philippians 1:9-11 and Colossians 1:9-12 and pray them for yourself and your church. Include them in the prayers in your services and your various meetings. Get these prayers deep into the hearts of your leaders and your people. Encourage them to pray them for themselves and for one another.

2. Encourage Spiritual Conversations

Help your people engage more comfortably in “spiritual conversations” in which they learn to talk more clearly about their faith and reflect on their own faith journeys. Try to work this into all your existing groups and ministries.

I recently spent a full Saturday with a church where the minister was meeting with his newly elected leadership team to talk about the upcoming year and prepare them to work together. Interspersed throughout the day he asked each one of them to share their responses to these three questions:

How did you become a Christian?

Why does being a Christian matter to you?

How does being a part of this church matter to you?

These are deceptively simple questions, and I was deeply touched by what happened in the room as people shared their responses. Experiences of God’s presence and faithfulness throughout their lives, even at times when they were not aware of it, were recounted and re-experienced, and God’s presence in the retelling and in the listening was palpable. In this simple exercise, these leaders found their faith affirmed, and their assurance that God is still present and active in their lives and congregation was strengthened. They left that day with a keen sense of expectancy about what God will do in and through them and their parish in the coming year.

As people become more accustomed to talking with each other like this, the questions can be refined to help them to go deeper. Today I am more convinced than ever that in making space for conversations like this, and encouraging and coaching people in the process, we will be able to go deeper in developing passionate spirituality.

3. Invite People to Follow Jesus

This point is a bit sensitive for some, but it is very important. If we want people’s hearts to be touched by the gospel, we need to stress the very personal and intimate nature of the relationship into which Jesus invites us, and help them make a clear cut and intentional response to this invitation.

Although many liturgical texts express this commitment clearly and beautifully, somehow many people in our churches miss it for far too long. Maybe we simply assume too much. I have had countless experiences over the years where longtime church members have expressed astonishment at this, claiming, “I have been in church for years and have never heard this.” Of course they have heard it. Often. But somehow it was missed. If passionate spirituality is our goal, we need to go out of our way to help them with this.

We each need to find our own way of doing this. In my ministry of preaching and teaching, I found it helpful to say something like this on a regular basis: “Jesus knows your name; he knows who you are, he knows where you are, and he knows how you are. And he is inviting you to follow him: to make ‘follower of Jesus’ your primary identity, and to arrange everything else in your life around this. This is the beginning of the great adventure of faith.”

Frequently in courses, in conversations, in sermons, in the prayers, I would say something like this, “If you sense that Jesus is speaking to you today, whispering your name and saying ‘follow me,’ the simple word ‘yes’ in response to that invitation will be the most eloquent prayer you will ever pray.” Over the years in our small groups and other settings, many people, in speaking about their faith and how it became so important to them, would include something like this: “Saying ‘yes’ to Jesus was an important turning point for me.”

4. Emphasize Grace

 We need to overemphasize the place of grace in Christian faith because, if we don’t, many people will assume that we are talking about “being good enough to deserve this,” or “finding a way to earn God’s approval.” Both inside and outside the church, many still see Christian faith through this lens. But when they get even a rudimentary understanding and experience of grace, it can set their hearts on fire!

One woman who had been active in church for years was moved to tears when this truth first dawned on her during Bible reflection in a small group. Weeping and dabbing at her eyes, she said, “If you only knew the sleepless nights I have had, the worries and anxieties about this; this is too good to be true.” Sometime later I heard the inelegant phrase “gobsmacked by grace,” and I thought of this woman and what happened to her in that group.

Philip Yancey in his book Vanishing Grace writes, “Herein is grace. ‘While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’” The Christian faith is not something we try to live in order to be accepted by God. We live this faith because we have experienced God’s love and want to learn to live in the rhythms of this grace.

This is surely what the New Testament writer John had in mind when he wrote, “we love because God first loved us.”

 5. Don’t Get Stuck in ‘Sin Management’

 Many in our churches think of the gospel primarily as a means of dealing with their sins. It is so much more! We need to help them understand that sin is not the point of the gospel, but is rather the problem that keeps us from the point—the Kingdom of God, the kingly reign of Jesus, and the adventure of entering the kingdom and learning to live this new life.

Followers of Jesus are much more than people whose sins have been taken care of. We are a people, forgiven and redeemed by Jesus, who are engaged in the adventure of learning to live the life of the new creation that God has promised. And we do this in the context of a local church engaged in the adventure of learning to live as a sign, foretaste and instrument of God’s new creation.

This takes our faith and the life of our local church to a whole new level. This is something we can hardly help being excited—passionate—about!

These are my five suggestions. How about you?

What are your thoughts about developing passionate spirituality?

  • What have you found effective in your ministry?
  • What would you add to this list of suggestions?

Evangelism: Learning How Not to be Afraid

by .

 

Fear is a powerful and paralyzing force in the lives of many Christians, not least when it comes to evangelism. Here Judy Paulsen discusses how that fear can be dispelled.

Each year at Wycliffe I teach a course called the Ministry of Evangelism. It’s a required course for all students wanting to earn a Master of Divinity degree. As they enter the first class there are strips of paper in two piles on a desk, labelled ‘evangelist’ and ‘evangelee’, with an accompanying instruction to ‘take one’. Almost without fail students choose an ‘evangelee’ card, nervous that they’ll be asked to role-play as an evangelist. This year (surprisingly) I had one student who chose an ‘evangelist’ card. When I asked her why, she reported that the previous student got the last one from the other pile! In that same class the previous year, during a word association exercise, another student said the word ‘evangelist’ left him speechless, but made him feel a little sick. Yes, these are generally my students on week one.

Clearing the Stones

Much like a farmer clearing stones to get a field ready for planting, I spend the first three weeks of the course clearing away stones. The majority of students arrive already having a rather frightening view of what evangelism is and how it works; mechanistic, offensive, requiring gifts and knowledge they lack, and driven by duty and guilt. In short, evangelism is seen as something you wouldn’t wish on their worst enemy, let alone do to their best friend. Yes, my work is cut out for me.

By half way through the course we’ve dealt with the stones, and some healthy new shoots are starting to take root. They’ve learned that authentic evangelism is respectful, invitational, and most often a process based in relationship. They’ve learned that it involves as much listening as talking, and that it is always rooted in God’s own activity (often long before any part we play). They’ve considered evangelism as a corporate activity of the church, both as the gathered and dispersed community of faith. We’ve begun to explore the ecclesial practices that serve as tools for developing healthy evangelism. They’ve also all started to relax and smile more.

Lab assignment in evangelismCoffee-Shop-Conversation

My favorite class though comes at week 8, when we discuss one of the class projects. For this project each student chooses three encounters Jesus has with people in the gospels. They then invite someone they know, who doesn’t belong to a church, to discuss these stories with them. Their written papers explain why they chose the passages they did, how the conversations went, and what they learned about evangelism through their interaction. You might say it’s a sort of lab assignment in evangelism. (I will always be grateful to John Bowen for initiating this project when he taught the course.)

Keep in mind that these students are the same ones many of whom at week one expressed outright fear at having to engage in evangelism. But, now, at week eight, they have the most amazing things to report in their projects. Their conversations about Jesus took place in many settings: over a pint with a good friend, over dinner with a new neighbor, in a coffee shop, on the phone, over Skype. Sometimes with a cousin, sometimes a social acquaintance, brother-in-law, or colleague. In one case, the project was conducted with a complete stranger who first wandered into Wycliffe to write an undergraduate exam.

What the student learned

The students themselves are surprised that none of these conversations felt forced or awkward. In fact, they quite enjoyed them! And what were their primary learnings? God seemed to already be at work in the lives of the people they talked with. Although unchurched, these people had genuine and often deep reflections on theological questions. They were quite happy to discuss this person Jesus. They even had some unique perspectives on Jesus’ interactions that the students themselves hadn’t thought of. In almost every case the person they had talked to was open to further discussions. In many cases friendships had begun or deepened.

My favorite learning the students reported this year was this: they didn’t need to be afraid. Evangelism didn’t need to be mechanistic or offensive. It didn’t require a brilliant giftedness or a particularly deep theoretical knowledge. It didn’t need to be conducted out of guilt or shame. And finally, it involved trusting that God would use their faithful sharing of their faith, in His good time. They were given the privilege to share God’s invitation with others, in a respectful, authentic manner. God would continue His good work in many different and surprising ways from there.

Hope for the future of the church

And what has been my learning, as a relatively new professor of evangelism? I’ve learned that evangelism CAN be taught. Well, on second thought, perhaps ‘cultivated’ is a better word. I think the gardening analogy I started with is a good one. Evangelism itself often begins with clearing stones and then involves tilling soil, planting seeds, watering, weeding, watering some more, and yes, waiting. In the same way the teaching of evangelism involves all these things too. But what a delight it’s been to witness the first green shoots sprouting, and to see healthy plants beginning to grow tall. It gives me hope for the future of the Church. If God can take a group of slightly terrified divinity students and turn them into people who can share naturally about their faith, then He can also use them to cultivate the same in the churches they will lead.

The only question that remains in my mind is this: In the midst of so many other demands being placed upon them, as leaders in often stressed and struggling churches, will they retain the intentionality it will take to actually do this work of cultivation? In a context in which the vast majority of Canadians are unchurched, the importance of growing churches that are vibrant evangelizing communities has never been more important. But they will need to remember the importance of such work. This professor of evangelism is hoping and praying that this might be so. I hope all you who read this will join in this endeavour.

 

 

 

The Invitation to Follow Christ: a Fresh Approach

by .

What if people’s first encounter with vital faith is not through an invitation to church or through hearing the spoken word—but through getting involved with Christians engaged in Christ’s mission in the world?

Jesus said that if we’ve received a lot, he will expect a lot of us. I know I have received much, but I am not as confident that I have delivered the same—yet.

Among the many privileges of growing up in a rich evangelical heritage, I have been trained to share my faith through initiatives such as Evangelism Explosion, Steps to Peace with God, The Four Spiritual Laws, Alpha, Contagious Christian . . . and others I can’t even remember.

Yet I fell into the rut of presenting the good news of Christ as a program, and inviting people to church. This led to a form of Christianity that was more about religion and ritual than about identity, character and witness. Because of this, I had taught the people of our church to invite their neighbours to church (meaning the weekend gathering), instead of helping them to see the reality of a new Kingdom and to meet its King.

But that is changing.

Many changes in the Canadian context over past generations have resulted in the cultural dislocation of the church. No longer at the center of a single worldview, the church now resides at the margins as one among many perspectives. This offers us the opportunity to reimagine what it means to “proclaim the gospel.” Within the last generation, the number of spiritual enquirers who will seek answers at a church has dropped from 50% to 10%.[1]

Come and See

While preaching recently from John’s Gospel, I saw what should have been obvious. When Andrew, one of John the Baptist’s image006disciples, met Jesus, he ran and told his brother Simon Peter that he had met the one they had all been waiting for. “Come and see,” he says. In other words, “I think I have met the one we have all been looking for.” John comments, “And he brought him to Jesus.”

Why had I missed it? Evangelism was never meant to be about inviting people to church or getting them to believe a set of spiritual laws or principles. It is and always has been about introducing them to the living reality of the person of Jesus.

But why is that so difficult for so many of us today? Could it be that we ourselves do not really know the one we are inviting people to “come and see” and so find it easier to get people to follow a lot of “do’s and don’ts”? Or that we are not really witnesses? Imagine me answering a lamppost ad to be a witness to an accident I had not actually seen. The fact that I have a general knowledge of what accidents look like has no bearing on whether I am qualified to be a witness to this specific one. My credibility is dependent on having seen or experienced this accident. Is this not the same with being a Christian?

We are witnesses of Christ when we see him at work in our lives, and know he is alive through our experience with him.

Andrew did not invite Simon to the synagogue or to a class on Jewish law, but to meet a person whom he could experience, and who would make all of the difference. He invited Simon to “come and see” Jesus, who invited them to “come and see” what life was like when lived his way. He was inviting them, not to become religious, but to explore a new way of living. He was inviting them to be witnesses to the difference he would make in their lives—first and foremost around issues of their identity.

Follow Me

But there is more. When they had seen Jesus and begun to see life as he lived it, Jesus said, “Follow me.” This was more than the original invitation to get a glimpse: it now involved making a decision. Every young Jewish boy wanted to follow a rabbi, and Jesus invited these twelve to model their lives after his teaching and his example. He invited them into his school to learn about living life to the fullest. Not only did this confirm their identity in him, but now he began to shape their character (the way they lived) around principles of his Kingdom. They would become children of God, who lived in obedience to all that the Father instructed.

As we look at the methods of the church over past generations, not only do we see programs designed to get people to church or to believe certain propositions, but we have also shaped our teaching to get them to follow certain rules. And most of our neighbours see that more clearly than we do. But today we have the opportunity not only to reimagine introducing our friends to Jesus (instead of inviting them to church), but to see them live life to the fullest by modeling their lives after Jesus, instead of following a set of rules.

Go and Make

There is a final step in this process. Andrew was inviting Simon to “come and see” a person. Jesus was inviting Simon to “follow him” (model life after him) not to follow the Pharisees’ rules. Not only did Jesus work on his identity and character, but now also on his vocation.

The amazing story in Luke 5 highlights the conversion of Peter’s vocation. This tired and weary fisherman listens to a carpenter instruct him to drop his nets in the lake at noon. Even though this mission made little sense, Simon caught more fish than he ever had before.

It is at this point that Jesus tells him he has something much greater in mind than even what Simon has seen today. Jesus will make him a fisher of people, and not just of fish. Voila! Change of vocation. No longer will Peter see his primary vocation as fishing for fish (although he certainly could have remained in this job) but participating with Christ in fishing for people. In other words, Christ invites Simon to join him on his mission. His vocation is now joining Christ in proclaiming the reality of a new Kingdom and introducing others to the King.

Behave, belong, believe

I have seen this in numerous people through the life of our church. Take Randy, for
example. He thought he would never darken the doors of a church building. A number of his friends were involved in a Mission Group from our church who were helping a lower income apartment complex to do life a little differently. They painted, gardened, and worked hard at sprucing up the place. They brought food into the complex and held a banquet for the people, many of whom could never afford to go out for a nice meal. They found many ways to make a difference. Randy noticed—and he participated. He had a huge heart and wanted to make a difference, so he began to join in with his friends who were doing these good deeds.

Before long, Randy was not only helping serve this apartment complex, but was socially involved with the entire group. He began to participate in other events when the group would get together to do life well. He began to notice that some of his behaviours and patterns began to change and be shaped by the life of the group as well. It took a while longer, but eventually this belonging to the group, and then behaving like the group, led to him being introduced to Jesus, and making a decision to follow him. Now it made sense to Randy that the group was not just doing good deeds for good deeds’ sake, but rather that they had seen their vocation as having changed.

Joining Christ’s mission

There is no difference between being a disciple of Christ, and learning that we are sent as missionaries (those who participate with Christ on his mission) into the very neighbourhoods where we live. If we claim to be followers of Jesus, surely it means that we have been introduced to him, and that we have decided to model our lives after his, and have come to see that our vocation is that of joining Christ on mission, both in the places where we live, and the places where we work.

[1] Reginald Bibby, public lecture in Victoria, 2010.

Fresh Expressions: the Story Ten Years In

by .

When the Mission Shaped Church report of the Church of England was published in 2004, few of those in the group which wrote it could have had any idea of what would flow from it. In a very short time, it went on to become the bestselling report ever produced by the C of E. It also had a direct effect on the creation of what was at first called by the catchy title of “The Fresh Expressions Initiative of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York with the Methodist Council.”

Over the ensFXCA2uing years, Fresh Expressions had morphed into a broadly-based, ecumenical coalition consisting of ten denominations and seven “associate partners.” This coalition has produced a range of training resources which are increasingly in use, not only in Britain but also in many other parts of the world, including Canada.

The impact of the Fresh Expressions movement was now being felt and measured within the church in Britain. In 2012-13, the Church Army Research Unit in Britain surveyed ten out of the forty English dioceses to assess the impact of Fresh Expressions. It found that 75% of the people involved in fresh expressions of church were not previously involved in any form of church. As a result, Christians from many nations have become interested in what has been happening in increasingly secular, post-Christian and consumeristic Britain.

Starting in 2008, on the other side of the Atlantic, Fresh Expressions Canada has tried “to encourage the development of fresh expressions of church alongside more traditional expressions, with the aim of seeing a more mission-shaped church take shape throughout the country.”

To this end, Fresh Expressions Canada has adapted the Fresh Expressions training resources from the UK as well as developing some of our own. The Reimagining Church: Shaped for Mission course has been downloaded over three hundred times, and has been successfully run in many locations by a wide variety of leaders, including four Anglican bishops.

From its beginnings, the Fresh Expressions initiative has had a grass-roots ecumenism as one of its guiding values, and Fresh Expressions Canada has done its best to honour that value in various ways:

Churches of eight denominations (Anglican, United, Lutheran, Mennonite, Baptist, Christian Reformed, and Free Methodist) have made use of the Reimagining Church

 Students from at least half a dozen denominations have taken the Mission Shaped Ministry course (now renamed the Fresh Expressions Course).

 The twelve Vital Church Planting conferences (eight in Toronto, four elsewhere) which Fresh Expressions Canada has co-sponsored have welcomed attendees and presenters from a variety of church backgrounds.

For the past fourteen months, a small group of Christians, including a Baptist and a United Church member, as well as Anglicans, scattered across Canada from Whitehorse to Montreal, have been meeting online in real time, for two hours every two weeks, to follow The Fresh Expressions Course (Click here to watch a short video introducing the course.) This has provided great content and meaningful collegial support for practitioners in the field.

The most recent examples of grass-roots ecumenism at work are two developing collaborations with various parts of the United Church of Canada.

The first is a project involving Chris Pullenayegem, an animator for New Ministry Development. This is an eight month project which ran from April to December 2014. The United Church moderator, Gary Paterson, wrote about the project in his blog before Christmas:

Chris has organized a cohort of people wanting to learn more about “Fresh Expressions” (that is, some of the experiments in new ministries that have been developed in England – Google it – great stuff out there!) There are about 24 people now involved, (many of them the United Church ministry leaders who went to the Greenbelt Festival last summer, where they actually experienced a variety of Fresh Expressions). Chris has connected with the lead Fresh Expressions Canada staff person, who is helping resource the cohort.

Using content drawn largely from The Fresh Expressions Course, participants from across the country have met online in real time for an hour each month with Chris and me to look at different aspects of starting new missional projects. This is then followed-up by Chris, who meets online with the participants one-on-one.

The second is a potentially multi-year collaboration with the United Church’s Halton Presbytery (centred in Oakville, ON), where church teams, perhaps ten to begin with, each with an existing mission project, will covenant to ongoing training and reflection, using content drawn from The Fresh Expressions Course. This collaboration is due to start later this year.

The church these days is trying to adapt appropriately to a rapidly changing situation, and Fresh Expressions Canada is trying to match the training needs with suitable resources. With the experience we have built up over the past six years, we are able to come alongside churches and denominations who want to develop their skills in this challenging area.

Fresh Expressions Canada is committed to sharing the lessons that are coming out of the global Fresh Expressions movement as widely as possible.

Resources referred to:

For Reimagining Church materials, click here.

To download the Mission-Shaped Church report, click here.

To see the results of the Church Army research, click here.

Topsy-Turvy Theological Acts

by .

Tithing means church members giving to the church—right? But what if it meant a church giving back to its church members? Here is one church’s story of doing just that.

 

Pastor Laura Lorax
Pastor Laura Lorax

We did not have to squint or wear spectacles to sight this top-of-the-front-page headline on Christmas-past:“Tithing in Reverse” (Chicago Tribune). If something in the world is going the wrong way, putting or viewing it in reverse can be a good option. This story was an instance. It told the story of a place called LaSalle Street Church, a non-denominational congregation in Chicago, and its pastor, the Rev. Laura Truax.

“Tithing in reverse?” Tithing, for the old-time scripture writers, means bringing a portion of one’s income to the Lord’s house for the Lord’s purposes. “In reverse” would mean taking money from the Lord’s house out into…? As Chicago Tribune writer Manya Brachear Pashman tells it, four of Chicago’s Protestant congregations recently shared a $1.6 million windfall. That, by itself, is a story “in reverse.” How often do churches get windfalls?

However, rather than sit back and count the money, Truax and, one presumes, LaSalle Church leaders, handed out $500 checks to hundreds of church members, “no strings attached.” No, this was not a case of “the Prosperity Gospel” paying off.

No strings attached? Worshipers could pocket the money or invest it or give it to cherished causes and persons in need. No one needs three guesses to learn what happened to most “tithing in reverse” funds. The newspaper allocated two pages to stories of people who put their tithe-in-reverse to creative uses, but theirs is another story.

Truax is not Santa Claus nor an accountant but a preacher, so she preached a bit when Pashman interviewed her. Of course, Judaism and other faiths also have possibilities for reverses in understandings, but this week we listen to Truax’s application: “The birth of Jesus was the most generous act of humankind. In the Christian interpretation, God trusted his son to Joseph, a carpenter and trusted Mary to be a good mother.”

And now? “Members [of Lasalle Street Church] have put their $500 gifts toward a skate park in Amman, Jordan, a scholarship fund for engineering students, an eyeglass ministry, a no-kill animal shelter, food pantries, homeless shelters and struggling family members.” And to reverse the reverse, “A few endorsed their checks right back to the church.”

“Tithing in reverse” would appeal to anyone who favors the “topsy-turvy” theology that is at the heart of Christmas and all the other days among Christian worshipers. Theologians or philosophers like Paul Ricoeur argue that one will never understand a parable of Jesus unless one catches the idea that everything in all of them is “topsy-turvy.”

In a world where so much is wrong, we note actions or hear stories in which much is righted when seen “in reverse” or turned upside down. We could not let the season pass without focusing on one story of the season’s meaning. Since it occurred locally, with its setting and cast and character and author familiar to us, it was a natural. Sightings could also have compiled a plethora of news and feature clips from around the world, but one sermon is enough for the end-of-year week.

Back to the headline: why else feature this story in Sightings? Its presence here is one counter-indicator against most religion coverage in a world where so often the religious and their institutions make news because of failures, corruptions, declines, and death-dealing.

Pastor Truax and our LaSalle Street neighbors model the alternative ways of generosity, hospitality, and imagination. As the weeks go by, we’ll see and report on plenty of things that feature reverses—and some reverses of reverses.

Source:

Pashman, Manya Brachear. “Church gives congregants $500 each to do good.” Chicago Tribune, December 25, 2014, Local News. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-lasalle-street-church-reverse-tithing-met-20141224-story.html#page=1.

Martin E. Marty, is the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of the History of Modern Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School. His biography, publications, and contact information can be found at www.memarty.com.

This article is reproduced with kind permission from Sightings, a weekly article from the Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion in the University of Chicago Divinity School.

 

To read previous issues of Sightings, visit http://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings-archive. To subscribe, visit https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings (the link is at the bottom of that page). To comment, email the Editor, Myriam Renaud, at DivSightings@gmail.com

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

by .

How an ancient liturgical custom prepares us for Christmas—and for evangelism.

I was on sabbatical recently. Well, OK, not a real sabbatical. It was only four hours long. It was actually a “Brown Bag Sabbatical,” one of the innovative programs being offered by Wycliffe Serves!–the new department I direct at the college.[i] But that mini-sabbath served the same purpose as a longer sabbatical: refreshment, fresh ideas and (as of this moment) writing.

The day was led by Sister Constance Joanna from the Sisters of St John the Divine in Willowdale, in the north of Toronto, and she introduced us to the “O antiphons.” That may be an unfamiliar term, but if you have ever sung “O come, O come, Emmanuel” at this time of year, you are in fact already familiar with the O antiphons, since the hymn is based directly on them.O come emmanuel2

Obscure liturgical trivia?

The O antiphons probably came into being in monasteries of the early church and were used widely by the eighth century, as a way of preparing for Christmas. An antiphon is the short piece of choral music sung immediately before and after each psalm and canticle, often a single sentence, to introduce and then to reinforce the theme of the psalm. The O antiphons were just such pieces, one for each of the seven days leading up to Christmas Day, and sung at evening prayer before and after the Magnificat, Mary’s hymn of thanksgiving in Luke 1. And the “O”? Quite simple, really: each one begins with an “O.”

So why is this more than an obscure piece of liturgical trivia, useless in our more streamlined world? And how on earth might it have anything to do with evangelism?

Listen first to what the antiphons say:

  1. O Wisdom, from the mouth of the Most High, you reign over all things to the ends of the earth: come and teach us how to live. 
  1. O Lord, and head of the house of Israel, you appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and you gave the law on Sinai: come with outstretched arm and ransom us. 
  1. O Branch of Jesse, standing as a sign among the nations, all kings will keep silence before you and all peoples will summon you to their aid: come, set us free and delay no more. 
  1. O Key of David and sceptre of the house of Israel, you open and none can shut; you shut and none can open: come and free the captives from prison. 
  1. O Morning Star, splendour of the light eternal and bright Sun of righteousness: come and enlighten all who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death. 
  1. O King of the nations, you alone can fulfil their desires: Cornerstone, you make opposing nations one: come and save the creature you fashioned from clay. 
  1. O Emmanuel, hope of the nations and their Saviour: come and save us, Lord our God. 

Three aspects relate to evangelism.

The O’s speak of Jesus

First, each antiphon focuses on a characteristic of Jesus Christ: he is Wisdom, he is Lord, he is Branch of Jesse, he is the Key of David, he is the Morning Star, and he is Emmanuel.

Evangelism, whether in conversation or in preaching, is not in the first place about trying to prove the existence of God, or wrestling with the problem of evil. In the first place, it is helping people see what Jesus is like. And this is what he is like.

One Muslim convert to Christianity saw the implications of this, perhaps more clearly than long-term Christians do, when he said, “I am a Christian for one reason alone—the absolute worshipability of Jesus Christ. By that word, I mean that I have found no other being in the universe who compels my adoration as he has done.”[ii]

The Jesus of the O antiphons is supremely worshipable. Our brown bag meditation on the O’s reminded me of this truth.

The O’s remind us of the whole story

Second, the whole of the Christian story is told in the O antiphons. They begin with Jesus as Wisdom, the agency of creation (Proverbs 8:22-31). The next three speak of God’s calling of the people of Israel. He is their Lord, who called them, sought to teach them the law, and set them free from captivity. Then Jesus is the “branch of Jesse,” a king descended from David and destined to rule over the world in righteousness. And this same king is the “key” of David, with power and compassion able to set the captives free.

The last three speak of Jesus more directly. He is the Morning Star, the first sign of the dawning of God’s new creation. He is King of the nations, in submission to whose rule is found world peace. And finally—the climax of the seven—Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us.

These days, we often speak of “the Christian story” instead of “the Christian faith.” And conversion is not so much “accepting the faith” as “allowing God to work my story into his Big Story.” It’s a very useful metaphor.

But what is that Big Story? The O’s remind us: it is a story of a good world gone wrong, the story of a creator who takes upon his shoulders the responsibility of putting things right—even at the cost of his own life. God’s story is about the Spirit of Jesus at work in the world, drawing men and women together into a new community of apprentices who work with God towards the renewal of all things. And it is a story with the ultimate happy ending, when all wrongs are put right, God brings down the curtain on this story, and a new one opens.

Evangelism is not talking about the forgiveness of sins, or discovering meaning in life, or finding hope beyond the grave, in isolation from the telling of the whole story. Sin only makes sense if this is God’s good world which we have messed up. Meaning in life can’t be divorced from the purposes of God in the world. And the resurrection is not just a guarantee of life after death, but the turning point in God’s bringing about a whole new creation. The O antiphons remind us of this big picture.

The O’s and the logic of prayer

Finally, the O antiphons speak of prayer. Each one begins with “O,” but each one includes a “come”: come and teach us how to live; come with outstretched arm and ransom us; come set us free and delay no more; come and free the captives from prison; come and enlighten all who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death; come and save the creature you fashioned from clay; come and save us, Lord our God.

I confess that, when I teach about evangelism, I don’t say enough about prayer. But my hunch is that most people don’t come to faith unless someone is praying for them. And what is conversion to Christ except learning to pray: Lord, please accept me; Lord, forgive me; Lord, take my life. The O’s remind me that once I realise who Jesus is, I cannot help but see my neediness—and that in turn leads me to prayer.

I have a fancy definition of evangelism that I teach to students. But someone recently suggested a much simpler one: “evangelism is overflow.” And that’s right. Overflow of awareness of the majesty of Jesus Christ. Overflow of wonder at the big story that the love of God is writing about this world. And overflow of prayer, both praise and petition, to this same God made known to us in Jesus Christ. They’re all there, in the O antiphons of Advent.

O come, O come, Emmanuel.

 

[i] For details of Brown Bag Sabbaticals and other Wycliffe Serves! programs, see wycliffeserves.ca.

[ii] Quoted in Max Warren, I Believe in the Great Commission (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 1976), 152.

Ignatius for Evangelicals?

by .

How do you nurture your spiritual life moment by moment? A 16th century Roman Catholic has something surprising to offer to Christians of different traditions, even today

Ignatius Loyola (1491—1556) is often seen as head of the Pope’s anti-Reformation shock troops in the 16th century. Like most one-line characterizations, however, that is a caricature. Certainly Ignatius was the founder of the Jesuits, perhaps the most powerful Roman Catholic missionary movement ever. Certainly there were Jesuits at the Council of Trent (1545-1563), which set out to counter Protestant “heresies.” And, equally true, we do know that at least once Loyola personally engaged in debate with Protestants. His legacy in the history of the church, however, is both deeper and wider than that, for Catholics and Protestants alike

The story in brief is this.

Having grown up in Spain, at the age of thirty Ignatius was wounded in battle against the French. While recovering, there being nothing more interesting to read, he read a life of Christ and a book about the saints—and, somewhat like one of his heroes, St Francis, had a mystical conversion experience. His life was never the same again. The year was 1531.

Quite soon, he found that people started coming to him for spiritual advice and direction, and discovered that he had a gift in this area. Over time, his direction evolved into a more or less standard form now known as the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola, based on how he had experienced God’s work in his own life. Gradually some to whom he had given the Exercises, and who had been dramatically affected by them, grew into a group of between six and ten friends who lived together and engaged together in a ministry of preaching, catechism and care for the poor. In 1537, this group decided to call themselves the Companions of Jesus and in 1540, the Society of Jesus was given official Papal approval, and Loyola was elected Superior. Not that all was straightforward, however: twice, Loyola was imprisoned and brought before the Inquisition, who were suspicious of his teaching! (Both times he was acquitted.) Loyola died in 1556 and was canonized in 1609, by which time the Jesuits numbered around 15,000 and were at work in countries as widespread as China, Peru and Ethiopia.

saint-ignatius-the-pilgrim
Statue of Saint Ignatius the Pilgrim at Guelph

These days, much of the old suspicion between Roman Catholics and Protestants has evaporated, thank God, and we are at least more understanding of our differences. Wycliffe students often take courses at Regis, TST’s Jesuit College, and Jesuit students have been known to take courses at Wycliffe. One perhaps unexpected fruit of that greater understanding has been increased Protestant interest in the Ignatian Exercises. The best-known way to do this is during a forty-day retreat, paralleling Christ’s forty days in the wilderness. Loyola House (the name is not coincidental) in Guelph is favourite place for people to do the Exercises this way. (Check out www.ignatiusguelph.ca.) Many others, however, do the Exercises in the course of everyday life, simply taking an hour a day for it (the so-called “19th annotation,” since it is in section 19 of his instructions that Ignatius explains this). I did this, following the course of the liturgical year, in 2009-2010.

 

 So what is the attraction of Ignatian spirituality for Protestants, not least for evangelicals?

I suspect there are four areas of resonance.

One is that the Exercises require a close engagement with Scripture. A distinctive of Ignatius’ approach is that the student imagines him or herself in the Bible story, whether it be with the shepherds at the manger, with Jesus as he leaves Nazareth and walks to the Jordan river, or with Mary as she encounters the risen Jesus. Many insights come through this contemplative engagement with scripture that might never come through academic study alone. Even familiar stories take on new dimensions. I confess that, when the Exercises required me to read the Prodigal Son for the third time—yes, the third—I was sceptical: “I saw something new the first two times. Give me a break! Surely there can’t possibly be anything else!” But of course there was. (It became a joke with my spiritual director that every week I would say, “Well, I’d read this story a thousand times, but I saw something new this time.”)

 Secondly, Ignatius could almost have coined the phrase evangelicals are notorious for, “a personal relationship with Jesus.” As Ignatius guides us through the Gospels, always the emphasis is on what you might say to Jesus and what he might say to you. Of course, orthodox Catholic that he is, for Ignatius, that “personal relationship” is never free-wheeling like that of some Protestants, but is always securely in a Trinitarian context (most of Ignatius’ mystical visions were of the Trinity), and in submission to the teaching of the Church. Yet at the heart of the Exercises is a yearning to be a more faithful and dedicated disciple of Jesus, and to learn all that he has to teach.

 Thirdly, the Jesuits are a missionary Order with a clear passion to evangelize the world: this obviously appeals to the missionary heart of evangelicalism. Unlike many Orders, the Jesuits did not (and do not) build or live in monasteries. They needed (and need) to be flexible and nimble for the sake of Christ’s mission. According to biographer Philip Caraman, Loyola insisted that “Jesuits . . . must have one foot on the road, ready to hasten from place to place.” Ignatian spirituality therefore is internal, personal and highly portable—though again, that is not in isolation but is set in the context of communal worship and frequent attendance at Mass.

 The last point of resonance came home to me in a comment by Caraman, that Loyola’s “contemporaries . . . saw in him, first and foremost, not a champion of Roman Catholicism, still less a hammer of heretics, but a passionate believer in holiness, reaching out with his whole being towards God.” A characteristic of evangelicalism is to recognize and be drawn to that passion for God, even across traditional barriers. Counter-intuitive though it may seem, and despite differences of culture and theology, evangelicals recognise in Ignatius something of a kindred spirit. Within that mysterious and wonderful thing called the Body of Christ, there is much to learn from him. Maybe you would like to try doing the Exercises some time—either during a forty-day retreat or following the 19th Annotation—and discover it for yourself.

  • Get a Good Idea once a month

    Get the Good Ideas e-newsletter monthly on how to share your faith and build up the people around you. It’s completely free and our gift to you.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.