Religion – General

Not Our House, But God’s

by Ross Lockhart. March 29, 2021

In children’s ministry over the years, I have often pulled out the guitar and sung the famous line from Richard Avery: “The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple, the church is not a resting place, the church is a people!” While the affirmation that the church is not a physical building made of human hands is wonderful to sing, Covid-19 has put that truth claim to the test. Tim Soerens writes in his latest book, Everywhere You Look that as a parent he decided, to avoid using the phrase “we are going to church,” instead opting for expressions like “we are going to a church building or a church gathering.” His purpose was to avoid confusing his children regarding Christian identity versus participation.[1] The church is not the building. We’ve been saying it for years, but how has Covid-19 tested that sentiment for your congregation, and what implications might it have for our evangelistic witness?

What is “the Church”?

As a missiologist, I approach ecclesiology from a particular perspective. The church is not a fraternal organization, country club or social service agency. At its core, the church is not a building for religious services or yard sales, or a rental space for choirs or yoga groups. Instead, “the church is missionary by its very nature,”^[2] and that nature impacts any expression of a Christian community that is gathered and sent. The church is missionary by nature since, as it defines itself as the body of Christ, it is consistent with the nature of God, and as such, “mission is not primarily an activity of the church, but an attribute of God.”^[3] The church is the sign, instrument and foretaste of the Kingdom,[4] a place where we discern Father, Son and Holy Spirit at work in our local context, and become witnesses famously summarized as “the congregation is the hermeneutic of the gospel.”[5]

It is important for us to note that “Church”, Ekklesia in the Greek, is mentioned 114 times in the New Testament and never once does it mean “building”. Ekklesia means “the called-out people”, folks who are summoned out, an invited concourse of people, an assembly. It doesn’t matter where they gather, but who is gathered and why—they are God’s gathered, equipped and sent people, participating in God’s reconciling mission made known to us in Jesus and continued even now by the Holy Spirit.

The post-Covid church

In some ways this Covid-19 disruption feels a little bit like the dilemma faced by the Jewish people after the destruction of the Temple by the Roman forces in 70 CE, following yet another failed rebellion.[6] The result was a shift of worship and the centre of religious/relational life from the temple to the synagogue network in Israel, and throughout the Empire in the Jewish diaspora. In this sense, because of the closure of our church buildings due to Covid-19, we were forced to expand our understanding of ecclesiology from seeing church buildings to seeing our homes as our worship centres. But shouldn’t they have been all along? Our house has become God’s house!

The post-Covid church has an opportunity to help make the home and neighbourhood (what missiologist David Fitch would call the dotted and half circle[7]) a more fulsome place for discerning the presence of Jesus in everyday life. Darrell Guder has suggested that witness moves beyond the traditional understanding of evangelism as a speech act of sharing the gospel. Instead, Guder argues that we are called to be “be, do and say” witnesses in a more holistic way. How has this time of being “deployed at home” for Jesus shaped the way that your being (character) is an evangelistic witness? How have you enacted signs of mercy, justice and healing in partnership with the Triune God (doing) through evangelistic witness? How have your conversations been shaped and blessed (saying) with an evangelistic witness?

Being, Doing, Saying

For the two years before Covid-19, I served as the Interim Moderator of a faithful, small Presbyterian church in the most violent and troubled neighbourhood in Surrey, BC. The church had vibrant outreach ministries and faithful leadership, and just a few months before Covid-19 they welcomed a new pastor. I checked in a few weeks after the start of pandemic restrictions to see how the congregation was doing. I was delighted to hear that instead of retreating online to focus solely on their “member’s needs,” the church wanted to continue serving their homeless neighbours, with whom they had built such good relationships over the years.

By the time the local newspaper rolled around in June for an article, they were packing their 10,000^th bagged lunch of the pandemic, feeding their neighbours both on the steps of the church and through their local partner, Surrey Urban Mission. Their longtime loving relationship with neighbours (being-character) encouraged them to show Christ’s love through daily meals (doing-action), and when asked by the media and others why they were doing such a thing during a pandemic, the leadership (in true 1 Peter 3:15 style) had a testimony to share about the saving power of Jesus (say-speech act).

How have you been engaged in the being, doing and saying of evangelistic witness with your local church in these Covid-19 times? What might you try at this time to demonstrate that the church is not the building, but the redeemed people of God in Jesus Christ? How might you look back years from now and celebrate the risk and reward of evangelistic witness to a sin-sick, anxious and watching world?

[1] Tim Soerens, Everywhere You Look: Discovering the Church Right Where You Are, (Downers Grove: IVP, 2020), 17.

[2] Darrell Guder, “From Mission and Theology to Missional Theology,” Princeton Seminary Bulletin 24, no. 1 (2003): 47.

[3] David Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1991), 389-393.

[4] Newbigin, The Open Secret: An introduction to the theology of mission, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 110.

[5] Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, (Grand Rapids: Eerdman, 1989), 227.

[6] The destruction of the temple also had a tremendous impact on Jewish Christians who were people of the Way.

[7] David Fitch, Faithful Presence: Seven disciplines that have shaped the Church for Mission, (Downers Grove: IVP, 2016), 40. Fitch argues that Christians attend to the presence of the risen Christ in the close circle of Christian worship where Christ is host, in the dotted circle of our homes where we host others, and in the half circle of the community around us where we are guests.

Still Living in a Shutdown World: Has the Church Gone AWOL?

by Shawn Branch. March 1, 2021

We often hear that the life of a Christian is meant to be incarnational. As followers of Jesus, we are meant to be in the world, influencing others and making a difference, living a life modeled after Christ, doing our best to reflect Jesus to those around us.

Imagine a world in which we were forced to put this to the test, pushed away from everything that is comfortable and safe; imagine a world in which Sunday worship and small groups were off-limits. At one time this sounded unimaginable, but because of COVID-19 we have been invited to fully live out our incarnational faith.

Across Canada and beyond, church leaders began to scramble at the start of the pandemic. Our buildings were closed and empty, but quickly we were learning how to do YouTube and Zoom gatherings, trying to recreate the Sunday morning gathering—desperate to maintain normalcy. Yet it was evident that ‘normal’ was not going to be our reality, at least not in the foreseeable future. For this reason, many of us began to focus on survival, and we forgot our primary mandate as Christians.

The ‘new normal’ fuels its problems

Driving through our deserted streets, seeing building after building closed, I began to wonder if anyone outside our own membership had noticed that we were closed. As well as our in-person gatherings, many of our outreach ministries had been put on hold. How would we care for our neighbours in the midst of a pandemic? We began to see significant needs in our communities. Isolation and loneliness, which used to be hidden, became apparent—possibly because our extroverts were now forced to stay home as well. The fire of addiction was fueled by all this added time “to kill,” with sales of alcohol and other substances showing record highs, and with significant line-ups on display during the operating hours of these stores. But this is to say nothing of other more hidden addictions that operate primarily online, such as gambling and pornography.

As Christians, we shared memes that said, “The church is not closed, it is deployed.” Was this our way of allowing ourselves to be comfortable with this reality? We shared many platitudes, like “these are unprecedented times,” or “there is no guidebook for this,” both of which are true. When I read through Scripture and about moments in history, I wonder if Christians living in other eras felt the same way. Were they as tempted as we are to retreat to some semblance of normalcy?

God’s shalom for us

In the time leading up to the crucifixion, Jesus prepared the disciples for what was to come. Like us, when life became chaotic and confusing they returned to what was normal and what they understood. For them this meant fishing, whereas for us this meant replicating our Sunday gatherings. I believe the same words that Jesus spoke to the disciples are being spoken to us during these days—“Peace to you!” (Luke 24:36b)

In the midst of the chaos, confusion, frustration, and uncertainty, those words of shalom still have the power to bring life. Wholeness and tranquility from the One who breathed life into each of us continues to be extended in these days, just as it was to the disciples in those dark hours.

What is interesting is that as the Church, we are often not able to receive that word of peace because we haven’t been formed to receive it. Just as it is to our broader culture, that shalom is countercultural to what we understand. However, as agents of God’s Kingdom and bearers of Good News, it is our call to also be bearers of this shalom, and to be deeply formed by it ourselves.

And for others

Our challenge, now more than ever, is to communicate and impart that Good News and shalom to a world that has become indifferent. How many of our church leaders were asked to comment on where God is in the midst of this pandemic? N.T. Wright has written a wonderful commentary on that question, but was anyone outside our tents, outside our Christian circles, asking that question?

We are told that, statistically, a significant number of people still have belief in God, in some supreme being, or more commonly in a greater energy force outside of themselves. But those people take that question no further. Their lack of deeper seeking may suggest that they are comfortable knowing that something created them, but they believe that the Creator has since lost interest, and is simply relaxing on some cosmic beach. Welcome to deism, 2021.

As I walk through my neighbourhood, how do I share this Good News that I have received and the Hope that I have experienced? I believe now more than ever, we need to be equipping and empowering our people to be able to live as people of hope, to be able to tell our story, and share why we do what we do. It is not enough to simply be good people and hope that somehow people stumble upon the Gospel. We don’t need street-corner preachers. We need everyday people empowered to share their stories and to impact their neighbourhoods and communities.

Time to stand and move

I believe we have been given a freedom. Yes, the Church has been deployed. Are we willing to go? Or has the Church gone AWOL[1]? Our deployment means wrestling with how we bless and care for our neighbourhood. That will look different for every congregation and person, because our resources and skills are different, but it is time for all Christians to stand and move.

Let’s begin by asking God to open our eyes to see where people are living in isolation—let’s check in on them. Call or email them to make sure they are being cared for. Kids are now back in school amidst increased layoffs—do they have the school supplies or food for lunches they need? In some communities, our buildings served as safe spaces for people to meet and eat. How can we, safely, continue to provide this? Let us challenge ourselves to be creative and find ways to safely offer necessary help to our communities.

We go because we are sent. We go, with word and deed, because people are searching for hope and connection. As people of Hope, let’s give it away. To a world that is still in the midst of chaos, confusion and uncertainty, let us be bearers of God’s shalom.

[1] Absent without leave, or, more formally, absent without official leave.

‘Good News for Today’ in a time of pandemic . . . and beyond

by Graham Bland. January 29, 2021

When you are simply trying to be faithful, putting one foot in front of the other, the Spirit often provides a spark that ignites more of a fire than you ever anticipated. In March, at the beginning of this pandemic, while feeling hemmed in by shelter-in-place orders, we wondered how to help people stay connected with one another and engaged with the Gospel. One unexpected answer would emerge.

Early on in March, I felt I needed to send a personal video message to the congregation, with a Gospel focus, some words of encouragement and a call to prayer. I chose the Gospel from the daily office lectionary. There was no plan beyond that. For all I knew, it was a one-off.

Sharing ‘Good News for Today’

That evening, my wife and I thought it would be good to invite our Family Ministry Pastor to do a video, too. Of course, he agreed. The next day, it was Mona’s turn—my wife is our honorary assistant. But why stop at just the clergy team? Let’s see if the lay leaders of worship might join in; three of them have been studying theology. Three more videos followed. One full week of daily Gospel messages already! We left Sunday for worship to do its own work.

There was a good response to the videos and we were enjoying making them. Why not invite the other two lay leaders and a few others to contribute? Within three weeks, we had 20 people (including some couples) on a 15-day cycle, sharing Good News for Today. The Good News arrives in your inbox every morning at 9 a.m.; each day it features a different voice, a different face, on a two-and-a-half-week rotation. Some participants have prepared eleven or twelve Good News videos since March.

From the responses of the congregation and the participants, we believe this should continue and grow beyond the pandemic. Many members (between 50-80) of the congregation watch the videos each day and they often share them with friends and on Facebook.

“God writes straight with crooked lines”

Our people are digging into the Bible and into their own relationship with God in Christ. They are reading, raising questions, pondering together and seeking to allow the Good News to speak into this time of uncertainty and crisis.

Wycliffe College’s Christian Foundations book may have given us a head start with this. We used the book last year in a variety of ways. Sometimes, we used it to start a conversation in a parish team or committee meeting. Other groups gathered intentionally around its themes for an hour or two. Gradually people got more comfortable talking about their faith.

An old Iberian proverb (maybe from Teresa of Avila) says: “God writes straight with crooked lines.” You cannot know what the outcomes of new ventures will be.

Now, no straight line leads from our parish’s engagement with Christian Foundations directly to a daily Good News ministry in our congregation. Nor is it clear how sharing Good News videos in the pandemic with fellow parishioners will help our church to move into the future as a strong, vital, evangelistic church. Each occurrence is simply one step on our community’s unfolding journey on the Way of Jesus.

The way forward

The way forward disappears from view around the next curve. But allow me to hazard a few hunches about what it may be like:

God works with those who step out faithfully, allowing the Spirit to lead even when it feels safer to remain as they are. If, by stepping out, we make mistakes, God can definitely work with those. The ancient stories reflect this at every turn; God’s call is to follow, often with destination unknown.
Unlike the Cheshire Cat’s philosophy in Alice in Wonderland, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any path will get you there.” This stepping out is not about blundering along, but it is about wondering openly, then moving forward decisively, at each step. It is about being attentive to the Spirit and allowing yourself to respond, ready to say ‘Let’s go this way!’ without second-guessing yourself too much before you do.
Learning to be natural and confident about sharing Good News begins with encouraging one another to be open to our own and others’ questions, and moving beyond the need to always have the ‘right answers.’
Clergy who are nurturing Good News ministries will learn to not be hyper-vigilant about people’s theological (shall we say) inconsistencies, but, rather, to step together with them into the questions they raise.
A crisis like Covid-19 disrupts our need for safety so much that it may, ironically, open us up to risk and adventure in our spiritual lives. . . . Or maybe we just have more time to wonder about where God fits in a world that has been thrown into confusion?
Theologically, this is a very fertile time. Clichéd ways of thinking about our relationship with God are being disrupted. God is full of surprises—and just realizing that may itself disrupt our theological worldview.
Those who felt secure in their theological foundations are now called to re-think foundational questions. And these are the kinds of questions people ask once they begin to dig into the Word: What is God up to? How does Christ overcome the power of death? Where is the Spirit calling me/us to? What is Church for? What is mission now? Has ministry changed? Whom have we neglected pastorally (elders, or the vulnerable)? How will we worship in community now? What is our vision of the Kingdom of God?

The winding road beckons

The next step for our church is to wonder and listen for where the Spirit is nudging us now. This ministry is not just for the pandemic, so it will continue, but how? Will we begin to share these reflections beyond our church? People are finding courage to speak to one another about their faith. How will the same people now find courage to invite others—those in their circles of acquaintance, their friends and families—into the same conversations?

The winding (if not exactly ‘crooked’) road beckons. I am excited to see where God will take us.

Is There Good News beyond Toilet Paper and Hand Sanitizer?

by Ross Lockhart. November 30, 2020

“I’m sorry, sir,” the drugstore cashier in New Jersey said politely, “we’re all out of hand sanitizer and the toilet paper is going really fast too.” It was the first week of March and I was on a break from my research and writing in the Princeton Theology Seminary Library. When I had left Vancouver a few days earlier, there was growing concern in the media regarding the virus spreading around the world, but life appeared normal. By the time I got back to Vancouver a few days later, everything was shutting down and we were living fully into the Covid-19 reality that has defined the rest of 2020.

Church-focused adaptive leadership solutions

In the blink of an eye, church leadership has shifted congregations from a known form of leadership to a dizzying array of adaptive leadership solutions. Who could have ever guessed at the beginning of 2020 that so many churches would become little television studios and that we would be experiencing Bible studies, pastoral care and even Communion online? While churches and their leaders have been working hard to care for church members, isolated and anxious during this pandemic, we must also ask how this has impacted our ministries of evangelism – of helping people take steps towards faith in Jesus. Many pastoral leaders are delighted that their online worship attendance has increased compared to what they might see in the pews.

Could this be an evangelistic outreach opportunity? Is it a chance for people to move beyond what Don Everts and others call the first threshold of evangelism, “trust”? Or is it simply a “recycling of the saints,” as believers hop from one online church service to another? And then there is the research from Barna Group suggesting that up to 1/3 of regular worshippers have given up on connecting with their congregation online during the pandemic. Australian missiologist Mike Frost pushes this further by wondering if the online buffet of worship services might set back the gains of the missional church movement and return us to an attractional model of church, whereby people are encouraged to be consumers of religion looking for the best “worship production.”

Evangelism and a community of affable agnostics

But do you notice how all of these questions are still church-focused, and not directed towards the world around us that Jesus died to save? While some in the church have assumed that a global pandemic would bring people flooding back to church for answers and assurance, for those of us who live in highly secularized places like Vancouver there’s no such thing as “returning” to church. So, what might evangelism look like to a community of affable agnostics in a pandemic who, while fearful and anxious, have never turned to God before in their lives?

Of course, a pre-Covid church too often assumed that our secular neighbour was really just an anonymous Christian, to borrow Karl Rahner’s language. In other words, the church assumed that in a time of crisis, people would naturally turn towards God like Daniel did in the lion’s den or Meshach, Shadrack and Abednego did in the fiery furnace. But stop and think: in those cases, their faith in God got them into trouble. Instead, this is a good time to check our assumptions from a pre-Covid church about what our secular friends think they really need.

With Boomers and Gen Xers, the line was what? “When they have children of their own, they’ll come back to church.” For Millennials we said, “They’re spiritual but not religious.” In other words, don’t worry, their vague spiritual references are really just an underdeveloped Christianity. As Jen Twenge’s book iGen demonstrates through solid research, the next cohort – Generation Z – is now often neither spiritual nor religious. We are fully secularized as a society, living into what Charles Taylor would call secularity 3.

Jesus at work in our relationships close to home

But what if God was giving our churches the opportunity to learn more about our actual neighbours, secular or otherwise, in this time of disruption? What if, like Jay Pathak and Dave Ruyon’s book The Art of Neighboring, we were to pay (pray?) attention more closely to sharing life and attending to the presence of Jesus at work in our relationships close to home, including those that we see more often now since so many are working from home? What if, instead of an evangelism program, we challenged our church members to see themselves as evangelists, or perhaps first and foremost what Alan Roxburgh calls “detectives of divinity”, wherever God places them?

Could we make room in our online worship not just to comfort the faithful but to have “God sightings” that allow us to share where we have seen the Triune God at work? Could we have prayer requests for specific neighbours and friends whom we long to see in a relationship with Jesus? Could the Word preached and the bread broken focus on equipping us as missionary disciples, saved to be sent into a world that is fearful, anxious and ready for redemption? What if this time of isolation was understood as a time reminiscent of Luke 10, where we have been sent on a mission to the places we call home in order to testify to the saving work of the Triune God in our midst?

Will Jesus rejoice when we return together in the church building after all of this is done, like the disciples regrouping at the end of Luke 10, or will we look back and discover, as the servant did in Matthew 25, that the talent we were given has been buried just when it was needed most by the world?

Preaching on Evangelism: Three Key New Testament Passages

by Philip Der. November 3, 2020

When I was a newly ordained preacher, my hope was that once I preached on evangelism, my congregants would go out and share the good news with others, and that church membership would grow steadily from that point on. After many years of ministry, that hope has been disappointed time and again. As preachers, we might want to blame this state of affairs on parishioners, reasoning that they are slow to accept and listen, or that they are too unenthusiastic to act. Yet we all know that laying blame on others without exploring the root cause of the issue is futile. So how can we, as preachers, best encourage our people to share their faith with the many people whose lives intersect with their own?

After doing much listening, I came to discover the following three reasons for my congregants’ lack of passion for evangelism, and three passages of Scripture that, when preached well, could help address these challenges.

Not that excited about their belief or their community of faith.

“John 15:1 -17, “I am the Vine, you are the branches”, is a great place to start to counteract a lack of passion for the faith. It’s pointless to preach on evangelism if our church community lacks a deep connection with Jesus and with one another. If a newcomer walks into a church and finds it to be cold and unfriendly, it is very unlikely this person will return. Hence we must first work on building a loving community before asking our members to reach out to others.

Jesus asked us to abide in him as he abides in us (John 15:4). If we depart from him, we can do nothing (John 15:5). Jesus’ commandment was ”Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). We must encourage church members to love one another by caring, listening, supporting, and praying for each other. With permission, we can give real-life examples in our sermons to congratulate some of their good works. I have found that when positive energy is instilled in the community from the pulpit, members feel acknowledged and recognize that their pastors appreciate their ministries. It is then more likely that they will do more and also feel great about their church.

Everyone needs encouragement and appreciation, and the Church is a good place for us to practice love. Building up a Christlike and loving community within our church is a key first step in encouraging evangelism. People in the world long to belong to this kind of community, and Christians who feel positive about their church are naturally inclined to invite people to ‘come and see’ for themselves.

No idea how to start off a conversation about their faith or what to say.

John 4:7-26, 26-42, “The Woman by the Well”. Jesus often spoke to strangers. He started a conversation with a stranger by asking for something, for a drink of water. He did not tell her that she needed to confess her sins and repent. Instead, Jesus asked her for something that he did not have.

If in trying to share our faith we try to sell something, or if our talk makes people feel bad about themselves, our dialogue will go nowhere. Asking for help is a way to empower others to trust us. It is often a good way to start a conversation. When the woman was curious about a Jew speaking to her, Jesus then invited her to ask him for living water. This time she was really interested in getting the living water, which would quench her thirst forever.

From verses 9-15, we notice how Jesus’ conversation was creating interest and finding common ground. Likewise, in our conversations with others we should create curiosity and find shared ground. Ultimately, we hope our conversation will lead to Jesus, the Messiah (John 4:26). The Samaritan woman, stigmatized by having been with so many different husbands, was changed from being isolated and ashamed to courageously telling others about Jesus and about her past (John 4:39). It was meeting Jesus that brought about this dramatic change. The rest of the encounter was the work of the Holy Spirit.

Hence, our preaching on this passage should remind our people that conversations should always ultimately point people to Jesus. When others meet Jesus, the Holy Spirit leads them into relationship with God.

Don’t know enough about the Bible to tell others about Jesus.

The irony here is that no one in the Bible knows the whole of Scripture. What made people become evangelists was not how much they knew, but rather how much they trusted the Holy Spirit. Hence, a third key text for preaching on evangelism is Acts 8:26-40, “Philip and the Ethiopian Official”.

Philip already had a successful ministry in Samaria (Acts 8:5-8) where crowds listened to his preaching, he cast out many evil spirits, and healed the sick. Nevertheless, the angel of the Lord sent him to minister to one man, an Ethiopian eunuch, on a road in the wilderness. A lot of the time we do not understand God’s will and direction to us as Christians. The key, however, is to trust in and submit to the Lord. We are God’s servants and we are Jesus’ witnesses. We should be ready to follow his lead, even if it is to talk to just one person in the wilderness. When the Spirit calls, we should be ready to follow, even when we are in the prime of our ministry.

Philip realized that he was part of Jesus’ sent community. Ministry is not about our success, but it is about the Missio Dei, the mission of God. When the Spirit sent Philip to the wilderness, he went. When the Spirit urged him to go over to the Ethiopian’s chariot, he did. He was no doubt surprised that an Ethiopian official was reading a passage about the suffering Messiah from the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 53). We have no idea why this Ethiopian was reading the book of Isaiah or why he became interested in the Saviour. We only know that the Holy Spirit worked beyond anything we could have imagined. This remains true today.

James Hunter would describe Philip’s action as “Faithful Presence.”^[1] It means that our presence with others represents God’s presence among us. We only need to be faithful to the Spirit. The Holy Spirit will show us what to do and what to say. As God is faithful to us, we are to be faithful to others too. Evangelism is not simply about telling others to believe in Jesus; it is about God’s Spirit working in us.

Take heart, preachers!

God has given us the privilege of growing the people of God in the faith so that they can faithfully share what they’ve come to know with the people all around them. May your preaching of these three texts, and many others, encourage the faithful witness of Christians in all our churches and right across our land.

^[1] James Davison Hunter, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World (New York: Oxford UP, 2010), 244.

Doing Evangelism in ‘the New Normal’: Stories from around the World

by Jonathan Tysick. October 1, 2020

According to two recent studies, Canadians are more anxious, depressed and lonely in light of “the new normal” that the COVID-19 pandemic has thrust upon us since March 2020.[1] In one study, nearly 25% of respondents said that they were drinking more alcohol in response to these mental health struggles.[2] In more encouraging news, data from 95 countries has shown that Google searches related to prayer are at an all-time high, as much as 50% greater than before the COVID-19 pandemic. [3] Furthermore, Bible apps are being downloaded at unprecedented rates and people seem more spiritually hungry than at any time in recent memory.[4]

Learning from others

How can we as the Canadian church meet anxious, spiritually hungry people and share the good news of Jesus with them while being vigilant regarding COVID-19 health protocols? As North American church leaders, we can often tend to feel isolated, forgetting that our South American, African, European, Asian and Australasian brothers and sisters in Christ are facing similar challenges related to sharing the Gospel during the pandemic. How have individuals, churches and ministries in these settings been sharing the Gospel in their unique contexts, and what can we learn from them?

In Togo

In the small West African country of Togo, the government put measures in place preventing gatherings of 100 people or more, closing borders and calling recent travellers to self-isolate. While respecting these restrictions, some missionaries in Togo have been able to share the good news through their “End Bible Poverty Now” ministry. Cameroonian missionary Moise Ndjomou (serving with the organisation Youth With a Mission or YWAM) and his co-workers have distributed over one thousand memory sticks containing audio Bibles to nominal Christians and non-believers. Many of these people are coming to faith in Christ or seeking greater discipleship as a result of hearing Scripture in their mother tongue for the first time. Despite the difficulties of conditions due to the pandemic, Ndjomou is determined to continue in this ministry, saying that “everyone has the right to listen to the word of God in their mother language.” Is there any way that we as Canadians can share Scripture with people who have never had the opportunity to engage with it?

In Singapore

In the Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore, strict COVID-19 related restrictions were put in place, resulting in the majority of the population being homebound (except for essential errands and medical appointments) between April 7^th and June 20^th.[5] In light of this, Pentecostal pastor Daniel Joseph (a Singaporean now living in Canada) of Outreach Revival Ministries constructed an evangelism course with the goal of equipping Singaporean young people to share the good news of Christ over social media. The fifteen participants then put their recent training into practice by hosting several evangelistic events over Zoom that were centred on basic apologetic questions about the Christian faith. Joseph is pleased with how these young people are now excited to share the Gospel and how seeds of hope are being planted online: “My firm conviction is that every challenge is an opportunity for the Gospel to spread.” How can we as the Canadian church equip people to share the Gospel online? How can we use technology to share the good news of Christ with people?

In Portugal

Saulo Porto, a Brazilian missionary in Portugal (also with YWAM), is using Instagram and art to undertake this task. Although not usually very active on social media, Porto was encouraged by friends to become more engaged in light of the pandemic. Since May 12^th he has been painting a watercolour picture every day and posting it to Instagram alongside reassuring words that encourage people to seek an active relationship with God. Porto says, “My goal is to give hope and disciple people in a very simple way.” Since this time he has seen the number of his Instagram followers nearly double (to around 3500) and his beautiful art has been published on various Christian and non-Christian websites and is sparking conversations around the world. You can check out his work @sauloportomme on Instagram.

In South Africa

South Africa has had one of the strictest COVID-19 lockdowns in the world, with residents being confined to their homes (except for grocery shopping and medical appointments) from March 26^th—May 1^st.[6] Regardless of this, Phinius and Katlyn Sebatsane, a South-African/American missionary couple serving with YWAM in Cape Town, have continued their ministry to the homeless. They share the Gospel and provide trauma counselling, job training, and opportunities for discipleship to destitute people in the beach suburb of Muizenberg. Because of the government-imposed ban on the sale of alcohol and tobacco products, many people the Sebatsanes serve have experienced forced abstinence from alcohol and drugs and have a renewed desire for sobriety and rehabilitation. Describing their ministry, Phinius Sebatsane says, “These people are not our projects, but our family…we seek to give them a hand up, not a handout.” Who are the most vulnerable in our own Canadian communities and how can the Church meet their holistic needs during these difficult times?

In the UK

Despite COVID-19 restrictions in the United Kingdom, Ackroydon Community Church (Church of England) in South West London is attempting their best to do just that. Community outreach pastor James Holloway says, “Right now we have the opportunity to show those in need the love that Christ has lavished upon us – it’s time we start loving our neighbours in practical ways.” The church has been doing this by visiting government housing in their area, knocking on every apartment and ensuring that people in need are connected to charities that provide food and children’s educational activities. This has also led to non-Christians joining online evangelistic programs such as Alpha and greater discipleship for those who are already believers.

In the face of these dark times confronting our world, may we be encouraged that our Father is drawing many people to himself from every nation. And may Canadian believers, pastors, and churches across our land be similarly encouraged to follow the lead of the Spirit of Christ who continues to be at work and present in his international and diverse body.

[1] https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/anxiety-and-depression-have-spiked-among-canadians-survey-1.4919741 and https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/camh-mental-health-canadians-1.5614447 .

[2] https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/camh-mental-health-canadians-1.5614447

[3] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/pandemic-prompts-surge-interest-prayer-google-data-show/

[4] https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/religion/2020/04/how-coronavirus-leading-religious-revival

[5] https://www.gov.sg/article/circuit-breaker-extension-and-tighter-measures-what-you-need-to-know

[6] https://coronavirus.westerncape.gov.za/frequently-asked-questions/about-lockdown/frequently-asked-questions-about-lockdown-alert-level-5

Engage Your Friends’ Spiritual Questions: Run Alpha in the Workplace

by Liam MacKichan. September 2, 2020

Questions can be scary – particularly when they are asked of us and we feel as if we do not have an adequate answer. What is the last question someone asked you about God? More specifically, what is the last question someone asked you about God that you could not answer?

Questions can also be powerful – particularly in conversation, as a means of revealing our intentions, misconceptions, and desires. What is a significant question you find yourself asking God in the season you find yourself in today?

Questions about life, faith and God.

Questions also revealed an opportunity to run Alpha in my workplace. I found that many of my coworkers had questions about life, faith and God. While nearly everyone I work with was open to discussing these questions (or debating them, in a few cases), I found myself frustrated at the lack of opportunity to have these conversations. Many people work late and some commute in from far away, catching trains out of the city immediately after work. Most days, there was little time before or after working hours to meet with my coworkers.

Coming home from work one day, I went to God in prayer and asked what he was already doing in my workplace and how I could participate in his work. Over the course of the next few weeks, I received growing clarity about what God was doing. He was leading me to engage with my colleagues’ spiritual questions. I thought of The Alpha Course.

I was initially disappointed when I learned from our Human Resources representative that I would not be able to hold meetings for Alpha in the boardroom at work. Yet, shortly afterward, I was drawn into several fruitful conversations about faith at the staff Christmas party. Eventually, God made a space for me to host Alpha at St. Andrews Church, located next to my office. The group met weekly and consisted of, on average, six or seven people who work in and around the downtown area. We worked through the twelve sessions of Alpha, replacing the Alpha Weekend with an Alpha Lunch.

They actually came back.

What I learned throughout this experience is that questions can be left unanswered. In fact, having all the answers all of the time can be suspicious. How can we expect people to be open and vulnerable with us if we are not open and vulnerable about our own questions and doubts? Despite the many questions I did not answer (or could not answer), I found people coming back.

What came as no surprise, but is worth emphasizing here, is the absolute centrality of relationship when it comes to evangelism. Relationship with those we are reaching out to, yes, but even more importantly, our relationship with Jesus and his body, the Church. We will not be effective participants in God’s work in the world around us if we are not daily resting in our relationship with Jesus and persistently pursuing maturity in Christ through prayer, community and studying God’s Word. Notably, the further and more dependently I leaned into prayer, the more I saw God moving in people at our Alpha gatherings.

Two individuals stayed after the Holy Spirit session and expressed desires to be filled by the Holy Spirit. One individual, a good friend, had been slowly growing in his faith throughout Alpha. The other individual, a newer friend, was long familiar with the concept of Jesus but had no faith of his own.

While only time will tell how they move forward with this commitment, God certainly used this workplace Alpha course to begin stirring up faith in the people who attended. After Alpha, God brought together a group of about ten people working in the downtown area who expressed interest in meeting once a month to pray for our various workplaces. God is not done drawing people to himself and he invites us to partner with him in this work!

How well do you know the people around you?

How well do you know the people around you? Right now, select either your workplace or your neighbourhood before you continue reading. Think of the two or three coworkers or neighbours that are in closest proximity to you. Do you know their names? The name of their significant other or their children? Do you know a bit of their story or their interests? Are you regularly praying for them?

For those of you who were able to do this easily, praise God. You are loving your immediate neighbours well. Now try to do this for five or six of your closest neighbours or coworkers. For those who could not do this easily, praise God. He is working in the lives of these people and it is not too late to begin partnering with him.

In either case, in the next week put aside twenty minutes and make a map outlining what you do know about your coworkers or neighbours. Begin spending a few moments each day praying about each of these people, that God would reveal opportunities for you to begin getting to know them, loving them and bearing witness to the hope you have in Christ. Then, put this map somewhere you will see it each day. Update this map, add details, include more people. For those of us humans who are inclined to forgetfulness, this is a powerful way of reminding us to pray for those around us. It also has the encouraging effect of tracking what God has been doing in the lives of the people around us.

Speak up.

A tension in evangelism that I still wrestle with is how to balance between the extremes of living out our faith without words, so that others see genuine faith in action, versus only using words to express our faith. There is a saying I have heard several times while growing up in the church that says, “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” While I readily acknowledge the importance of having our lives align with the words we say and the centrality of loving our neighbours well, it is naïve to think that words are not necessary in preaching the Gospel. We know God through his words revealed to us through the Bible. God spoke the universe into creation. We as members of the church exist to know and enjoy God and to participate in his redeeming work in the world. This will require words. I would prefer the familiar statement be revised to read, “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words too, they’re necessary.” In fact, using words was crucial in getting to know my coworkers and answering their questions.

Ask.

So, what is God doing in your workplace? In your school? In your neighborhood? How can you participate in that? Ask. Seriously. Take a few minutes now and ask God what he is already doing in the people around you. Ask him how you can participate in his redeeming work in your spheres of influence. Then, ask again tomorrow, and the next day. Patiently and persistently pursue God in prayer. Ask him to make clear to you what he wants to do in and through you for the sake of the people around you. Get together with some others and ask, search Scripture for wisdom, and pray. Then take the bold step of asking your non-Christian coworkers to explore their spiritual questions and the answers offered by Christianity. I am not expecting that your next step will or even should be running Alpha (this may be inappropriate or ineffective in many contexts), but I do expect that God will use you to make the mystery of Christ known among the people you do life with. I felt God was asking me to trust him in this way, by running Alpha. When you sense something, faithfully try it, and watch for how God uses it. Take seriously God’s promise in John 14:14, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

How an Old Cathedral Has Been Reaching New Canadians

by James Liu. July 22, 2020

The Cathedral Mandarin Ministry is a witness to God’s marvelous work in the mission field at our doorstep: secular urban Canadian society. But who knew he’d use an Anglican cathedral in the heart of downtown Toronto to reach these people?

I’d like to briefly introduce the history of the Cathedral Mandarin Ministry, which started in 2013. At its inception, there were no Mandarin parishioners at the Anglican cathedral of St. James. We tried many ways to invite Mandarin people to attend the Sunday services and other church events at the Cathedral. Thus, we started the evangelical mission to the Mandarin people.

Problems and solutions

Mandarin speakers felt that the most difficult part of the regular English Sunday services was not the language, but rather the liturgy. They were not sure when to stand, sit or kneel, how to sing the hymns, or how to respond. It was too hard and too confusing for them to follow. We saw this as a great opportunity to gradually teach them the Christian faith through the liturgy, which proved to be a key tool and conduit of our faith.

We wrote a series of lessons on liturgical responses in Anglican worship, from the entrance rite to the recession. More importantly, we taught why we were doing what we were doing, which is the content of our faith. These lessons evolved into a course, Basic Catechism. Each of the 25 lessons focuses on a different part of the liturgy. This course began to draw a lot of interest, connecting people to our Sunday Service, and helping them to better understand the theological significance of the liturgy.

A developing Mandarin ministry

Initially, we went to the nearby Tim Hortons to study after the English service and in 2014 welcomed our first baptism. Our Chinese Fellowship started with around five people in the second floor kitchen in the Cathedral Centre learning the Basic Catechism. In 2015, 10 people received baptism and confirmation, after which we started a Sunday Faith group meeting after we had all attended the 11 a.m. English service together. On the First Sunday of Advent that same year we started our Chinese Service of Morning Prayer in the Lecture room of the Cathedral Centre and in the following 3 years had an average of 15 people receiving baptism and confirmation each year.

September 2017 saw the first Chinese Sunday service in the Cathedral nave, and on February 18, 2018 we began a weekly Chinese Eucharistic Service at 1:30 p.m.. At the 2019 Great Easter Vigil, we joyfully baptized and confirmed 19 people. Gradually we developed other Chinese ministries, such as a children’s Sunday school, a choir, and a new Cathedral Chinese website.

The Anglican liturgy – the expression of our faith

One aspect of our ministry needs to be highlighted: our huge investment of effort in studying the Chinese liturgy. Since China is generally an atheistic country, most people do not have a background in the Christian faith. Even among the minority Christian population, there is little to no denominational teaching or background since the official Chinese Church has no denominational affiliation. This means that there is very little liturgical reference material in Mandarin. To fill this gap, we diligently researched the much earlier Chinese Anglican Missal Book and Prayer Book, and more contemporary Chinese prayer books. We compared and studied Chinese Anglican prayer books from all over the world. Finally, we edited and translated the most faithful Chinese Morning Prayer and Eucharistic service liturgy most like the Canadian Anglican prayer book, which we now use in our ministry. At the same time, it has become the core module of our Chinese ministry. We have clearly seen that the liturgy is the treasure of our Anglican church. It is an expression of our faith which needs to be treasured, as it leads people into faith in Christ.

The cathedral Model

Any process of any mission needs to be meticulously analyzed and strategically planned. So it is with the Cathedral Mandarin Ministry. We started with research and study, and this resulted in a practical report. This report was not only based on some digital figures, but gave an overview of current Gospel-sharing and disciple-making methods, reflecting upon, analyzing and summarizing them. The actual practice derived from this report has then been continuously adjusted. The whole system is designed for our liturgical church context. We call this method of ministry The Cathedral Model.

Despite its name, the Cathedral Model is not a ministry that has to be situated in a cathedral, but is suitable for any local church. In a nutshell, it is a system based on the liturgy that is composed of three interconnected parts that advance from Gospel sharing, to Disciple making, to Life nurturing. The liturgy threads through the whole course to lead a person, even without any Christian faith background, to clearly know his or her faith identity. This Cathedral Model draws non-Christians to the church, and cultivates them to become mature Christians, committing themselves to their local church, engaging in serving the church, and growing their spiritual life with God.

Just as liturgy is the expression of worshiping God, its essence has surpasses the limitation of language and culture, manifesting the sacraments, which happen in eternity. Therefore, the Cathedral Model has a very clear vision and message: that we are one ‘Family’ that transcends language and ethnic backgrounds, and extends across the centuries. “The Mandarin ministry is not a parallel church within a church; we are part of this local church, St. James Cathedral.

Many Anglican scholars agree that Anglican theology and the Anglican faith are expressed in the Anglican liturgy. It is not something that becomes out of date, nor is it a new method. Rather, the liturgy is an inheritance of our ancient faith. Through it, our Church can find new vitality, and become the conscience of our society and the light of the world; drawing more people to the table of the Lord, and growing in the Kingdom of Heaven.

An article about Rev. James Liu’s ministry during the pandemic was published in the Anglican Journal in April, 2020.