Religion – General

Invite a Friend or Colleague to Join You in Exploring the Claims of Christianity

by Judy Paulsen. January 7, 2023

The data across North America suggests that while churches often talk about evangelism, very few are actually doing it. But where would a church start in order to change this?

Why not try some experiments!

Throughout the fall and heading into the winter, Institute of Evangelism director Judy Paulsen has proposed three experiments for churches to try, to help them share the faith with their unchurched or de-churched friends, neighbours, or colleagues. Each experiment should first be solidly grounded in prayer, as we learn to trust God to help us join in His work of drawing new people to Himself.

* * * * *

Most Christians affirm that it’s important for their church to share the faith. But many also think someone else is better suited to that task than they are.

Some think evangelism is the job of pastors, who have theological training
Some think it is best done by especially gifted communicators known as evangelists
Some think it requires someone who has great answers to tough philosophical questions
Some think it can only be done by someone who knows the Bible far better than they do
Some think it must be done by people whose lives are way more holy than their life is

But what if we believed that God is already calling people all around us back into relationship with himself, and we are all called to participate in that work of reconciliation? What would happen if all Christians across Canada believed that, just as they are, they could be used by God to help someone take steps toward him?

There is plenty of data that indicates there are many people across Canada with spiritual questions and longings who would be very open to exploring faith issues, if they were just invited by a friend to do so. In fact, a public opinion poll conducted by Angus Reid in 2017 found that roughly 30% of the Canadian population self-identified as ‘privately faithful’.[1] This group was made up of people with no connection to any faith community or sacred texts, but they reported believing in God, praying to God, and wanting their children to learn about faith through a recognized faith community. This poll suggests there are over ten million such people in Canada. If we cared about reaching such people, how might we do it?

The final proposed experiment in our tripart series of articles is something churches can work on together. They can intentionally offer several evenings specifically geared to helping explorers and seekers address some of their spiritual questions and longings, requesting that their church members invite people in their lives with no connection to a faith community to attend these evenings with them. That last bit is key. Data indicates people are much more likely to come to something offered by a church, or even something held in the home of a church member, if they personally know someone there.

Resources for Churches

There is a wealth of free or very inexpensive downloadable resources that churches can use for these evenings. Here are four that we recommend:

Christianity Explored

https://www.christianityexplored.org/

This ten-session course uses a series of videos to help people engage with scripture so they can explore such questions as: Who is Jesus? Why did he come? Why did Jesus die? What was his resurrection about? What is grace? What is a Christian?

The website also provides a series of short videos that address some of the most difficult questions people pose about the existence of God, suffering, evil and good, religion, and what God has to do with our lives today. A discussion group focused on these short videos could be another great way to spark conversation that addresses people’s questions. https://www.christianityexplored.org/Groups/276317/Home/CE_ORG/Tough_Questions/Tough_Questions.aspx

Nua

https://nuafilmseries.org/ or https://nuafilmseries.org/nua-film-series-registration-form.

Nua, which means “new” in Irish, is a series of short films produced by Scripture Union Ireland. These 15-minute free downloadable films address such questions as: How did we get here? Jesus: fact or fiction? What about the resurrection? What was Jesus really like? Why do I like Jesus, but struggle with Christians? How can you say that God is good? Has the Church caused more harm than good? What’s Jesus got to do with me?

Jesus the Game Changer

https://www.olivetreemedia.com.au/jesus-the-game-changer/

This ten-part documentary series explores how the life and teachings of Jesus changed the world and why it matters. Each film touches on how Jesus changed the way the world viewed issues such as equality, forgiveness, women and children, democracy, care, leadership, health, wealth, and science. The series includes footage from all over the world as scientists, theologians, political leaders, financial leaders, historians, and biblical scholars from many different cultures are interviewed.

The Alpha Course

https://alphacanada.org/

This course is one of the most widespread and popular courses aimed at helping people explore Christianity. The fifteen video sessions (three of which are usually run as part of a weekend retreat focused on the person and work of the Holy Spirit) allow people to address questions such as: Is there more to life than this? Who is Jesus? Why did he die? How can I have faith? How and why should I pray? How and why should I read the Bible? How does God guide us? How can I make the most of the rest of my life? How can I resist evil? Why and how should I tell others? Does God heal today? What about the Church?

Christian Foundations

https://www.wycliffecollege.ca/christian-foundations

Unlike the courses profiled above, this resource is not a film series. Instead, it uses a workbook format that includes short narratives, discussion questions, and a variety of interactive exercises to help people explore questions such as: How can I know and serve God? What is the story of Israel? Who is Jesus? What do Christians believe? Why are there so many sorts of Christians? How can I grow in my faith? What is my part in the kingdom of God?

Some churches have used these workbooks as a baptism prep program, as a resource preparing teens or adults for confirmation, as a small-group resource to better ground Christians in the faith, or as a tool for one-on-one discipleship.

Clearly, there is a wealth of resources for churches to use and adapt to their context, to help the many people around us who are interested in exploring the Christian faith. As we head into 2023, may every church across Canada commit to intentionally reaching such people, helping them take steps toward becoming followers of Jesus Christ.

[1] Angus Reid Institute Public Interest Research, Canadian Public Opinion Poll, 2017. A Spectrum of Spirituality. Published April 13^th, 2017, at http://angusreid.org/religion-in-canada-150/

Supper Club: An Exploration of Dinner Church

by Neil Mancor. October 29, 2022

Maybe Forrest Gump’s mother was right about that box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.

My favourite memory from Supper Club occurred just before Christmas 2019. We were all gathered, quite literally in an upper room, around a very large dinner table. There were about 30 of us. The food stretched far enough that everyone had just about enough. A box of chocolates went around, and I watched as each person in this diverse, eclectic group selected the chocolate they wanted. Feeding people always warms my heart. Some of these particular people had experienced rejection at the hands of the Church—so what else could we do other than pass them a box of chocolates? A little chocolate-covered blessing was given and received. Welcome to Supper Club in the Diocese of Montréal (pictured above).

Supper Club is our experiment in Dinner Church ministry. It has been operating one way or another for more than five years now and has continued to evolve over time. This ministry has given us a compelling example of how rewarding it is to create a community around dinner and conversation and, along the way, to learn what the Church can be.

Dinner

Serving dinner is at the heart of many missional initiatives. The Dinner Church movement began from a missional impulse to connect with unchurched and de-churched people, and from a desire to rediscover the agape meal of the New Testament. In the Diocese of Montréal, Supper Club meets once a month over dinner and conversation. It is a community that was durable and compelling enough to take us through the isolation of COVID.

The food itself is an important part of the equation and is worth paying attention to. As our Supper Club community tends towards younger adults in Montréal, the food is always vegan and locally sourced. This might be different if you are working with young families, for example, where you likely want to serve child-friendly food. Think about the food you serve and the people you are serving and align the food offering with their values and lifestyles. In the same way, decide if you or a team of people will prepare all the food or if you want to include your participants in food preparation and make that part of the whole event. Sometimes a lot of life can be shared, and community built, while chopping onions.

The point behind all this eating and drinking is that Jesus spent time with people eating and drinking. It helps form community and creates a relaxed atmosphere in a way that isn’t possible for a coffee hour after church. It is a way of giving a gift to people rather than demanding something from them. A hot dinner shared together is a beautiful way to care for people, and it can provide a framework for great conversations about life, God, and Jesus. And please pass the bread.

The Art of Gathering

Our Supper Club did not come into being because we put up a sign somewhere. It took, and continues to take, regular, persistent work on the part of our leaders to gather and keep this community together. This coordination includes phone calls, social media posts, and emails. Persistence is the key. This is an important lesson from our Supper Club experience we want to extend to the wider church, particularly applicable in any situation where we continue to try to attract people to church, yet despair if they do not come. This community was gathered together and nurtured by some very intentional actions on the part of its leadership, and this work should not be underestimated.

An Open Space, an Evangelistic Space

There is no one pattern for Dinner Church, so what is the difference between a Dinner Church and a potluck supper in the parish hall? This difference lies in its purpose. You will gather, check in, sing songs, listen, share and eat but all around a focused purpose. You can create any purpose you want for your event, depending on the kind of people you are in contact with. Supper Club draws together a mix of people, including established Christians who are looking for something different and a conspicuous number of people who have left established Christianity for various reasons. Your conversations will explore life, faith, God, and Jesus, but from a much wider perspective than some might find comfortable. But that is Supper Club.

An open space, over a glass of wine and dinner, a wide-open conversation. Those of us who are integrated into the Church sometimes need to refrain from correcting others and instead open our ears to what is being said. When you do that, you discover something powerful, missional, evangelistic. For when you listen, you discover that people need to work out their faith verbally and explore their beliefs in a non-judgmental environment. This is the evangelistic power of Dinner Church. Let people talk it out, but do not correct them. When you suspend judgement and listen, you hear the stories of people being chased out of Church because they are gay, or of people losing the faith of their childhood and searching for a new one. You hear about rejection. You hear of bitter disappointments, and prayers gone unanswered. I have learned so much about why people leave the Church and give up on faith. These are essential stories for us to hear and make space for in our community, and Sunday morning is not the right time for them. It can feel like a risk to allow these stories. But people need to spread their spiritual and theological wings and begin to figure out faith for themselves. Sometimes the best response to whatever people wish to share is a simple one: pass the chocolates.

This is why it is important that Supper Club is church and not only a gathering of friends for dinner. Our conversations have a focus. But unlike Sunday morning church, Supper Club creates a space for people to express themselves and begin to work out just what it is they believe. Give them that space and watch what the Spirit can do.

But What About the Liturgy?

I am regularly asked whether Supper Club has a liturgy. The answer is: sometimes. We do have music, we do pray, and we eat. We check in with each other. We have celebrated the Eucharist, but Supper Club style, simple, stripped down, around the dinner table. We’ve told Godly Play stories and wondered together. The possibilities are endless, limited only by your imagination. Some expressions of Dinner Church do use liturgies, but the focus tends to be on sharing the stories of Jesus in creative and open-ended ways. Instead of preaching at people, we engage with people. Keep that in mind when you plan your expression of Dinner Church. Remember that it IS church, indeed is a way the very first Christians met. But it is not a formula you just repeat over and over again.

A Measure of Success

It is never easy to measure the success of a missional event, but at our last gathering before COVID there were so many of us crammed around the table we thought we would run out of food (we didn’t!). We cannot be said to be creating new Anglicans or getting them to take envelopes, though some do find Supper Club compelling enough to support it financially. And some have found their way into Church, each in their own way. But we have created a community which has been a source of refreshment to some and belonging to all.

I see the greatest measure of its success in my own life. After the COVID lockdown was declared, we immediately met online in the now-ubiquitous Zoom space and ate “together”. We just wanted to be together in any way we could. I even cooked vegan food for myself, in keeping with our ethos. I wanted to keep in contact with these people, I needed to. For somewhere along the line this eclectic group of people became my friends, people whom I valued deeply and needed in my life. When I had an accident, broke my ankle and ended up having surgery, I wanted them to know. For this is my community too.

And in the fullness of time, someone passed the box of chocolates to me. I chose a caramel crème. I will always be grateful to Supper Club for what they teach me about all that church can be.

Experiment #2: Invite a Friend to Have a Gospel Conversation

by Judy Paulsen. September 29, 2022

In our September, October and November issues, Institute of Evangelism director Judy Paulsen will propose an experiment to help churchgoers share the faith with their unchurched or de-churched friends, neighbours, or colleagues. Each experiment should first be grounded in prayer, as we learn to trust God to help us join in His work of drawing new people to Himself.

* * * * * * * *

Gospel Conversations – Conversations that make stories from the Gospels accessible to seekers, explorers, and the somewhat curious

Having a conversation over a cup of coffee or tea is a familiar way for people to meet with friends or colleagues in our culture. As restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic have started to relax, small personal gatherings like this have been one of the first forms of social interaction to return. For people who might be hesitant to attend a more formal expression of church held within a church building, a simple conversation focused on some of the stories from Jesus’s life can be a way for them to talk about their own perceptions of Jesus, to learn more about him for themselves, and to voice some of their own spiritual questions and longings.

These sorts of personal conversations also offer an environment of simple hospitality and friendship to which Christians may find it easier to invite their unchurched or de-churched friends, neighbours, and colleagues. While the data on Canadian spirituality suggests fewer people are going to church, it also indicates that many believe in God, pray regularly, and have spiritual questions they can’t readily discuss with anyone. In such an age, it is going to be critical to equip all Christians to be the transmitters of the gospel message. And for that to happen we’ll all need to engage with the people around us in a context that they are comfortable with. A conversation over coffee may just be a simple yet profound way through which someone you know starts to consider the person of Jesus for themselves.

Getting ready

Begin with prayer. Ask God to bring to mind someone in your life who doesn’t have any church connection. This could be a family member, friend, neighbour, colleague, or even a new acquaintance. They might be someone who once was part of a church but drifted away, or someone who has never been connected to a church. Then, ask God to give you an opportunity and the right words to invite them to have these conversations with you.
Try this experiment with some others in your church so you can pray for each other as you have these conversations with unchurched or de-churched people.
Invite the people God has brought to your mind.

Here are some examples of invitations:

“Our church is hoping to learn to talk with people beyond our congregation about spiritual issues. Would you be interested in meeting a few times over coffee with me to explore some passages from the earliest biographies of Jesus?”

“Our church is trying something called Gospel Conversations, where we meet over coffee with a friend or neighbour to discuss three different stories from the life of Jesus. I’d love to hear your views on these encounters people had with Jesus. Would you be interested?”

“Hey _____________, along with others in my church I’m trying to learn how to talk with other people in my life about questions of faith. Would you be interested in meeting over coffee a few times to discuss some passages taken from the Bible about the life of Jesus?”

Or, if you think a small group discussion would be less threatening than a one-on-one conversation, you might like to invite a couple of friends to join you. Perhaps these are people that share a hobby with you or are members of some sort of group that you belong to. For such people you could use this sort of invite:

“Hey, would you be interested in being part of a small discussion group that explores some of the stories from Jesus’s life found in the Bible? My plan is pretty low-key; just to meet for a coffee and chat together, meeting two or three times. What do you think?”

Pray again as you select three passages to discuss together in your Gospel Conversations. What passages might especially resonate with the person you will meet with? Here are some examples to choose from:

- John 4:5–42 [Jesus talks with a woman at a well]
- John 3:1–21 [Jesus talks with Nicodemus, a religious leader]
- Luke 19:1–10 [Jesus engages Zacchaeus, a tax collector for the Roman Empire]
- Luke 10:25–37 [Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan]
- Luke 24:1–12 [The resurrection of Jesus]

Some suggestions as you begin to meet

During the conversations let the following questions be a guide, but don’t feel bound to them. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide the conversation.
- What words or phrases stand out for you?
- What do you think this passage tells us about the culture of the day?
- What do you think this passage wants us to know about Jesus?
- Do you see any connection with our lives today?
Don’t worry if they have questions that you don’t know how to respond to. Simply admit that you don’t know, and let them know that you’ll ask someone who might be able to address the question they’ve raised. Perhaps that will be your pastor, or another member of your church. Remember, this is a conversation, and conversations are different from a Q and A session.
Be ready to suggest a possible next step if they seem open to continue exploring questions about Jesus, Christianity, or faith in general. Are you willing to keep meeting? Is there a book you could read together and discuss? Would they like to meet over coffee with you and your pastor? Would they like you to pray for them? Test these waters gingerly, but don’t be shy to encourage them to keep exploring.
Enjoy your conversations! Be open to where God may take them. Perhaps you will have simply planted a seed that will germinate much later. Perhaps you’ll meet regularly. Perhaps you’ll invite them to Dinner Church, or a book club, or some other “easy access” event or program at your church. Above all be genuine, and love them as Jesus would have you love them.

Experiment #1: Invite Some Friends to Dinner Church

by Judy Paulsen. September 4, 2022

The data across North America suggests that while churches often talk about evangelism, very few are actually doing it. But where would a church start in order to change this? Why not try some experiments! In each of the next three issues, Institute of Evangelism director Judy Paulsen will propose an experiment to help churchgoers share the faith with their unchurched or de-churched friends, neighbours, and colleagues. Each experiment should first be grounded in prayer, as we learn to trust God to help us join in His work of drawing new people to Himself.

* * * * * * * *

Dinner Church – A simple Christian gathering that is accessible to seekers, explorers, and the somewhat curious

For people who might be hesitant to attend a formal expression of church held within a church building, Dinner Church features a familiar setting and trusted friends. It also offers an environment of simple hospitality and friendship, to which Christians may find easier to invite their unchurched or de-churched friends, neighbours, and colleagues. Finally, Dinner Church creates a context which encourages deeper bonds between those attending, as participants share in reading and discussing a passage of Scripture, praying for and with each other, and serving in their communities together.

Getting ready:

You and another one or two Christians decide to try the experiment of Dinner Church. First, you meet to pray together for a couple of weeks, asking God to guide your plans and to bless and multiply your efforts, so that new people can come to know Jesus. Your group decides together on a night that will work well for everyone, how often you want to meet (I suggest weekly or biweekly meetings, for the sake of continuity and depth of connection), and where you want to meet (usually a home).

Your small group can then invite some others to join the gathering. Ideally you would aim for 6 to 10 people, depending on the size of your table, with a mix of Christians and a few people who you know well and who are not connected to any faith community. Again, before you start to invite people, ask God to direct the invitation process. Invitations can be quite personal and informal. For example, an invitation could sound like this:

[shorter version] “I’m getting together with some friends to try something called Dinner Church. We’ll share a meal and talk about a story from one of the early biographies of Jesus. Would you like to come?”

[more detailed version] “Some friends and I are trying something called Dinner Church in which we’ll gather for supper and discuss a passage from one of the early biographies of Jesus. Everybody is welcome to bring something to share at the meal. Whether people are already a part of church, have been away for a while, or have no experience at all, we want everyone to feel free to participate as much or as little as they like in the discussion. Would you like to come?”

Don’t be discouraged if someone declines an invitation to Dinner Church, especially the first time you ask. Keep the option open by saying something like “No worries. When we get together again, I’ll let you know how it went. Maybe next time you’ll feel like joining in.”

If someone accepts the invitation, ask them to let you know if they have any food allergies and if they’d like to contribute to the meal. (This can help people feel more a part of things right from the start.) Give them details about the location and start and end times, to help them plan ahead.

Close to the date of Dinner Church, follow up with a phone call or text, letting them know you’re looking forward to seeing them. If it’s needed, offer them a ride.

When getting ready for your first Dinner Church, remember to keep things simple. This is meant to feel more like a family meal than a formal dinner party. Different opinions and questions should be expected and encouraged. Hosts and leaders can guide the discussion while also being good listeners, recognizing that some guests may be just starting their faith journey. When you’re not sure how to respond to something someone says, there’s always, “That’s an interesting take on things.” This response lets the person know you appreciate them offering their opinion and so keeps the conversation open, without stopping you from offering your own view.

If you’d like to try Dinner Church but worry that there might be some tough questions about the Scripture passage that you won’t be able to answer, relax. This is a discussion between friends, so you don’t have to provide an answer to every question. You just need to be yourself and say something like, “That’s a great question . . . and one I have no idea how to answer! But I’ll write it down and see if our priest/pastor is able to help us with it.”

If you have a sense that people are still wary of gathering physically due to the pandemic, you could host an online gathering over Zoom (this would need to be shorter than an in-person Dinner Church, since most regular Zoom accounts only allow for a 45-minute meeting). An email or phone invitation could look like this:

“Hey, our church is trying an experiment called Dinner Church, and I wondered if you might be interested. I’m getting some people together to explore a passage from one of the first biographies of Jesus, but the pandemic still makes a physical gathering tricky for a lot of people. Would you be willing to join us for a dinner on Zoom? We plan on looking at one story from Jesus’s life and then talking about what it might mean in our lives today. I’d love it if you would join in the discussion. We might also talk about what’s going on in the world and offer up a prayer. I know eating in front of one another on Zoom is a bit weird, but right now this is the best I can manage. Would you like to join in?”

Some suggested elements to include as you begin to meet

Gathering and greeting: everyone brings a contribution to the meal and gets seated.
Dinner is served and leader #1 says a prayer of thanksgiving for the food prior to eating.
Leader #1 reads aloud a Scripture passage.

To get you started, here are a few passages you could choose from:

Luke 9:10–17 [Jesus feeds the five thousand]
John 4:5–42 [Jesus talks with a Samaritan woman]
John 3:1–21 [Jesus talks with Nicodemus, a religious leader]
Matthew 22:1–14 [Jesus’s parable of the wedding feast]
Luke 19:1–10 [ Jesus engages Zacchaeus the tax collector]
Luke 10:25–37 [Jesus’s parable of the good Samaritan]
Luke 24:1–12 [The resurrection of Jesus]

Guests eat dinner as discussion is led by leader #2:

What words or phrases stand out for you in the passage?
Was anything surprising, confusing, or encouraging?
What do you think this passage tells us about Jesus?
What are the connections you see between this story and life today?
Given what the story teaches about Jesus, or about the kingdom of God, what do you think this could mean for people learning to follow Jesus?

A short commentary on the Scripture reading could be read aloud by leader #3 to bring in a scholarly perspective. This could be from a commentary series such as N.T. Wright’s series “For Everyone”, or even a short reflection written by your pastor/priest.
Guests share any challenges that they are facing, or things they’d like to pray about. They pray around the table, or write prayers and place them in a basket for someone else to read out loud. For example, what are the needs of the world and our own lives that we want to bring to God? “God, we lift to you the following needs we see around us and have heard about tonight…”
Coffee, tea, other drinks, or dessert is served.
People clear their places and assist with clean-up.
Leaders mention the date for the next gathering of Dinner Church before the end of the evening.

Over time, as participants become more accustomed to Dinner Church, leaders could add other elements of Christian worship, fitting these around the core elements. These elements include: prayers of adoration or thanksgiving to start the meal; reading the Lord’s Prayer, the Nicene Creed, or the Ten Commandments together; praying a prayer of confession followed by a proclamation/reminder of God’s forgiveness; discussing ways for the group to help meet particular needs in the neighbourhood; or reading the Grace (2 Cor. 13:14) to close the mealtime.

What is the goal of Dinner Church?

Dinner Church can be a vehicle through which Christians offer a simple expression of Christian gathering that allows the somewhat curious, explorers, and seekers to learn what Scripture teaches, how Christians pray, and how they serve their communities together. My hope is that Dinner Church gatherings will grow and multiply as more people become a part of them. Once a Dinner Church reaches 10 to 12 people, it should split and form two new gatherings.

In many cases, members of a Dinner Church will also be part of a larger gathering of Christians meeting regularly in a church building for worship. In communities that don’t have a church building, or where the building is no longer in regular use, Dinner Church may become the primary form of Christian meeting. Such Dinner Church gatherings would function more like cell churches, where cell church lay leaders are equipped by the clergy to lead their cell. In such settings pastors/priests may travel from cell to cell, to lead sacramental ministry (in denominations requiring this) and to encourage and support the leaders of each Dinner Church.

So go ahead and try this first experiment. Let’s see what God does with it in the lives of both the Christians and the non-Christians who gather for Dinner Church. Then, send us an email to share how it went!

Why Create a Podcast for Skeptics?

by Paul Seungoh Chung. May 1, 2022

Life is a journey. That’s a good metaphor; let’s go with that.

Now, all of us have a map for this journey. These maps can be religious or secular, held consciously or unconsciously, but each one tells us where we should go, how we can get there, and what we’ll see. Christianity too presents a map, drawn with the teachings of the Bible and centred on the person of Jesus Christ. Evangelism is, essentially, inviting and persuading others to join our journey as we follow our map.

We Are Not “Here”

However, those of us who invite others to this journey face a number of self-inflicted problems which damage the credibility of our invitation. Some of these are perennial, such as religious hypocrisy, bigotry, violence, coercive evangelistic practices, and so on. But there is one key problem that is more specific to this age. If you look up a map on your phone, you’ll notice a flashing dot, or a red arrow, or something that indicates you are here. Maps posted at parks, hiking trails, or malls have similar symbols that say, “You are here.” Likewise, how we’ve typically presented Christianity to others assumes an identifiable starting point of our journey: you are here.

The problem is, we are not “here.”

Those of us who were raised in secular, modern societies find ourselves in a world that does not match what our reading of the map tells us we should see. Religion is no longer a prevalent part of our culture; fewer people believe in objective morality, or life after death, or a creator of the universe; what we learn in the sciences, the arts, and history seem to go counter to what we learn in the Bible; our society increasingly finds no need for a god to understand our world or to live in it. The landmarks and features that were supposed to be around us at the starting point of our journey are missing from our world.

Now, if a map said we were on a path winding through a village perched upon a scenic mountaintop, but we found ourselves instead in a walled town on a barren hill in the wilderness, we’d question the credibility of the map. Or worse, we could misidentify the features around us with what’s in the map—say, the walled town with the village, or the barren hill with the mountain. Then, we’d become more and more lost as we followed the map until we abandoned the entire journey. Maybe, afterwards, we would write books or start podcasts about de-converting from our journey, or deconstructing our map.

A Different Landscape

This obviously is a problem for evangelism. Holding a different worldview is much more significant than just holding a different map; it’s like inhabiting a different landscape. So, imagine that someone presented us with a map that seemed to get everything wrong about the land we saw around us, and then invited us to join their journey. We’d very likely refuse! And if they argued that their map was somehow correct, we’d simply say, “This is not what I see.” If they claimed that their map was of a different, faraway land, which we would only see after we joined them, we’d be suspicious; if they didn’t have a working map for what was around us now, why should we trust that they could get us to some distant land we had never seen—a land which could very well be just a figment of their imagination?

Now, perhaps we would still join them if we had come to deeply trust that person—we might not trust the map, but we would trust the one following it. This, of course, is why Christ-like living and community is so crucial to Christian witness. However, we would be more likely to say to them, “I really respect you, but I think you should ditch your map—in fact, take our map and join us!”

However, our map is not wrong, nor is it just of some faraway land; we just marked the wrong spot on the map as “here.” That means we need to relocate where we are and re-read our entire map. We need to reorient ourselves to this different landscape and identify all the landmarks again: perhaps the mountaintop where the village sits is that distant mountain on the horizon; perhaps this wilderness around us is the hinterlands drawn on the map below that mountain. Then, we need to re-plot our entire journey from our new starting point. There’s no need to return to the mountaintop village; we need to begin our journey from where we are now, where we became lost.

Retelling the Story

This, I think, is the task of theology in every generation, but especially now, when the “here” on our map has so radically shifted. Concretely speaking, this means we need to re-articulate even our most basic beliefs in ways and words that those living in this new landscape can recognize. What do we mean by “God”? What do we mean by “Creation”? What do we mean by “sin”? What do we mean by “God speaks”? Then we need to retell the entirety of the Bible’s journey, from Genesis to the Gospels to the End, and reimagine our own journey from where we are today.

This is the project I first outlined in my book, God at the Crossroads of Worldviews, and now engage with in the podcast “What do you mean God speaks?”, which describes itself as “a series that retells key ideas, insights, and stories in Christianity for the skeptics who want to understand religion, Christians with questions about their own beliefs, and everyone in between.” I hope to expand its content further to different mediums, such as books and YouTube videos, while trying to reach beyond the current limited following. Yet these projects remain but the first fledgling steps in unfamiliar territory in our renewed journey—one which the Church of this generation needs to take. A key part of what it needs is people who can connect this series to the skeptics, seekers, and Christians faced with questions from our new landscape.

So I invite you to check out the series “What do you mean God speaks?” and then share it with the skeptics and seekers in your own lives.

https://whatdoyoumeangodspeaks.buzzsprout.com/

or https://what-do-you-mean-god-speaks.onpodium.com/

Precursor to Mission: The Church’s Own Conversion

by Ephraim Radner. February 28, 2022

This article is part of our Wycliffe Faculty series, in which the faculty of such diverse departments as biblical studies, theology, and history write about mission and evangelism. As somewhat of a shift from Good Idea’s usual focus, we hope you enjoy reading about the perspectives on the mission of the Church today.

Anglicanism has been a leader in world mission, beginning its self-conscious outreach in the later 17^th century. As it gained steam, this missionary work coincided with Anglicanism’s leading role in local mission, itself tied to the rise of the parish-based Religious Societies, from which the Wesleys and the Evangelical Revival emerged. It is a thrilling story.

Evangelism-bereft BCP—and Yet . . .

Yet all this happened with a Book of Common Prayer (I’ll stick to discussing the long-lived and widely disseminated 1662 BCP here) that said hardly a thing explicitly about evangelism and mission. There are no collects in the BCP about mission or evangelism. No prayers about the lost souls of the unevangelized. No petitions for getting up and going out. Yet Anglicans took the lead among Protestants in evangelism and mission from the late 17^thcentury on, seemingly unconcerned with their prayer book’s silence about all this. Indeed, Anglican mission came to be sustained through its most vibrant evangelistic work with this same seemingly evangelism-bereft BCP. By the early 20^th century, a few explicit prayers for mission were added to new BCP editions, but not many. And the irony is that, in the 1970s, when BCPs were radically revised here and there, and materials on “going out to the world” were explicitly woven into its language, these revisions coincided with the withering of Anglican mission, especially in the West. Go figure!

Of course, the BCP is not really silent about mission and evangelism. It is only silent about more modern preconceptions regarding what mission and evangelism might be, preconceptions based on organization, method, and (alas) worries about church membership. Leaving that aside, a mission-infused vision is deeply embedded in the BCP, but one that is tied primarily to the church’s own conversion, a conversion whose integrity is its own converting witness to others.

Good Works, Repentance, and Mission

Students of the BCP—as well as its more Protestant critics—have always noted the moralism of the Prayer Book’s tenor. There is an almost unremitting emphasis on doing “good works”, not, to be sure, in order to gain God’s favour, but as a result of the joyous condition of being saved by God’s grace in Christ. Take one of the few collects in the BCP that we might associate with mission and evangelism, the one for St. John the Baptist: John, we note in the prayer, “was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of thy Son our Saviour, by preaching of repentance.” Our own petition takes up this example as a hope for ourselves. But note the focus. “Make us so to follow his doctrine and holy life, that we may truly repent according to his preaching, and after his example, constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Proclamation here is tied to our own repentance, whose embodiment among other factors occurs through our truth-knowing, truth-speaking, correction, and our own suffering for the truth.

All this is completely characteristic of the BCP’s view of mission: preaching is meant to lead to “obedience” in accordance with God’s “commandments” (this, after all, is divine “truth”)—both for ourselves and for others. And this obedience is itself the “preaching” of the Gospel, which is given in the form of following Christ’s teaching and example. One could say, using a popular modern category, that the BCP’s evangelistic focus is primarily on “discipleship.” And “conversion,” with its “changed heart,” is focused on “virtuous and godly living” (cf. the Collect for All Saints Day).

As many have observed, the specific kind of discipleship that the BCP has in mind is one that is mostly socially enacted—oriented, that is, toward “neighbours” and “enemies” both, and lived out through the daily relationships of common life. While there are moments of introspection in the BCP, by and large there is little dwelling upon guilt and subjective freedom—on “feelings.” Instead, the recognition of guilt and encouragement to perform acts of repentance are aimed at a renewed life with others, with (again) “doing good” to one’s neighbour according to God’s commands. Thus, we see in the extensive Offertory Sentences gathered from Scripture, which are said before Communion, a repeated insistence upon using one’s goods and material resources for the sake of others; the initial Exhortation and then Invitation to Communion are all about living in “charity” with others, seeking forgiveness, even making reparation. And, finally, in the wonderful thanksgiving prayers after Communion, the unspeakable fruit of Christ’s gift of himself to us is that we, in turn, “offer ourselves, our souls and bodies” as a “sacrifice” within the world of our daily relations to the Lord, doing the “good works” that God has “prepared for us to walk in.”

It should not surprise us, then, that one of the BCP’s most “missionary” prayers, in a popular sense, is located within a petition for the Church’s own integrity, the “Prayer for All Conditions of Men”. The prayer begins with a kind of “Great Commission” theme: “We humbly beseech thee for all sorts and conditions of men: that thou wouldst be pleased to make thy ways known unto them, thy saving-health unto all Nations.” This is one of the only places in the entire BCP where there is an explicit prayer for “all Nations.” But the collect itself goes on to specify the shape of this mission: it is to be given in the form (“estate”) of “the Catholick Church; that it may be so guided and governed by thy good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians, may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life.” As I noted above, mission here is given in the form of the Church’s own conversion; and that conversion is given in the form of an obedient life of discipleship.

Of course, such obedient discipleship is offered explication in the words of the Lord himself; that is, in the Scriptures. It is here, finally, where the BCP truly offers its call to missionary evangelism: in the Psalms and in the Gospel and Epistle texts laid out for every Sunday and Feast day, and appointed for every other day of the year. Within the BCP, almost every reference to “preaching” and “witness” and “the nations” is found in these printed scriptural texts—and there are many of them. The BCP’s theology of conversion and embodied discipleship fundamentally orients the Christian to God’s Word.

Inspiration, Guidance, and Example

Only here, in the Scriptures, is offered that inspiration, guidance, and example, those powerful instruments by which Anglicans were impelled and sustained around the globe (and in their neighborhoods) in their missionary efforts during these past centuries and still now, vitally, in Africa and Asia in particular. And why not here? God’s work in Christ calls and empowers us to be the disciples of the crucified and risen Lord, and just following this call leads us ever more deeply into the Scriptures, whose divine Spirit leads us out into the world. So we pray.

The Trinity and God’s Mission

by Peter Robinson. January 2, 2022

In churches that follow the lectionary, the old joke is that Trinity Sunday is the day the new associate is asked to preach. Why not give them the thankless task of trying to find a way to “explain” the Trinity? We can already anticipate them using one of many popular analogies, “ice, water, steam” or “the three leaf clover” or “the egg—shell, white and yolk”. These well-worn analogies not only reinforce ancient heresies, they mislead listeners by suggesting that the doctrine of the Trinity is meant to explain or solve the apparent conundrum of a God who can be both one and three at the same time. The result is only to reinforce the belief that the doctrine of the Trinity is an abstract metaphysical problem that is confusing and ultimately meaningless for our day-to-day lives.

Questions for Us

However, there are far more important existential questions for us: “How do we know God?” “How is God involved in our lives?” And perhaps, “what can we expect God to do in the world?” These are the questions that matter to us, and it is difficult to see how speculation concerning the Trinity has anything to do with them. What we miss, because we understand the Trinity as a problem to be solved, is that the credal affirmation of the doctrine of the Trinity is meant to address exactly these kinds of questions. The early debates in the church were rooted in practical pastoral questions—how can we talk about God, who God is, what it means that God has “saved” us, and what God is doing in the world? Pastoral theologians like Athanasius (all the early theologians were, to one degree or another, pastoral theologians) recognized that affirming that Jesus is truly God (which is at the heart of the doctrine of the Trinity) was the only real starting point to answer these vital questions.

Lost Confidence in God’s Reconciling and Sustaining Work in Our World

We have travelled a long way since the days of the early church only to find ourselves back where we started—questioning once again the possibility that God, the creator God, is truly present and engaged in our world. The philosopher Charles Taylor has argued that one of the characteristics of our age is that we have buffered ourselves against the possibility that there is a transcendent God who is actively and immediately engaged in our lives. We might ‘believe’ in the idea of God, or that God somehow works in the “spiritual realm” (whatever that might mean), but for the most part, this God is either at a great distance from us or this God is simply a force or power for good that we might hope to direct in helpful ways. We have lost any confidence in God’s reconciling and sustaining work in our world.

If we assume that Taylor is speaking about the secular world rather than the Church, then we haven’t understood his concerns and we haven’t owned up to the way most churchgoers think about God. Drawing on data from a survey of 15,000 young people in the USA, Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton noted that the God most religious young people in North America believe in is a therapeutic ‘deist’ God: a God who is basically uninvolved in our day-to-day lives but is available to offer help from the sidelines, or at least cheer us on, if we ask in the right way. Yes, we can call on God and hope that God might respond (which is how we tend to understand prayer), and we might think of Jesus as present to us in our inner self or consciousness, but for the most part we assume that God simply lets us get on with our lives. And, when we are honest, most of us prefer a hands-off approach anyway.

God in Jesus, the Trinity, Involved in Our Lives

In the second century, a theologian by the name of Irenaeus wanted to speak about the ways in which the God we see in Jesus, the Trinity, is involved in our lives. He spoke of Jesus and the Spirit as the two hands of God. He wasn’t trying to offer an analogy to solve the mystery of the Trinity. Rather, he was trying to talk in specific ways about the God who is involved in our world. For Irenaeus, when we speak about God with us we are speaking about the Son and the Spirit. The Holy Spirit and Jesus are both fully God and the Son and the Spirit always work together with the Father to accomplish the purposes of God. This is not only meant to give us confidence that God is involved in our world, but to help us know where to look or how to see God at work.

Irenaeus’ affirmation leads, in turn, to many practical implications. The first and perhaps most important is to know that God does not remain at a distance from us, but has come into our world and made himself known to us precisely so that we might come to know him. God is always the initiator and he never stops in seeking to engage with us. God, in reconciling us to himself, gives us the confidence that no barrier can separate us from him; and in Jesus, we are able to enter into the very presence of the Holy One. Second, when we want to know who God is and how God acts in the world, the place we always begin is with Jesus Christ, particularly as the Bible bears witness to him. We do not need to look for a secret or hidden God that remains at a distance from us or is only visible to the select few. Rather, we (that is, the Church) look directly to the witness of Scripture and what it tells us about Jesus. Third, it confirms that the work of the Spirit is always in line with the work of Christ. There are many spirits in this world, making many different and at times contradictory claims about truth and goodness and beauty. The way we discern which spirit is truly of God is whether or not it is resonant with Christ, for the Spirit is the one who helps us to know and enter into what has already been shown to us of Christ.

God’s Mission

So, what does this all mean for the mission of the Church? The first thing we might note is that it is better to say that the Church doesn’t have a mission—God has a mission, and his mission is to bring the world into a reconciled relationship with himself, in spite of the world’s rebellion against him. God does not ask us to do his work for him; he invites us into the work he is already doing. So, our involvement in his mission always begins with prayer—prayer that we will see God and what God is doing in the world more clearly. Theologian Jim Houston often said that he prayed every day that God would help him to see others in the same way that God sees them. That is, perhaps, at the very heart of mission—to begin to know God’s heart, for the world will compel us into the world. One thing that we can be sure of is that there is nothing passive in the way God looks at the world he has created. Rather, he looks at our lost, rebellious, and confused world with compassion, and in his compassion, he continues to work tirelessly to draw all people to himself.

In turbulent times like these, it is easy to lose hope for this world. The doctrine of the Trinity, that God is this Father, Son, and Spirit, sustains our hope, because it not only reminds us where to fix our gaze, it helps us to know that God continues to actively reconcile the whole world to himself in Jesus Christ.

What John Stott Taught Me About Personal Evangelism

by Stephen Andrews. December 6, 2021

On the evening of February 13^th, 1938, a sixteen-year-old lad knelt by his bed in his dormitory in Rugby, England, and opened the door of his heart to Jesus Christ. John Stott marked the date of his conversion every year for an additional seventy-three years, until his death in 2011 at the age of ninety. The way he describes it, the conversion was a rather solitary affair, a personal decision made quietly in the dark of night.

But, of course, the moment was preceded and surrounded by a great nexus of events, individuals, and influences that shaped his understanding of what happened that night. John benefited from the guidance of his pious mother who brought him to church. He had read his Bible and was familiar with the Christian story, and was even inspired by its high ethical ideals. Closer to the moment of his conversion, other evangelistic agents entered the picture. A Christian school chum invited him to attend a series of meetings featuring Christian speakers. When a young evangelist from the Christian Union presented an address on Pilate’s question, “What then shall I do with Jesus, who is called the Christ?”, it dawned on the young man that he actually had to do something with Jesus. A subsequent conversation with the evangelist made the way of salvation clear to him, and that evening he surrendered his life. Even so, John would go on to give primary credit for his conversion to God himself, for it was he who had enabled John to ‘open the door’. John Stott soon became a student leader in the school Christian Union and in the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (part of Inter-Varsity Fellowship) and was instrumental in leading others to Christ.

Those who are familiar with John Stott will know that he went on to become one of the premier evangelists of the twentieth century. Over the course of his career, he would lead over sixty university missions, and he appeared on stage with Billy Graham. However, it was personal evangelism that quickened John’s pulse. He had a spiritual discernment for the seeking soul and always made himself available for individual counsel after his sermons and addresses. Even when he was no longer able to preach, he carried on lengthy correspondences with questioners from around the globe.

So important to him was personal evangelism that he took up the theme in his earliest published writing, which he wrote while at seminary in the late 1940s. This publication is a thirty-six page, shirt-pocket-sized booklet called Personal Evangelism. Contemporary readers might find some of what it says of interest.

The Presentation of the Message

To begin with, he says that personal evangelism is even more valuable than preaching, since the message is addressed to the particular needs of an individual. This means that personal evangelism will be focused and deliberate. Opportunities to share faith may present themselves to us, but John encourages us to pray that God would give us a particular burden for one or two people, and then give us grace to respond to their spiritual needs. This will happen as we develop friendships with them, even if this involves personal sacrifice on our part; pray for them “systematically, definitely and perseveringly”, for it is the Spirit of God that draws people to Christ; live lives that do not undermine the beauty of our message; and finally, take them to hear the gospel preached. This last bit of advice may come from a context where evangelistic missions were much more common than they are today. And yet there is wisdom in going with a friend to hear a searching message that may open up avenues of deep discussion.

Having laid out this groundwork, John discusses the presentation of the message of the gospel. Here he anticipates a time when we and our friends will be ready to ask and receive the question: “Would you like me to explain to you as simply as I can just what it means to be a Christian?” The ensuing explanation will have three essential components: the fact of human sinfulness and the need for a Saviour; the meaning of the cross; and the need to respond to Christ’s offer of forgiveness. The necessary response, of course, is not just a matter of intellectual assent or what has been called ‘easy believism’. John goes on to describe the cost of discipleship, and says that genuine faith will involve repentance, surrender to Christ’s lordship over every aspect of our lives, and the willingness to let others know that we have made this decision.

Incentives to Faith

John thus acknowledges that it is not easy being a Christian. However, he also discusses incentives to faith that those who are seriously considering becoming followers of Jesus Christ should take into account. The first incentive is that we need Christ for our own sake. The Holy Spirit works within us in the transformation of our character and in the satisfaction of our deepest longings—something that is impossible by our own means and initiative. Secondly, the world needs people who have yielded themselves to God’s righteous purposes on earth. This is the giving of ourselves for others. But these reasons are subsidiary to the one great incentive: that Christ must be lifted up and glorified in our deeds and words. This was certainly John’s primary motive in all of his ministry. As the epithet on his burial marker in Wales testifies, he “resolved both as the ground of his salvation and as the subject of his ministry to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

Consolidation

So, these are the essential steps in personal evangelism, according to John Stott. At this point, we have discussed just over half of his little booklet. Subsequent sections treat common obstacles to faith (doubt, pride, sin and fear) and provide strategies for ensuring that our friends’ decisions are made intelligently and with integrity. Here we receive insights drawn from John’s considerable experience: Help your friend to understand that certainty does not rest on emotion, but on the promises of Christ. Offer your friend Christian literature. Invite your friend to join you in attending Christian gatherings. Indeed, help your friend to reframe his or her self-understanding in relation to God, the Church and the world. The nurturing of a friend’s new-found faith will involve new habits of prayer and Bible reading, an introduction to a whole new fellowship, and a new attitude towards their former life. The comprehensive nature of evangelistic follow-up turns out to be a long-term affair, and “the crown of our endeavours,” John writes, “is that he whom we have laboured to bring to Christ out of the world should go back into the world with Christ, as a witness.”

Concluding Advice

And so, in the end, what presents itself as an instruction booklet on personal evangelism becomes an encouragement for us to be mature disciples ourselves. Those who wish to be instruments in the Christian transformation of others should be serious students of the Bible, be willing to learn from their mistakes, and continually rely on the Holy Spirit. As John writes in conclusion, “The principle secret of successful evangelism is the humility which leads the evangelist to recognize his own weakness and to rely on the Holy Spirit’s power. [. . .] Our hearers will be convinced and will turn to Christ not through our eloquent reasonings so much as through the unanswerable ‘proof’ which the Holy Spirit will add to our feeble words.”

John’s little booklet is clearly a reflection of his age and culture. Where we might imagine conversations that are more spontaneous and casual, John takes a more structured and systematic approach (make sure you will not be interrupted, he counsels, and bring two Bibles, one for you and one for your friend!). John had a very methodical mind, and this is part of why he was such an outstanding leader. But I do not think that anyone ever felt that they were being pressured or manipulated in John’s evangelistic encounters. For he also possessed a sensitive and compassionate heart, and those who came to him for counsel found comfort in his deep love for them and for his Lord.

Stephen Andrews, the Principal of Wycliffe College, is also a former research assistant to John Stott.