Furrowed…
7 years ago
Showing posts with label Evangelism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Evangelism. Show all posts
It's been a few months since our last post, and I'm really sorry about that. Does that mean nothing's been happening? Thankfully no, but not necessarily the things we were expecting to happen.
So what's been keeping us busy?
We've been doing a lot for Grace, the church that we have partnered with. We've been involved in some outdoor ministry, helping to set up a community website, learning a little about different forms of evangelism and discussing growth and development of a distinct part of the Church in Looe.
However, it has to be said that we have been distracted by those things - in the next few weeks and months hopefully we'll be able to get our focus back on our mission:
To push back the darkness and claim the land for GodTo Save Souls, Grow Saints, Train Warriors and serve suffering humanity.
Every day over the next week or so I'm going to try and focus for a few moments each day to think how can I fulfil just one of those mission claims today? I hope to share something positive with you out of that!
On a similar note, there's currently a lot of talking going on with the Christians in Looe (particularly amongst the ones we know). Please pray with/for us that we'll have the courage to put our words into action!
As promised here what you might call a vision, given to me during the weekly prayer for Looe a couple of weeks ago. I shared it with that group and they were encouraged (as was I) so I hope it will help you too.
Equally, whilst the fishers or the labourers have no fear of what they are working to harvest, they must still be careful of other dangers. This isn't me saying it's easy, but that the fear of rejection shouldn't be stopping us from telling people what we think will change their lives (and their eternities) for the better.
I too fear how people will react to me if/when I bring up the gospel, but given the alternatives (i.e. get rejection or stand by and let them walk off the cliff into hell) the correct path suddenly becomes clear.
Fear is of the devil, it's not God's plan: "I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God." (2 Timothy 1:6-8)
I too fear how people will react to me if/when I bring up the gospel, but given the alternatives (i.e. get rejection or stand by and let them walk off the cliff into hell) the correct path suddenly becomes clear.
Fear is of the devil, it's not God's plan: "I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God." (2 Timothy 1:6-8)
Many people are of the school of thought that we should become friends before sharing the gospel, but it's often harder to share with people who are closer to us. Start with the gospel, then let the friendship build! In all occasions pray that God will prepare the people you are about to speak to.
I was once told that when it comes to sharing the gospel, we should pray for COWS:
Courage - To speak when we have the chance
Opportunities - To share the gospel
Wisdom - To say the right thing
Sensitivity - To know when to shut up and listen
Let's all aim to just go for it, and "throw off everything that hinders".
As I mentioned a while ago, occasionally I'm going to want to share stuff that I/we are reading and that is having an impact on us. This is one of those occasions...
It's not all from one place though, it's a combination of Bible reading, book and blog watching. It all ties together and it impacts what we're doing here, so I thought I'd share.
First of all, let's just be clear why we need mission. Yes people are suffering, they are hurting, lost and lonely - that's an important part of our ministry. Since we should attempt to recreate Jesus' ministry, let's look to him. In Luke 4 we see Jesus at the beginning of his ministry allude to the prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 61):
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
Luke 4:14-21
But this isn't it, that's not all. Hell exists. Sin is every part of ourselves that is not perfect, the bad thoughts, the bad actions, the poor decisions, those things that you try to keep so secret from everyone else. God knows our sin and because of His justice He simply cannot do otherwise than punish us ("For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity." Isaiah 61:8).
Human = Sin = Hell.
Hell isn't just eternal separation from God, it isn't just a prison, it's somewhere so bad that there will be "weeping and gnashing of teeth" whatever that means. Just do a quick search of BibleGateway.com to see the references Jesus makes to Hell ("Gnashing of Teeth").
To make matters worse your unsaved friends, family, neighbours, co-workers and that bloke you see on the bus every day are all headed there unless they acknowledge their sin and their inability to save themselves.
There's too much to go into, but we see Jesus use the law to convict people of their need for salvation and then offer them a solution: "repent". Repentance does not just mean saying sorry, repentance means turning your whole life around.
OK, so it's not just about making people's live's better. It's about making their eternities better. So what about timing?
Time is always running out. People die every day, sometimes it's expected and sometimes it's a surprise. All those people who came to your mind earlier have a clock and it's ticking on, running out of time.
But also, the day of judgement is coming nearer. Although we have no way of knowing when it will be, we can be sure that it is getting nearer!!
Take a look at any of the prophecies in the Old or New Testaments and you can see that the signs are all around us. I was interested to read in Joel a description of an Army that sounds very similar to the Romans (Joel 2), then you see Pentecost and the age we now live in described and suddenly the next part of Joel's prophecy jumps straight to Judgement (Joel 3).
Act now, while you can. Time is running out for us all and there is still much to be done.
Having reiterated our vision and mission here in Looe, the next big question to address is our relationship to The Salvation Army.
This is a question we've been asked quite a few times in several forms since we first announced our plans. Are we doing this with the Army? Have we left the Army?
The short answer to both is No. We're not doing this with the Army, but neither have we left. The long answer gets a little bit more complicated, but I'll try and break it down a little.
1. We're Salvationists
First of all, we're both Salvation Soldiers. That means we're covenanted soldiers in an Army of Salvation. Our covenant is not just with The Salvation Army, but more importantly with God Himself.
Our covenant has led us to this point and is in some way guiding our actions, so is our knowledge of Army history - although we're doing stuff a lot slower than the Army pioneers worked. They would've started from day 1 and have a large corps or 2 planted by now...
One other thing, since I am called into full-time ministry as a Salvation Army officer it would be useful to maintain my status as an enrolled soldier, otherwise I will need to renew that enrolment at such a time as we return.
2. We're serving God
It's important to keep reiterating the fact that we're here because God called us. God doesn't care so much about denominations and stuff like that. We are designed to be a single Body of Christ, so He doesn't mind who we come representing, as long as it's Him!
It's not like we've abandoned God and the Church universal and have become heathens. We're not lost sheep, we've just relocated temporarily to a different flock...
3. We've not abandoned the Army
We both love the Army and although it is going through a time of strife, particularly in this country, we believe that God still has a plan, a hope and a future for The Salvation Army - but only as and when it returns to purpose.
Importantly, we both believe strongly that there is indeed "sin in the camp"1 and this must be removed and/or otherwise dealt with in order for The Salvation Army to move on - this must be done by all Soldiers and leaders!
We miss parts of the Army, but on the other hand, the freedom that has come by worshipping "out of our comfort zone" has enabled us to move closer to God and understand other Christians better.
4. Our ministry will have a Salvationist flavour
The people we reach will be "Saved to Save" and "Saved to Serve". Those that want to will be taught extensively about Salvation Army history and mission, those that don't will be drip fed Salvationist ideas...
People will be well educated in the urgency of their mission; they will be trained and disciplined using Sword and Knee drills; and they will be invited to take up covenant (perhaps even soldiership).
We'll help our converts to see "Heathen England", to become "Love Slaves" and to engage in "Aggressive Christianity".
I often think that it might be entirely possible that if the group that forms around us are willing, they may well become a "society" (a recognised group not led by an officer) and be the future of a corps here in Looe. Somehow I can't see that happening in our time, but it might.
1. http://beyondthebrook.blogspot.com/2009/07/sin-in-camp-from-top.html
Hi All
Been a while since we last updated you on what was happening. For us personally, not a lot, we're building up relationships with a few people - at the moment concentrating particularly on just a few of them.
There are lot's of exciting things happening in and around Looe related to the Church, which is exciting. Hopefully I'll be able to release some more details about those things in the coming days and weeks.
Also, we've now made contact with The Salvation Army in Liskeard and are hoping to meet up with the CO (Pastor) there to forge some strong links. Also, it looks liek the CO was already aware of Grace Church here and is keen to create some good links there - perhaps this is another facet to our purpose here... more news as it happens!
Can we ask for particular prayer over 2 initiatives we're not involved in as yet: Street Pastors and Rusty Bucket (a Christian Coffee Shop/Community Centre in Looe) and also for those relationships I mentioned above.
Been a while since we last updated you on what was happening. For us personally, not a lot, we're building up relationships with a few people - at the moment concentrating particularly on just a few of them.
There are lot's of exciting things happening in and around Looe related to the Church, which is exciting. Hopefully I'll be able to release some more details about those things in the coming days and weeks.
Also, we've now made contact with The Salvation Army in Liskeard and are hoping to meet up with the CO (Pastor) there to forge some strong links. Also, it looks liek the CO was already aware of Grace Church here and is keen to create some good links there - perhaps this is another facet to our purpose here... more news as it happens!
Can we ask for particular prayer over 2 initiatives we're not involved in as yet: Street Pastors and Rusty Bucket (a Christian Coffee Shop/Community Centre in Looe) and also for those relationships I mentioned above.
Launch isn't very far away and Lucy and I have been thinking very much about what we're going there to do. Lucy watched a program about some girls who have totally missed out on what life should be (The Trouble With Girls - BBC) and how they just need some help. I replied to her e-mail with the following. It all kinda just poured out of me and I suddenly realised how true it is:
More space means more rent, more rent needs more income, more income needs a job. Our most outstanding prayer need right now? That Lucy find a job and we find the perfect home and base of operations.
If God can, by some miracle, give us the home first, then fair enough. But if we have to do this the worldly way, we're going to need Lucy to find a job. Please cover this issue with as much prayer as you can!!
Exactly. It is what they need. It’s exactly what James is talking about when he says (and I paraphrase) “It’s no good saying, yeah I believe, and then just sitting on your bum. If your mate comes up to you and says ‘I’ve got some problems’ don’t just say ‘Oh, well, God bless then’ and walk off. What good is that? You can’t have faith without actions, and actions without faith are lost. You gotta have both!”At the moment, without Lucy working and with debt that we've built up whilst we've been living beyond our means in Reading, we'll only be able to afford about £400/month. Even in Looe we're only looking at a 1 bedroom flat for that. Basically, we both feel that our mission and our creation of community down there is going to require a bit more space.
That’s what the Army was all about. And sadly, at some point, the “social work” got divorced from the “church” and we became exactly like the Churches William Booth fought against. He saved men and women and then sent them to Churches who wouldn’t even let these people in. That’s the only reason that the Christian Mission ever became a Church, simply because no other Church would take the people he was saving.
Look at how far we’ve come from our calling... incredibly really! So that’s what we’re going into: saving souls and serving suffering humanity!
I can see us spending a lot of time out at night with the young’uns, with bottles of water and those mini bibles that Andrew gave us. We’ll just be chatting to people, helping them out, telling them there’s another way.
That’s also why I want us to have a bigger place, because we’re gonna have people round for food all the time and we may even have people staying with us occasionally. B&B but without getting paid for it, lol.
More space means more rent, more rent needs more income, more income needs a job. Our most outstanding prayer need right now? That Lucy find a job and we find the perfect home and base of operations.
If God can, by some miracle, give us the home first, then fair enough. But if we have to do this the worldly way, we're going to need Lucy to find a job. Please cover this issue with as much prayer as you can!!
Greetings all!
I thought it was about time that I started a blog for our little adventure! In these last few weeks of preparation we'll keep you updated on the plans and then once we land we'll start updating you on our progress. A little bit of accountability is always a good thing!!
So, where are we at? What's the vision, what's our status at T-23 days?
We're moving to Cornwall following a specifc calling from God to go there and light a bit of a fire old Army style! Once we get there we're just going to follow Jesus' final command, our Commission: to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I [Jesus] have commanded you."
We don't really know a lot about starting a Church, but then neither did the disciples. They just went and told people about Jesus. The Holy Spirit built the Church!
So we're going to be preaching (in some form) and connecting ourselves into the Community; we'll be doing and being Church in new ways; we'll be supporting people practically as well as spiritually; we'll be tackling demons, witchcraft and Freemasonry.
So that's the vision and the mission, what's our status? At the moment we have no home or jobs, yet we are go for launch, preparing to move out and set up camp (probably literally) in Looe.
Why Looe?
Good question! You know what, we don't know yet. We just believe very strongly that this is the place that God wants us to start this. We think there may be some significance to St. Martins Road, but I guess we'll explore that as time goes by!
You're prayers are greatly appreciated!
Yours in the battle,
Dave
I thought it was about time that I started a blog for our little adventure! In these last few weeks of preparation we'll keep you updated on the plans and then once we land we'll start updating you on our progress. A little bit of accountability is always a good thing!!
So, where are we at? What's the vision, what's our status at T-23 days?
We're moving to Cornwall following a specifc calling from God to go there and light a bit of a fire old Army style! Once we get there we're just going to follow Jesus' final command, our Commission: to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I [Jesus] have commanded you."
We don't really know a lot about starting a Church, but then neither did the disciples. They just went and told people about Jesus. The Holy Spirit built the Church!
So we're going to be preaching (in some form) and connecting ourselves into the Community; we'll be doing and being Church in new ways; we'll be supporting people practically as well as spiritually; we'll be tackling demons, witchcraft and Freemasonry.
So that's the vision and the mission, what's our status? At the moment we have no home or jobs, yet we are go for launch, preparing to move out and set up camp (probably literally) in Looe.
Why Looe?
Good question! You know what, we don't know yet. We just believe very strongly that this is the place that God wants us to start this. We think there may be some significance to St. Martins Road, but I guess we'll explore that as time goes by!
You're prayers are greatly appreciated!
Yours in the battle,
Dave