Thinking Thursday: Shine a Light

Have you ever seen a picture of the Earth from space … at night? You don't see land and sea, you see civilization. Pinpoints of light where mankind is living, with electric light. Bright splashes of light for cities, sprinkles of light along the coast and up the fertile valleys, and great swathes of darkness on the oceans, deserts and mountains. It is beautiful and fascinating to look at.

Credit: C. Mayhew & R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/NGDC, DMSP Digital Archive

With modern technology it is possible to zoom in to different parts of the map, and you can identify your part of the world and even your city or district, and see where the lights are.

But what if there was a map of the light of the gospel in the Earth? Where would the lights be then? And when we zoomed in, where would we find a flickering flame and where a strong, bright light? I bet there would be some surprises.

Would you be happy to zoom in to your town or city, to your district? How bright would the light be there? Would the light from your church be as bright as you expect? Would the light from your home shine bright enough to be seen by others? Would you find Christians among your neighbours, that you didn't know about? Would your neighbours be surprised to find out about you?

Kevin John, a well-known figure in Swansea, spoke recently about his passion for Swansea football team, and his delight that they have won a place in the Premiership. Everyone he meets knows how he feels, and lots of people in Swansea feel the same. The new football kit and other items with the 'Swans' logo on, has already sold out in the club shop. But he wondered if we are just as excited about our Saviour, and let everyone know how we feel.

The news of what Jesus has done, and of the love of God, is far more exciting, far more significant, than the achievements of a football team. Yet we are shy of talking about it. Often, we are afraid we don't know how to answer questions or deal with other people's responses. Yet if someone disagreed with your favourite football team, you would have plenty to say about it. You would share the facts and figures you have remembered from your time as a supporter. How come you don't have facts and figures at your fingertips about Jesus and Christianity?

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. (Matt.5:14-16)

It is my prayer that we all think about how we shine the light of the gospel in our neighbourhoods, and that we take time to learn and prepare so that we can shine more clearly.

Thinking Thursday: Man Makes God in his Own Image

In the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series, one of the books tells of an expedition to see God’s last message to his creation. It is carved into the side of a mountain, and the way up to the viewing platform is quite a trek. Eventually our heroes make it, and as they move along the walkway they come round the curve of the mountain and the message comes into view. It says “Sorry for the inconvenience.”

The story makes a great joke, and takes the unexpected turn that readers of Douglas Adams’ books have come to expect. But the sad thing is that the message makes sense to a lot of people.

Modern society has been called the ‘Me’ generation – everything in life is viewed from the selfish perspective. “What can I get out of it?” “How do I feel about it?” So it is quite believable that if there is a God, and if he created everything for us, that he would be sorry if he didn’t quite come up to our expectations. Man is king, and everything must serve him.

What a challenge, then, to communicate to this generation the mightiness of God and the need to serve Him and bow to Him. He does not need to apologise to us, rather than the other way around.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 'For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.'

Thinking Thursday: Preparing The Ground

Jesus told the parable of the sower, and explained that it illustrated people's different responses to the word of the gospel, and it is often used in evangelism training to prepare people for the kind of responses they might get. But what about preparing the people we talk to, or preparing us to deal with them better?

Matt.13:3-9
And he told them many things in parables, saying: "A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear."

When a gardener plans a garden they take into consideration the type of soil, the situation in sun or shade, the nutrients, and many other things. You would not throw seeds on the ground, the rocks, and the path and just expect them to grow. You would examine the ground and prepare it first. Each different type of ground needs different preparation, and there are things we can do to prepare people to improve the chances of a good response to the gospel.

Let us look at each type of response and see how we could prepare the ground to make it more fertile:

v.19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.
We are all called to share the good news, but how well do we prepare? When someone asks a question, have we thought out how we would present the gospel and deal with common questions? Or do we muddle through, and risk leaving the person not understanding?

v.20-21 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.
When new people come to church, seeking or having just accepted the gospel, what support mechanisms do we have in place to help them? Being saved does not immediately change your personality, your circumstances, or your friends and relations. How can we help them when they are ridiculed for their new faith, their new standards? How can we help them make new friends when the old ones desert them or are left behind? Becoming a Christian is more than a change of mind, it is a change of attitude, behaviour, lifestyle – it can be quite a shock. How can we help them to stick with it?

v.22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
How can we help anyone in the church who has financial or other problems, especially those who are new? Christians are not immune, yet the 'cares of the world' may be the reason they came seeking a better life in the first place. They need to be shown that Jesus gives you a new heart, a new attitude, a new inner strength to deal with these things, but he doesn't take them away. It is so important to build our church members into mature Christians, not just to get people saved and assume they are all right from there on.

v.23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.
We must prepare ourselves to understand the word and be fruitful, but also to think through how we will help others to come to maturity too. Then much more of the gospel seed will have the chance to grow in those around us.

Thinking Thursday: What does the Christian Church have to offer?

A lot has been said and written about reaching the members of Christian cults for Jesus. Organisations like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and the Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs). There is a lot of advice available on how to reach them with the gospel. But we also need to talk about the importance of not just getting someone out of a cult, but into the kingdom.

In light of this, I want to consider: What does the Christian Church have to offer a cult member, like a Mormon or Jehovah’s Witness? The glib, spiritual answer is the true gospel, salvation, a personal relationship with God, assurance, and so on. But what about in everyday life? What do we have to offer them physically, socially and emotionally?

It is very easy to operate only on a spiritual level and think that making a commitment to Jesus will make everything right. But what happens when you compare “Pie in the sky when you die” with “Cake on a plate while you wait”? People respond more to what they can see and relate to now than to promises about a distant future. Peter said “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (1 Peter 3:15). Many of us are prepared, but nobody asks the question.

I find myself convicted by this too. How often does anyone notice that I’m different because I’m a Christian?

What do people see when they come to church? This applies to everyone, but those coming from a Christian counterfeit background have some pretty good things to compare us to. The Mormon Church puts great emphasis on families and social events. There are organisations for members of all ages, dinners, dances, picnics, and festivals for drama, dance, speech and sport. There is always something going on and lots of ways to get to know people. They are experts at ‘friendship evangelism’. Because they offer a ‘calling’ to a large number of members - even if it is to collect the hymn books - everyone feels important and needed. There are opportunities for many members to give talks and presentations, which develops their confidence, and Sunday School classes for adults, which increases their knowledge and understanding of their faith. Jehovah’s Witnesses attend 5 church meetings a week, where they study their publications, learn more about their faith, and practice their doorstep approaches. The importance of spreading the gospel round the doors is continually emphasised, and everyone is encouraged to take part. Because they are marginalised, they draw close together to support one another against what they see to be persecution.

Then, one day, someone realises that what they have given their life to is not the true gospel after all. They have been deceived, and if they want to come into the truth, they have to give up not just false beliefs, but their friends and their whole lifestyle. They look to the Christians to replace that, and because we have the ‘truth’ they expect it to be better than what they had before. What do they find?

A few years ago I was in the difficult position of having left one church and not yet settled on a new one. But it gave me the opportunity to visit churches as an outsider. I deliberately did not introduce myself or make the first move. I walked in, sat by myself, and waited to see what happened. Praise God, I never went home without someone making me feel welcome. But there is more to it than that. It is a sobering exercise to go to a style of Christian church that you are unfamiliar with and see how you cope when you don’t know what to do in the service.

If you have ever changed churches within the Christian spectrum you will know it takes time to adjust. The new church does things differently, maybe has different priorities. Hardest of all are the unwritten rules - “The way we do things here”. You can unsuspectingly fall foul of all sorts of conventions and taboos.

I remember one church where the minister got up one Sunday morning after a lively hymn and told the congregation that he didn’t want them to clap because he thought it detracted from the spiritual atmosphere. In prayer meetings, some churches encourage everyone to join in the prayers by saying “Yes, Lord!”, “Amen!” and other affirmative phrases while someone is praying. In other places this is considered as interrupting and irreverent. Unlike the principles of salvation, no-one can sit you down and explain the rules, because most people don’t think of them that way, or even at all. They have just absorbed them instinctively in order to fit in. And you can feel very uncomfortable until you do the same.

Now add to that the baggage that ex-cult members bring with them. Most cults teach wrong things about what Christians believe, so they will be confused. They will get their previous beliefs mixed up with their new ones, and not always be able to see why some of them were wrong. I remember one lady who came out of the Mormon Church and went on an Alpha course. She caused so much disruption asking questions the leaders could not answer and bringing up things that no-one had ever thought of, that they eventually asked her not to attend again. It may have saved confusion for the other people on the course, and saved embarrassment for the leaders, but she just felt rejected and lost.

Because they are new Christians, they are not able to serve in any teaching role, like Sunday School, and there may not be many other opportunities to serve. Suddenly, they are useless. They have left behind all their friends and all the organisations they used to go to. Suddenly, they don’t know anyone and have nowhere to go. Their lives, once so rich and full, are now empty. Sunday may be wonderful, but the week is long from one Sunday to another. When I left the Mormon Church I had recently been president of the women’s group and was frequently in the pulpit preaching. I joined a church that had no women’s group and didn’t allow women to preach.

Another difficulty is that, sadly, there are many Christian Churches today that are struggling with internal problems. Members gossip, criticise, and get into cliques. How can they recommend the gospel to others? Other churches are good places to be, but have no evangelism. Someone once said that the church is the only organisation formed principally for the benefit of non members.

Many churches do have a program for evangelism, but no follow-through. Teaching someone the gospel and bringing them to the point where they make a commitment is not enough. Jesus commanded us to “go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19). Disciples are not converts. Discipling takes time and effort. Converts need to be befriended, taught, nurtured, and made to feel needed and important.

Years ago I spent time with Premmies and Moonies, and what drew me to both these groups was their love and care for one another. I truly felt they would do anything for me and would share their last meal.

Well, enough of being negative. I hope that as you have thought about your church you have been able to tick off the things they do right. But maybe not. Consider what your church will do with people who come to them, seeking the truth, or answers to life’s questions, or maybe having already made a step of faith. Will you say “welcome” and then expect them to fit in? Let me make some suggestions:

• Have ‘Welcomers’ on the door, or nearby, who can watch out for new people and make them feel welcome. This is a delicate task, for they must not be ‘pushy’, just friendly. It is sometimes nice to have someone to sit with you and help you to feel at ease in a strange place - even if you are a long-standing Christian!
• Have an introductory course which new people can attend, led by those who are skilled at explaining the gospel and relating to people.
• Have a ‘Christian Living’ course for new Christians or those who want to get back to basics. Lots of people never get further than their initial commitment - they don’t know what to do next. The course can include explanations of ‘the way we do things here’ as well as guidance on prayer, worship, Bible study, and service. It is also useful to ask every new member to attend, no matter how long they have been a Christian - it means they get to consider what the church believes and how they do things and make sure they will fit in.
• Have a team of people willing to fellowship newcomers. This works for friendship evangelism as well as for helping new people to feel part of the church. This does not require great skills, just a willingness to chat on the phone, go for coffee, help with chores/babysitting/shopping. Any serious questions can be referred to those skilled in apologetics or counselling - which brings me to my next point..
• All members should be encouraged to understand the basics of the faith and be able to explain it and defend it. But there should be those who are better able to answer the ‘thorny’ questions or the ‘difficult customers’. There also needs to be a counselling resource - if not in the church, then outside it - where those with deep needs can find help.
• House groups or special interest groups are a good way to introduce new people to some members they can get to know better. This will make them feel at home sooner. They should also be a forum for growth for all members.

It is all very well to say the church ought to do something. One pastor used to say “Church is the people of God, gathered around the Word of God, ready to do the will of God.” So that means you, and it means me. What can you as an individual do to help new people? You can be a ‘welcomer’ in church, a friendshipper out of church. How well do you know the members of your church, so that you can spot someone new? And how many times do they come before you have the courage to talk to them? It is a skill that can be learned - and think of the friends you will make as you practice! You can encourage your house group to attract new people. You could even volunteer to run an introductory course or a ‘Christian Living’ course!

The true gospel is “Cake on a plate while you wait” AS WELL AS “Pie in the sky when you die.” When our churches cater for people’s needs, then we will be able to answer the question about the hope that we have (1 Peter 3:15), because people will see and ask.