Mission in Action

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written by Steve

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I guess after that picture the words which follow can only exceed expectations.? Me and Beth, who live in Sheffield,? are holidaying with the McAlpines for a couple of weeks and we’re having a great time.? Lots of sightseeing, sharing family life, vegging and indeed, vegemiting.?

Today was particularly interesting and significant because the group Steve’s gathering together met for their regular fortnightly get-together.? Upwards of thirty people squeezed into? Steve and Jill’s? house and garden.? They’re all interested in what’s happening, and wanting to think seriously about household, missional church.

It was exciting to see so many people, so keen to think about being church together.? I was struck by the diversity of the group, particularly in terms of age and lifestage.? In Sheffield, most of my experience of planting household church has been with a very young demographic.? A potential strength of this bunch is clearly the breadth and maturity of the people.? Some great men and women who have seen and learnt a lot already, some great families – men, women and children.

Of course, that presents its own challenges.? These are not young, green, Christians.? They are, as far as I observed, wise, insightful and experienced.? That means that they have their own well thought out, valuable perspectives and reasons for being involved.? The hope and the need is that people will, before anything else,? be involved because they love Jesus and his people.? Steve will have to work hard to articulate the distinctive values of TCH, and the whole group have an important job in figuring out how they are going to work in sprawling, suburban Perth.? ? But I was struck again by? the importance of? simply opening up? your home, encouraging people to feel at home with you? by bringing food, washing up,? helping themselves and others to? coffees and letting kids loose in your garden.?

Now…I do love Vegemite.? It’s like Australian Marmite, but unlike Marmite, I don’t think it’s made with the? leftovers of the beer-brewing process.? ? I was told today that for every man, woman and child in Australia, 5000 bottles of beer are consumed per? year (can I have remembered that right?!), so perhaps there are no leftovers for the Marmite making process.

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written by Steve

Tim Chester sent a? copy of his new book to me via Rob and Beth Spink and it is? hot off the IVP press.? ? Called “You Can Change”, it is described by Tim Keller as a rare book about Christian growth that is neither “quietistic or moralistic”.

I like Tim C’s own comments on the dust jacket: “Most books are written by experts. This isn’t one of them… it was born out of my own struggle? to change. My long battle with particular issues set me searching the BIble as well as writings from the past. This book shares the amazing truths I have discovered.”

I am really looking forward to reading and reviewing it, but most of all I am looking forward to changing in the light of the things it reveals to me about how to live the Christian life.

written by Steve

Ooh-er look what you sat in!

Our friends from Sheffield have arrived and are spending two weeks with us in snake-infested Perth. At least most English people think it is snake infested despite the fact I have rarely sighted one in any other state other than dead.? So it was quite funny when our smoke alarm went off earlier this week and I called out for everyone not to worry, but that the smoke alarm had gone off when the oven door was opened. The sight of Beth rushing into the kitchen at the sound of what she thought was the “snake alarm” was precious.?

Here are some pix of what has been a warm week of winter holidays – far warmer than Sheffield’s summer.

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We often talk about the marketplace of ideas, but how about the marketplace of actions?

Last night I had the opportunity to address a group of people from a church pastored by a friend of mine Dave.? Their church has secured a market stall one Sunday per month at a market in the Hills region of Perth and they plan to use it as an outreach, handing out materials about Christianity and chatting with passersby.? They had decided that handing out free bottles of water might be a good idea too, especially with the onset of Perth’s summer.? They had asked me to come and chat about how they might go about answering questions that people might ask.? ? Putting aside my reluctance about the effectiveness of that idea I went along to the meeting, hoping that I wouldn’t? be viewed as the naysayer who was putting a dampener on? their? plans.? While I went there unsure of how to approach their plans I have to say that I left with a real sense of optimism? about the decisions? we came to. And I can also say that I had a genuine sense that it was the Holy Spirit both prompting me to say what I said and enabling them to respond how they responded.? We could almost hear the penny dropping.

The? primary issue for me, and one which I pushed fairly? rigorously, was tied up in their identity. Did they? literally want to be viewed as simply? one voice in the marketplace – a subculture along with all of the other subcultures on display such as? the antiques, or reiki, or woodturning subcultures? – or did they want to use their stall? to be countercultural?? ? Here’s what I? mean: If they intended to? view their primary? target group as market-goers then their usefulness would be limited.? ? Markets in the Perth Hills attract an interesting cross section of people, many of whom are often? far better equipped philosophically than many of those manning the church’s stall. You’d need a good grasp of theology to? “win an argument” with someone who started debating you.? And many other? market-goers? simply don’t want to be bugged by religious people whilst on a lazy Sunday outing.?

The questions this church group had come up were questions that they thought many people? have about Christianity.? While it is problematic to begin with? whether or not? those questions actually ARE the questions people are asking,? at best? the context in which to deal with? such questions? would be an? isolated, individualistic and one-off context.? It could very easily descend into a points scoring exercise between Christians and anti-Christians rather than genuine? debate and inquiry.? ? ? ?

What I put to them was this: Instead? of? trying to reach market-goers, how? about we turn the strategy on its head by trying to reach the? other stall-holders.? Instead of trying to connect with people who are there for a while and may never? return or return only rarely, make connections with the stall holders that you will see on a regular basis and who form the very committees who? run the markets.? ? That way you change the context from isolated, individualistic and brief to one that is integrated, communal and ongoing.?

This of course raised the question, how do we focus on these stall-holders?? We can’t go around bugging the other stall holders to hear our message. Exactly. You can’t.? But you can, I pointed out, serve them.? You can be known as the “go-to” stall when someone needs help fixing something at their stall, when someone has forgotten to bring their lunch or when their trestle has broken or when they simply need a toilet break.? Jesus came as a servant and the way we demonstrate Christ-likeness to people is by serving them in? a similiarly self-sacrificial manner.? ? Quite simply you can become the stall that everyone? looks out for? when they set up because they know that you will be helpful, humble and generous in how you deal with? other stall-holders.?

What will happen over time is that people will ask you questions.? But it won’t necessarily be the questions you’d originally prepped for or the ones the pamphlets you bought at the Christian bookshop say you should revise for.? It will be the kind of questions that the pagans in? 1Peter 3:15 ask of their Christian neighbours “How come your hope smells better than my hope?”? “How come your lives look so attractive?” “How come you are willing to help people each Sunday and how come in the committee meetings your representatives have a spirit of unity and selflessness?”? ? It will be as? others see? the Christian? community’s way of life that they will sit up and take notice, or not, ? as the case may be!? It is then that you have the opportunity to point to your King.

It was great to see peoples’ faces light up as the evening wore on because instinctively they knew that this was the way things should be.? That living as the community of King Jesus is what really brings into question every other way of living that our culture has bought in to. I came back down the Hill thanking God for His church and the power of His Spirit that creates the desire in people to not be content with spruiking their message in the marketplace of ideas, but be willing to demonstrate? changed lives in the marketplace of actions.

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Just to prove we are still ok. I haven’t blogged for a fortnight due to busyness and was going to take a few photos of our group today, but bubonic plague (or something similiar – Ed)? has struck down most of the kids in the group (including Sophie) so only a handful could make it.? Still, it was a beautiful day, 24 degrees and blazing sunshine – not bad for mid-winter.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of preaching, organising two weddings for friends, and speaking at least once per week this last month about church planting.? I am finding the fulltime job getting in the way!? Still we are making progress and I will let you all know where things are likely to be headed next year within the next month or so.? Please keep praying for us that we will be patient and have a love for people who we meet in all walks of life in our suburb.?

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