Total Church: Evangelism

Gospel and Community in Practice (Part 2)

Evangelism
The gospel word is central in evangelism
Francis of Assisi is alleged to have said: “Preach the gospel always; if necessary using words.” It may be a great medieval sound bite, but it falls short of what the Bible teaches about evangelism. (And I believe it falls short of what St. Francis actually said).
The gospel message often becomes skewed towards me and how Jesus meets my needs. But the gospel Jesus proclaimed is about God exercising his life-giving rule through his Messiah for his glory. Thus, it is important for us to tell people the good news about Jesus.

The gospel community is central in evangelism
The gospel word and the gospel community are closely connected. The word creates and nourishes the community while the community proclaims and embodies the word.
That is why Jesus ends his injunction with the words: “All men will know you are my disciples if you love one another.” Before they are preachers, leaders or church planters, the disciples are to be lovers! This is the test of whether or not they have known Jesus.
People want a form of evangelism they can stick in their schedule, switch off and go home from. Jesus calls us to a lifestyle of love. Yet the new command of Jesus suggests that, whatever advances John made in the second scenario, there is a further vital dimension.
Christian community is a vital part of Christian mission.
In our experience people are often attracted to the Christian community before they are attracted to the Christian message.
My answer is to find ways of introducing them to the Christian community…Too much evangelism is an attempt to answer questions people are not asking.

The three strands of evangelism
Building relationship – Sharing the gospel – Introducing people to community.

A community project
By making evangelism a community project, it also takes seriously the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in distributing a variety of gifts among his people. It relieves some people who don't necessarily have the "gift of evangelism" (that is talking to strangers about Jesus) but allows them to be involved in evangelism as they are involved in community.

Ordinary life, gospel intentionality
Most gospel ministry involves ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality.
But the ‘ordinary’ is only a vehicle for Christian mission if there is gospel intentionality. The ordinary needs to be saturated with a commitment to living and proclaiming the gospel…Otherwise we simply form good relationships that never go anywhere.
The Crowded House folks try to create this culture by regularly teaching our values, celebrating gospel opportunities, setting aside time each Sunday to share what we have been doing, ‘commissioning’ people as missionaries in their workplaces and social clubs. Above all we model the culture for one another so that it becomes the normal thing to do…We need Christian communities to which we introduce people. These communities must be communities in which “God-talk” is normal. This means talking about what we are reading in the Bible, praying together whenever we share needs, delighting together in the gospel, sharing our spiritual struggles, not only with Christians but with unbelievers.
At the same time we try to make our meetings less strange to unbelievers.

Total Church: Why Community?

Total Church: Why Community
Paul emphasizes here, and in many other places, that Christ wants to create “a people”, not merely isolated individuals who believe in him (see Titus 2.14). We are not saved individually and then choose to join the church as if it were some club or support group. Christ died for his people and we are saved when by faith we become part of the people for whom Christ died (37).

The Christian community is central to Christian identity
The Bible shows that we are communal creatures, made to be lovers of God and of others. Genesis 2 underlines this as the writer tells us that the only thing in all creation that is not good is the man on his own (v. 18).
Into our pervasively individualistic world-view, we speak the gospel message of reconciliation, unity and identity as the people of God. This is perhaps the most significant “culture gap” which the church has to bridge.
Today it is often difficult for people to contemplate conversion to Christ if that means distancing themselves from their existing networks, especially if those are the close bonds of a minority community such as those found in the gay community or among ethnic minorities. They need a new home. In The Crowded House they have also found some people wanting to be part of their church community not initially because they were interested in Christ, but because they wanted a kinder, gentler alternative to their existing network of relationships.
The NT word for community is koinonia, often translated by the now anemic word ‘fellowship’. Koinonia is linked to the words “common”, “sharing”, “participation.” We are the community of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13.14) in community with the Son (1 Cor. 1.9): sharing our lives (1 Thes. 2.8), sharing our property (Acts 4.32), sharing the gospel (Phil. 1.5; Phile 6) and sharing in Christ’s suffering and glory (2 cor. 1.6-7; 1 Pet. 4.13).
At the center or hub of life is not me as an individual, but us as members of the Christian community.
(38-43).

The Christian community is central to Christian mission
God is a missionary God and God’s primary missionary method is his covenant people.
The church is not something additional or optional. It is at the very heart of God’s purposes. Jesus came to create a people who would model what it means to live under his rule. It would be a glorious outpost of the kingdom of God: an embassy of heaven. This is where the world can see what it means to be truly human.
Our identity as human beings is found in community. Our identity as Christians is found in Christ’s new community. And our mission takes place through communities of faith. Christianity is ‘total church.’

If you warm to this vision of Christian community then start where you are. Sell the vision by modeling the vision. Become a blessing by offering hospitality, showing practical care, dropping in on people…Create something that other people want to be part of (48).

Total Church: Why Gospel?

In the first major section of their book, Chester and Timmis discuss “Gospel and Community in Principle.” The first chapter is called, “Why Gospel?” They defend the preaching and teaching of Scriptures as a way of extending their community because Christianity is word centered. It is word centered because God rules through his gospel word. God extends his rule through his word.
Christianity is also mission-centered because God extends his rule through his gospel word. To tell people the gospel is to announce the kingdom or kingship of God and Christ. Their concern to be word-centered does not conflict with a concern to be Spirit-centered. The community formed by the gospel for the gospel is the community in which God dwells by his Spirit. In the Bible, word and Spirit always go together.
This means that Bible study and theology that do not lead to love for God and a desire to do his will have gone terribly wrong. True theology leads to love, mission and worship.

They sum this up by saying: The gospel is a word so the church must be word-centered
Being gospel centered has two dimensions. First, it means being word-centered because the gospel is a word. The gospel is good news. It is a message. It is a word that has become incarnate in Jesus Christ. It is this word that brings new life to people and shapes the life of the church.
Second, the gospel is a missionary word so the church must be mission-centered.

Implications
They begin to flesh out missional living with some very challenging thoughts to their community members (not just “called” missionaries and ministers). To think mission centered, they ask people to imagine they are part of a church planting team in a cross-cultural situation in some other part of the world:
• What criteria would you used to decide where to live?
• How would you approach secular employment?
• What standard of living would you expect as pioneer missionaries?
• What would you spend your time doing?
• What opportunities would you be looking for?
• What would your prayers be like?
• What would you be trying to do with your new friends?
• What kind of team would you want around you?
• How would you conduct your meetings together? (33)

For them, they believe the UK will never be reached until they create open, authentic, learning and praying communities that are focused on making whole-life disciples who live and share the Gospel wherever they relate to people in their daily lives.
The challenge for them (and passed on to all of us) is to make the gospel the center of our lives not just on Sunday mornings, but on Monday mornings. (36)

New Series: Total Church

Total Church

Introduction

I haven’t blogged in a while, so I’m going to begin a new series blogging through the book, Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. I read this book two years ago and have had notes sitting around for two years. Thought I’d work through them here.

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis began "The Crowded House", a church planting movement that is centered around missional house groups committed to the gospel in community and communities on mission. They place a big emphasis on sharing lives with another and welcoming unbelievers into the network of relationships that make up the church. They grow by planting new congregations rather than acquiring bigger premises.

Chester and Timmis saw that ministry had become a production line: churning out sermons, putting on events and trying to generate another wave of enthusiasm for evangelism. If only there was a different way of doing church. They saw that so much of what they called church was good but inaccessible and irrelevant to those around them. Non-believers were not being exposed to “church”.

The focus of this book is “gospel and community”. They are committed to being gospel centered which involves two things: first, being word-centered because the gospel is a word – the gospel is news, a message. Second, it means being mission-centered because the gospel is a word to be proclaimed. The gospel is good news and is a missionary message.

They center their activities on being gospel centered in the sense of being word-centered, gospel-centered in the sense of being mission-centered and community centered. They admit that at times, a focus on community becomes insulated, me and my acquaintances talking about God. They strive to be enthusiastic about truth AND mission as well as being enthusiastic about relationships and community.

They flesh this out by

· Seeing church as an identity instead of a responsibility to be juggled alongside other commitments.

· Running fewer evangelistic events, youth clubs and social projects and spending more time sharing their lives with unbelievers.

· Starting new congregations instead of growing existing ones.

Christology discussion for Engage

Christ/Messiah
Greek – christos>chrio = to anoint or smear with oil
Hebrew – mashiach
Anointing in connection with king in OT
1 Sam. 24.6; 2 Sam. 1.14; cf. Ps. 2.2
Disciples’/High Priest’s misunderstanding of messiah
(and Jesus’ correction)
Mark 8.27-33/Mark 14.61-62

Son of God
The King as son of God
2 Sam. 7.4-14 (Ps. 89.19-45); Psalm 2
Expressed by Jesus – Addressed God as “Abba” (Mk. 14.36)
His obedience to Father’s will
(Mk. 14.32-42; Jn. 4.34; 5.30)
Shares all that the Father has (Jn. 6.15)

Son of Man
Jesus’ favorite self-designation
*Present authority of Jesus: Forgive sins (Mk. 2.10), Lord of Sabbath (Mk. 2.28)
*Suffering and Resurrection: serve others, give life as ransom
(Mk.10.45)
impending betrayal and arrest (Mk. 8.31)
*Future coming and authority: Mk. 13.26; 14.62; Ref. to Dan. 7.13-14


Lord/Kyrios
Central confession of early church (Rom. 10.9; 1 Cor. 12.3; Phil. 2.11)
Non-christian sense: gods and goddesses; sir or master; Roman emperor
Paul – Applied to Jesus concepts and functions reserved for YHWH
Rom. 10.13 (Joel 3.5)
Phil. 2.9-11 (Isa. 45.23)

The Crucifixion and its implications (the atoning sacrifice)
Rom. 3.25-26 – the sacrifice of atonement
The Day of Atonement – Leviticus 16
The Ultimate Solution – Heb. 9.11-15

The Resurrection and its significance
Jesus…was raised for our justification: Rom. 4.25
Resurrection verifies that Jesus rules: Eph. 1.20-23
Our resurrection is anchored to his: 1 Thes. 4.14
Resurrection is not peripheral to the Gospel: Rom. 10.9; 1 Cor. 15.14-15, 17
Indication that new age has dawned (Rom. 1.4 or 6.4-6, 9)

More Commands from Christ

I am trying to keep this strictly to the commands of Jesus as they universally apply to his followers. In the gospels, there is far more teaching and activity of Jesus than strictly his commands. This tells me that we can learn much about observing what Jesus does as well as following his commands. Maybe the next two projects will be the teaching of Jesus and then the actions of Jesus. but, back to his commands.

Matthew 12.50 - (After his family came to speak to him out of concern for him, he states) Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.
Matthew 16.24-25 - (The call to discipleship) If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
Matthew 17.5 - (This command came to Peter, James and John on the mountain, but I think it is good advice. It is actually a command from the Father, but it gives credence to this whole project) "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"

Christopher Hitchens defines being a Christian?

I found this on Scot McKnight's blog: Jesus Creed. The quote below has militant atheist Chris Hitchens aptly defining a Christian.

This time from Christopher Hitchens, who was interviewed in The Portland Monthly by Marilyn Sewell, whose words are in bold:

The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I'm a liberal Christian, and I don't take the stories from the scripture literally. I don't believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make and distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?

I would say that if you don't believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you're really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.