I hope you have enjoyed a great Christmas, celebrating the birth of a baby who would save the world! As God promised Abraham 4000 years ago, through Him every family on earth will be blessed, and as Isaiah said, “Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end”.
When we take a step back and look at history, we can see these precious promises being worked out. Maybe they’re not being fulfilled quite how we’d imagined, but the kingdom of God on earth is growing, as an army of men and women lay down their lives to bless others.
At this time of year we also like to look forward and wonder what 2015 has in store for us. In a recent gathering of Pioneer leaders, we all felt a fresh call to evangelism. The Spirit is clearly encouraging us to continue in His mission to save the world and to proclaim the Good News as loudly as we can. The Church in every generation has to work out the questions that the people of its day are asking. We can’t simply learn and repeat the answers of previous generations as they were spoken into different contexts.
Thankfully, there are signs for optimism that the Church in the UK has started to find its voice after decades of decline. Independent churches like River have continued to see strong growth, but now mainstream churches are also growing. For example, the Church of England reported increased attendance in 20 out of its 44 dioceses and an increase of 5% in adult baptisms in 2013. Remarkably, the Causeway Coast Vineyard Church in Coleraine has seen over 2600 people respond to Jesus on the streets in the past 10 months! I believe a few key developments in church culture have helped produce this turnaround:
- A refocusing on the Father-heart of God – that He is love
- A rediscovery of the Holy Spirit powerfully at work in and through us
- A new appreciation of our need for all churches to work together
- A recommitment to serving our communities
National events such as Spring Harvest, New Wine and Soul Survivor have helped promote such values. On top of this, there is a fresh approach to Scripture emerging, spearheaded by men like Tom Wright, which brings life rather than dogma. I strongly recommend reading his ‘Surprised by Scripture’ and ‘Scripture and the Authority of God’*. He argues powerfully that we should change our emphasis in evangelism from one largely about personal salvation and escaping this world, to one aimed at saving the whole of creation; that God’s plan has always been to see the whole world redeemed; that Jesus’ resurrection was the beginning of the new creation; that we’re headed for an eternal home on a wonderfully renewed earth; and that this is to be achieved by God and man working together.
River Churches will continue to run Alpha Courses and demonstrate His love by serving our communities, but if we are to see a real breakthrough in evangelism, it means all of us embracing the call to be good news! So how can we best cooperate with Jesus to see His kingdom come and encourage one another to be good news? Well, we could start by asking ourselves and others questions like: When was the last time you prayed for an opportunity to share your faith? When was the last time you took a step requiring faith? When was the last time you offered prayer to someone outside the church? When was the last time you were able to demonstrate your love to someone practically? These types of questions may make us feel uncomfortable, but they will challenge us to change. The answers will also enable us to celebrate the wonderful moments we get to be light in this world. I know that the more steps of faith we take, the more prayers we pray and the more love we show, the more people we will see respond to Jesus and enter a more abundant joyful life. What we have is just too good to keep to ourselves!
