“
let your light
shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise
your
Father in heaven. ”
(Mt
6:16)
"The
use of the church was that it made one think of what one would not otherwise
think of"
(Queen
Victoria)
In this chapter we'll look at the whole question of our
place in the world. In Book One we looked at the way we as individuals
view this world. Now we move on to consider the potential of the church
for impacting this world, and we'll try to allay some of the fears that
arise in Christians about evangelism.
12.1
A Light to the Nations
The
Example of Israel
A while ago I came to realise afresh the number of times
Israel had been told they were to be a light to the nations, e.g. Num
14:15, Deut 2:25, 4:6, Isa 42:6, 49:6, 60:3 just for starters. What
also struck me was Israel 's failure to actively be that in their relationship
with the Lord. What becomes clear is that Israel stood out whenever
their relationship with the Lord was strong. Whenever they were spiritually
low, they had problems and were no different to any other nation.
Perhaps the greatest illustration of this is seen through Solomon:
1
Kings 10:23 ,24 King
Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of
the earth. The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the
wisdom God had put in his heart.
In other words, the world came to Solomon's door because
of the wisdom God gave him. This wisdom brought him prosperity and that
also attracted the attention of the world (see the Queen of Sheba –
1 Kings 10:4-7).
Centuries later when Israel were carried into exile, the
word of God came through Jeremiah to them -
Jer
29:7 Also, seek the
peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.
Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."
That is an interesting command – look for the welfare of
the heathen nation in which you live and that will come back on you
and you will prosper. While in captivity, we find Daniel acting as God's
mouthpiece to the pagan rulers. When Nebuchadnezzar had a dream it was
Daniel who interpreted it, including (Dan 2:37 ,38) the words –
The
God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory;
in your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and
the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over
them all.
What amazing words – Nebuchadnezzar you are great because God
has made you so! And what was Nebuchadnezzar's response?
Then
King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honour
and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. The king
said to Daniel, "Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord
of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this
mystery." (v.46,47)
The most powerful man in the world falls down before God's servant
and declares the greatness of God. Yes, there is a lot more to come
in the story of Nebuchadnezzar, but by the end of it we find him proclaiming
(Dan 4:37 ):
Now
I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven,
because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those
who walk in pride he is able to humble.
Again and again in the Old Testament, we get indications
that God wants to bless the whole world and bring whoever will respond
into relationship with Him!
The
Church
In the New Testament we find the church is supposed
to have the same effect as Israel were supposed to have. Note the following:
Mt
5:14-16 "You are
the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do
people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on
its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same
way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds
and praise your Father in heaven.
This was Jesus speaking to his disciples, the future church
– be a light, is what he was saying, so that people will see what you
are and what you do, and will realize who is the source of this – my
Father in heaven.
Jn
17:23 May they be brought
to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved
them even as you have loved me.
This was Jesus praying, asking his Father to so work in
the church that the rest of the world would see their oneness and realize
that this was God's work.
Two of the three references above from Isaiah were Messianic
references, referring to Jesus himself. How was Jesus a light? How did
he attract people? How did he show people the way? Peter, in his preaching
describes Jesus twice:
Acts
2:22 Jesus of Nazareth
was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which
God did among you through him
Acts
10:37,38 You know what
has happened ….. how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit
and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were
under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
In both cases Peter points out the things Jesus DID. In
the second case he describes him “doing good” and the way he did it
was to bring blessing to people's lives, largely through healing. Now
of course we can only do that as the Lord gifts, for healing is HIS
gift, not our ability.
As the church came into being we find that they were “enjoying
the favour of all the people” (Acts 2:47 ) and “they were highly regarded
by the people” (Acts 5:13 ) because of their lifestyle and what they
were doing.
12.2
A Crisis of Confidence?
What often appears to be the case, in the life of the church,
is that it is either so distinct and different from the world as to
be irrelevant to the world even though it (the church) wishes to be
otherwise, or it is so inward looking as to not care about the world.
For many there appears a crisis of confidence. The view
of many is, we have been there, done it and to little avail, so what's
the point. It may be, and only time will tell, that we are actually
in a pre-revival season with the Lord. I've suggested this in the last
chapter of Book One. Very often, as one looks at the history of the
church, prior to a time when God did move in sovereign power, the state
of the church and the state of the nation were at a low ebb.
Assurance
of the Gospel
Now before I proceed any further here, I am aware that
there will be some who out of a defensive stance will misunderstand
what I am about to go on and say if I am not careful. I want therefore
before I go any further to make several clear declarations:
- I
am totally committed to the Gospel and, with Paul, am convinced that
it is the power of God for salvation.
- I
am utterly convinced that the world is lost in Sin and separated from
God, and that the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross is the only way
that that Sin can be dealt with.
- I
am utterly convinced that repentance and seeking God for forgiveness
and salvation through the finished work of Christ on the Cross is
the only way that individuals can be reconciled to God.
Channels
for Blessing?
In what follows my concern is how bring these truths
to a world where Christians are in a minority and where, very obviously,
the church has not been impacting the nation for good. In the United
Kingdom at the beginning of the twenty first century the social fabric
is unravelling, families are disintegrating, and we have a generation
of young people who are suffering, I believe, more than any previous
generation. We are a nation under the judgement of God without doubt.
We, as a local church, over the past fifteen years have
done every sort of evangelism possible – with the exception of a tent
crusade. The amount of fruit from that evangelism has been minimal and
the quality of life of our community has continued to deteriorate. Is
it for lack of wanting? No. Is it for lack of effort? No. Is it for
lack of listening to God? I don't believe so.
In the U.K. in the last years of the 20th century and early years
of the 21st century, one of the things that seem to have been taking
place in an increasing number of churches, is a growing concern for
the community and steps being taken to work into the community in more
than proclamation evangelism.
We too have felt the same and as I have wondered about
this, a simple picture has come to mind. In 2 Kings 3:16 we find a prophetic
word from the Lord come through Elisha. It is “Make this valley full
of ditches”. What then happened was that the Lord brought the water
which flowed wherever a ditch had been dug.
I believe that the many ways what the Lord is opening up
as He sends His church into the community, may well be the ditches in
which His Spirit will flow in what we call revival. Time will tell.
Watch this space!
Our
Experience
I think, before I continue further, I need to put another
rider in. In what follows, I'll simply be sharing what we believe God
has told us to do and the only reason I record it, is so that it may
stir faith in you for something that God might say to you.
Over the past twenty five years of my observing
the Church, individual churches seem to be very good at jumping on the
band wagon of someone else's leading – and there have been some great
things that have been taught or modelled in that period, but very often
we've fallen into the a+b=c trap, where we run church by a formula,
mostly someone else's successful formula, and then wonder why it doesn't
work for us.
The answer to that is that my church is unique, my area is unique
and therefore God's plans for it are unique. It may be that they fit
into a general pattern but how we do it must be how God tells us to
do it. The Christian faith, to quote the obvious that has been said
in these books more than once, is all about relationship, and that means
letting God lead US.
Having said all that, may I share with you a path that
we're only a short way down, a path we believe God has put on our hearts
to match the need of today. This isn't rocket science, this is simple,
basic Christian faith in operation. As many churches are finding themselves
being led down this path, it may well be that you have many similar
experiences to tell. These are simply ours.
If you live in a part of the world where the
Holy Spirit is moving in power and you see large numbers turning to
Christ, this chapter is not for you - move on. This is for those of
us in areas where the church is the minority, and the world is hard
against the church. Having said that, wherever we are in the world,
the challenge has to be, "Are we the salt, as well as the light
of the world, so that the life in our community is changing for the
better because we are there?" and that applies to any area of the
world.
12.3
Into the Community
Let's start with some obvious things about our society today.
If you are reading this in another part of the world it will be different
for you but the principles being applied will still apply wherever we
are. Very well, our community. It is a mixture of middle class affluent
or semi-affluent people, and also poorer areas with a lot of need.
Initial
Involvement
A local authority / health authority group was set up to involve
the needy area of the community in self help. We became involved and
doors started opening. We already had a team going into three sheltered
accommodation homes on a monthly basis (now increased to four), but
now new opportunities were being presented to us.
Parent
Training
We were invited to send people for training for parent
training and two of us went on a five day health authority run course.
Since then we have run four successful parenting courses, recruiting
from the local area. The health authority asked us to target one particularly
needy area which we tried to do via local school. This prompted zero
response and we began to learn that such areas feel suspicion of authorities
and the way in is therefore particularly difficult.
Children's
Club
As we thought about this, we concluded that if we were
to have any hope to getting into this area we would have to have to
go in some other way. Thus came about “628 Club”, a Saturday morning
club for children between the ages of 6 and 8, which runs for an hour
and three quarters every Saturday morning of school term time, starting
with breakfast then having craft activities, games, stories etc. Once
a month we open the breakfast up to include whole families and we've
had occasions when we have served over 40 breakfasts to parents and
children. What we soon found was that some of the parents were staying
for the whole time and not leaving immediately after the breakfast.
Relationships with these parents has been growing.
Parents'
Lunchtime Club
Just recently we're also started a lunchtime club, every
Wednesday for adults, including any young children they may have with
them, where we serve up lunch and then provide craft activities for
the next hour and a half. A number of those now coming include parents
from the children's club, which means relationships are growing even
more.
Youth
Club
On a Friday evening each week, three mothers from
the church who live in that area, together with another mother from
there, run a youth club catering for teenagers. The police have commented
that local crime goes down on Friday evenings!
Drug
Support Work
While this was happening we also had contact with a local
health worker who worked on the drug scene and she trained up half a
dozen of the church to be volunteer helpers in that area of work. Subsequent
to that, one of that group changed jobs and now works leading a drugs
rehab team in a nearby women's prison, another has recently finished
helping out twice a week in the drug clinic where she shared the Gospel
with clients and workers alike (until it shut and moved out of the area),
and a third still does occasional evening needle exchange work in the
nearby town.
Baby
Massage
Another of our ladies who had trained as a beautician
moved into the area of baby massage and now trains local mothers.
We are only a small church of about seventy but the Lord,
over the past two to three years, has been opening up opportunities
to be salt and light into the local community in a very real way. Our
feeling about this is that it is still very early days and we are yet
to see the fruit of salvation flowing as we hope it will do as hearts
open up more and more.
NB.
Update - since originally writing this chapter, the picture
of what we do in the community has changed considerably. One or two
things we either don't do or have changed the format of them, while
we've added in at least three additional activities. The point is that
church is flexible, meeting the varing needs of the day.
12.4
Church without Walls
All I've shared so far is about the sense we had of needing
to become light and salt into the community. At the same time that Lord
has been changing our perception of ‘church'. Several years ago I was
caught by the following verse:
Zech
2:4 Jerusalem
will be a city without walls
As we were thinking how we could be a church that was open
to the community, we held a “think tank” that looked at how difficult
it is for unchurched people (the majority in the UK today) to come through
the doors of a church building and then cope with the service.
Anglican churches are still seen as the church of the state
and so there are still people who want to come and be married in the
traditional building, or bring their children to be “christened”, and
so there are still links in this way. We, as a free church, do not have
those links, so as is common with other free churches, people come to
us if they are Christians and have heard about us through friends, Internet
or some other public link. If they are non-Christians they will mostly
only come if they are invited by friends.
It is at this point that both our own people and they,
have to feel comfortable about the sort of experience they will have.
Increasingly we have been examining who we are and what we do and the
comments in an earlier chapter about “being real” really apply here.
Increasingly unchurched people do not often sing, so worship
hymns or songs will be entirely alien to them. The Bible is an unknown
book and for the large numbers of either dyslexic or illiterate people
in our society, reading is a problem (which also makes hymn singing
difficult!). Because of multi-faith teaching in schools, the Bible is
virtually unknown by a large majority of adult society. Smokers find
going an hour and a half without a cigarette a strain.
These are the challenges that confront us in the twenty
first century. Big thriving churches tend to be middle class, and churches
catering for the lower or so-called working-class (a term which has
largely lost its meaning) tend to be few and far between.
If you are a church person, look at your own church and
check your age range (an older congregation suggests this church won't
be there in fifteen years time – unless God and you bring change!),
your social grouping (middle class is OK but what about the rest – the
ones Jesus seemed to particularly go for?) and how easy is it for a
completely non-church person to come in and be put at ease.
Pick
'n Mix
Over the last few years we have experimented with different
forms of ‘service', if you can call them that. At the beginning of this
book you saw reference to “Pick 'n Mix” mornings which we have once
a month. The idea is to run three different streams throughout the morning,
one for the children and youth, and two for the adults.
The two streams for the adults may comprise three or four
20 to 30 minute sessions with breaks in between (and we do it differently
from time to time). One of the breaks will specifically be 15-20 minutes
for a coffee-fellowship time. We also seek to have a coffee area open
throughout the morning so that people can choose which sessions to go
to, or miss a session, sit out and drink coffee and fellowship – often
a very important time.
In a three session morning, one session will be worship
(one stream being traditional happy singing, the other a more reflective
approach), another session a preaching/teaching time (one stream doing
a from-the-front preach, the other doing interactive Bible Study where
everyone can join in), and the third session will be a completely different
time which could be say, “How to handle debt” (a teaching), or “Releasing
your creativity” (a practical hands on time), or “My hopes and dreams”
(individuals sharing the hopes they have in God). The possibilities
are endless.
The purpose of Pick 'n Mix is twofold: first to provide
greater opportunity for choice so that people can sometimes choose things
that are nearer to their needs, for example when we are teaching specific
help subjects, and second, to give more people opportunity to lead.
Each session is led by a different person, and so on a three-session
morning, apart from the children's and youth workers, we need at least
six different people out front. Occasionally we have done eight shorter
sessions for even greater choice, and so that has needed eight leaders.
My objective is to give as many people as possible an opportunity to
participate.
Of course with half hour or even twenty/twenty-five minute
sessions, for non-Christians coming in from outside who are not used
to sitting listening for half and hour, the shorter the session the
easier they find it. One or two of our people have not been keen on
Pick 'n Mix but the majority insist we keep on doing it!
Remembrance
Sunday
I never quite realised the potential that special meetings
had until a couple of years ago when we were approaching Remembrance
Sunday in November. If you come from another part of the world, in the
UK we have a Sunday in early November designated Remembrance Sunday
when we remember those who died in the Two World Wars of the twentieth
century.
Most years we had simply paused the service at 11.00am
and with many others in the nation stood silently for two minutes and
then prayed for those gone in those wars. We then carried on with the
service. On this particular year, I sensed that we should do something
completely different and so, after praying about it, I produced three
boards with collages on, one depicting things (pictures, poems, stories
etc.) from the First World War, one for the Second World War and a third
one reminding us of the twenty first century threat of terrorism. These
we placed in three corners of the hall that we use, and then in a fourth
corner had an upright cork board on a table with candles, pieces of
paper, and pens.
For the first twenty minutes we worshipped and prayed as
usual. Then we explained what we wanted to happen. We invited people
in the next half hour to go round to the four displays and stand there,
read what was there and pray silently as they wished. At the table with
the cork board and candles we invited people to remember anyone
who they had lost, by writing their name on a piece of paper,
folding it and pinning it on the board, and then lighting a candle as
a symbol of the light that person had brought into the world, and then
stand there are give thanks for their memory.
For thirty minutes people quietly went from area to area
(and yes, we did pause up corporately at 11.00am and pray) and while
a keyboard gently played in the background, people met with their God
and gave thanks. Some were weeping and as I stood watching at one point,
at the front of the room, one of our men came up to me and whispered,
“This is the most powerful thing we've ever done!” At the end of the
half hour our dance team did a simple mime and then we shared Communion
around the room. It was a powerful morning! Each November we try to
do something different now.
Mothering
Sunday
Like many churches in the UK we try and make something
of Mothering Sunday or Mothers' Day, but this year we made it completely
different and invited some of the families from the children's club
and called it ‘Marvellous Mums Morning'. Rather than have a ‘service'
we had our hall laid out completely differently with lots of different
‘areas' with different things going on in them. For the first ten minutes
or so we had our musicians play and our singers sing and we prayed for
families generally. Then we invited people to make as much use of the
various areas as they wanted for the next three quarters of an hour.
If one corner we had a photographer taking celebration pictures of each
family, which we promised to deliver within the next week.
In another area there was a partitioned off ‘prayer zone'
where people could go and pray if they wanted – and a good number did!
We had a children's zone where children could do craft work or colouring,
and even a table where people could go and do ‘Family' word searches.
In another area, I did a “Telling your fortune” area – which did cause
a little controversy on the advertising leaflets! Oh, yes, nothing spooky
or occultish about this. There was simply a table with some simple questionnaires
on that people filled in and …. well, no, I'll tell you later; it fits
better then.
Later in the morning we invited people to join groups if
they wanted – one on “How to bless my Mum”, one on “How to bless my
wife”, one on “How to survive as a single mum”, and at the end we awarded
certificates from the children to their mums. Many people said how meaningful
it had been, and the non-Christians felt loved and accepted and able
to join in.
Fathers'
Day
Now this was venturing out on difficult ground! Our society
is littered with broken families. There are literally hundreds of thousands
of children who don't live with their natural father. Single mums are
quite normal. In our children's club we'd learnt a new language, “My
mum's boyfriend,” instead of “My dad”! When so many children are hurting
at the absence of their fathers, how could we do something meaningful?
In the event, we did something similar to the Mothers'
Day morning but had more worship, more reflection and lots of “Resource
Cards” that were first of all questionnaires and then suggestion sheets
for “How to” and we covered everything from “How to bless my dad at
home” to “How to bless my dad who has left home”, a total of about twelve
different cards that covered every possible person who could have been
there, applying something to do with families and the need for fathers.
At the end of the morning several single mums made a point of ringing
me and thanking me for the sensitive and caring way we had reached out
to their families.
And
others…
We're in the early days of learning, so yes we do
special things for Christmas, Easter and Harvest, and any other special
occasion we can think of, to help people in all walks of life meet God
in a way that is appropriate to them – because we're trying to create
a secure church, where people feel safe when they come.
12.5
Meeting a Hunger
Is the world out there anti-God? No, but many of them are
anti-church, because they can't see what the relevance is for them
of “services” in forms that are utterly alien to them. So does that
mean they are utterly uninterested? No, definitely not, in fact, if
anything we are discerning a spiritual hunger. Let me give you three
examples of things that happened to me that really have shaken my thinking
in recent years.
Praying
over the Unsaved
The first one happened when I was in the States. I was,
on this particular evening, with a youth group of about 20-25 young
people between the ages of, I would think about 16 and 25. In talking
with them and using an ice-breaking exercise, I came to realise that
this was a very mixed group of mature Christian, young Christians and
non-Christians. Nearing the end of my talk time, one of the leaders
asked me, “Tony would you be prepared to pray over any that wanted you
to?” In our language this meant pray and seek God for prophetic words
for them, so I said yes and, having laid out the Gospel, I asked if
there were any of them who knew they had a clear relationship with the
Lord and who might like me to pray over them. About half the group stood
up and for the next twenty (?) minutes or so I worked my way round those
standing, praying and prophesying over them.
When I got round the group, I sighed inwardly and thanked the
Lord for His provision, but then came an inner nudging; perhaps there
were one or two who weren't quite so sure of themselves but who would
nevertheless like me to pray over them. I thought I probably ought to
give those two or three (as I thought) an opportunity to respond, so
said, “I guess there may be one or two more of you who might like me
to seek God on your behalf, so if that's you, would you like the stand
up please.” The entire other half of the group stood instantly. It wasn't
a case of following anyone's lead, they all responded instantly.
I gasped inwardly, “Lord, help! What do I do, these are
mostly non-Christians?” “I love them, son, just pray.” So for the next
three quarters of an hour (?) I prayed and prophesied over these young
people. You have a problem with prophecy? You have a problem with prophesying
over non-Christians? So you have a problem with God telling young people
how much he loves them and eye balling them with stuff in their lives?
I tell you that you wouldn't if you'd done it. It was one of the most
precious times of ministry I've ever had!
Afterwards, two of the boys, very obviously non-Christians,
came up to me. “So how did you know all that about us?” they demanded.
We talked on and shared how I didn't but God did, how He loved them
and wanted to sort out their lives. These kids didn't want church but
they did want God, they did want to know someone knew about them, all
about them, and still loved them. And yes, they were willing to go away
and seriously think about the alternatives that could happen if they
rejected what they had heard!
I
enjoyed the worship
Our young people's band has recently started doing a once
a month evening worship time, a time given over purely to worship and
nothing else – although other things normally happen! One of the mums
who comes along has only fairly recently become a Christian and so when
she comes, some of her family also tend to come and spectate. She has
five boys, one of whom has left home now. They've all been in trouble
in some way of other. We baptised her a little while back and the whole
family were there – it was great! I happened to be in her home a few
days after this particular worship evening and some of the family were
there. One of the mid-teens piped up, “I really enjoyed you worship
evening on Sunday. When are you having another one?”
Excuse me? This is a non-Christian lad who, if I'd
met him out late months previously, I might have preferred to avoid!
And he's asking for more worship? Well, they were at the next worship
evening a month later, two of the boys, and the girl friend of one,
as well as mum. Some way into the worship, the Lord nudged me to see
if there were any who would like us to pray for them. The younger brother
and the girl friend went to the back. My wife went to the girl who is
about 16. The Lord gave her a beautiful picture of the Lord wanting
to wrap her in a warm cloak of his love. She was obviously moved by
this.
I didn't know what was happening but while she was
praying over this girl, one of our other men happened to arrive late
to pick up his son who had been playing in the band. He stood by the
door for a couple of minutes and then came over to me. “Tony,” he said,
“that girl over there that Helen's praying for. I've got this tremendous
feeling that God wants her to know how much He loves her.” “OK,” I said,
“Go over there and tell her.” To cut a long story short, he arrived
at the moment Helen had just finished sharing, and shared the identical
picture with the girl. Suddenly she knew God was on her case –
wonderfully.
These kids keep coming, because they've found something,
or someone, who they realised was more than religion. They're moving
in the right direction and one of these days they're going to gently
enter the kingdom of God. It's a new day!
Tell
me my fortune
I told you earlier on how in the Mothers' Day morning
I offered to tell people their fortune. All we did was provide simple
questionnaires with questions where you scored yourself, such as “Do
you worry a lot?”, “How easily do you forgive?”, “Do you ever pray?”
etc. It was then easy to say, “On the basis of what you have scored
yourself, if your assessment of yourself is accurate (do you think it
is?), then this suggests that the sort of person you are is….. and if
that is so, it is likely that in the future you will be good/bad at….”
With one non-Christian girl, I remember saying,
“Well on the basis of what you have said, if this is really you, you
are good at relationships and should make a good wife. All you have
to do if ensure he has the same values as you. I see you quite often
worry about things but have never prayed. If I told you that God loves
you and is concerned for you, would that surprise you? Have you ever
thought about talking to Him about your worries? Why not try an experiment.
For the next month, talk to God about your worries and see what happens.
Would you like to try that?” She said yes. What these people were looking
for was reassurance about life and, maybe, the possibility that God
was for them. Church, no! God, perhaps.
A young man who came to our Sunday morning club for young
people, that we had set up to meet the needs of our young people more
fully (Sunday school style for younger ones, games, activities and discussion
for older ones), when asked why he came replied, “To find out about
God.” When asked what would convince him, he replied straight away,
“An experience of God.”
That is what so many of these people we are meeting
are saying: “Don't give me words, show me.” For some of them it's “Show
me God who can really speak into my life”, for others it's “Show me
this love thing you Christians are supposed to be famed for.”
In more recent days, that has meant us being there
with one mother as she struggles with her family (after her husband
left her for a young girl), paying a fine for her, going to court with
her to battle against a landlord who wants her out, and attending child
protection meetings to help her with her disruptive children. For another
family it was buying a freezer full of food when the freezer broke down
and they had no money to replace it all. Different people, different
needs, but the same Jesus loving them through his people.
12.6
And So?
At the end of a chapter like this, remembering
we are still talking about a secure church, questions we might ask are:
Do
we feel confident in being God's children, confident in the Gospel,
confident in the knowledge that we have the answers that the world
needs?
As
a local church, do we have a strategy for reaching out with the good
news, whether it be short term or long term?
Have
we thought through accessibility to our church for people from outside?
Do
we feel confident in the gifts that God has given us, confident that
they are adequate for the things He gives us to do?
Do
we have access to the people around us who don't know Jesus? How extensive
or limited is that? Do we want to change that?
Is
our light genuinely shining to those round about us, so that they
see our goodness being expressed in a variety of ways?
Do
our neighbours feel comfortable with us, realising we are a source
of knowledge of God and that we can be turned to for help in times
of trouble?