(By Jody)
Mark 1:9-20
Article on “Stuff” in August this year:
"I actually feel more at home and more a part of a community than I ever have in my life," she said. "Allah was calling me home."
I read this article about six weeks after Lynne’s talk on why people convert to Christianity.
You can still listen to Lynne’s talk – it’s on the Baptist Research website. In her PhD research “Why are un-churched people becoming Christians today?” Lynne found that people who “converted” (and while she didn’t necessarily love the word it was the best one to use) would have an exposure to Christianity at some point, maybe a Christian relative or a school connection, a life prompt which could be good or bad or weird, and a willingness to engage in spiritual practices like bible reading or church services or prayer or shared meals. They were open to saying yes over a course of time. And along the way there were affected by: yearning, desire to be a better person, being impressed with lives of other Christians, a sense of homecoming, deep / gut knowing, and experiencing a new way of seeing things.
One woman’s story of converting to Islam seems to have lots in common with Lynne’s findings on why people convert to Christianity... the prompt, the spiritual practices, the yearning, the knowing, the homecoming.
One reason I think many people have been so impressed with the Muslim community in New Zealand since March 15 is the radical way they have chosen welcome more strangers into their midst – the open mosques, the invitation to prayer, the feeding of guests. This is the kind of witness that moves people, far more than sermons or tracts or creeds.
Barbara Brown Taylor was converted by a door knocking evangelist at college, which is fascinating in itself, and a plug for door knocking, at least in the American South in the 60s, but she chose to major in religion because those professors were the ones cancelling classes for Vietnam War protests. (From Nomad podcast episode 201 interview with Barbara Brown Taylor.)
Lives that bear witness to radically lived faith, without words or sermons or intent to convert, give great relief to me.
I picked the text from Mark’s gospel because while it is an important saying of Jesus, and cannot and should not be shrugged off, it probably represents exactly what so many of us find disturbing about notions of evangelism: entrapping unsuspecting sinners and hauling them, gasping for breath, into the queue for heaven.
The good news (and incidentally, that’s where the word for evangelism comes from: the Greek for “good news”) is that there is widespread recognition that the insistent, sales-pitch-y, hooking and hauling, evangelistic views and styles that came from America last century will not do in times and places like ours. NT Wright reminds that Billy Graham preached to crowds of non-Christians who were brought up attending Sunday School. (From Ask NT Wright Anything podcast episode 4.)
In my research on the topic, which while by no means exhaustive was reasonably broad, no one seemed to advocate a “fishing” methodology, where unsuspecting people where hauled into Christian salvation by fair means or foul, for the good of their souls. I think we can safely assume that is off the table.
I spent a lot of time trying to decide how to split up the weeks I allocated myself for the evangelism series. I already did my first sermon on the topic; Jesus sending his followers out with nothing – to be guests in need not hosts in power – with anything we have to give coming from the abundance of what we have received from God. This is my main conviction on the subject.
So I decided to just follow up on what I find myself thinking about the most, which are not necessarily the most important discussions in evangelism: the place of church services in bearing witness, how to make sense of being one strand in a multi-faith society, and today, radical transformative discipleship that speaks for itself.
Because over and over evangelism theory comes back to this point: It is the life you lead as a disciple, the life we lead as a community of disciples, that is the most effective and most true witness to Jesus Christ.
Barbara Brown Taylor challenges herself: What does it mean to be a Christian with the sound turned off? Without any of my proclamations? (From Nomad podcast episode 201 interview with Barbara Brown Taylor.)
A life lived in faithfulness to the radical re-ordering and transformation of the Reign of God might invite curiosity, conversation, the chance to pray, to listen, to tell your story. But our responsibility, if that is the right word, because it is simply our deepest truth, is, to live love of your love God and love your neighbour.
And if our lives never elicit curiosity or conversation or the chance to pray for someone, to listen them, to tell our story, perhaps we need to look carefully at our understanding of discipleship, not at whether we’re “catching” enough people for Jesus.
Debie Thomas conveys perfectly the caution many feel about the word evangelism and the imagery of Mark’s text: “The fish were lost souls, doomed to hellfire. “Hooking” them for Jesus — getting them to church, to youth group, to the altar; leading them to say the sinner’s prayer and accept Jesus as their personal Savior; insisting that only our version of Christianity held "The Truth" which would save them from damnation — was the only hope these poor fish had. So. ... Was I willing to fish for lost souls? Or would I cling to my worldly nets, ignore Jesus’s call, and let countless sinners die without salvation?”
Reflecting on the text, with the help of Debie Thomas' excellent article, I suspect the command is not about the caught as much as those who are invited re-orient their lives; from what they have always done and sought, to a new way of being and focus.
“Follow me and I will make you…” is a promise to change us. I may be misquoting because it was months ago but someone made the comment in Free For All “First we evangelise ourselves.” I was impressed by how it shifted the word away from who I could target for conversion, to how I can be re-formed, transformed, by the good news.
NT Wright reminds that the call to repent, and both John and Jesus have already issued this in Mark’s first 15 verses, is not about stopping being naughty and saying the sinners prayer. Repentance is a turn, to embrace the upheaval and re-ordering of the kingdom of heaven. (From Ask NT Wright Anything podcast episode 4.)
To turn and transform our values, our vision, our lives, our very imaginations.
About who is our neighbour, how we should treat them, about what it means to be human, and what it means to love and be loved by God. (Not a direct quote but inspired by this from Barbara Brown Taylor.)
One of the teachers at our kids' school, after a module learning about bees, got her class to make protest placards about caring for bees, and taught them to march through the children gathered for assembly chanting: “Be kind to bees, plant more trees, be kind to bees, we need bees!!” The kids loved it.
It was a great chance too, to talk to our kids about why protest is important, as part of standing up for what you think really matters, even if others disagree or dismiss.
So perhaps evangelism means asking and re-asking ourselves how we are expressing imaginations and therefore lives radically re-formed and re-ordered by the kingdom of heaven?
Should PBC have weekly or monthly flash mobs, who go out from here in support, or in protest? Should we shut down church services regularly to focus on something that matters to us together? To gather in solidarity with A&G's muslim friends, to protest climate crisis, to fundraise for the woman Colin Craig is harrassing through the court system, to bake for Rainbow Youth on their strategic planning days, to clean beaches and plant trees?
What story do our lives tell with the sound turned off?
How does Jesus dare us to imagine loving our God and our neighbours?
Can we trust that when we are faithful disciples, the good news is proclaimed?
Mark 1:9-20
Article on “Stuff” in August this year:
"I actually feel more at home and more a part of a community than I ever have in my life," she said. "Allah was calling me home."
I read this article about six weeks after Lynne’s talk on why people convert to Christianity.
You can still listen to Lynne’s talk – it’s on the Baptist Research website. In her PhD research “Why are un-churched people becoming Christians today?” Lynne found that people who “converted” (and while she didn’t necessarily love the word it was the best one to use) would have an exposure to Christianity at some point, maybe a Christian relative or a school connection, a life prompt which could be good or bad or weird, and a willingness to engage in spiritual practices like bible reading or church services or prayer or shared meals. They were open to saying yes over a course of time. And along the way there were affected by: yearning, desire to be a better person, being impressed with lives of other Christians, a sense of homecoming, deep / gut knowing, and experiencing a new way of seeing things.
One woman’s story of converting to Islam seems to have lots in common with Lynne’s findings on why people convert to Christianity... the prompt, the spiritual practices, the yearning, the knowing, the homecoming.
One reason I think many people have been so impressed with the Muslim community in New Zealand since March 15 is the radical way they have chosen welcome more strangers into their midst – the open mosques, the invitation to prayer, the feeding of guests. This is the kind of witness that moves people, far more than sermons or tracts or creeds.
Barbara Brown Taylor was converted by a door knocking evangelist at college, which is fascinating in itself, and a plug for door knocking, at least in the American South in the 60s, but she chose to major in religion because those professors were the ones cancelling classes for Vietnam War protests. (From Nomad podcast episode 201 interview with Barbara Brown Taylor.)
Lives that bear witness to radically lived faith, without words or sermons or intent to convert, give great relief to me.
I picked the text from Mark’s gospel because while it is an important saying of Jesus, and cannot and should not be shrugged off, it probably represents exactly what so many of us find disturbing about notions of evangelism: entrapping unsuspecting sinners and hauling them, gasping for breath, into the queue for heaven.
The good news (and incidentally, that’s where the word for evangelism comes from: the Greek for “good news”) is that there is widespread recognition that the insistent, sales-pitch-y, hooking and hauling, evangelistic views and styles that came from America last century will not do in times and places like ours. NT Wright reminds that Billy Graham preached to crowds of non-Christians who were brought up attending Sunday School. (From Ask NT Wright Anything podcast episode 4.)
In my research on the topic, which while by no means exhaustive was reasonably broad, no one seemed to advocate a “fishing” methodology, where unsuspecting people where hauled into Christian salvation by fair means or foul, for the good of their souls. I think we can safely assume that is off the table.
I spent a lot of time trying to decide how to split up the weeks I allocated myself for the evangelism series. I already did my first sermon on the topic; Jesus sending his followers out with nothing – to be guests in need not hosts in power – with anything we have to give coming from the abundance of what we have received from God. This is my main conviction on the subject.
So I decided to just follow up on what I find myself thinking about the most, which are not necessarily the most important discussions in evangelism: the place of church services in bearing witness, how to make sense of being one strand in a multi-faith society, and today, radical transformative discipleship that speaks for itself.
Because over and over evangelism theory comes back to this point: It is the life you lead as a disciple, the life we lead as a community of disciples, that is the most effective and most true witness to Jesus Christ.
Barbara Brown Taylor challenges herself: What does it mean to be a Christian with the sound turned off? Without any of my proclamations? (From Nomad podcast episode 201 interview with Barbara Brown Taylor.)
A life lived in faithfulness to the radical re-ordering and transformation of the Reign of God might invite curiosity, conversation, the chance to pray, to listen, to tell your story. But our responsibility, if that is the right word, because it is simply our deepest truth, is, to live love of your love God and love your neighbour.
And if our lives never elicit curiosity or conversation or the chance to pray for someone, to listen them, to tell our story, perhaps we need to look carefully at our understanding of discipleship, not at whether we’re “catching” enough people for Jesus.
Debie Thomas conveys perfectly the caution many feel about the word evangelism and the imagery of Mark’s text: “The fish were lost souls, doomed to hellfire. “Hooking” them for Jesus — getting them to church, to youth group, to the altar; leading them to say the sinner’s prayer and accept Jesus as their personal Savior; insisting that only our version of Christianity held "The Truth" which would save them from damnation — was the only hope these poor fish had. So. ... Was I willing to fish for lost souls? Or would I cling to my worldly nets, ignore Jesus’s call, and let countless sinners die without salvation?”
Reflecting on the text, with the help of Debie Thomas' excellent article, I suspect the command is not about the caught as much as those who are invited re-orient their lives; from what they have always done and sought, to a new way of being and focus.
“Follow me and I will make you…” is a promise to change us. I may be misquoting because it was months ago but someone made the comment in Free For All “First we evangelise ourselves.” I was impressed by how it shifted the word away from who I could target for conversion, to how I can be re-formed, transformed, by the good news.
NT Wright reminds that the call to repent, and both John and Jesus have already issued this in Mark’s first 15 verses, is not about stopping being naughty and saying the sinners prayer. Repentance is a turn, to embrace the upheaval and re-ordering of the kingdom of heaven. (From Ask NT Wright Anything podcast episode 4.)
To turn and transform our values, our vision, our lives, our very imaginations.
About who is our neighbour, how we should treat them, about what it means to be human, and what it means to love and be loved by God. (Not a direct quote but inspired by this from Barbara Brown Taylor.)
One of the teachers at our kids' school, after a module learning about bees, got her class to make protest placards about caring for bees, and taught them to march through the children gathered for assembly chanting: “Be kind to bees, plant more trees, be kind to bees, we need bees!!” The kids loved it.
It was a great chance too, to talk to our kids about why protest is important, as part of standing up for what you think really matters, even if others disagree or dismiss.
So perhaps evangelism means asking and re-asking ourselves how we are expressing imaginations and therefore lives radically re-formed and re-ordered by the kingdom of heaven?
Should PBC have weekly or monthly flash mobs, who go out from here in support, or in protest? Should we shut down church services regularly to focus on something that matters to us together? To gather in solidarity with A&G's muslim friends, to protest climate crisis, to fundraise for the woman Colin Craig is harrassing through the court system, to bake for Rainbow Youth on their strategic planning days, to clean beaches and plant trees?
What story do our lives tell with the sound turned off?
How does Jesus dare us to imagine loving our God and our neighbours?
Can we trust that when we are faithful disciples, the good news is proclaimed?
