Speaking in a relevant way about an authentic Christian framework

Michael Gough 'believes the language used in the Christian context is inherent to the subculture, but doesn't translate well in the mainstream: "Our challenge always to our faith-based clients is to make them think about what the mainstream culture is. We think about how we can lift that from the assumptions of a Christian subculture, turning that into something meaningful, engaging and relevant to the mainstream culture."

For Sparks, it's all about helping clients see that opportunity to speak in a relevant way about an authentic Christian framework, but in a language that is engaging to a wider audience.

And they've had a lot of experience, working with organisations such as Christian Aid and OMF, as well as singer Duke Special. But their work is diverse, stretching to financial companies, the legal sector and entertainment.'

In an interview published in the Evangelical Alliance's Idea magazine, he says:

"The problem is the Church has an assumption about its culture, which sometimes gets in the way about people engaging and meeting with the true biblical expression of who Christ is. Lots of language we use in a church context is tied exclusively to this culture – it has little meaning outside."

I think the more we can do to help people outside of the Church to engage with the biblical text, the more we move away from this subcultural context and engage with the truth of the gospel."

Gough says that the early days of Sparks Studio were heavily influenced by the writings of Calvin Seerveld with his essay, 'The Freedom and the Responsibility of the Artist', acting as Sparks' manifesto.

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Duke Special - Stargazers Of The World Unite.

Text for 2014: Making good use of every opportunity

In 2014 the Diocese of Chelmsford will celebrate 100 years of faithful service to Essex and East London. 2014 will be a great time to celebrate the hope which our churches have shared in the living Christ over our first 100 years and to commit to our next 100 years together. Also in 2014, by working in partnership with churches across London, Crossing London hopes to provide, during Autumn 2014, an opportunity for 10,000+ residents in London and the Home Counties to make a faith commitment and then to grow as disciples of Jesus.

Both initiatives encourage us to share our faith with people on the fringe or outside of church. Bishop Stephen has specifically asked that each Parish in the Diocese organise a Mission Weekend during 2014 as part of the Diocesan Centenary Celebrations. A Mission Weekend is a time set aside for specific events that share the gospel with people on the fringe or outside the church. It is set in the context of understanding how people grow and develop in faith, and of how we become a missionary church, renewing our faith as we share it with others.

Evangelism means sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. It is about telling the story of our faith, witnessing to the difference Christian faith makes, and inviting others to know Christ and be part of his church. Its aim is to make disciples of Christ so that God’s kingdom may be established here on earth.

It happens in many different ways. But all of us have a part to play. Some will have a specific gift and calling to share the message of Christ. Others will play their part just by being enabled to talk about their faith with colleagues, friends and neighbours. Some will run groups to help people find out about the Christian faith. Others will play a supportive role, offering hospitality and friendship.

In the diocese of Chelmsford we need a ministry of evangelism to be as normal a part of parish life as worship on Sundays. For without an on-going ministry of evangelism we will fail in our responsibility to answer the call that Jesus gives us at the end of Matthew’s gospel “to make disciples.” And if we are not making and growing disciples all the others things we long to do to make a difference in the world will falter.

Bishop Stephen has set out his recipe for evangelism. The main ingredients are: faith in Jesus Christ; belief that his life, death and resurrection are good news for all the world and for every person; desire to see God’s kingdom come on earth by blessing and serving the local community; and readiness to face the cost of change and growth.

Take one church. Stir vigorously. But make sure the ingredients do not separate. For this you will need leaders who share responsibility and encourage others to use their gifts, and a laity who want to be part of God’s mission. But there will never be any evangelism unless it flows from a lived relationship with God.

Add appropriate, sustainable, evangelistic events. These small scale do it yourself events give people an opportunity to encounter the church and the gospel. They give expression to the church’s task of sharing that gospel with everyone. They act like yeast, activating all the other ministries and processes which make for effective evangelism.

As you cook consider carefully who this recipe is for. What are the tastes, cultures, passions, personalities, issues and interests of the people you are seeking to feed? Adjust your ingredients accordingly. But, remember, this is a meal many will not have come across before and will inevitably taste a little strange at first.

Add the following ingredients with care and precision. These are the things that will carry the evangelism forward: a place of nurture for those who want to explore faith; people to accompany them on the journey; the gentle challenge to respond to the gospel; processes to enable people to grow up in their faith and discover their own share in Christ’s ministry.

Finally, encourage and equip every Christian to be a witness, helping them to articulate and share their own faith. Without this there will not be enough evangelism to go round. And there are lots of hungry people in the world. Place all this in the warm oven of a loving Christian community and gradually turn up the temperature. Pour on lashings of the Holy Spirit. Bring to the table blazing. Serve with love.

Our Text for 2014 also sets out an approach to mission and evangelism when it says:

“Be wise in the way you act toward those who are not believers, making good use of every opportunity you have. Your speech should always be pleasant and interesting, and you should know how to give the right answer to everyone.” (Colossians 4. 5 – 6)

This text says that mission and evangelism is about our actions and about our words. To combine these two as our Text for 2014 suggests we just need to rediscover something of our Lord Jesus. Krish Kandiah from the Evangelical Alliance has written that: “Jesus demonstrated the good news of God in his actions centering on his life, death and resurrection, but also in the way he touched lepers, challenged hypocrisy, fed the hungry and healed the sick.

Jesus’ perfect actions spoke louder than our words ever could. But he didn’t stop there – he explained his actions, finding the right words for the right people and modelling for us the fact that, just as we push back the boundaries of social action, equally we need to be pushing back the boundaries of our conversations.

Sometimes Jesus told a story, sometimes he engaged in discussion, sometimes he reminded people of Old Testament ideas, sometimes preaching, sometimes provoking, sometimes walking away with a punchline. He never used long words, he was never patronising. He was always accessible, always loving, always gracious.

Evangelism doesn’t have to mean arm-twisting our neighbours into attending church meetings, or forcing our colleagues to come to terms with their own mortality in their coffee break. Evangelism doesn’t have to be formulaic, middle class, manipulative or misleading. Evangelism doesn’t have to be a war of words or wills. Evangelism should not be a chore, a challenge – or a choice. Evangelism Jesus-style is for all his disciples as we live authentic, humble lives.” 

None of this is a criticism of what we are currently doing. Bishop Stephen has explicitly said that he wants to thank everyone in Chelmsford Diocese for the astonishing ministry done in our local parishes and communities. He sees this Sunday by Sunday and week by week as he travels around the diocese. All sorts of work undertaken, pastorally and evangelistically, which is demonstrating the love of God in beautiful and tangible ways. He wants to thank us and esteem us for this ministry.

But he also sincerely believes that we need to find new ways of connecting with people and sharing with them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not because we're not doing it already, but because it is laid upon us to 'proclaim the faith afresh in each generation'.

 

May we go into 2014 committed to that mission and open to the opportunities which the Diocesan Centenary and Crossing London provide for our mission and ministry here at St John's and in Seven Kings.

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Gungor - I Am Mountain.

St John's Christmas Leaflet

Does Christmas start with telly ads in October?
Does Christmas start with the office party?
Does Christmas start with a fight on Eastenders?

No! Christmas starts with Christ.

The Christmas story has been around for a long time, but today it's being forgotten. Just 12 per cent of adults know the nativity story, and more than one-third of children don’t know whose birthday it is. Meanwhile, 51 per cent of people now say the birth of Jesus is irrelevant to their Christmas.

Together we can reverse the trend. Some of the UK’s leading Christian groups, including the Church of England, the Evangelical Alliance and Bible Society, are coming together because they believe Christmas is worth saving. Christmas Starts with Christ is a campaign aimed at helping churches to make Christ and the amazing story of his birth the focus of the nation’s favourite time of year.

The campaign kicks off on December 1st this year with the first-ever nationwide Christmas Starts Sunday, at the beginning of Advent.  The campaign features posters in festive green and red which focus strongly on the message they want to get across, that Christmas starts with Christ.  There are three posters. They ask people to think about when Christmas starts. Is it with the traditional fight on Eastenders? Is it when Christmas ads appear in October? Or is it at the office party? There is also a radio ad and three extra posters, using the same design, which churches can customise for free.

Francis Goodwin of ChurchAds.net, which is coordinating this campaign, says: ‘Christmas is a time when Christians shine light in their communities. But the good news is being lost. We can’t sit back and let that happen. We’re passionate about bringing the church together to remind everyone of the true meaning of Christmas.’

Steve Clifford, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance says, “I’m excited by this campaign, which really seeks to show that the Church is good news for the nation in every season; not least of all at Christmas when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, our saviour. The world needs to know that’s why we do what we do.”

Arun Arora, Director of Communications, Church of England says, “Churches do a huge amount to carry the Christmas story into their local communities, through word and deed. Christmas Starts With Christ uses a common logo to ‘join the dots’ of these activities and project a powerful message to our nation that the reason for the season is the birth of Jesus.”

This Christmas let us project that same powerful message as we invite others to church and send Christmas greetings by post, email or social media. The reason for the season is Jesus – Christmas starts with Christ!

Advent & Christmas at St John's Seven Kings -
November/December 2013

 

November  

Saturday 30^th   10.30am          Christmas Bazaar – Refreshments, handicrafts, cakes, raffles, preserves, toiletries, games & toys for children, Christmas gifts and many other stalls. Visit Santa in his grotto.

December  

 

Sunday 1^st         

10.00am        Advent Reflections Service - poems,  readings and songs

 6.30pm         Advent Service - Seven Kings Fellowship of Churches

Saturday 7^th       6.00pm          Tamil Carol Service

Sunday 15^th    

10.00am          All-age Christingle Service - a colourful service of music & light (collection for The Children’s Society)

6.30pm          Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at St Peter’s Aldborough Hatch - traditional carols and readings

Tuesday 17^th     7.00pm          Carol Singing around the Parish - wrap up warm. Collecting for Haven

House Hospice.

Sunday 22^nd      6.30pm          Service of Nine Lessons and Carols by candlelight  - traditional carols and readings

Christmas Eve (Tuesday 24^th)

5.00pm        All-age Nativity Service - dressing up & tree lighting - fun for all. Bring a present to

leave under the tree for children helped by Barnados. Collection to Haven House Hospice.

11.30pm     First Holy Communion of Christmas

Christmas Day (Wednesday 25^th)

 

8.00am         Holy Communion - Book of Common Prayer

10.00am       Christmas All-age Holy Communion - children, bring a gift you have received to show others

New Years Eve (Tuesday 31^st)

11.30pm       Watchnight Service - welcoming the New Year in prayer and reflection

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Red Mountain Music - Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus. 

Asylum rights & wrongs

In 2007 the Evangelical Alliance produced ‘alltogether for Asylum Justice’ a report seeking to address injustices in the asylum system.

The specific situation which the report seeks to address is that of asylum seekers who have genuinely chosen to follow the Christian faith once in the UK and then apply for asylum on the grounds of religious persecution. Having had their asylum application refused, they face being sent back to countries where it is not safe for them to practice their faith. Christian human rights organisations such as Christian Solidarity Worldwide and Release International know it is often unsafe to return a practising Christian to an Islamic country let alone return an apostate (a convert to Christianity) to an Islamic country where conversion is illegal. Therefore, there are grave implications for returning asylum seekers who have converted to Christianity to countries like Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The report concludes that, while recognising that the issue of faith testing is complex, there is room for improvement in the current system used to determine the genuineness of an appellant’s conversion. While recognising that objective questioning is used to determine the faith of an appellant, there are a number of problems with this system.

Firstly, many of the questions used cannot give a true representation of the appellant’s faith because they are: a) based on western Christian culture (e.g. ‘How do you cook a turkey for Christmas?’); b) insensitive to the particular type of Christianity that the appellant has been exposed to (e.g. asking a Pentecostal convert about Anglican liturgy); c) asking things which aren’t even in the Bible (e.g. such as knowing the names of the thieves crucified on the crosses alongside Jesus or the name of the forbidden fruit ).

Secondly, questions of this nature are insufficient to grasp the genuineness of an appellant’s faith. This can only be fully understood if the leader of the church which the appellant has been attending gives an account of their conversion and Christian faith. The church leader ought to be able to give evidence of a changed lifestyle and/or behaviour, an interest in the Bible and in sharing their faith with others.
 
Thirdly, country information used to determine whether it is safe for a practising Christian to be returned to countries where apostates are persecuted is often inaccurate.
 
Having had recent experience of supporting a parishioner who is in the situation addressed by this report, it seems to me that the issues identified in this report remain in the system as currently operated. I am therefore seeking ways and means by which there could be further lobbying of the Government on this issue.

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The Clash - I Fought the Law.

Prayer for Lambeth

A prayer from the Evangelical Alliance at the start of the Lambeth Conference:

Dear Lord,

We repent of all that we have done that has failed to communicate in word or deed the love of Christ.

We confess that, at times, the cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ has not remained central in our proclamation and practice and we pray for your help in returning to the primacy of that gospel.

We pray for all those attending the Lambeth Conference and ask that their discussions and deliberations may be characterised, above all, with the grace and compassion of Jesus Christ.

We pray that as they focus on issues of global justice, evangelism, discipleship, the Bible and the future of the Anglican Communion that they will be able to hear your voice guiding and uniting them in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We pray also for those Anglicans who have chosen not to attend, that they may know your wisdom as they seek how best to remain faithful to your gospel in the context of the Anglican Communion.

We pray for the Archbishop of Canterbury and ask for your especial blessing on him that he might be able to unite all Anglicans around your truth and your grace embodied in Jesus Christ.

We acknowledge our utter dependency on you for all of this, conscious of our own failings and weaknesses, and with a desire to see your gospel faithfully proclaimed throughout the world.

We pray all of this in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Ekklesia have made the following comment on the EA's statement and prayer:

"The body which seeks to provide an umbrella for Evangelical Christians in the UK has criticised some Evangelicals for seeking to define who can or cannot be considered an Evangelical in terms that are 'too narrow'.

The statement from the Evangelical Alliance, which comes at the start of the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, also expressed its concern about the tone of the discussions concerning sexuality amongst Anglicans.

Many Evangelicals with the Anglican Communion hold a 'conservative' position on homosexuality. Others, however, some known as 'open' Evangelicals, consider that it is in line with their faith for gay priests and bishops to be appointed.

Previously there have been divisions within Evangelicalism over issues of sexuality.

One Evangelical group, the Courage Trust, which started out seeking to 'heal' Lesbian and Gay Christians twenty years ago, ended up changing its position after studying the Bible and working with Gay and Lesbian people. It now seeks to affirm and support Lesbian and Gay Christians. The Courage Trust was however subsequently told to leave the Evangelical Alliance, after the Alliance considered its position to be incompatible with Evangelicalism.

The latest statement however may indicate that the Evangelical Alliance may be shifting to a more tolerant position which accepts Evangelicals who hold differing views on homosexuality as its members."

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Sam Phillips - I Need Love. "I need God, not the political Church."

Mayoral Election Hustings 23 April, 2008

The Evangelical Alliance and Premier Radio (who will be recording the proceedings), with support from the London Churches Group, have organised a Mayoral Election Hustings at St Martin-in-the-Fields from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday 23 April 2008 (St George’s Day).

The organisers plan to use the occasion to present the church in London and how churches are active in their communities, as well as giving church members the opportunity to engage with the Mayoral candidates. It will help a lot St Martin’s can be filled for this Hustings!

The event will start promptly at 6 p.m. at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square , on Wednesday 23 April. Doors will open at 5 p.m. and attenders will be given a card and encouraged to contribute a question to the candidates. Cards with questions will then be collected and sorted to ensure a spread of topics and a manageable number. These questions will probably be asked by the Chair, though space may be left towards the end of the Hustings for spontaneous questions from the floor.

In general, they expect that each of the candidates (Labour, Liberal Democrat, Conservative, Green and Christian Party) will be given an opportunity to respond succintly to each question. At the beginning of the Hustings each candidate will be invited to make an opening statement on what they think makes a good city. Candidates have been yold that this was a key question for the Commission on Urban Life and Faith in its report in May 2006 Faithful Cities, which covers many of the issues which concern the churches in London.

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Shawn McDonald - Gravity.