The E Word – Sharing Good News

This booklet has been produced as a wider response to our “E Word” training day, led by Dr Stephen Skuse from Cliff College and Phil Jones, the Circuit’s Mission Enabler. It includes extracts from StephenandPhil’spresentations as well as responses from those who attended. It is hoped that airing this subject throughout the circuit will encourage wider discussion and action.

Session 1 - An Overview of Evangelism – what it is and how we are doing! (Stephen)

We were reminded of the 4 “Our Calling” statements of the Methodist Church :

  • To increase awareness of God’s presence and to celebrate God's love.
  • To help people to grow and learn as Christians, through mutual support and care.
  • To be a good neighbour to people in need and to challenge injustice.
  • To make more followers of Jesus Christ.

Some definitions and quotable quotes:

Mission: ‘Mission begins in the heart of the Triune God and the love which binds together the Holy trinity overflows to all humanity and creation.’

Christian Mission: ‘God invites us into the life-giving mission of the Triune God and empowers us to bear witness to the vision of abundant life for all in the new heaven and earth.’

Evangelism: ‘Evangelism is a confident but humble sharing of our faith and conviction with other people. Such sharing is a gift to others which announces the love, grace and mercy of God in Christ. It is the inevitable fruit of genuine faith.’ (a)

‘Evangelism is the Good News of the Kingdom of God on earth; that Kingdom personalised and embodied in Christ’ (E Stanley Jones)

‘One beggar telling another beggar where to find bread’. (DT Niles)

‘Evangelism is our sharing and inviting others to experience the good news that God loves us and invites us into a transforming relationship through which we are forgiven, receive new life, and are restored to the image of God, which is love.’ (b)

Today, British Methodism is reasonably good at Christian mission, but very weak at making more followers of Jesus Christ. If we make clear that mission is engaging with those outside of the Christian faith, but that in itself is not evangelism, it might assist us to recognise where we need to learn more.

Session 2 was an honest appraisal of the areas we find difficult with evangelism – what are our stumbling places? (Phil)

From individuals sharing from “the floor”, we gleaned….

•Uncertainty of belief

•Complexity of questions that may be asked

•Faith is seen as private

•Loss of “first love”, staleness of own faith

•Finding the right words, don’t want to use jargon, keen to make it understandable

•Finding the right opportunity, “the right moment”

•Feel too pushy or bad experiences of people being too pushy with you.

•Our Culture (Britishness)

•Embarrassment, awkwardness

•Fear of rejection, where to start

•Being relevant to people

Phil had prepared some thoughts which echoed the above:

  • Sometimes when we share good news about Jesus, we are aware that a part of the gospel is bad news! That our Christian theology contains within it elements about sin and judgement and matters of eternity and maybe we feel that if we begin to share we will have to encounter these darker strands of the story. Nevertheless there are riches and joy in our faith that we do need to have confidence in.
  • There is the whole question of the matter of superiority. Sometimes when we share our faith, we feel that we are sharing that we are better than other people! But indeed we are better if by that we mean that we are recipients of God’s grace and know it. But we are not superior in a kind of holier than thou way.
  • St Francis said“always remember to preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.” This approach has been overemphasised to mean that our actions alone can bring people to faith. Jesus’s balance was in caring for people body mind and spirit and speaking about the kingdom of God.
  • We need to understand that the faith we communicate must be grounded very firmly in our own spiritual journey. We must pay attention in both private life and in church life to the things that encourage the growth of faith, otherwise our Christian confidence is greatly undermined and we find it lacking when we come to share it.
  • We live in a very pluralistic culture and often our Christian identity seems at odds with a variety of other faiths and spiritual beliefs. However, there is an inviting and warm approach to this area which can welcome people of any faith or not while still holding to the value of our own particular belief. Again in circuit life we perhaps need to air this topic and deal with it effectively.
  • We recognise all too clearly that often Christian faith can be associated in people’s minds with judgmentalism or with a negative worldview (for example issues about other faiths or about sexuality) and perhaps this puts us off sharing because we do not like the association.
  • Allied to this, there are plenty of bad evangelists around, both locally and in the media that have given evangelism generally a bad press. Because of bad experiences of these, people are wary therefore about being tarred with the same brush.

Session 3 - A look at a study of Methodist church growth from a circuit in the North East and its message to us (Stephen)

Andrew Orton ‘Growing Methodism in the North East’ project

The Context

293 churches/ Average attendance on a Sunday: 38 including midweek: 46

Average (median) membership: 27

How were ‘growing’ churches identified?

% change in Sunday attendance over 3 and 5 years

% change in whole week attendance over 3 and 5 years.

% change in membership over 3 and 5 years.

% change of attendance and membership, comparing averages of 2009-2011 and 2011-2014

Churches that made consistent year-on-year growth in attendance over 3 years.

Like in many complex systems, the interdependency of the partswithin each church mattered – so each story was different. However, beyond a dependence on God as ultimatelyresponsible for any growth, 4 factors stood out as overwhelmingly the most common across the cases, all of which seemed necessary to support the growth:

  • Being welcoming, hospitable, and inclusive.
  • Being responsive.
  • Making available intentional spiritual development opportunities.
  • Participatory involvement and collaborative leadership.

It was particularly important to see how growing churches were linking these together.

They were typically doing this by creating virtuous cycles in which being welcoming and responsive whilst creating opportunities for inclusion and participation within connected church communities. These then are becoming continually enlarged in their capacity to continue developing their involvement in God’s mission in that area.

This is highly consistent with Methodism’s Connexional focus on being ‘a discipleship movement shaped for mission’.

It also builds on Methodism’s traditional strengths in community activities and engagement

Session 4 – giving our “testimony”

We had a session of sharing our own story – we didn’t keep notes from this (obviously) but people were encouraged to tell it simply and to keep it short! Sometimes it can be an overview of how we came to God but more likely it is a retelling of when God has been most significantly at work – and especially we wereremindedto keep our story “up to date” – what is God doing with us NOW?

Session 5 – some practical things we can do as a Circuit

•Given that evangelism in part is understanding our faith as well as sharing, perhaps it would be good to run from time to time an “Understanding our Faith” course and moreover how to make it understandable. In certain quarters this is called apologetics and is a basic tool for helping us to communicate faith.

•We are a less diverse community than a city area but there are occasions when we need to engage with proper interfaith dialogue. There are pockets of deprivation in a seemingly prosperous area and projects such as Second Helpings address this.

•Understanding the life of Jesus and the story of his life in the gospel is particularly important, so our preaching, our Bible studies, and our discussion groups could regularly focus on the gospel’s themes, story and message. When we see how Jesus is acting with people, we may be able to mirror this in our own mission.

•Part of the basis for evangelism is a sharing of what is going on in our own spiritual life. So it is not just doctrinal courses that we need but things that deepen our spirituality, e.g. prayer courses and devotional groups. When we become more open to God, it enables us to be bolder in sharing what we truly believe.

•A particular challenge from last year’s Re-Imagine conference came from a circuit in Hull, where the circuit policy was to challenge churches to identify themselves as either Fellowship churches or missionary Churches. For those churches struggling with outreach, this took the burden off them but enabled them to care for those close to them. However, the vast majority of the circuit opted for mission-based churches and this helped them to focus on where their outreach could be concentrated. Could we as the new Stamford circuit have a policy such as this?

•The Hull project also showed what could happen when larger churches and members within those churches supported the struggling smaller churches in the circuit. Could we operate such a system in this circuit?

•Where possible we should combine social action projects with witness. This is not social action as a smokescreen for evangelism but a partnership between social caring and caring for the whole person including spiritually. We recognise very strongly the spiritual impact of such places as food banks Christians against Poverty and Second Helpings.

•Mentioned during the E Word study day was the Talking Jesus report from the Church of England where the top reason people gave for returning to church was if someone actually asked them and perhaps we should be more bold individually and as churches to invite people who have not been to church for a long time to return.

•We need to remember that our most public face is our Sunday congregation and we need to assess how is it for newcomers when they enter our church and what are they receiving when we worship together.

From those who attended there were other practical ideas

•Telling our own stories but not necessarily using the word Testimony.

•Offer prayers on a regular basis so that people know they can come to a church and be prayed for. (Prayer ministry)

•Church services other than a Sunday for example and have outreach services for those on the edges of our churches – e.g. worship with a social orleisure group in mind, e.g. a Cycling Club or sports group

•Follow up Funeral Services with a Bereavement Service.

•Third Space Ministry- at Clubs and Leisure Centres

•Shoppers Service in Melton is growing in numbers. Saturday worship

Feedback from the Day Evaluations Sheets

•Target people 5 or 10 years younger than the congregation

•Report back to Churches – get them enthused

•Trust in God and own faith to give you courage to do this

•Say God Bless you not just bless you

•widen the language I use

•practice sharing in a safe place before talking to strangers

•Share more in churches and then it would be more natural

•Open up opportunities to talk to people and be natural with people

•Second Helpings is a good example of caring and sharing

•The day has given me hope

•We need more training

•Messy church – relaxed outreach

One area we maybe neglected a little on the day itself were some handy pointers to when the conversation goes into “God territory” and how we should best respond. Gleaned from Share Jesus International’s booklet “Sharing Jesus” (£3), I include a few tips and hints below – they’re not rocket science!

Some tips for conversations

  • Listen first. Be interested in learning more about who they really are and what they are facing. Don’t just listen to words but to the person themselves – their stance, voice, body language, “hidden” meanings.
  • Ask God for wisdom to use the right words – pray in advance and “on the spot” (arrow prayers).
  • Treat every person as an individual with gentleness and respect.
  • Mention (if appropriate) that you’re a Christian, for example “Sounds like things are tough; I think you know I’m a Christian – would it be OK to pray for …… over the next couple of weeks. Sometimes it really helps.”
  • Always say I’ll pray for you, rather than “I’ll think of/remember you”.
  • Maybe if the time seems right, ask can I pray WITH you? (i.e. now!)
  • Sometimes it seems as if God is giving us “insider information” on the person or situation. If it feels like this be bold and go with your “intuition”. In Biblespeak, this is called “a word of knowledge”.
  • Be open and vulnerable about your problems, not dominating the conversation with YOU but admitting we all have issues and “life happens” to us as well.
  • Share the change God has made – when you’re admitting your faults you can point to his resources, for example “I nearly lost it with X last night, I used to have a really foul temper but I asked a friend to pray for me a while back and, you know, I’m a lot calmer these days.”
  • Don’t be afraid to “big up” church in conversations. We are very reticent about this. Someone says to you “What did you do this weekend?” and we often say “I went to the cinema (or wherever)”. Why not say “There was a very good service at church on Sunday”.
  • Invite someone to come to church – we fear rejection or “spoiling” friendships but the stats show that most people don’t fall out over this and may well respond positively.
  • Someone makes a philosophical comment about life (“I don’t know what the world’s coming to!”) – well, ask them how they make sense of the world we’re in – everyone has a “faith” about the order of things and then maybe gently share your view of a loving God caring for this world and living in it.
  • Even with avowed atheists, take time to unpack why they believe what they do. “Wow, that’s incredible! I would love to know how you have such confidence that there is no God…” instead of just disagreeing.
  • Prayer-walk your local streets. Someone is bound to say “I often see you out for your morning stroll” – explain what you’re doing, avoiding jargon.
  • It’s Ok to say “I don’t know” to difficult questions – people respect honesty. Rather than “winning the argument”, leave people open to the next question or conversation.

Some Useful “Apologetics” websites

(Christian apologetics & research ministries)

And a good site for Jesus things explained in a user friendly way…

Notes

(a)WCC Together Towards Life (2013/14)

(b)Knight & Powe Transforming Evangelism, p.17