I suggest that many local congregations have not been of great assistance to world mission. Such advances have not taken place because of, or at the instigation of, the local congregation. The support for world mission has come from individual Christians from within the churches, rather than from the churches themselves.

That’s a direct quote from Changing Global Mission Culture in the UK Church which is published by Global Connections in a collection of papers called Churches and Agencies in Partnership. I can’t seem to find a free copy online  so I’m going to do some grovelling and see if I can get a copy to send out with my next newsletter because it really is worth reading.

Since joining Wycliffe Bible Translators I’ve discovered that I now spend a lot more time thinking about mission than I ever did when I was part of a church – but that shouldn’t have been the case! If mission is supposed to be a core activity of a Christian community and a key element in every Christian’s life, regardless of the context they are living in, why did I have to join a mission agency before I had the opportunity to think seriously about many of the issues involved.

Why is a mission agency asking more questions about connecting in the local context than the local church that’s already there?

This paper, Changing Global Mission Culture in the UK Church, should probably be essential reading for all church leaders. Even if they disagree with the conclusions they would, at least, have to think through some of the issues that it throws up.

Quick Summary

The paper lists the present situation in many churches as

World mission is a marginalised interest for most and a fervent commitment for a few. Many church members are glad that their church has a world mission programme, but don’t want to have much to do with it themselves. ‘Missionary’ events are poorly supported.

The world mission mandate is connected to the Great Commission. The unspoken logic is that ‘We do it as a church because Jesus told us to.’

World mission involvement is limited to what comes from ‘missionary’ people or societies and is disconnected from what comes via the TV screen, from world news or news documentaries.

World sport, world music, fair trade concerns, environmental calamities, political issues, international business travel and tourist travel are not promoted in church as issues that interest God or impact on our faith.

Younger church members take little interest in the church’s world mission culture.

On a weekly basis, world mission is represented by a world map with a few pins stuck in it and a small pile of ‘missionary’ magazines, untouched and rather out of date.

Even when young people have been on short-term programmes and their involvement has energised and interested other young people, it often has done little to change the culture of the church as a whole in relation to world mission.

From a mission agency point-of-view, the opinion is,

Agencies know that most of the resources of people, prayer and finance that they need come from committed individuals in churches rather than from the church as a whole.

That’s a statement that’s easy to agree with, because, even if we don’t like it we need to acknowledge that it’s true.

The paper, rather than just criticising the current stage of affairs, does gives a few suggestions as to how our thinking and practices should be adjusted

1. Relate to the world biblically (not just Great Commissionally)

To  break the unhelpful church culture, we need to take a step back and stop talking about world mission… Instead, we need to help people relate biblically to the world.

2. Break down the home/field barrier

The church needs to recapture its global characteristics. Mission starts at the end of the pew and extends to the ends of the earth.

3. Restructure the local church

Close down anything that marginalises world mission and gives it a specialist only label.

4. Maximise globalisation

In many churches, the only things that relate personal faith to the world have a ‘missionary’ label. That’s the culture that we must change.

Thoughts

I feel awkward with the notion that people in full time Christian work are somehow more special than anyone else. I also feel pretty uncomfortable with the notion that people working overseas require more special attention than those who go to school, or the office or look after the home. I fully appreciate that there are significant challenges for people working in an alien culture, but their work and the importance of their relationships shouldn’t be any more valuable than those who are doing their best to obey God where they are right now.

I believe that the church in the UK has to do some significant thinking when it comes to their values associated with mission, but then so do many mission agencies – the one I work with included. Maybe this paper would be a good starting point.

One of the questions we thought about last night was, ‘What do you like about Cornerstone?’. I said something about liking the fact that it was a bit messy and disorganised – it meant that people could be themselves, as questions, interrupt, that the children feel welcome and able to be themselves. Actually, I don’t like that, there’s a whole part of my personality that leans towards wanting a building and pews and a sermon slot and for the children to sit quietly… but I’m not sure that fits with my belief of what a church should be. The formal stuff sounds much more like a meeting than a family gathering.

So what should a church be like for you? Taking sermons and Bible readings and prayers and songs for granted… what would you want your church to look and feel like?

If you don’t go to church, this can be answered by you too. If you were going to walk into a church building for a church service, what would you want (not what do you expect, but rather what would you want)? What would you want a church service to feel and look like?

Godly Living – Titus 2:11-15

Why?

Well, Jesus says that his house should be a place for prayer, not a den of robbers [read the full text here]. In other words, don’t use the temple for trade – there are markets for that – use it for prayer.

I don’t believe that the focus of our church communities should be trade. Aside from anything else, it should never be that someone cannot afford to go to church. But, also, as Christians we’re not supposed to be trapped by the things of this world – your value as a person isn’t ever to be determined by the stuff you own.

So, what’s a church implying with the following promotion

Easter eggs and more than $1M in prizes at S. Texas megachurch

Bay Area Fellowship, the largest church in Corpus Christi, is giving away flat-screen televisions, skateboards, Fender guitars, furniture and 15 cars — yes, cars — at its Easter services next week.

Read article here

It’s not just what we say that communicates our values, it’s what we do too. To me this just encourages consumerism rather than placing value in people.

I think I’d rather have read any of the following,

South Texas megachurch gives $1M to victims of Haiti earthquake

…or….

$1M given to local charities by South Texas megachurch

…and my personal favourite…

South Texas megachurch gives $1M in support of Bible translation in Central America

Suggest another headline in the comments – where would you want to see $1M used? Or vote on the Church Marketing Sucks website – the current poll is on the right hand side of the screen.

Wycliffe is a huge organisation with thousands of people working around the world on a whole host of different projects. Yes, we all long to see people with the Bible in their own language so that they can hear about God’s love for this world themselves, but the parts that go to make up that whole are numerous.

So it’s always good when I can hear from an independent source about their view of Wycliffe. In this case it was Stafford Carson, Moderator for the Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland. He recently visited the Wycliffe offices in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and this is what he said afterwards…

My visit to the Belfast offices of the Wycliffe Bible Translators revealed that there are many people, from many nations, who are fully committed to the task of translating the Bible into the mother tongue of millions of people in our world.  Their strap line is “The Bible: the Story everybody needs”, and they are enthusiastic about bringing that story to everyone.

…and later…

What made my visit to Wycliffe Bible Translators so energising and interesting was the way the Wycliffe members understand the Bible as story. The Bible is full of stories.

It’s worth reading his whole post, which you can do here, because it illustrates so well what we are in the business of doing.

This morning we visited the Assemblies of God church in Ouagadougou with a colleague from the centre here. It was everything you would expect from a large, active, African church. Brightly coloured outfits on men and women, hardly a grey suit in sight, with lots of singing, clapping and swaying. The choir made a great sound, but then so did the congregation – how they managed to decide who should be in and who should stay out is beyond me… maybe they just take it in turns.

I guess the service was what I was expecting, passionate, musical and full. What I didn’t expect was the band – no African drums here, it was full on 1970′s guitar rock, with drums and a keyboard; the PA system – loud enough to annoy members of any British church; and the split of men to one side and women to the other. Apparently, the church was quite progressive by allowing one column of pews for men and women to sit together in the middle.

There was no PowerPoint or overhead projection, but most people seemed to know the words of the song off by heart. What was familiar was the notices ‘thou shalt have no service without them’ and the sermon, the minister had three points.

The service was in French, so Eddie translated the sermon for me from Mark 9. He preached on,

1. Having faith in God
2. Faith results in prayer
3. And also leads to fasting

We had permission from the pastor to do some filming and take some photographs, so that’s all going to appear at some point, I’ll just need to do an editing job first.

Is this a problem with me? I guess it could be. I’m not sure if I’m looking for a place to fit my expectations (singing songs like we believe them and preaching as though it actually mattered and the Bible has something to say, is what I’m hoping for) or whether I’m going with an attitude of wanting to be part of a community and serve others.

How do you do that? I’m not sure how you go into a new community and want to serve before you’ve been served yourself. There, I’ve written something that sounds like a Christian code, I’ll try to do better at saying what I mean.

How do you go into a new church and start contributing before people have given something to you? We’ve chatted to lots of lovely people. Had chats about doing something ‘social’, but apart from one phone-call nothing has materialised in practice. So, does this mean that I should commit to this church and try to show them how this is done?

Eric Bryant was interviewed on TBN about Peppermint-Filled Pinatas, but he also talked about the Mosaic attitude to church. He quotes Erwin McManus saying,

The church is not here to meet our needs, we are the church and we are here to meet the needs of the world

You can see the interview on his blog. I’m afraid that I disagree with Eric’s point-of-view, that the interviewers are really good, maybe they were just a little to Hollywood for me, but Eric’s answers to the questions are worth watching for.

I’m off home to chew things over.

Kevin D. Hendricks from Church Marketing Sucks posts the following.

A month or so ago Chris Moyles (breakfast show DJ for BBC Radio 1) was talking about a seeing a church service from Kingsgate Community Church (Peterborough). He was exclaiming his surprise at the number of people taking part, that it was bright and colourful and that everyone was having a good time.

I know that everyone reading this will respond with, ‘well, he hasn’t been to my church’, and maybe that’s right. Maybe you join other Christians on a Sunday and it’s bright and lively and everyone is smiling and having a good time; but that’s not the image that people outside of the church have of us.

Dino Rizzo writes in Servolution, ‘If a billboard is the only way your community ever hears from you, they may never do anything more than know your name’. In the UK it’s rare even to see a billboard up for a church. Instead of silence though, our communication is done by the media. Soap operas show ‘Christians’ who fit the stereotype, the church goer becomes the ‘Bible basher’ or the local busybody and the only images of Sunday services come from stone chapels with wooden seats and a vicar who has had the life sucked from him/her. I’m a Christian and I wouldn’t want to go to a church like this.

The real shame is that out there in the world of Sunday church there are some real, genuine, communities. People who do life with each other, proved for one another, are there to share celebrations and heart ache and genuinely care for their community. There could be thousands of these wonderful, close-knit groups meeting all across the country on a Sunday morning, only nobody would know because nobody is talking about it. Instead the only clue to the outside world of what is happening in your church building on a Sunday are the faces of the people walking in and walking out, and maybe overhearing the playing of a hymn while the service is in progress. Is that really the message we want to give? Is there a way we could share more of our church community with people outside of the building?

From Pubols Postscript

I visited Silent Friends Chapel in Dallas on Sunday. It is a congregation of the Deaf and their families. The service was all in sign, but there was an English interpreter for those who are hearing and don’t understand American Sign Language, like me.

Read the rest here

Gotta love anywhere where the majority are in the minority.

Anyone who wants to go and join them, they meet at Ralph Baker Hall, 1707 San Jacinto Pl Dallas, Texas 75201 and the service starts at 10:45