Reaching the UnreachedAn annual conference for churches trying to reach out in the hard places of our land

More quotes from Roy Joslin’s Urban Harvest to mark the thirtieth anniversary of its publication …

Joslin speaks of ‘sanctified imagination’. He illustrates this with a couple of examples:

A young mother chose to do her washing in the local laundrette because it was a useful meeting point for developing links with other local mothers. In her scale of values, deepening of relationships with neighbours was more important than the convenience of doing her washing at home, even though she possessed her own washing machine. Shopping times provided natural and useful opportunities for developing contacts with people. In her scale of values effective evangelism was more important than efficient shopping. For her it was preferable to make her purchases from two shops even though she could have obtained all the items from one. Her approach to personal evangelism was determined by a matter of simple arithmetic. It is better to witness to two shopkeepers than it is to one! (152)

Christians must take the time and trouble to be good neighbours. If we are too busy running church activities to find time to be neighbourly, then we are too busy. (283)

Urban Harvest is available here from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. In October IVP are publishing my latest book, Unreached: Growing Churches in Working-Class and Deprived Areas, was written with the Reaching the Unreached network.

This article was originally published on Tim Chester’s blog.

More quotes from Roy Joslin’s Urban Harvest to mark the thirtieth anniversary of its publication …

The Christian gospel requires the working man to leave ‘the world’s side’ and to step over to ‘the Lord’s side’. Now this is a hard thing for the working man to do. Apart from the gracious work of the Holy Spirit, it is a harder thing for a working class person to do, than it is for the middle class person. The middle-class man will have a more individualistic outlook than will his working class brother. (124)

It is only on reflection that I have seen why the group structure can be so helpful to the working man in this inner-city community. In the security and sense of belonging that the group provides, the Holy Spirit can draw a person ‘from the world’s side’ over to ‘the Lord’s side’, without requiring that he should abandon all previous ties in order to move to into another group. (125)

Urban Harvest is available here from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. In October IVP are publishing my latest book, Unreached: Growing Churches in Working-Class and Deprived Areas, was written with the Reaching the Unreached network.

This article was originally published on Tim Chester’s blog.

More quotes from Roy Joslin’s Urban Harvest to mark the thirtieth anniversary of its publication …

Generally speaking, the working man is not willing to go to church – it is outside his circle; he does not belong to that ‘class’. But if we make the main focus of our evangelism the preaching of the gospel from the pulpit we are discriminating unfairly against the working man. (91)

Joslin cites Iain Murray:

The exercise of spiritual gifts by preaching elders in the meetings of the church is not the primary means by which the gospel spreads. That exercise is limited both by time and by place, but the witness of Christians in the midst of the world is not thus limited. It seems to be that this point demands our special attention because I am afraid that the tendency of our tradition has been away from the New Testament. (97-98)

Joslin himself says:

Paul’s evangelism among the Jews showed a certain uniformity. But his gospel work among the Gentiles exhibited great variety. There was no ‘standard religious situation’ comparable to the synagogue. So Paul preached and witnessed in the open air (Acts 17:22-32); in the market place (Acts 17:17); in a hired hall (Acts 19:19); in private homes (Acts 18:7); in prison (Phil. 1:12,13); by the riverside (Acts 16:13); before the Roman authorities (Acts 26: 1-29) and on board ship (Acts 27: 23-25). (99-100)

Preaching the gospel in a place of Christian worship takes place usually at a time and a place which suit the believers. Gentile evangelism will inevitably involve us in reaching the unbelievers at a time and place that suits them. Is Sunday necessarily the best day for evangelising the working classes? John Wesley regularly preached at five o’clock in the morning! He did this in order to reach the ‘labouring-class’ people before they went off at daybreak to commence work in a factory or a mine. (101)

Urban Harvest is available here from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. In October IVP are publishing my latest book, Unreached: Growing Churches in Working-Class and Deprived Areas, was written with the Reaching the Unreached network.

This article was originally published on Tim Chester’s blog.

More quotes from Roy Joslin’s Urban Harvest to mark the thirtieth anniversary of its publication …

The fact that the form of worship in urban, suburban, coastal and rural churches shows little if any variation strongly suggests that the matter of worship and culture is a neglected area of Christian thought. If, as seems probable, the practice of worship in our urban churches appears to reflect a culture that is other than urban, then this is an area of Christian living where reformation is required. (305)

This query of the value of studying mental processes and language forms would not arise if our work was on the overseas mission field. The overseas missionary expects to engage in language study. He would not expect to make progress without it. Be we are in a mission field situation in our urban areas. Missionary principles ought to be applied to the situation. (76)

The leaders must also encourage the church progressively to reflect working-class culture in its life and witness. That obligation may run counter to some of their personal cultural preferences, but it must not be avoided. If a local church adopts a culture which is not indigenous, then it may appear to their non-Christian neighbours that repentance from sin and a turning from local culture are all part of a proper response to the Christian gospel. In addition a local church which is spiritually and culturally isolated within the community it professes to serve will find that it has added to its problems in evangelism, and has widened the gap between the local Christians and their non-Christian neighbours. (253)

By far the largest part of Jesus’ teaching was presented in concrete thought, making wide use of the objects and events of daily life. The teaching of Jesus was clear and memorable, not only because of the authority which He spoke (Matthew7:28-29), but also because He presented it in the concrete thought forms. His hearers could both hear and see what He was talking about. (55)

Urban Harvest is available here from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. In October IVP are publishing my latest book, Unreached: Growing Churches in Working-Class and Deprived Areas, was written with the Reaching the Unreached network.

This article was originally published on Tim Chester’s blog.