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 …

The challenge of the city

The exodus of Christians from the inner-city areas to the more desirable residential areas of suburbia has seriously undermined the life and witness of churches in working-class areas. (43)

There are too many urban people and too few urban Christians. So we cannot afford a ‘believer-drain’ to the suburbs. (223)

It would be wrong to suggest that God wants all Christians in the inner city to stay where they are and never to consider a move. But I do not believe that no Christian should leave the inner city without considering fully the spiritual issues involved. (224)

If God could transform pagan Ninevah, can He not do the same for pagan London, Liverpool or Birmingham? If God chose to achieve the transformation of Ninevah through an imperfect human instrument like Jonah, then God can use us too. We must direct our unceasing prayers to this end. (311)

The challenge to evangelize

It is possible to detect a marked contrast between the New Testament Christians and those of today in relation to the spreading of the gospel. Put simply, it is this: they did it; we talk about it! Evangelism for the early Christians was not something they isolated from other aspects of Christian living in order to specialize, analyse, theorize and organize. (79)

For many believers, their ‘evangelistic lungs’ are in a poor state of health. Witnessing to our faith in Jesus Christ is such an effort – just like laboured breathing! We cannot go on like this. (81)

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.

In this week’s quote from Urban Harvest Roy Joslin offers ten ‘tests’ of gospel ministry.

In order to help us apply the appropriate ‘tests’ to the gospel work in which we are engaged a number of probing questions need to be asked.
1. Are we placing the responsibility on the believers to evangelise or on the unbelievers to come and be evangelised?
2. Do our church members in their daily witness see themselves as the principal agents in evangelism, seven days a week and all hours of the day, or do they think that the chief responsibility lies with the preacher in his ‘one-hour-a-week’ gospel service and sermon?
3. Are all our church members capable of giving a ‘reason for the hope’ that is in them? Can they with simplicity and accuracy articulate their faith? If not, why not? Where does the fault lie? We have seen that John Bunyan, shortly before he became a Christian, was greatly impressed by the ‘three or four poor women sitting at a door in the sun…talking about the things of God’. Are we to regard these women as peculiar and exceptional, in view of what the scripture requires of us? How can we ‘loose our stammering tongues to tell his love immense, unsearchable?’
4. Are our church membership and congregation socially representative of the community in which it is located? If not, why not?
5. How far has our gospel outreach become ‘introverted’ evangelism?
6. Are our methods of evangelism unfairly selective? Have we been guilt of a form of favouritism without realizing it? Apply this question to your own work among adults and also among young people.
7. In our evangelism generally do we make it our policy, as far as possible, to introduce people to the gospel first before we seek to introduce them to the church? Is it spiritually realistic to expect an unbeliever who is without spiritual life and understanding to share meaningfully in the worship aspects of an evangelistic service in order to hear the gospel?
8. If our church is located in a community which is partly or predominately working class, do any aspects of our evangelism take into account the phenomenon of ‘solidarity’ which is an important feature of working-class culture?
9. Do the methods of evangelism we currently employ reflect an awareness of the need to have a careful balance between ‘instruction’ and ‘persuasion’? Ideally we need to explore or create opportunities for ‘feed-back’ following our preaching or witness. We need to be able to gauge whether or not we have carried our hearers with us in an understanding of the gospel …
10. … Do we in our local churches have any policy for regularly reviewing the opportunities that we have and thought we ought to use? Are we able to make a calculated and spiritual assessment of the opportunities presented by a number of forms of evangelism? (149-151)

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 New Testament knows nothing of a ‘one-pastor’ church where the leader is imported into the local situation for a number of years and then moves on to another local church. In the early church, men were selected from a local church, trained within that local church, and then called to the service of that local church. An apprentice-trained, non-mobile, indigenous team of local church leaders may be new to our thinking, but it is possible to show that this policy is soundly biblical and eminently practical. (257)

It is no use a mother bird (or church) saying to its offspring, ‘You are not leaving this nest until you have proved to me that you can fly’. God does not make parachutes for birds or churches! As soon as it is right, the mother should gently but firmly ease the young life out of the security of the nest. The wings of faith will do the rest! (197)

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 …

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.

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

A striking feature of Urban Harvest is Joslin’s emphasis on the doctrine of creation and the importance of general revelation as a prelude to gospel proclamation.

Tower block estates are not really concrete jungles; they are grey deserts. The homes of the people have no character or individuality about them. They are like a mound of boxes piled high in the sky. Slabs of dull grey concrete reach high and heavenwards. Down at ground level people scuttle to and fro as though surrounded by some ‘technological Stonehenge’. But the visible symbols of the ‘concrete age’ kindle no spark within the soul. They crowd the skyline and hem us in. They restrict our ration of God’s blue sky. (39)

Regrettably, the resident in the big city is still more aware of what man has manufactured than of what God has created. Urban dwellers on post-war high-rise estates are, so it seems, surrounded by monotonous mountains of greyness. This matter exposes a major factor of spiritual deprivation as well. The scriptures teach that before a person acquainted with the truth revealed in God’s Word he has to rely on God’s general revelation in creation for his inner awareness of the Maker to whom he is accountable. (144-145)

We tend to associate the presence and power of God with the glory of the heavens and the beauty of the countryside. But God’s highest creation is more in evidence in the bustling din of a city rush-hour than in the relaxing peace of a rural landscape. ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him’ (Gen. 1:27). This is the summit of God’s creative achievements. This is God’s marvel of miniaturization. (225)

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 …

In the early industrial period evangelical Nonconformity was characterized by three particular features: the priority of aggressive evangelism, the importance of itinerant and open-air preaching and the heavy reliance on laymen in the overall evangelistic strategy. In time, however, the early enthusiasm noticeably cooled as the process of social mitigation continued. (26)

A term which has come into the vocabulary of the ‘science of missions’ is the word ‘lift’. It is associated with the phenomenon of upward social mobility, but the term itself describes the social and cultural estrangement of the members of a religious group from the social environment in which they were recruited. ‘Lift’ appeared to trigger a number of unwelcome trends in the realm of evangelism. Aggressive outreach steadily waned. This was replaced by ‘a concentration of evangelistic activity among people already on the peripheries of organized religion’. Lay involvement in gospel witness declined. What had been the general responsibility of all believers gradually became the particular speciality of the minister. The chief area of evangelistic effort changed progressively from adults to children. (25-26)

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.

Here are the first quotes from Roy Joslin’s Urban Harvest to mark the thirtieth anniversary of its publication. The focus of these quotes is the importance of social class in thinking about mission.

The saving word of the gospel does not come to man in some kind of spiritual vacuum. It confronts him in his own particular circumstances and at a particular point in his earthly pilgrimage. The setting in which the gospel is addressed to a person’s need is something we must examine. The Apostle Paul’s adherence to this scriptural principle is something he spells out clearly (1 Corinthians 9: 19-23). To disregard this requirement because it is ‘not part of the gospel itself’ is to fly in the face of Scripture. (11)

D.M. Lloyd-Jones said ‘The impression has gained currency that to be a Christian, and more especially an evangelical, means that we are traditionalists, and advocates of the Status Quo. I believe that this largely accounts for our failure in this country to make contact with the so-called working classes. Christianity in this country has become a middle class movement; and I suggest that this is so because of this very thing’. (2)

Neither the Christian church nor the working classes start from a position of neutrality. The church is already identified with that social group that possesses ‘power, privilege and prestige’: the working classes are the major social group to whom generally, these things are denied. It is important for us to grasp just how firmly the contrast is there. (286)

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.