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

Watch the last of the sessions from this year’s conference, by Pete Jackson.

To watch the rest of the videos from the weekend, go to the 2011 conference page.

Watch the third of the sessions from this year’s conference, by Duncan Forbes.

To watch the rest of the videos from the weekend, go to the 2011 conference page.

Watch the second of the sessions from this year’s conference, by Tim Chester.

To watch the rest of the videos from the weekend, go to the 2011 conference page.

Guest post by Neil Robbie

In a setting where reading and study are not the norm, how do we encourage young Christians or unbelievers to engage with God’s Word? Neil Robbie (blogging at transforminggrace.wordpress.com) shares his experience of something called the Swedish Bible Study Method…

We’re launching a network of small groups at Holy Trinity West Bromwich with God’s word at the centre in a way which suits the learning and devotional style of our people. We’ve chosen the Swedish Bible Study Method which appeared in this article in The Briefing a few years ago.

What is this Swedish thing?

The Swedish Bible Study Method, in a nutshell, is self-directed study of a passage with four simple questions:

• Light. What light does this passage shine on God, the world, the church, or me?
• Questions. What questions do I have?
• Change. What should I do or change as a result of reading this passage?
• Speech Bubble. What could I say to someone from this passage? Who will I say it to?

There are several advantages to this method of Bible study. (continue reading…)

Gospel discipleship over the long haul

Council estates, urban priority areas, low income households: the gospel is powerful to save anyone, from anywhere, but what does making disciples look like in the ‘hard places’ of our country, where progress can seem heartbreakingly slow?

For more details and to book click here, or watch the conference trailer below.

A lack of forgiveness is a common problem in disadvantaged areas. It affects not only individuals, but spreads through communities. The closeness of family and community ties in some estates presents great opportunities for the gospel when someone is converted. But those close ties can also spread hatred when someone is wronged. A lack of forgiveness also often inhibits change in other areas. One pastor says ‘forgiveness has brought up a whole load of issues in my context’.

This pastor takes a strong, black and white approach, often saying: ‘If you don’t want to forgive people, that’s okay, but you can’t say you follow Jesus’. A willingness to forgive is portrayed as the touchstone of a genuine experience of divine forgiveness (Matthew 6:14-15). He finds it impossible to pastor in other areas of people’s lives until they have at least shown the desire to forgive. But a willingness to forgive does mean forgiveness is easy. One believer who was horrifically abused for years knows she needs to forgive her abuser and wants to do so, but finds this very hard, sometimes seemingly impossibly hard. But she is asking Jesus for strength to forgive.

Forgiveness is a relational concept that involves reconciliation after repentance. God does not forgive us until we have repented (though in his grace he grants repentance so uniquely in God a willingness to forgive leads inexorably to forgiveness). So it may not always be helpful to ask someone whether they forgive another person. Without repentance and reconciliation, forgiveness remains an abstract idea. It can only be a ‘willingness to forgive’ and that can be hard to measure in the absence of repentance. So it may be more helpful to ask someone whether they love another person, not in the sense of feeling affection for them, but in the sense of wanting the best for them. And a test of this may be how they pray for them.

The Times had an interesting piece, “The Joy of Reading out loud” (sat Oct 2 2010). In it they talk about the Initiatives of The reader Organisation started by Jane Davies in Liverpool. Here’s an extract,

Davies found that reading aloud is the best way to get people into books and then she discovered that it makes people calmer, happier, self-reflective, more sane and open-minded. She found that her method works in retirement homes, with abused children, with kids who have never read a thing, with prisoners, with people on council estates and with NHS patients.

“We were reading Othello out loud with a group who had never read or seen a Shakespeare play. After a few weeks a woman said, “I’ll read Iago this week. I know that bastard. I was married to him.”

I realise that many of us are doing Gospel work in areas of low literacy, but please don’t take that as resistance to literacy. I have never met anyone in Speke who struggled with reading who didn’t actually wish they could read better.  The issue is how we make efforts to make text more accessible to those who have often been scared off by it. As I read the quote above I was encouraged to come up with simple and creative ways to get people into the text of the bible.

• Enourage reading out loud
• Enourage people to have a go at reading different parts
• Ask good questions about what is said, how it is said and why it is there

The Lord knew what He was doing when He gave us a written word. Can I encourage you to have confidence that the written Word of God is made to engage with the hearts of men.

An example: Last year I preached through Hosea (yes, that OT minor prophet). A lady who had just started coming to church asked me for a bible so she could read the story for herself. She didn’t have an O-level, she didn’t have a bookshelf, she’d never worked and had 7 kids by 2 fellas. The day after i gave her the bible I tentatively  asked whether she’d read the 1st chapter of Hosea, and to my astonishment she had read through the whole book.

“What is it about?” i asked.

“Its showing us that God is faithful even when His people aren’t. I know all about unfaithfulness and how God must feel.”

God’s written Word is powerful and people aren’t as stupid as you think, don’t shy from getting it into peoples’ hands.

Matthew presents Jesus as a new Moses bringing a new exodus and a new kingdom, creating a new community and a new covenant. Jesus has gone up a mountain to teach his new community just like Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive the law. And so we might suppose we were about to get a new law or a new ethic. But, no, Jesus says he’s not bringing a new law, but fulfilling the old law (5:17-18).

In Deuteronomy 4:5-6 God said that if Israel lived under his law then the nations would realise that it was good to live in God’s kingdom. But most of the time Israel didn’t do a good job of living under God’s law. Instead of drawing the nations to God, Israel brought God’s name into disgrace (vv. 13).

But Jesus is creating a new community for his new age with the law written on their hearts (in fulfilment of Jeremiah 31:31-34). This community will live in a way that brings light to the world and glory to God (vv. 14-16).

This is the way the community of Jesus is to live (v. 19). It’s not just an impossible ethic to make us despair and drive us to Jesus. This is the way we are to live. This is how we will be light in our city.

And so Jesus makes it very practical.

(continue reading…)