Ok, so this is my first blog on the RTU web site, and I want to share my thoughts about estate discipleship in light of the Great Commission.

Actually, my thoughts are not really distinctive to estate discipleship – it’s just discipleship. But I think, on estates, only authentic discipleship has a chance of cutting the mustard.

Two points which have shaped my understanding of discipleship.

Point 1. Evangelism and the ‘Discipleship Process’.

Most people think of ‘discipleship’ as the process through which believers bring believers to maturity. But that falls short of Matthew 28:20, Jesus didn’t say, ‘Evangelise all nations and then make disciples of the converts’ as if ‘evangelism’ and ‘discipleship’ are two distinct processes. He said ‘Make disciples of all nations …’ which implies ‘evangelism’ is part of, not distinct from the discipleship process.

It follows then, that:

1. If I am not evangelising, I am not being a disciple.
2. If I am not teaching others to evangelise and helping them learn how to do it, I am neither being a disciple, nor making disciples.

Point 2. The distinctive of Christian discipleship.

The distinctive of Christian discipleship is not that we follow Jesus and His teachings rather than some other Rabbi. The distinctive is that we are to ‘teach to obey everything … [He]… commanded’ (Matthew 28:20). This implies, people (a) do not know Jesus’ teachings and so need to be taught them and (b) when they do know, they still need to ‘learn to obey’.

Consider Hudson Taylor. I reckon what made him a great missionary was his radical discipleship. For example, when he learned and understood the parable of the Faithful and Wise servant (Matthew 24:45-51) that he should always be ready to unashamedly give an account, he immediately went through his wardrobe and books etc. Anything he didn’t need, or could be better used by others he gave away. He learned to obey Jesus teaching. How many of us have books we will never read again, clothes we will not wear etc? In Romans 2:21 Paul asks, “You who teach others, do you teach yourself?”

So What?

We must teach people what obedience to all God’s commands actually looks like in our own lives and teach them ‘how to obey’ in their own lives.

Although we should make the most of the best discipleship resources available, in fact, the best or the worst audio/visual resource by far is that of our own lives. 2 Corinthians 3:2-3

Perhaps in another blog I’ll share how we try to work this stuff out in out church. What do you think?

Almost every day a fire bell rings at the headquarters of Christians Against Poverty in Bradford.

It’s not an emergency, but a celebration of salvation.

“God has forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” Col 2:13-14

Christians Against Poverty (CAP) UK are seeing many people come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour through their witness. They have over 200 centres in the UK that help nearly 20,000 people each year pay off their financial debts. And their workers also seek to tell those people about the God-man named Jesus who came to settle their spiritual debts.

The clients CAP work with faced a terrible time with debt before finding help. 6% attempted suicide with a further 34% seriously considering it. A scary 78% of clients faced health issues due to debts and 42% were prescribed medication! CAP is literally seeing lives saved physically and spiritually as God guides them to the most vulnerable people in society.

Almost every day across the UK someone comes to know Christ through their work, and when they do, the fire bell is rung at Jubilee Mill, the CAP headquarters in Bradford, and all the staff stop to pray and thank God! CAP works for local Churches to provide this service, and all of their centres are opened and run by local Churches and for the growth of local Churches.

This ministry is seeing thousands of Christians from local Churches enter unbelievers homes to show and share the love of Christ in word and deed. It is reaching the unreached people of the UK. The service is completely free for clients of any background, gender, race or religion. The Churches help pay all the costs to run the service locally.

Christians Against Poverty aims to open 300 more centres in the UK over the next few years to attain national coverage. Why not check out the website on Church partnerships to enquire about getting involved?

There are thousands of people in the UK in need of debt counselling and are currently going to good quality secular advice… CAP is the same quality as all the other secular organisations but unashamedly Christ-centred and helping build the Church while maintaining world class debt help.

If you know anyone in debt and there is a CAP centre by you get them to call 0800 328 0006 to find out if CAP can help them!

Let’s keep that fire bell ringing!

“And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Matt 25:40

My observation is that churches in the UK think we are ‘Jerusalem’ – in other words, the gospel is going out from us to the ends of the earth. But actually we are the ends of the earth! We are the mission field, the place to which the gospel is going out, every bit as much as it is to Leipzig or Uganda or China.

The mission agency Crosslinks recently produced a pair of world maps. They showed the striking contrast of relative material and spiritual poverty in the world. Although materially wealthy, the UK and Europe are clearly among the darkest and most spiritually bankrupt places on the globe. A recent survey showed there were less Christians per capita in Yorkshire than in Japan!

My point is that we should view the pastor-evangelists in the UK as missionaries every bit as much as those going overseas. And where they’re going into under-resourced situations, there should be no less enthusiasm to respond to requests for money and equipment and long term gospel partnership. Most of the RTU churches we speak to are small in numbers, with members in the lowest income brackets. Gospel mission cannot be sustained there without support. I keep coming across pastors, their families and churches struggling to survive because the sort of support afforded overseas missionaries is simply not in place for them.

What are the chief enemies?

1. An unhelpful ‘british’ embarrassment to talk about or ask for money. But we fail to ask because we mistakenly think this is about funding me and my family personally. Whereas it’s actually about investing in vigorous gospel mission right on the front line.
2. The prosperity gospel causing us to hesitate. So many pastors have fleeced the sheep instead of feeding the sheep,that we’re afraid our request for money will be misunderstood, that we’re in it for the dosh. But this simply requires us to be transparent, & to have budgets that clearly meet our needs, not provide for our luxuries.
3. The isolation of independent churches. For all the benefits of being free from denominationalism, independents have little experience, and an innate suspicion of networking & partnership. We’ve got to get over this and start connecting with churches of means. For generations this is how gospel mission has been funded and resourced overseas.

As a way ahead we need to explore:

1. For long term resourcing – how to connect churches and individuals of means with pastors and churches on the estates and housing projects. For example, in Dagenham we have benefitted from long term gospel partnerships with 5 or 6 churches and 10 to 15 individuals, who have enabled us to sustain a team of 4 for over ten years. We have had some additional funding from charitable trusts, but that only lasts for 2 or 3 years at a time. We have close connections with our long term gospel partners, praying for each other, occasionally engaging in mission together, & taking a real interest in each other’s work.
2. For short term resourcing – how to sponsor training. Is the way ahead to create an RTU trust fund to which men and women can apply, to see them through courses and residential training? It will take huge start-up donations to establish such an instrument but we believe in a Lord who can do more than we can ask or imagine.

For these hostages, church is like a refuge, and a thin slice of life which is their own. It is one place they can escape to where they are loved and valued, and find some friendship and joy. These are converted women who love Jesus, and love to sing his praises. But they can’t bear the thought of their ‘captors’ joining them, invading their safe and precious space. So they can’t bring themselves to pray for them. And they wont bring them to church because it would be like inviting their persecutors into the refuge. And they’re very reluctant for us to go round to try and build bridges or share the gospel, both for the trouble it will cause them, and because they can’t bear the thought of their captors being saved. The extent of grace is a really hard doctrine for them.

Have you come across this in your setting? How have you handled it?

Getting Started & Keeping Going:

Building estates ministries with enduring gospel impact

In the estates of the UK new churches are being started, established churches are being renewed, and forgotten communities are being reached. Yet there remains so much to do. How do we get started? And how do we keep going?

Getting Started & Keeping Going is a weekend of discussion, prayer and teaching for all those with a heart to see enduring gospel impact on UK estates.

You can find more information and book your place here, or watch the conference trailer above.

Video produced by 2V design

We’ve been reading through Exodus as a family recently, and have reached the practical laws in chapter 21 onwards. It seems there were to be no boundaries for the Israelites in their concern and compassion for others. Foreigners were not excluded (22:21). Personal grievances were not to prevent aid (23:4-5). As much as I would love to just obscure the moral teaching of the Old Testament law under a blanket of redemptive-historical-fulfilment mumbo-jumbo, the truth is those laws reflect the heart of our generous God. Jesus was clothing himself with that law as he went about ministering grace to those in need, and summarising it’s teaching in the always-challenging parable of the Good Samaritan.

So why am I such a stinge-meister? Why am I so slow to seek out need around me? Why is generosity an effort rather than a knee-jerk reaction?

I’m pretty convinced it’s middle-class arrogance which needs to be confessed, gouged out and nailed to the cross. Truth is, I think of myself more highly than I ought. I see my time as valuable, my schedule as set in stone, and others as either resources to aid me, or obstacles in the way of my plans. I have an entitlement mentality rather than a grace mentality. I’m empowered, I’m self-sufficient, I’ve never needed the help of others – why would I put them in the awkward position of having to accept my help? As much as I’d like to be able to let myself off the hook by saying my gospel ministry is important and doesn’t leave time for much else, the truth is, people don’t listen to hypocrites round here.

We need to have so much deeper an experience and awareness of grace. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9). I thank God for the ordinary, unsaved people around me who he has used to convict me of my sluggishness to show the grace I’ve received, and my over-inflated view of my own importance. I pray I would walk more closely with my Saviour and not just study but imitate his example.

We’d started with simple talks based on their hardest questions (‘Why does God take good people and leave bad people?’ ‘Did God make dinosaurs?’ and ‘When Jesus comes back, will he be wearing old clothes, modern clothes, or will he be… naked?’ – ok, we didn’t do a whole week on the last question!). Then we began doing some narrative sections in the gospels, but still without directly engaging with the Bible text. Then this last year, we began by looking at the promises made to Adam, Noah and Abraham, all pointing forward to Jesus, and we used the Bible passages for that.

By this point, we had a consistent group of about ten teens, and were gradually piecing together the gospel with them. Ok, so most weeks we still had to send home a couple for bad behaviour, but the routine had been set – half an hour of Bible study, followed by half an hour of dodgeball (always, every week, without fail – their request! My knees have never been the same since…)

So I felt they were about ready for something like the Soul DVD – a nicely repackaged form of the youth Christianity Explored course (buy it from the Good Book Company here). How did it go down?

The DVD has seven episodes, and most clock in at the 15 minute mark. We decided it’d be best to show an episode, then have a time for Q&A afterwards. There is an accompanying study booklet, but that seemed a bit optimistic for our kids on top of the DVD!

The quality of the episodes is really good – it occasionally sails close to Christian cheese, but usually avoids that dreaded territory! I loved the imagery – it’s usually used as background to the voiceover, but sometimes as an illustration. There is one stand out moment where presenter Nate Morgan-Locke (yes, he’s got a double-barrelled surname, but he’s not so posh that the kids didn’t listen at all) retells Jesus’ calming of the storm, shouting it against the drenching rain of a full on studio hurricane, which at the words, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ dissolves into silence and sunshine. It’s powerful.

The gospel is clearly presented throughout, from Marks’ gospel. A lot of passages are read out, with the text always shown onscreen to follow as Nate narrates. This seems a bit odd at times, especially as the stories are often retold immediately following. The text is also never accompanied by music, which seems a bit superstitious – ‘the Spirit can only use the Bible when the text is visible and when there’s no music to manipulate people’s emotions’. I suspect the concern is to be demonstrating the source of authority – the Bible, not human opinion – but it often breaks the flow of an episode. Having said that, there was one point where Jesus’ words about plucking out eyes and cutting off hands to avoid sin were simply read out in silence (Mark 9:42-48), and man, that had an impact!

But what about the ‘youf’? How did they take it?

Well, it was mixed. Most sessions felt too long for their concentration length – we usually had to pause a few times during an episode due to too much heckling the TV. There was an amusing hang up with the kids insisting that I looked like Nate (I don’t see it. What do you think?!). The first episode – explaining why the best way to find out who God is, is to look at Christ – was quite philosophical and over their heads. I don’t think they got some of the irony either. But again, that’s probably another good reason to make the main feature of the episodes the Bible text itself.

There were moments throughout which captured attention – mainly where the visuals tied in closely with the content. The room of TVs, printers and cameras documenting our lives, as an example of how God sees everything in our heart, was strong. The GRACE episode was good, with a clever scene with Nate dropping large cards with writing on into a fire (‘I’ve never been arrested’, ‘I go to church’, ‘I’m nice to puppies’) to demonstrate how works are useless in getting right with God.

So the verdict? It’s a great resource, and for those at the club who were beginning to understand the gospel, it built on what they’d been learning before. But I think it’s still probably a bit too abstract and text-focused for kids for whom school sucks, TV is their teacher and the concrete realities of hanging out with their mates are what get them through the day. Soul will serve a purpose in middle-class youth groups with teens willing to focus, engage and grapple with conceptual questions. But it wasn’t down-to-earth enough for our kids – the visuals were more arty than everyday, perhaps impressive rather than effective. And it lacked a key ingredient which would have connected – humour.

So, Soul – thoroughly recommended as a resource, but it might not be suitable if your youth group has more chaos than calm in it! A lot of my criticisms above would probably apply to any DVD resource used in this context – I’m becoming more convinced that better ways forward in deprived areas are hanging out with your youths, taking them with you for street outreach, being unashamed to bluntly confront their attitudes and assumptions with the gospel, and generally showing them your faith exists beyond the scheduled Friday evening hour.

But what do you think? Have you used Soul at your church? Do you have a formal ‘youth work’ programme, or is there a better integration with the whole church? Drop in a comment below, and let’s get the discussion going!