Urban Harvest and the importance of community
by Tim Chester on Sep.21, 2012, under Church
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.
Urban Harvest and everyday evangelism
by Tim Chester on Sep.14, 2012, under Connections, Gospel
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.
Urban Harvest and contextualization
by Tim Chester on Sep.07, 2012, under Cultural
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.
Urban Harvest and the doctrine of creation
by Tim Chester on Aug.31, 2012, under Cultural, Resources
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.
Urban Harvest, respectability and the cooling of enthusiasm
by Tim Chester on Aug.24, 2012, under Church, Struggles
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.
Urban Harvest and the importance of social class
by Tim Chester on Aug.17, 2012, under Cultural
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.
The 30th anniversary of Urban Harvest
by Tim Chester on Aug.10, 2012, under Cultural, Resources
2012 year marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of Urban Harvest, Roy Joslin’s call for evangelical involvement in our largely unreached working-class communities. I was a teenager when it first came out, but I well remember the stir it caused in Reformed circles in the UK. It was perhaps the most significant book on the subject since William Booth’s In Darkest England in 1890.
Roy Joslin was a pastor in Walworth in London so wrote from his own experience. (He also went to Bible college with my father.)
Sadly, even as he was writing Urban Harvest, he was beginning what would be 33-year struggle with Parkinson’s Disease.
Britain has changed radically in the intervening years and Joslin’s analysis of social class feels dated. But there is still much of great value in the book so over the coming weeks I’m going to post some quotes from the book.
In October IVP are publishing my latest book, Unreached: Growing Churches in Working-Class and Deprived Areas. It comes out of a working group conveyed by the Reaching the Unreached network. We hope it will encourage people to get involved in reaching our estates and cities as well as giving people a sense of how they can go about this work. It might not prove to be the last word on the subject, but it will fill the 30-year silence since Urban Harvest.
Urban Harvest is available here from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk.
The story of Roy Joslin’s struggle with Parkinson’s Disease is told by his wife, Valerie, in Rediscovering Roy which is available here from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk.
This article was originally published on Tim Chester’s blog.
Door to door: Privacy and busyness
by John Mark Hobbins on Jun.04, 2012, under Connections, Fuel
I often have very encouraging conversations with people who are not yet Christians. Many of these are people that I have met through door to door ministry. I have a distinct advantage in that I have known many of these people for somewhere in the region of six or seven years. My first visit, in some sense, was “cold.” But going regularly to the same people means that people get to know me and notice when I am not around. They sometimes complain that I don’t call often enough or they tell me who else I should be visiting.
Some people I have met through door to door visitation have become a part our church, others have been content to talk about spiritual matters in their homes and a few have read the Bible with me.
We are looking for long term relationships where we love each household individually – and we want to take opportunities to share the Gospel that are genuine and go to the heart.
I know that people sometimes want privacy – and it is important to respect this. If people are busy I can always go round another time. But a wonderful privilege in this work is that people have actively invited me into their homes and into their worlds and have spoken openly about the struggles that they face. The degree of openness is sometimes overwhelming.
We want to build genuine relationships in which to share the Gospel. So the last thing I want to be is a door to door salesman that is only interested in his commission. I want people to know that there is a community that loves them, that there is a saviour who loves them. Going round to their flats opens the door to many, many gospel opportunities that are genuine and effective.
It is also true that many of these people will never meet a local Christian unless we take the first step to reach them.
John Stott, in his book “The Living Church” (2007), says this:
Local church evangelism can claim to be the most normal, natural and productive method of spreading the gospel today. First there is the argument from scripture …
Secondly, there is the argument from strategy. Each local church is situated in a particular neighbourhood. Its first mission responsibility must therefore be to the people who live there. The congregation is strategically placed to reach the area around it…
Thus biblical theology and practical strategy combine to make the local church the primary agent of evangelism.
My personal view is that door to door ministry, done sensitively and regularly, can make a contribution towards fulfilling this ambition.
Discipleship and the Great Commission
by admin on May.18, 2012, under Discipling
This post is by Julian Rebera, Church Leader at New Life Church, Brighton.
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:
- If I am not evangelising, I am not being a disciple.
- 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?
Taking on poverty in the UK
by admin on May.14, 2012, under Resources
Guest post by Nathan Davies, CAP Centre Manager in Torfaen, South Wales.
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
