Week One: Why Mission? The needs and challenges of our world

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1 Living the Gspel with mre than ur lips Week One: Why Missin? The needs and challenges f ur wrld Intrductin - When yu think f evangelism what emtins cme up? Why? - Share a stry f yur experience (gd r bad) f evangelism Our gals fr this curse - T see yu enabled t live in such a way that missin is sacrament f yur walk with Christ, and a natural part f yur life. - But what is a Sacrament? Simply a place where Gd is present. - We wuld live a synthesis f bth The Great Cmmissin and The Great Cmmandment int ur lifestyle. T live a cngruent life. - And the hardest part in all this is t just get started G.K. Chestertn Anything wrth ding is wrth ding badly. Just get ging! We celebrate the sacrament f evangelism because Gd is present with the witness and the persn being witnessed t and the Lrd brings new life when he is met there in faith. The sacrament f evangelism, then, takes place when we wrk with Gd, wh has prepared a harvest. It is nt abut us taking Christ t peple. Rather, it is helping flks becme aware f ur Gd wh is here nw and that He wants t transfrm ur suls and lives. Lyle Drsett, frm the frewrd t Sacrament f Evangelism Learn as yu g, bring yur experiences t class, discuss, grw tgether. - We want yu t begin living with yur eyes wide pen t Gd. The scriptures say the heavens declare the glry f Gd, but many f his wrks always present with us are missed simply because ur eyes are clsed. Jerry Rt - It is a challenge fr peple t be a blessing t at least 2 peple a day. This will challenge us because t ften, we g thrugh ur days thinking abut ther things. But we shuld becme peple such that blessing thse arund us is natural and nrmal. Overflwing with LIFE!

2 Living the Gspel with mre than ur lips - And s, in this class, we are ging t talk abut a lt f the issues that intersect with this desire t live in the presence f Gd and d missin. This is hw the class will be structured: 1. Why Missin? The needs and challenges f ur wrld 2. What is the full scpe f the Gspel that we are t prmte? 3. The Rle f the Hly Spirit in Missinal Living 4. Creative Ways t Prmte the Gspel 5. Answering tugh questins 6. Cultivating Missin fr Life WHY GET INVOLVED IN MISSION? Dn Krause 1. The news. What makes the gspel such gd news? 2. Jesus spent a huge part f his ministry telling and explaining. Mark 1: 1 &15 Luke 4:23 Luke 10: 1-6 Jhn 20:21 Matt. 28: The Christian mvement traced frm beginning t nw. 30AD 33AD 66AD 100AD 300AD 2010AD China: Africa: Suth America: Canada

3 Living the Gspel with mre than ur lips Tri- Cities Hw can we best unleash urselves t d the jb Christ has cmmissined us t d? 4. If we d nt, wh will reach this generatin? We are all here because intrduced us t Hw many frm church backgrund? Frm nn-believing backgrund? Discuss: Must yu have a gift f evangelism t be invlved with missin? Eph 4:9-13 Shuld we expect ur pastrs t be the primary carriers f the gspel? Mt.5:13-15 Hw will we be invlved with bringing in (2020Visin) anther 1000? We will be fcusing n thse far frm Gd. What kind f persnal intentinality will we bring int giving Tri-cities nn-believers an pprtunity? JESUS AND THE GOOD NEWS Mark 1: 1 The beginning f the gd news abut Jesus the Messiah, [a] the Sn f Gd.. 14 After Jhn was put in prisn, Jesus went int Galilee, prclaiming the gd news f Gd. 15 The time has cme, he said. The kingdm f Gd has cme near. Repent and believe the gd news! Luke 4: 42 At daybreak, Jesus went ut t a slitary place. The peple were lking fr him and when they came t where he was, they tried t keep him frm leaving them. 43 But he said, I must prclaim the gd news f the kingdm f Gd t the ther twns als, because that is why I was sent. Luke 10: 1After this the Lrd appinted seventy-tw [a] thers and sent them tw by tw ahead f him t every twn and place where he was abut t g. 2 He tld them, The harvest is plentiful, but the wrkers are few. Ask the Lrd f the harvest, therefre, t send ut wrkers int his harvest field. 3 G! I am sending yu ut like lambs amng wlves. 4 D nt take a purse r bag r sandals; and d nt greet anyne n the rad. 5 When yu enter a huse, first say, Peace t this huse. Jhn 20:19 On the evening f that first day f the week, when the disciples were tgether, with the drs lcked fr fear f the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and std amng them and said, Peace be with yu! 20 After he said this, he shwed them his hands and side. The disciples were verjyed when they saw the Lrd. 21 Again Jesus said, Peace be with yu! As the Father has sent me, I am sending yu. Matthew 28:18 Then Jesus came t them and said, All authrity in heaven and n earth has been given t me. 19 Therefre g and make disciples f all natins, baptizing them in

4 Living the Gspel with mre than ur lips the name f the Father and f the Sn and f the Hly Spirit, 20 and teaching them t bey everything I have cmmanded yu. And surely I am with yu always, t the very end f the age. Jhn 19:30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, It is finished. With that, he bwed his head and gave up his spirit. Evangelism and Missin - Evangelism is: the cre, the heart, r centre f missin: it cnsists in the prclamatin f salvatin in Christ t nnbelievers, in annuncing frgiveness f sins, in calling peple t repentance and faith in Christ, in inviting them t becme living members f Christ s earthly cmmunity and t begin a life in the pwer f the Spirit. David Bsch, The Study f Evangelism: Explring a Missinal practice f the Church, pg What is ur mtivatin fr living missinally in the wrld tday? Really believing what we, um believe. Reality f Hell. Penn Jilette (atheist frm the illusinist du Penn and Teller): If yu believe that there s a heaven and a hell, and peple culd be ging t hell r nt getting eternal life, and yu think that it s nt really wrth telling them this because it wuld make it scially awkward hw much d yu have t hate smebdy t nt prselytize? Hw much d yu have t hate smebdy t believe everlasting life is pssible and nt tell them that? - And yet, is this pressure a gd thing? Why r why nt? What are sme apprpriate mtivatins fr sharing ur faith with thers? Challenges t Living ut the Gspel N lnger in Christendm What des Christendm lk like? Thrugh ur influence we can make sciety Christian Believe that Christian can gvern better than nn-christian and thrugh strategic vting, can bring ur values int the mainstream f sciety better Assumes it is the right f churches t cntrl the behaviur f thse n the utside thrugh the right legislatin Get upset when Christian hlidays are nt recgnized and bserved by sciety as a whle Restrative - get back t the way things were!!!!

5 Living the Gspel with mre than ur lips Is there any element that is accurate? Sub-zer Cntext in which we live What are the ppular perceptins f Christians peple in the West have? Why? Fear - Cnsider the current cntext and cmmn depth f relatinships - Relatinships have an incredibly high value right nw, but they are als becming mre and mre rare. - We get int a catch-22: Given a shallw relatinship it seems like sharing smething deep and persnal like faith will be inapprpriate r ffensive. Given a deeper relatinship, we are facing the lss f smething precius if ur sharing ges wrng. - Whatever the kind f relatinship, ur culture has becme a place such that shifting the cnversatin frm nrmal, scially acceptable and custmary, tpics, int the tpic f religin, r faith, r belief, is uncmfrtable. - Sme evangelistic practices really are and can be impersnal. Lk at peple as prjects (I-Thu vs. I-it) Caring mre fr ur agenda than the peple Caring mre fr ding ur thing (fcusing n urselves) - When evangelism becmes merely a methd, a prgram that we try t get thrugh, then speaking abut Jesus is awkward, it feels like marketing, and it shuld. Examples? Thughts? - Luke 18:18-30 Jesus gets the perfect set-up questin; what d yu think f his answer? We are always steering cnversatins, but t what end and with what mtivatin? Jesus aims fr the heart Becming Persnal: - Living the Gspel with mre than ur lips At Wrk

6 Living the Gspel with mre than ur lips At Rest In ur Relatinships - Lving and Unfrced Sharing Hw much f the gspel d I need t share? Affirm what is gd - Being hnest in ur persnal faith Where is the gspel changing yu? Challenging yu? Cnvicting yu? Encuraging yu? Share these things with thse arund yu. Hw is Gd making a difference in my life? What des my faith mean t me? Tell a stry (f Gd in yur life; prviding, answering prayer, speaking t yu in scripture; stries f struggle and suffering) - Listening well (and ask questins as well as speaking and sharing) Listen fr desire and lnging. Yu may nt get there. Yu may nly have the pprtunity t lve and serve smene, ask a few gd questins, maybe pray fr them. That is k. Francis Schaeffer, when asked what he wuld say if he had ne hur with a nn-christian, said he wuld listen fr 55 minutes and then he wuld have smething t say. Listening t peple enables us t discern hw best t share the gspel and, perhaps mre imprtantly, hw Gd is already wrking in their life. - The difficulty f deep cnversatin in a surface culture Fear f sunding preachy - Recruiting rather than lving (Prselytizing instead f living ut the Gspel) Fcusing n things ther than Jesus Teaching peple t trust in their right belief rather than in Jesus We are nt justified by faith by believing in Justificatin by faith. We are justified as a gift f grace thrugh the redeeming wrk f Jesus Christ and faith is the path we are called t walk in rder t take hld f these prmises and respnd t this grace.

7 Living the Gspel with mre than ur lips - N need fr perfect mtivatins, but we d need t be headed in the right directin. Evangelize ut f lve and cmpassin - Dealing with perceptins Integrity Humility Surprise peple with grace. Intlerant (judgmental) - Judgmental and Arrgant - Cnfusin in ur culture - What is tlerance? Cnfusing tlerance with acceptance Cnfusing persn with psitin Lsing the ability t disagree Cnfusing thinking I m right with being arrgant. Uninfrmed - What if smene asks me a questin I dn t knw the answer t? What d yu think? - What if they ask a questin I can t answer? What we suffer frm t-day is humility in the wrng place. Mdesty has mved frm the rgan f ambitin. Mdesty has settled upn the rgan f cnvictin; where it was never meant t be. A man was meant t be dubtful abut himself, but undubting abut the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nwadays the part f a man that a man des assert is exactly the part he ught nt t assert himself. The part he dubts is exactly the part he ught nt t dubt the Divine Reasn. Huxley preached a humility cntent t learn frm Nature. But the new sceptic is s humble that he dubts if he can even learn. Thus we shuld be wrng if we had said hastily that there is n humility typical f ur time. The truth is that there is a real humility typical f ur time; but it s happens that it is practically a mre pisnus humility than the wildest prstratins f the ascetic. The ld humility was a spur that prevented a man frm stpping; nt a nail in his bt that prevented him frm ging n. Fr the ld humility made a man dubtful abut his effrts, which might make him wrk harder. But the new humility makes a man dubtful abut his aims, which will make him stp wrking altgether...we are n the rad t prducing a race f men t mentally mdest t believe in the multiplicatin table." G.K. Chestertn: Orthdxy. Will my faith stand up? - Learning as yu g - Relishing Challenges and leaning in

8 Living the Gspel with mre than ur lips And yu shall lve the Lrd yur Gd with all yur heart and with all yur sul and with all yur mind and with all yur strength. Cultivate a thughtful faith. What d yu think the next step is fr yu, persnally, t cultivate a thinking faith? Or what are yu ding already? It s easy t make utlandish gals here, just as it is easy t be incredibly vague. I need t read mre. I need t read all the aplgetics! Beware f the effects f Christian bubbles n yur spiritual sharpness Surrunded by peple wh think like us we stp feeling like we need t think at all. Surrunded by peple wh agree with us, we find ideas and arguments mre cnvincing than they perhaps really are. Surrunded by peple wh are n ur side we fail t engage with thse wh are nt. The Jy f Jurneying tgether Free t say: I dn t knw. But yu must als say: Let s find ut tgether - When yu really dn t knw what t say - When yu are upset, r the persn is highly cnfrntatinal, r there just seems t be n way t cnvince the persn The Visin fr the Church Tday in a Pst-Christian Wrld Mve frm centre t margins f sciety - can t seize the steering wheel Prphetic rle Christians in minrity Plurality nt privilege - need t find a new way t cmmunicate Relinquish cntrl Missin ver maintenance - dynamic mvement fr change rather than bundaryguarding