Some thoughts on “Mission”

I was prompted via reading Karen’s thoughts on mission and my brother’s follow-up to it to post a little of my own thoughts.

A lot of what they said resonated with me. I recall not so long ago my old church had a group from either Morling or SMBC College at our church in Wollongong doing a Mission. As I do recall there are both positives and negatives to this involvement. I wonder about the post mission impact the church will have. How effective will the mission by if those who build relationships with the regulars leave after one week.

I also am not a huge fan of “big events”, like Harvest Crusades. Which in the worst case without much follow-up produces conversions to an emotional state. To elaborate I remember as a “counsellor” seeing people get up from their seats and stream down to the floor, I remember the atmosphere, as Crystal Lewis, sang this beautiful song, people where in tears, perhaps being convicted of their sin for the first time, convicted of their need for a saviour for the first time. In a strictly human sense, without proper follow-up, and perhaps even with follow-up, what we see is seeds perhaps falling on the thorny ground, and as the emotion of the night goes away, they struggles and trials of life choke the Gospel out.

Don’t mishear me though – I do not think that these are limited to solely occurring at these big events, or that conversion is our work. But I do think we need to be careful, and or organised in how we follow people up. As one of the themes that I keep coming back to, is the importance of relationship in “evangelism”. I remember countless testimonies that include or began with the fact that one of their friends was different. A relationship existed that gave a context to the message, and I think that this is a crucial thing. In how we think about evangelism and mission, we must consider how do we build relationships between the church and the wider community. I think that’s better than having strangers sharing the gospel. I guess that’s another thing that I keep thinking about is that when we speak about overseas work we speak of the importance of raising up nationals to be the teachers and leaders of the future.

I’ve been struck again over the past few weeks, as the Revue is advertised, and a rally about VSU [Something I could definitely post on] was held, about the handing out of leaflets. I really felt imposed upon, and at the same time, in the past I have not felt too bad about handing out the Christian fliers. And to my mind there’s no difference, and should we worry about the litter, or how the fliers get treated once we let go of them?

I’m not sure really what I think about walk up; I think it is not something I feel particularly comfortable at. It is not something that I feel I’m particularly good at. And perhaps I should leave this to those who are gifted at this, and use the gifts I have?

Hmm, I think I’ll leave it here for comments.