Update: Sander has been playing the drums! Yeah, I’m pretty excited too. Last Sunday he played for the main worship service at church and will have lots more chances in the future. I am super excited he is playing and getting to use his skills, but I’m also excited to just see him play. For the four or so years I’ve known him, I’ve seen him practice/play a total of about 7 or 8 times. Honestly I feel jiped. As a result I feel I am due a chance to see him play with a band about 873,241 times before I am fully satisfied that he really is a drummer and isn’t just living a lie.
In other news, this past weekend we got to be part of an incredible event called Encounter ’06. It was held here in Aberdeen and was for the whole northeast of Scotland. It was designed to be something that all ages and all denominations felt welcome. They had a few speakers, music, and a few informational booths set up with what ministries in the area were doing. It wasn’t that large of an event considering the size of the area it encompassed – maybe 300 people during the day and at most 1000 people at the evening session – but what mattered was the overall spirit of it all. Everyone seemed happy to be there, everyone seemed excited to take the message to heart, and everyone was so different. I’ve been to great events where people are inspired and lives are changed, but it always seems those events have a very specific audience; usually the upper-middle class Texan between the ages of 18 and 23. Here there were elderly couples singing along with the drums and electric guitars. There were single mums and their little kids praising the lord. There were trendy and eccentric teenagers on the front rows listening carefully. It felt so authentic. The message of the weekend was about how we could take to heart God’s message, realize it wasn’t a message just for Sundays, or just for when we hang out as believers, but was a message for how we live every minute of our life. They spoke primarily about how we could do this in our workplace (or school, or home) and how we can do this in our community.
Our Workplace:
Billy Graham said: "I believe the next great move of God is going to be through
believers in the workplace."
It was from this statement that our speaker Mark Greene, the executive director from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, keyed off of. Before I go into that, let me tell you a little about the London Institute. It was created to research and problem-solve what has happened to Christianity in the UK (and Europe for that matter). Did you know that Europe is the continent with the least number of evangelical Christians per capita? Less than Africa. Less than Asia. So, from Mark’s research into these emerging trends in the UK (and Europe) he was able to hit some great points about how we are to take our Christianity outside of our church and into our world.
He made a huge point that Christianity and evangelism founded on the model from the 1950’s will not and should not work in today’s culture. He said that previously people had this idea that we should go out and convert as many people as possible and then try our hardest to contain them in the church; convert and contain. He reminded us that this is not at all what Jesus taught us to do, He taught us to go out and disciple as many people around us as possible and then release them to go out and do the same; train and release. To do this however, we must be able to make the gospel applicable to daily life. Yes, Christianity is the way to eternity, but Christ also said that His kingdom was here, now. He said that to be a Christian in the workforce doesn’t mean you have to wear Jesus pins and behave perfectly all the time. People don’t expect perfection, but they respect authenticity. We will never be perfect examples of love, peace, patience, and kindness but we can show people that these are things that we strive to be, that authentically matter to us. It is in these moments that people can ask questions and begin to have their heart stirred toward Christ.
To me this all made so much sense. Remember: the goal isn’t to make converts, but true disciples. I could probably finagle an emotional moment between co-workers and friends or I could probably argue someone on creationism/resurrection/etc. where I could get them to admit there is a God and they want to go to heaven. But if the goal is true disciples I would rather take the longer route where I follow the Holy Spirit’s leading, seek to leave traces of grace, and always be willing to give an answer (no, not a pre-emptive sermon) to why I do what I do. In these moments and from this foundation discipleship can happen even before someone decides to follow Jesus.
I know I am going into a lot of depth here, but it was so interesting and inspiring. One last point and I am done.
He pointed out that in Christianity there is no hierarchy. He said we usually see pastors, missionaries in foreign countries, and full-time ministry staff on a higher level then our Christian friends in the workplace or as mums at home. Nope – not the case. Christ died for all and we are all coheirs with Christ. We all have a ministry and we all have to try to live this with our whole life, not just our free time on Sunday or Wednesday evenings. So he encouraged us to pray for our friends at work, for families to pray for the school and the children they play with, to pray for the mom’s they meet on the playground and pray for the co-workers at the office.
This idea of praying for each other and considering every Christian’s daily work as an opportunity for ministry gave me an idea for a system of prayer circles. [I whipped up a diagram on Publisher because the few people I told here got confused till I sketched it out. See the post below.] There are so many people and things we want to pray for, but I have found a long list can be overwhelming and counterproductive. Instead of trying to pray for everyone you know and every ministry around each day (which, unless you are a superhuman with 4 free hours for prayer each morning, will never be accomplished), what about just praying for one specific person a day. Every Monday pray for Sally and then ask Sally to pray for you each Monday. Get someone to pray for you Mon-Saturday and then pray for them on that day as well. You could send them a line or two to your prayer person on their day through email/phone/text message letting them know you prayed and possibly give them one or two things you need prayer for.
I’m very excited about this and really feel like this will be a great way to encourage one another on to love and good deeds and make use of the incredible power we have in prayer. This could work if you started it just between friends, at church, and/or in small groups. I don’t want to be stressed, or stress the people I ask, at the thought of trying to find 6 people right away who would be willing to pray for you once a week. So, these circles could just start out with just 3 people on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Then a prayer request would be to find people to fill in the rest of the days. The goal shouldn’t be to create a complete circle right away, it should just be to begin praying for others and having them pray for you.
Our Community:
Remember I said Encounter had speakers that talked about how we should live a life for Jesus not just at work but also the community? Well, I know I went on and on about the workplace and prayer, so I will keep this short.
The segment on community was shocking and encouraging. They ran video and had person after person come up and share what they were doing in the community to reach out to groups that most people weren’t even aware existed. I found out that in Aberdeen on Friday, September 15th, 600 babies were aborted and there is not one crises pregnancy center to love and care for the girls that are in that situation. There has been no central place for worried woman to come and get information, or just support if they have post-abortion hurts. They are starting a center that will be open early next year, but it is shocking to hear that in the 3rd largest city in Scotland, this isn’t already a part of the grace being shown to the hurting in the city. They also have a center to help homeless families reestablish. A center to aid teens in drug addictions. A center to feed the hungry. A workplace ministry to get men and women into employment. A rehabilitation program for those just out of prison. So much is just getting started here to reach out to the community. It is hard to grasp that isn’t something widely available or established, but I am so glad to hear that the Christians here, even though they are few, are willing to work so hard to help the oppressed in the city and offer them a true hope that won’t fade.
Ok, I’ll end on that, but I would love to hear your thoughts. Leave your comments or feel free to email us. We have been told we will have internet again by September 28th, but I am trying not to get too excited. Fingers crossed!
Click here for the full post after the jump…
