A student of students! (Becoming a missiologist!)

As an American church-planting in Italy, I’ve discovered that nothing is quite as important as learning to be a good missiologist. We want to be effective Gospel ministers and know how to engage the culture that we live in with the good news of Jesus but that means we have to first know and understand the culture. Jesus is the answer! But what are the questions that the culture around us is asking? I admit I wasn’t particularly good at this for our first few years of ministry here (and I’m still learning how to do this well). I answered questions that the people simply weren’t asking and so the “good news” and message of hope I proclaimed fell on dead ears. So how do we learn what the culture is asking? That is the question... and I don’t think it has a simple, clear cut answer but I can share some of what I’m learning.

One of the things that I’ve been given the opportunity to do here is to teach English. These classes aren’t “bait and switch” evangelistic events. No, they are standard conversational English classes organized by a non-christian association that I’m a member. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be incredible opportunities to engage and study the culture of this great city. What do the people care about? What are the good things and bad things they see in their lives, in this city, in the current economic crisis? What do they struggle with? Where do they go to find happiness? Contentment? What do they think and believe about God? Or do they?

Here’s what I did. I learned to ask good questions and take notes. Here’s an example. I recently gave a homework assignment to one of my classes. I asked the class to come to the next lesson prepared to answer the following question. “If you could change one thing in the world what would it be and why?” Honestly they both hated and loved the assignment because it challenged them to think but also to defend their position and it gave me some great insight into the world they want. Little did they know the world they want is the world Jesus came to create.

Here were their responses and how Jesus brings good news:

• We should stop injustice. - Jesus is the just judge and under His reign injustice will cease.
• People shouldn’t be tortured, treated unfairly, and punished unjustly. - See above.
• We should care for the planet and take a stand against pollution. - Jesus is the creator and sustainer of all of everything and we are called to care for what He has made. The effects of sin and selfishness have ravaged this world but He is making all things new.
• We need to find our identity and stop wearing masks, we should be who we really are. - Jesus allows us to see who we really are and in Him we find our new, true identity, one we can wear proudly.
• We should end world hunger. - Jesus calls His followers to care for the poor and the hungry.  There will be a day when, under His rule, hunger will not exist.  We get a glimpse of this with Jesus' miracle in the feeding of the 5,000.
• We need to change our attitudes by focusing on positive things every morning. - Only knowing Jesus can give us a new beginning every morning and a reason to have hope and joy despite our circumstances.

Join me in being a student of our culture(s) wherever you are and discovering the questions that are being asked. Jesus is the answer but if you don’t know the question then your “good news” may be falling on deaf ears.

"Everyday Church: mission by being good neighbours" by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis

In their book, “Everyday Church: mission by being good neighbours,” Tim Chester and Steve Timmis explore what it means to be the people of God living in community and on mission in a marginalized society.  In the introduction they write, “above all, we have tried to write a practical book that shows what everyday church and everyday mission might look like on the ground.”  They have accomplished just that!  

Chester and Timmis engage in a dialogue with 1 Peter as they explore what church, community, pastoral care, mission, and evangelism look like in a post-Christian/post-Christendom context.  Then they wrap it up with some great, practical advice on next steps to take in applying what they’ve shown us.  

I highly recommend this book!  It is a must read for anyone even thinking about ministry or church planting in Europe!  I’m serious, if you don’t read this book you are missing a very important perspective on mission!

Below are a few of my highlights from each chapter of the book.  Truth be told, I started out by writing down what I had highlighted in my journal but by the second chapter realized that I was basically just re-writing the book in a format only legible by me.  (BTW, I read the IVP version of the book in case there are subtle differences.)  

Life at the Margins

“We need to do church and mission in the context of everyday life.  We must think of church as a community of people who share life, ordinary life.  And the bedrock of mission will be ordinary life.” 

Everyday Community

“(Christians) are repeatedly called upon to respond to hostility with good works.” 

“We will only attract people through gospel distinctiveness.  We become relevant to our world only by being gospel-centered.”

“Mission must involve not only contact between unbelievers and individual Christians, but between unbelievers and the Christian community.”

“Our approach to mission should involve three elements: (1) building relationships; (2) sharing the gospel message; and (3) including people in community.”

Everyday Pastoral Care

“Think about how Jesus did discipleship and community: around a meal, walking along the road, when reflecting on events... So the context for pastoral care and discipleship is everyday life. “

“If you do not pastor people out of a strong sense of God’s grace, both to you and to them, then you will leave them feeling condemned... If you leave people feeling this way then something has gone horribly wrong in your pastoral care.”

“Sin makes promises.  The gospel exposes those promises as false and points to a God who is bigger and better than anything sin offers.  That is good news.”

Everyday Mission

“Respond to hostility with good deeds.  Live such good lives that people glorify God.”

“It is not simply that ‘ordinary’ Christians live good lives that enable them to invite friends to ‘evangelistic events’.  Our lives are the evangelistic events.  Our life together is the apologetic.  Let us affirm and celebrate ordinary Christians living ordinary life in Christ’s name.”

“You will never attract people to Jesus if you are not excited about Jesus yourself.”

“Our life together as the people of God is a life of poetry and light created by the gospel.  We are called to live a compelling shared life that makes others say, ‘Man! Look at those Christians. I want what they got!’”

Everyday Evangelism

“If we could place people on a range of one to ten depending on their interest in the gospel (with one being no interest and ten being a decision to follow Christ) we would find that lots of evangelism assumes that people are at around eight...but 70% of the population are at one or two.”  “As often as not, our role is to move someone one or two steps along the way rather than get them all the way to number ten in one go.”

Hope at the Margins

“The perspective of Christian hope changes everything.  It changes our attitudes to living on the margins.  It changes our attitudes to our time, money and careers, freeing up resources for mission.”

“The challenge is this: When were you last asked to account for your hope?  Are we living a life that makes no sense without the gospel?”

“Everyday church fills every day.  But it does not necessarily fill it with extra activities.  It is about living ordinary life with gospel intentionality, doing what we already do with other people and with a commitment to speak of Jesus, whether to encourage believers or evangelize unbelievers.”