To advance the Gospel of Jesus and his kingdom into the nations through spiritual generations of labourers living and discipling among the lost

Lifenet non-traditional approach

Connecting the dots

Preach the gospel always; when necessary use words—St Francis of Assisi

By Glen Morris

Before Jesus went up to heaven, he told his followers to wait in Jerusalem for the arrival of God’s special gift, the Holy Spirit. So the Apostles waited together, until one day the Spirit arrived, with a sound like a violent wind, and what looked like tongues of fire landing on them. The Apostles immediately went out from there and started speaking to the people in different languages so that all the people could understand them.

God’s powerful life-giving Spirit had arrived on the scene in a totally new way; this was the beginning of a new era.

And what was the reaction of the people to all this? Thoroughly underwhelming! In Acts 2 it tells us that some people were amazed and perplexed, asking "what does this mean?" while others went into straight-out ridicule, assuming the Apostles had been drinking too much!

The thing is, the Spirit in their midst wasn’t self-evident. The people needed someone to explain what was going on. When Peter got up to do that, then they understood and many were moved to believe.

This helps me think about today. God is at work all the time, but as in the days of the Apostles, God’s activity in the world—and in us—can be misunderstood, misinterpreted, and go totally over people’s heads. For a variety of reasons we can be quite reluctant to talk directly about Jesus and faith, but people need help to connect… the… dots. Like an outline, our words can help bring definition to what is otherwise a blurry picture for people. A little explanation can go a long way.

St Francis of Assisi spoke well when he said "Preach the gospel always; when necessary use words." Well, there was a time for Peter when those words were necessary, and there is a time for us too, so why not try and connect a few dots for someone today!

Dealers in reality

I was at a School Board of Trustees training evening recently and they talked about the need to have BHAGs; it’s a term taken from a management guru and it stands for ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goals’. The idea of BHAGs is that you have huge goals that are so challenging that everyone gets in behind them—to dream the impossible dream into reality.

  So, do we need BHAGs in our journey with God? I don’t think so. We don’t need to make anything up or attempt to create a big mountain to try to climb. All we are called to do is to stick to The Story. This is God’s story and we have a part to play in it. We have no freedom to make up hyper-fantastic-super-tistical goals, because we are dealers in reality.

And our reality is simple: the God who exists knows us well and passionately seeks us out. The Jesus who came to earth died for us and came back to life again, and in doing so opened a door to a new level of life for us. The Spirit, who lives in us now, gives guidance and strength and courage and love so that we can start living out this new level of life right here, right now. And we have hope for a better future.

This is our reality.

When you walk down Queen Street it won't be easy to see this reality; nor down Lambton Quay or in Cashel Mall. These places speak of a story that makes Big, Hairy and Audacious promises (ie you will be happy when you wear these clothes, drive this car, have this business card and look this good) but ultimately that story doesn’t deliver. Don’t be sucked in by those BHAGs because living by them will take your life and leave you empty.

Stick to the story of life that we have been given. This is realit. Nothing more, but nothing less. 

(Glen Morris is the National Coordinator of LifeNet)

LifeNet Website

 

LifeNet: to the non-churched

LifeNet Website

 (text of an article from ‘People to People’ the in-house magazine of the New Zealand Navigators.)

At its heart, LifeNet is a new mission initiative in New Zealand. It is very much in step with several new, Navigator initiatives emerging in post-Christian Europe and in non-Christian Asia. These new initiatives are focused on people who are particularly resistant to the gospel, especially when it is connected with historical, Western expressions of Christianity.

Leaders of these new initiatives and New Zealand LifeNet leaders are passionate about the spread of the gospel.

They take their cue from passages like 1 Corinthians 9:19-23: “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” Just as Jesus was sent out from the Father and entered our world to save us, and just as Paul left behind his Jewish religion and culture to carry the gospel into the Gentile world, LifeNet people choose to live among people whose backgrounds and social patterns are decidedly non-Christian. They pray the Holy Spirit will use them to set the gospel flowing freely among this “non-churched” network of friends and contacts.

What does this look like in the community? The brief stories below are real situations, though some details have been changed for the sake of confidentiality.

Four men regularly play golf together. They decide to meet once a month to talk honestly about their lives. Someone says he has found the Bible helpful, and suggests they read it together. They are mix of Christians and non-Christians, but that doesn't matter. It is not an issue. Strangely, those who do not think of themselves Christians are beginning to talk as if they were!

A group of young mothers meet each Tuesday to talk and pray. Again, the group is a mix of believers and non-believers. One of the non-believers doesn’t yet have the freedom to pray but enjoys the group very much. Explaining to a friend how she participates, she says, “When they pray, I just wish.”

A teenager feels God calling him to reach out to disadvantaged youth in his neighborhood. He applies for a youth worker’s course and starts coaching a touch-rugby team in his local area. Last year he started a lunchtime group to help high school students live for Jesus at school.

Two businessmen, working from home, meet to plan an occasional lunchtime meeting for other men working from home in their neighborhood. They want to serve other people operating small businesses from home, in isolation.

A group of young professionals agree to meet regularly in a café-bar to talk about life and faith. During the evening, friends come and go; some are believers, some are not.

While all this may sound unremarkable, it represents a way of thinking and living that strongly places Christians, the gospel and the Bible in Kiwi culture, and, one by one, people are coming to Christ. Many of the Christians involved in LifeNet do not attend a “normal” church. Church for them is a network of followers of Jesus living among people who do not know Jesus Christ. They meet in small groups to pray and study the Bible.

 Navigator staff that serve the LifeNetwork encourage, equip and resource these people. They help make connections between the various LifeNet expressions in the form of weekends away, family events, and occasional city and national events. But such events do not dominate. The emphasis is on having time and energy to relate to friends and contacts on their “turf” in ways that build bridges for the gospel.

Those in the LifeNet movement have a clear vision. They want to see a whole new generation of people who find it difficult to connect with existing expressions of Church, become committed followers of Jesus. They want to see these new Christians have a powerful influence on others, carrying the gospel into networks of friends, relatives and contacts throughout New Zealand and beyond.