Wonderful African Friends

We have some wonderful African friends here in the UK who always inspire and make me feel just a little inadequate in my faith. Kathy and I were invited to a Housewarming on Saturday so we went along, I suppose expecting the usual type of party thing. But I couldn't have been further from the truth.

We were first to turn up and Thembisa was still hoovering (when will we learn that when an African says 7.00 - 7.30 they actually mean sometime that evening) Anyway people started turning up at about 8.30 and after greetings, people very soon began praying and blessing each other and singing. And I mean really singing - full on, very loud and with plenty of dancing, mostly in Zulu so I hadn't the foggiest what we were singing.

We briefly paused to eat from a table that was laden with food brought by many of the guests and then after eating our fill some of the "Pastors" present were asked to share a word and pray a blessing which they did most articulately and with passion blessing the "twins" Thembisa and Thembeka, and their house. Then with a gently request from Thembeka each of us in turn was asked to introduce ourselves and pray or share a word. Many just started out in song and the praying, blessings, singing and dancing went well into the night.

Now THAT is what I call a housewarming!

Reflecting afterwards on a wonderful evening I couldn't help thinking how much our English - Western culture had lost in really knowing how to celebrate, with God in our midst, over simple things like getting a new house. Also Kathy and I were the only English people there but we were so warmly welcomed and knew we were amongst brethren and friends. I wonder if an English party would have made an African couple feel so warmly part of the evening?

Blogging

Have you ever started a diary or journal on the 1st January and written about three entries before it fizzled out? I have - more times than I would like to admit and blogging is a bit like that for me. So, after Guy from a blog I follow (The M Blog) asked if I had a website/blog that he could look at about what we were doing, I suddenly felt a bit guilty. It's not that I deliberately stop posting it's that the effort just... well fizzles out.

So here I am trying again putting words on... well the web and I don't care if it gets read or not I'm just going to endeavour to be a bit more discilined and post at least once a month.

So hello world - again!

John

The Surrender Factor

I have been a Christian for 21 years and during that time have had many conversations with people about the Good News of Jesus Christ. Recently however God has led me to notice that really there is just one real stumbling block for people. Its what I call the "Surrender Factor"!

What's the surrender factor? Well, its the problem that people have in surrendering their life to Jesus - making Him Lord.

Last night was a case in point. We visited a lady who had been involved in church for many years she had been to many "Evangelistic Events" and even put her hand-up in response to altar calls, but she knew that something was missing. She even asked us "what is it that you have that I don't?"

As we went through a gospel presentation she could tick all the boxes - Yes, she knew that she was a sinner - Yes, she knew that God was holy and hated sin - Yes, she knew that Jesus died to pay the penalty - But when asked to put her trust solely in what Jesus had done and make him Lord of her life - BAM! the brick wall came up.

And, that's what we left her with - the missing thing. Surrender!

Two points come to mind here:

1. Romans 10:9 - if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

2. 1 Corinthians 12:3 - no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

So for her we will be praying that the Holy Spirit will convict her of Jesus' Lordship because I am convinced that when she can say "Jesus is my Lord", that's when she will find peace.

John

Other cultures and the gospel

A while ago a group of us visited a detention centre for people being deported from the UK to take a "service". This was the first time any of us had done anything like this so we really didn't know what to expect. The people at this detention centre are mostly on the way out of the country after any appeals/hearing etc. so only stay there for 3 to 5 days, their fate decided.

Even though half of us are from the house church expression of church we resorted to a more traditional style of event as we felt that would probably be more appropriate for the people we would be ministering to - it's what they would expect. About 40 people came to the service mostly African people but also a few from Asia. We had a wonderful time of praise and worship with them and used a drama to introduce the bible reading we were teaching from which was Luke 24:13 - 32 "The Road to Emmaus".

I had been asked to speak. I won't go into all the things I talked about, but thankfully God was really there and in spite of me, at the end when I asked if anyone wanted to surrender their lives to God - 5 people came forward for prayer!

Reflecting afterwards, it really made me think about the way that these people were so eager to embrace the hope that Jesus offers to us all and how hard-hearted our western cultures are in contrast. They aren't interested in Gen "X" or "Y" or whatever - most probably never heard of those sociological concepts. They were just hungry for God!

How my heart cries out for the people of our culture to embrace God in the same way!

John

New Church or Not New Church

Here are a couple of examples where groups have formed out of evangelistic effort. These are real examples of real people in real groups.

1. A group formed out of an “evangelistic course”

A local church ran a small Christianity Explored course with five guests and four helpers. During the course, which ran for eight weeks, a degree of fellowship was formed and two of the guests became Christians. At the end of the course the group wanted to continue to meet because of the fellowship. Within a month the others in the group had also become Christians.

The group continues to meet and a couple of other people who were already Christians have joined the group. They pray, study the bible and fellowship together on a regular basis but the numbers attending fluctuate greatly. This group is still linked to the church which ran the original course.

Although this group has continued to meet and has grown it has, so far, not become anything more than a “house group”. It requires a lot of leadership to guide it, the members of the group are growing slowly and the bonds of fellowship are weak and require a lot of work to keep things together.


2. A group formed through a “man of peace” (see Luke 10)

A man going through a difficult time in his life, attends a Christian event that he is told about. At the event he becomes a Christian. It has a profound effect on him and he tells his partner and friends about this. They also attend the event and become Christians and a core group is formed out of these two families. God’s work is very evident in the lives of these people and they naturally tell others about what God has done and other members of the family and friends become Christians.

Like the first group they continue to meet and a few other people who were already Christians have joined the group. They pray, study the bible and fellowship together on a regular basis. This group is still linked to the church which ran the original event. Because most of the people are friends or family they also see each other at different times also.

Unlike the first group this group is more than just a collection of people who meet together in someone’s home. The family and friendship ties that were there before the group formed mean that it has stronger relationships. The new Christians are maturing faster and a leader is emerging (not the original “man of peace”), they are looking at ways they can reach the lost and reproduce themselves. They have become a “Church” in their own right.

Note: Both of these groups have been going for the same length of time.