Our very own Macedonian Call?

Last week I had the privilege (and surprise) of being asked to speak at the Gospel Yorkshire conference.  As ever in those sorts of situations there are things that I didn't get to address or talk about or nuance quite as I would have liked.  One of those was a perceived North South divide, the other was some issues to do with class.  I thought I'd try to type myself a bit clearer on those issues.

North South divide
This is a reality, the North of England has a lower percentage of believers per head of the population that most of the South, barring the South West I think.  And therefore just as in matters of normal life there is a natural influence that comes with this.  This can mean that those of us in the North develop a bit of a chip on our shoulder (or on both as I'm sometimes asked if I have - slightly ironic as I was born in Ipswich and am not quite a qualified naturalised Northerner as I've only lived in the north for 20 years).

On Thursday I made reference to a comment about Southern churches with a Yorkshire postcode.  What I was trying to get at was the idea that as churches in the North and Yorkshire we need to contextualise.  We ought to reflect and speak the gospel into the area and towns we meet in, the issues it faces, the hopes and aspirations it has, in light of its unique local history.  This will mean that it is different from churches in other areas, not just North South, but East West and even within a town.  What I was trying to get at was that we need to exegete our local culture.  Our churches if we reach locals will reflect local culture, but more than that we will reach locals best if we address the local culture with the gospel.  There's loads more I could share on that but I'll leave it at that for now.

That does not mean we do not need help.  I'd love churches across the UK to see the North, and especially Yorkshire, as missionary country.  I'd love them to encourage people to think about moving and serving in existing churches here.  There are faithful, gospel loving churches in lots of towns and cities sprinkled across the North that would be greatly blessed by the presence of more people who love Jesus and are willing to serve no matter where they are from.

One of the issues we face in Doncaster is that we are short of leaders, now long term I'd love to have more Yorkshire accents being heard from our pulpit, but that is a long term project in a town where evangelical Christianity among the population is below 0.5%.  But in the short and medium term we need workers to come and join us, to labour in the harvest field to see won and discipled those very people who will be leaders of the future.  It is not a problem to have southern voices at a Gospel Yorkshire conference or preaching from a pulpit, but I personally feel it will be if in 10-15 years we aren't hearing more Yorkshire accents too.

Addressing the Class issue
This is another subject which we touched on on Thursday and which I'd like to just share some thoughts.  I hope I made clear that the gospel and God's kingdom is for all classes, as well as all ethnicity's, languages etc.  God's vision of his Kingdom is vast.  But we naturally tend to reach people like us.  We don't deliberately set out to it is what we drift into.  We tend to spend time with those like us because we share loves, likes, hobbies, neighbourhoods etc... and so that is who we meet.  We need to be deliberate in reaching those not like us.  I think class is one of those areas, Christianity in the UK is predominantly middle class which means we will predominantly reach the middle class.  Unless we are intentional about reaching the working class (45% of the population).  Hence my focus on reaching the working class, especially in light of Yorkshire having a working class mentality.

That does not mean that you have to be working class to reach the working class.  It means we have to love people and seek out those different from us.  We need middle class background people to move into areas of gospel need and love those they find there, love them enough to commit to them and take the gospel to them and disciple them.  That will be hard, it requires wisdom and humility to listen to the culture, especially one very different from our own, and discern it's gospel echoes as well as the places it has been warped by sin.  It requires compassion and humility to walk alongside and learn with rather than assume we come to teach or solve problems.  I know because I've learnt some of those lessons the hard way through mistakes I've made serving such a community with my background and assumptions.

So come and help us.  No matter your class or county of origin.  If you love Jesus and love people and are prepared to listen and learn and love there are harvest fields that are ripe for harvest but where there are currently few workers.

Gospel Yorkshire: Why not now?

Yesterday was the launch day conference of Gospel Yorkshire entitled 'Why not now?'  Here are some reflections the day.

The first session was Neil Powell speaking from the book of Jonah and challenging us about where our hearts are for the lost.  Are we prepared to go outside of our structures, outside of our comfort in order to reach the lost?  The four points of his overview were very helpful: Grace forgotten threatens our mission, Grace rediscovered empowers our mission, Grace rediscovered send us on our mission and lastly Grace, living, sustains our mission.  The challenge we were left with was that if God is so concerned with the lost, if Jesus is so concerned with the lost how can we not be?

The second session was various people sharing about plants they were involved in and/or planting networks they were part of.  The Gospel Yorkshire committee also introduced themselves and explained more about their vision.  After the break out groups, about which more in a moment, Andy Paterson from FIEC spoke on Planting a shared commission.  His nine (yes nine) points were that there should be: a shared passion for the glory of Jesus, a shared understanding of the lostness of the lost, a shared commitment to pray and plan, a shared humility toward other networks, a shared vision for training new leaders, a shared sensitivity to cultural diversity, a shared awareness of community engagement, a shared sacrifice of people, resources and time, and finally a shared perseverance through tough times.  One thing that struck me that Andy said was that his observation would be that Yorkshire has a rugged individualism, I'd suggest that is the case not only in Yorkshire society but in our churches as well.

Many churches in Yorkshire adopt that approach, they are little red hen churches (I'll do it myself).  Even those who are part of larger networks often seem to display that characteristic within their network.  And what strikes me is how tragic that is because most of our churches in Yorkshire are not full of indigenous Yorkshire people, and are certainly not led by them.  If we are going to absorb anything of the culture around us why can we not adopt the generosity of spirit, the sheer determination, or friendliness of Yorkshire folk.

I guess my frustration with the day is in many ways my frustration with ministry in Yorkshire and it was well illustrated in the break out session, when we broke into regions the South Yorkshire region had representatives from only 4 churches, no doubt there were others who had good reason for not attending, but in many ways Yorkshire feels fragmented.  When Neil Powell shared with us how Birmingham 20:20 works it was encouraging to see the diversity of churches involved and partnering together in the gospel, my prayer and the challenge I have come away from the day with is that we need to build those connections and quickly.

Are smaller churches paying the price for giving away?

This summer I had a bumper crop of emails from student/youth/assistant pastors asking me that if we were sending any students to university in their town/city we would direct them towards their church.  I always have mixed feelings when I receive such emails.  Whilst in one sense its great to know that there are churches to direct students towards I almost want to vet those churches.  To email back and ask if they will be sending those students back to us (or any other church) three years hence better equipped and trained, more in love with Jesus and more aware of the need and more determined to see God's kingdom grow in the United Kingdom.  Or whether their students usually stay on with them after graduation, thus growing their church at the cost of churches in non-university towns.

I've mused on some of the questions I would ask:

1. What percentage of students do you encourage to engage in the work of mission on campus through the CU because you recognise the unique strategic opportunity it presents?  How do you encourage that?

2. How do you help students gain a vision of God's kingdom that encompasses more than just your church or city or town, but a passion for the gospel to be known across the UK?

3. How do you equip and train and release those students who come to you to serve the kingdom across the world?

4. What percentage of your students stay with you on graduation and why do they stay?

5.  What percentage of your graduates leave to go to gospel deprived areas of the town or city or to serve in gospel work in other UK towns or cities?

There are others but they are the principle five.  Because here's my concern the cost to small evangelical churches of sending their young people to university is staggeringly high because most do not return.  It means that nationally churches outside of university towns are ageing, lose the next generation of leaders, and will eventually die out.  Though those small churches are often the ones who readily give away at cost to themselves.

If you map where most church planting is taking place it is in university towns and cities.  Why?  Is it because those are the churches with young mobile people, the freshly minted young graduate professionals?  I'm not against church planting, I'm all for it.  But there seems to be little thought about planting outside of our cities.  That's partly why I think Gospel Yorkshire is an exciting initiative as it highlights places across the 4 counties of Yorkshire that have a need for new gospel witness and many of them are in non-university areas.

I fear the trajectory we are on in the UK.  Church in the university cities growing whilst the smaller churches pay the price for giving away.  With many in those university cities either ignorant of the gospel need elsewhere or unaware of the gospel work being done there (I've heard of people who were told by those in big university churches upon getting jobs in Doncaster that there were no bible teaching churches there).

I'm almost tempted to add one last question to those above.  'Imagine, that over the next 5 years every one of your young people left to move to another city and did not return and were not replaced by other young people, how would that impact your church?  How would it effect it's budget, it's children's work, it's bible study, it's pastoral care, it's ability to reach out with the gospel, it's leadership?'