I don't know about you but I struggle investing in people only to see them leave, part of me - heavily influenced by the sinful world around me says 'only invest in those who won't leave, only pour your time, energy and discipling into those who you will see develop and benefit you and your church'. That's in part why Romans 1 has been such a challenge personally Paul is so kingdom conscious, so gospel hearted and so mission minded. I think I and we in the UK have much to learn from this.
Just think about the non-university town church, who has always invested heavily in its young people, teaching them the bible from an early age and throughout their teenage years, discipling them and training them in how to handle the bible and living out the gospel in front of them. In non-university town churches a high percentage of those young people will go to university, serve in CU's settle in a church and often stay in that church after they graduate, serving along with other young twenties. It takes a kingdom consciousness to keep on training up young people, investing in them to see them leave and then serve in often much bigger churches. We have to keep telling ourselves to be gospel hearted, mission minded and kingdom focused.
One church I was part of has seen 3 of its youth group or young twenties go into the ministry having been discipled in it, they have been very generous in giving away and supporting those they have invested in, especially as they are now without a pastor. Such continual giving away can be energy sapping, the temptation is to focus on those who will be around long term, indeed some ministry manuals would tell you to do just that. But Romans reminds us and refreshes us in truth that to love Jesus is to love people and to be gospel hearted, mission minded and Kingdom conscious.
But what about the university town church? Increasingly parts of the United Kingdom are less churched than overseas mission hot spots. These areas are non-university towns with faithful churches but often faithful churches with few young people in their twenties. In the UK I fear that there is a very real danger that in 20-25 years time Christianity will have shrunk to the university towns with many areas unreached and unreachable with the gospel from those towns and cities. This situation is exacerbated by young people rightly wanting company of like minded people and therefore staying in university town churches with twenties groups etc... But what if those churches encouraged small groups of twenty somethings to move together to a different town, maybe encouraging those who are from a non-university town church close by to find a like minded group of people and support that local church.
It has been thrilling to see just some of that sort of gospel hearted, kingdom conscious thinking beginning to happen, but it is still a rarity. We as churches in the UK and in gospel partnerships need to think big picture as Paul did - encouraging the Romans to partner with him in reaching Spain with the gospel. We need to encourage larger congregations to partner with smaller congregations in reaching their area with the gospel, we need smaller congregations to keep investing in those who will leave, we need groups of believers willing to move to the town or area they work in rather than commute 35 minutes. Dare I say it we don't always need to new churches in an area where there are bible teaching churches already but we need people to involve themselves in those bible teaching churches with gospel hearts who will labour conscious of the kingdom of God.
Father God save me from being 'my kingdom' focused and liberate me through the gospel to serve your kingdom with your heart not my agenda.
No comments:
Post a Comment