we be church

[Sore Thumbs] Engage the Culture Edition

Build it and they will come attitude to church doesn’t work, it requires a bit more effort. Don’t get me wrong, Sunday meets are essential for fellowship and provide a rudder to a church group but in this age people rarely pitch up at random. Instead you have to go to where the people are. Go fishing! Really the clubs, schools, universities, shopping centres have done all the hard work at gathering people so why not make use of it?? Here are a few examples of radical Christians taking Jesus to the people.

Prayer Caravan on University Campus!

They used to have a tent on the University of Surrey campus but it was rather old so the 24/7 Prayer Team there decided they needed something new. They landed on the crazy idea of having a mobile caravan and launched it at freshers week. “Over the course of five days well over 200 students must have spent time in the ‘prayer caravan’ as it had now been named. It could well have been two or three times that figure, we just don’t know. During the nights particularly, the caravan was packed – people kept coming in and asking questions, asking to be prayed for and doing artwork and prayer requests on the walls. The people we met and stories we’ve heard are too numerous to tell” Read some of the stories

Church in Trendy Bar

The Chapel. Sunday evening – 7:30pm at Baa Bar. Free drinks for visitors, Worship and Teaching. Recently I’ve been following Tim Simmond’s adventure in Manchester of starting a meeting in a trendy bar. It’s a project of Newfrontiers Church, Christ Church Manchester. “Our aim is to love God, love the city of Manchester and love each other. With this in mind, we run a meeting on Sunday evening (The Chapel) in Fallowfield because we want to see many people in this city discover Jesus and join a church.” Go to the Chapel or Read Tim’s Blog

Bridal Boutique on High Street

Closer to home, our own Church in Northumberland meeting in Bedlington is setting up a shop on our High Street. We are not 100% sure at this stage how it’s going to be used to reach people but God told us to go for it. After a prophetic word about dressing in fine act – righteous linen as bride of Christ Rev 19:8 we thought that renting the shop space formally called “JCs Bridal Boutique” was an obvious sign from God that we should be renting the shop. I’ll keep you updated!

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Sore Thumbs is a irregular post mainly of short encouraging links that stick out. If you have come across a link or resource that you think would fit on this blog then why not email it to dlee at webchurch.com

Amish Paradise Lost or Paradise being Found?

Today I wandered over to the BBC iPlayer and landed on an insightful documentary on the Amish Community near Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in the US titled “Trouble in Amish Paradise” the blurb reads as followed;

When two radical Amish men, Ephraim and Jesse Stoltzfus, start to question some of the most fundamental aspects of their Amish culture, they face excommunication from their church and total rejection by their friends and family.

Setting the scene Ephraim’s and Jesse’s families hold their own prayer meetings, express their faith with those who are not Amish and a study the Bible in a language that they can actually read, not the antiquated German which is meant to be used. The local Amish church which they are apart of is threatening excommunication for these activities as it is against the rules. Eventually both men are excommunicated.

Really what the BBC have published, perhaps rather unwittingly, is a story of church persecution in the Amish community. At one point Ephraim’s daughter gets diagnosed with leukemia right after they had sold their house and given all their savings to those in need. They are people who live the gospel and hold shining faith that is dependent on Jesus. They want to hold on to the Amish way of living off the land but recognize that it has been corrupted by petty rules grown out of a legalistic religion.

The documentary ends with Ephraim struggling to find and relate to a new church that fits them culturally but I have to say from what I saw of him he had more charisma than many charismatics I have met. We might just be looking at the start of a true renewing of many Amish minds in terms of what is of God’s word. Revival in the Amish culture would be a wonderful thing to hear about, so I’m going to pray for it.

You can watch this on BBC iPlayer (only published for a short period). Also if you did not know, I used to attend a Mennonite church in Canada when I was a kid, apparently it was part of my parents training as missionary for Malawi. They were brilliant at BBQs and made mean corn on the cob.