Last week I had a few days holiday with a few mates in France… we had a day in Rouen, a day in Caen (and Aromanches – near the D-Day beaches), a day in Lille, and an afternoon on a beach in Belgium (De Panne). We had intended to spend all our time in Rouen… but we discovered that it was a dump and our motel was in the part of town where you buy your drugs, and stay in when it gets dark… so we went on a road trip instead!

My good friend Bret, who goes by the alias “Xander Coomber” came with me… he took some photos and shares some similar thoughts…

While I made a few jokes about blowing out the candles, jumping over the barriers into the ‘holy of holies’ and genuflecting when we arrived, it’s actually quite sad… France is, it would seem spiritually dead!

Here are the stats from Joshua Project…  only 0.5% of French people are Evangelical Christians, 33% of the population are considered to be in an unreached people group. Compare this to somewhere like Malawi… my church has run several mission trips to Malawi (doing very good work in training leaders)… however the country is majority Christian and only 13% of the population would be considered to be ‘unreached’.

Now obviously where there is any unreached people, it’s worth investing there… but a lot of mission work goes in to East Africa, which is pretty Christianised, with established Evangelical churches… and it is a popular place for missionaries to go. BUT… why don’t we send more missionaries to places like France? There’s 33 unreached people groups in France, which make up a third of the total population, many are either trapped in the religion and ritual of Catholicism or have embraced the secular worldview of modern France… this country needs missionaries to go there, there is a greater need for gospel workers here than in East Africa!

…and here’s some good news – my church is going to be supporting a gospel worker in France for the next 2 years. I’m hoping she’s gonna blog while she’s there…

Last night I had the privilege to preach my first ‘proper’ sermon… when I say ‘proper’ I mean at a main church service – the 8am communions with a congregation of 10 is a little bit different. I got to speak on 1 Corinthians 9, but choose to just look at verses 19-27. I put a shirt on for the occasion, but kept my un-ironed jeans and dirty trainers on… it’s all about becoming all things to all men… to the people who wear scruffy jeans I became like one who wears scruffy jeans!

I titled the sermon ‘Freed to Serve’… but have since changed it to ‘Serve/Win, Run/Win’… because I can.

You can listen to the audio here…

…and my preaching notes – maybe Josh Harris could add it to his preachers notes series… maybe not

Two points:

1. Serve to Win
2. Run to Win

Q: How do we live as Christians in Brighton & Hove?

A: We run, and we do everything we can to win others on the way!

Idealistic

I’ve been at the best University in the country to understand this group – Sussex is renowned for it’s socialism, activism, and most other isms. The SU gives I think around £10k to fund campaigning – they ban Coca Cola, ban the Daily Mail, charge you for a plastic carrier bag and will support all the latest campaigns. It’s a pro-choice campus, feminist, and the minority groups always have the loudest voice! In reality most of the ‘hippies’, the campaigners, are middle-class, from Surrey and like to campaign because it’s a bit of excitement and rebellion!

This group is strange, their interests and group characteristics make it the easiest group to relate the gospel to and to hold a serious conversation with, although many students in this group that I have spoken to are hung up on the problem of evil and suffering, and the negative role of the church in history and in the present. Maybe around 50% (a guess) of this group have had some kind of pseudo-christian upbringing, some experience of church and/or religion usually from their school or parents. Many seem to have been presented with a little bit of the gospel in the past, this bit usually comes with bad religious connotations, or unhelpful figures of authority, and it kindof inoculates them against the true gospel – they think they get the gospel because they heard a little bit, so they don’t want to hear any more.

These people are radical or at least they think they are, but they need to be challenged by someone more radical. Can we show them that Jesus is more radical? And can we as Christians, those who testify about Jesus, can we show that we are more radical?

How we live:

• Be a Biblical activist – speak up for those with no voice (Proverbs 31:8)
• Practise true religion – look after widows and orphans (James 1:27)
• Take part in student campaigning – don’t dismiss these guys as hippies but join them in causes worth fighting for – focus on the people as opposed to the cause, politics etc.
• Be radical in supporting the unpopular causes – Pro-Life, Persecuted Church and the many causes of people around the world who aren’t noticed in big campaigns
• Be as passionate and vocal in promoting the gospel as these guys are about promoting their causes. Talk more about Jesus than you do about [insert cause here].
• Make clear the reasons why we campaign – we want justice because our God is just, we show compassion to people because they are created in the image of God and loved by Him.
• Don’t make a distinction between the ‘social gospel’ and the Gospel – it’s not one or the other, the Gospel should give us a heart for the lost, compassion for the poor, and a burden for justice.

How we speak:

• These guys often have issues with religion and institutions – Jesus saves his harshest words for the religious establishment. Not only do we need to call these guys to come to Jesus and repent, but they need to know that likewise we call the religious, the hypocrites, those who have faith but no deeds, we call them to come to Jesus and repent in just the same way… Think about the Parable of the Good Samaritan, it’s often just seen as an example of compassion, but it’s also a rebuke to the religious who do nothing!
• Acknowledge the weakness and failure of the church and Christians both now and in history – a good way to explain Sin. Speak of Jesus’ perfection (point people away from us and instead to Jesus), Grace that is a gift and undeserved, and Sin that is forgiven, not dealt with ourselves.
• Campaigners are troubled by a lack of justice. If they are an atheist then it’s even more troubling, those who commit injustice are rarely held to account. it’s worth pointing out that belief in God and in the One he has appointed to judge will result in justice (Acts 17:31).
• Activists don’t get grace because they think it contradicts justice, and they don’t get God’s justice because it involves a violent death. Can we show them that the way they see and hate the injustice of the world is a parallel to how God sees our lives and hates what we do when in rebellion against Him. So then, doesn’t a substitute, someone else enduring a violent death look glorious when he’s standing there instead of us – what an example compassion and grace!
• These guys need to know that God cares! That God hates injustice more than them, and they need to be shown that God is not passive or unable to act – can we show them God working positively through his church now and can we show that God ultimately defeated evil and the sin of man at the Cross.
• Those who campaign for charities understand the problem of earthly poverty – can we show them that Spiritually poverty is worse? Both now in terms of Knowing God, and eternally in terms of Heaven and Hell…
• Can we as Christians show that we have more compassion for those who suffer, give more to the poor, look out for those who need help regardless of who they are, be indiscriminate about speaking up for those with no voice, campaign with more passion, make greater sacrifices… and can we do all this not to make ourselves look altruistic, but to make Jesus look great!

Success Driven Students

Some success driven students are particularly hard to reach as they often fail to engage in the culture of University themselves. Some can be so focused on academia that they give little time to think about much else. It is important then to make the most of the time that is spent in the study environment – how can we live and act in a way which commends the gospel to these students? I should point out that most of these things are things which I should have done, I didn’t do most of them!!

How we live for Jesus:

• Work hard – we’re made for work (Gen 2:15), work as though working for God (Col 3:23)
• Be part of your course – go to lectures, sit next to people (and talk), go to the socials
• Make the most of collaborative working tasks – a great chance to meet and chat with coursemates, keep up those conversations.
• Be indiscriminate about who you speak with, sit next to, hang out with on course – be the friend to the loner, the exchange student, the hippy
• Be the Christian – not in a clichéd way, but let people know why you work hard, maybe if people have questions/issues they will come to you knowing that you are ‘the Christian’
• Find other Christians on the course, not to be a holy huddle, but to pray for your coursemates and to encourage one another
• If God has given you gifts and calling, then work towards further study or well-paid careers – it’s not a bad thing to be successful in the eyes of the world if that is where God has called you.
• Be humble in your successes. Acknowledge where success, knowledge and all good gifts come from.

Why do students work hard, why do they want to be successful? I guess there’s lots of reasons; perhaps for money, maybe in order to pursue a specific career, a sense of personal pride, or what about the pressure of parents? Ultimately the answer to these questions is that we are all looking for ‘treasures’ (Piper) and ‘saviours’ (Driscoll).

How we speak about Jesus:

• There’s no point in talking about rich, successful people who aren’t happy, most people I know with money are fairly content… rather, we need to show that Jesus is infinitely more valuable than the treasures of this world – he is Saviour, Creator, King, Joy-giver
• Why not challenge the pride of the person who seeks success and the praise of men with the humility and sacrificial love of Christ?
• The prosperity gospel would present Jesus as King (throne, wealth, victorious), while that is true it’s not helpful for this audience. Can we not challenge these students with the Jesus who was humble, poor, and gave himself for others – the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength (1 Corinthians 1:25)
• Grace, Grace, Grace. Grace challenges the religious mindset of the success driven student – their attitude is surely I must do something, achieve something, be successful in order to merit salvation.
• God has set eternity in the hearts of men, but most ignore it, we need to show people that we’re dealing in eternity and earthly success has little value in the light of eternity – Mark 8:36, What good is it to gain the world, but forfeit your soul?? – I dare you to ask that question!
• For those who have pressures from parents, we can present our Father who does not demand perfection, but gives it freely

…just some thoughts – what would you add? How would you explain the gospel to the student who thinks in this way…? Next two groups coming soon!

First off, I think we have to acknowledge that it’s very hard to define a culture, because actually we’re talking about individuals – but I’m sure there must be some general traits that can help us. I want to think, based on my experiences of UK University life, the kind of cultures that are present there and how we can show those cultures that the gospel is relevant. I’ve been part of a mission team working at Sussex University for the last 3 years, perhaps my Uni was unique, but I think it will be similar in most places.

I reckon there’s 3 general types of people you’ll meet at University:

1. Success Driven – they want to get a first, looking for a career/well paid job
2. Idealistic – they want to change the world, there’s always a new cause to follow
3. Hedonist – they want to make the most of 3 years of freedom, live life with limits or rules

These categories are very broad, but I think most students to one degree or another will fall into one or several of these categories – nearly everyone will fit into category 3! So the question then is, how can we relate the gospel to these groups, these cultures? There’s two areas I want to think about doing this; how can we live in a way which models the gospel, and how can we speak about Jesus in a way which helps that culture to understand him clearly?

Bish is having a DISCO, and enjoying making up fun acronyms. There’s lots of reasons why we don’t do evangelism, here are Bish’s 5…

Delusion - convincing ourselves it’s unnecessary

Inability - don’t know what to say, or how to say it

Sin - plain disobedience

Courage - we need boldness

Opportunities - stuck in a Christian bubble

“The basic problem in these is my heart. My heart needs the gospel. And by the gospel and for the sake of the gospel change is possible.”

…I was trying to think of some more, but that covers most of it… for me the last 3 are definitely the big ones… simply disobeying God’s command, fear of ruining friendships, and a lack of genuine friendships with non-Christians.

Part of the problem is we so often talk about evangelism as something we do, something we must do… that always ends up in a feeling of failure and inadequacy, and ultimately a sinful attitude which doesn’t want to do it! Like Bish says, we need our hearts to be overwhelmed with joy at knowing the gospel – we talk about what we love.

I heard evangelism described in a seminar at camp very simply as “People who know Jesus, talking about him to people who don’t know him”. It’s so easy to talk about things we love, yet it’s so often so hard to talk about the One who has loved us with an everlasting love.