Alive@ 6 Pilot Service – 15 June 2008

Evangelism – where do we start?

Has any one here visited Richard Dawkins’ website? If not I suggest you do. It is pretty scary insight into a world as seen by evangelical atheists. Richard Dawkins’ aim is to eliminate religion from society. He uses every ploy he can think of including ridicule (he equates belief in God with belief in fairies at the end of the garden); scientific argument and, most worryingly, fear. What is so unpleasant about the approach is that it bundles all religion into one basket. One page is titled ‘Religion as child abuse’ – the implication clearly being that religion is the source of abuse and, more than that, is in denial about it. Criticisms of people of all faiths is bundled alongside attacks on radical Muslim inspired terrorism.

I use the word ‘evangelical atheism’ with good reason. ‘It is time to let our voices be heard regarding the intrusion of religion in our schools and politics’ he says on the site. And he has started a campaign called the Out campaign with its logo of a large red A, for Atheism. The aim is to encourage atheists to mimic religious people in proclaiming, in their case, unbelief.

For a person of faith the site is unpleasant and filled with the same complete self-belief as the very worst of religious fervour and extremism.

The evils of religion portrayed by Richard Dawkins bear no relation to the gospel we proclaim and the loving God we have gathered to worship. So, we might ask, why should we be concerned. I think we should be concerned for two reasons.

The first is that Dawkins and many others who are very successfully attacking religion are misrepresenting our church and its mission. Lets look again at our reading and see just what characteristics those who follow Jesus Christ are expected to hold – verse 8 ‘have unity of spirit, love for one another, a tender heart and a humble mind’. Just what is frightening for society in people committed to these goals? As Ricky Gervais said ‘How can the meek inherit the earth? They’ll say ‘Oh no I think you should have it first’.

In a world of vicious attacks, both verbal and physical, followers of Jesus are expected to live by the maxim that we will not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse. We will as Jesus says in Matthew 5.39, turn the other cheek. Evil is something a Christian should never contemplate – 1 Peter 3.8 – the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. The Christian gospel truly proclaimed is the exact opposite of a threat to society. As the recent report commissioned by the Church of England has suggested, we genuinely believe that society is diminished when the contribution of the church is ignored or rejected.

And the second reason why we should be concerned about those who oppose religion and the church is not because their argument is stronger than ours. It is simply that our voice will not be heard. The pace of change in society today is relentless. Yet the Church of England is notoriously bad at coping with change. Both as an institution and at local level we are renowned for being immovable and old fashioned. The consequence of this is that there is a real risk that before we realise it churches will be empty because we have simply lost touch with people.

What are the overriding memories of your primary school years? I have some. Being terrified of certain teachers. Having to bend over and be beaten for some minor misdemeanour. One particularly nasty teacher used to give what he called ‘leg-warmings’ – very hard open hand slaps on the thigh that were extremely painful. I remember learning by rote – chalk and talk – and being told we were useless when we got things wrong. I recently asked Michael Elson, a schools inspector, whether he thought schools had improved over the last ten years. He said one of the most significant things nowadays was the enthusiasm children had for learning. Children enjoyed school. Go up to St Andrew’s School today and you will see scores of really happy children learning. Class rooms have interactive white boards and children are encouraged and affirmed regardless of ability. Since I went to school the change in approach is extraordinary.

Our churches may not quite be stuck in the 50s when I went to school, but the pace of change in some areas of church compared to other parts of society is slow. Christianity and church going are regarded by many as simply irrelevant to their busy lives. So the challenge we face is to find new ways to present the gospel, to bring people to real faith and into the family of the church. The Church of England has been working on this for some time, using the phrase Fresh Expressions. Alive@ 6 will be St Andrew’s Fresh Expression.

Many schools have succeeded in getting children excited about learning and going to school. Older children are increasingly being helped to understand that learning and qualifications will help them in adult life. Churches have a rather different context. The intention is we come to church and then stay, with God, part of the body of Christ, for the rest of our lives. But there are parallels. When people come to church today it should be a place where they can be inspired and enthused to learn more about Jesus Christ. To realise that it is the beginning and sustaining of a relationship with him. And with that realisation should come an understanding that their faith will increasingly help them lead purposeful and fulfilled lives.

Most of our congregation tonight will already be members of St Andrew’s. Our vision is that when Alive@ 6 starts the congregation will increasingly be a mix of present and new – that we will be constantly adding to our number. But it is the nucleus of existing members that have to create a place, a church, which excites and inspires, which brings people to that amazing realisation that life with Jesus Christ is very different to life without him.

And this brings us to our response to tonight’s reading. Verse 1 Peter 3. 15 – ‘always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you. But do this with gentleness and reverence.’ Many, many people coming to St Andrew’s for the first time will be asking themselves the question – why come to church; what is it about the Christian faith that is relevant to me; why should I become a Christian? Everything we all do at St Andrew’s should in one way or another should both initiate those questions and provide some answers.

Where do I start we might ask? The answer is given at the very beginning of the verse – in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Sanctify could be translated as set apart. It is crucial that as Christians we try to live our lives reflecting Jesus Christ. “Form us in the likeness of Christ”, we say in one of our communion prayers. We need to live our lives reflecting our faith. Our values and the way we reach out to people should mirror Jesus as best as we able. We read of some of the characteristics in the earlier verses, unity of spirit, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

It is not necessarily what we say about Jesus that will prompt people to consider whether church and faith might be relevant to them. It might just as likely be the way we relate to them and the priorities they see in our lives. But to reflect Jesus we need to always be looking to increase our knowledge and understanding of his purposes for us. And that means knowing him better and better.

There is an extraordinary verse in Paul’s letter to the Philippians – 3.10. He says ‘I want to know Christ’. Well OK I can understand that. When you are converted as he was it is natural that he would want to know Christ. But then consider the context. This verse was written over 20 years after his conversion – he had established churches all over Asia minor and was being persecuted for his faith. And yet he writes ‘I want to know Christ’. This wanting to know Christ – to know Jesus more and more should be the fire that burns in our hearts. Paul ultimately does not mind losing anything in his quest to know Christ. His former status, his possessions, his freedom – I regard them as rubbish – he says in verse 8.

Evangelism – where do we begin? is the question I have posed. I suggest the answer is in wanting to know Jesus Christ. To have a real passion for growing in our likeness to him. Through worship, through study, through fellowship, through service and through prayer. Most people here will have begun, some may be about to. But the more all of us know just what Jesus wants us to do with our lives, the more people will begin to ask ‘what is this hope that is within you?’.

Alive@ 6 is I hope a place where we can begin together to answer that question. You may wonder why some of us are making such a big noise about Alive@ 6. And I can understand this. At the moment we have one evening service per month and from September we will have two. The old one was led by the music group and mainly lay people – was informal and we had coffee afterwards. So what, you may ask, is so different about Alive@ 6?

The answer is in the challenges we talked about the church facing earlier. The issues of relevance to our lives and being contemporary with modern society. Alive@ 6 is based around an act of worship. But it is much more than that. Our current Evening Worship is attended by people as an addition to their usual Sunday churchgoing. We go to it as well as the usual morning services. Alive@ 6 for many people may well be their only contact with St Andrew’s – our vision is for a new congregation – almost a new church within our church. So alongside worship we will encourage friendship, a sense of become brothers and sisters united by our common faith. Our pastoral assistants will be here. We may well grow to have baptisms of adults who come to faith. We hope to run nurture courses that will provide teaching about Christianity – Alpha or something similar. And as a congregation we will as our church members do now – go out into the community to serve – to be lights for Christ in the world.

In London Holy Trinity, Brompton has over the last few years been invited in to churches with a vision of renewing them. Obviously their scale is rather larger than ours. But as an example 180 people from HTB committed to worship at St Paul’s Hammersmith, which was a run down church with a dwindling congregation. Today it is a thriving church with a huge ministry team and large membership.

St Andrew’s is not dwindling – the opposite in fact. But that does not mean we should simply stay as we are. We should be looking for renewal and more growth. Our vision for Alive@ 6 is that it will begin with a nucleus of people from our church, some of whom may continue to go to other services, but others who may not. And then we want to push the message out into Cobham and to people who occasionally attend church that there is an alternative to our main morning services. I hope Alive@ 6 will be an engaging and accessible way to meet Jesus Christ, to meet those who have already begun journeys of faith and then together go forward constantly seeking that hope Paul held throughout his life – to know Jesus Christ.

One of the key differences to this service is akin to the revolution that has taken place in schools. For my entire school life I sat rooted to a desk, mostly being told to be quiet, whilst the teacher talked and wrote on the blackboard. Children today work together in groups – pose questions as well as answer them and engage with the curriculum in all sorts of different ways. Alive@ 6 is intended to be ‘interactive’ worship where we explore, praise, pray and sing together – worship with rather than worship at.

We already have commitment to Alive@ 6 from a whole raft of people we are calling the leadership team. Our vision for growth at St Andrew’s will come true if we share in the dream of building this new congregation. We read in Acts of Peter and those first apostles proclaiming the gospel – to which the hearers response was ‘brothers, what should we do?’ Those very first churchgoers began asking the question – what is this hope you have within you? So successful was the answer they heard that – Acts 2.27 – ‘day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved’.

That is our dream – that day by day God will add to our number. It is my hope and prayer that by working together we will begin to see that dream become a reality.