Continuing from the previous post on LCM's new strategic plan, I'd like to offer two critiques.
First, one of the reasons why I've followed Jesus to London is because of John Piper's book Let the Nations Be Glad!. Piper says that missions exists because worship does not - that is, the church's primary commitment is to the enjoyment of God (worship) and we go to people outside the church because we desire for God to be enjoyed by them as well. Now, this applies to LCM's strategy in this way: there is no mention of LCM being a worshipping community. LCM is seen as supporting the local church "in its task of evangelism" (quoting from the Core Values of LCM). The vision and values of the mission do not reflect the dynamic of evangelism flowing from worship. This does not mean that LCM doesn't value worship (most of its centres run worship services on a weekly basis). But my understanding is that even these services are meant to serve the overall goal of evangelistic outreach. LCM also would probably counter that it is not the job of LCM to be a worshipping community - it is the job of the local church. In practice, this sets up two separate communities - the community that centers on the LCM missionary(s) or the LCM centre, and the community of the local church (I'm speaking based on my experiences of the functioning of an LCM centre...I don't know what ministry is like for the work-place missionaries). There is no sense that evangelism involves inviting people to experience the life of a worshipping community.
Julian and I have talked about this to a certain extent as it relates to our decision about where to worship on Sundays. Partly we'd like to be part of the same church that Julian and Laura are part of, simply for the sake of people we're in relationship with at the centre. This would allow the work we do at the centre to flow more directly from the worshipping community at Oxlow Lane Baptist (Julian & Laura's church).
The second concern I have about the strategic plan is related to the first. The plan lays out a model for the relationship between the mission and the local church. It calls this the "City Mission Approach to Urban Evangelism". This approach lays out four concentric circles representing four steps in the development of evangelistic relationships. From outside in they are: 1. Making contact; 2. Building friendships; 3. Relevant sharing of Gospel; 4. Joining a Church
This is a pretty standard evangelical view of evangelism. It relies on at least two assumptions that I would like to question. The first is the assumption that people should only be incorporated into a church after they have been "converted". I'm certainly not the first to question this assumption. Bob, another Londoner with World Harvest, says that people need to become belongers before they become believers - people experiencing a sense of belonging to and sharing in the life of the community of Jesus' followers before they make a decision to trust Jesus themselves. Evangelism taking place in the context of relationship within the life of the church, not as a pre-requisite for experiencing that life. I like the belong before believe model because it helps to remind us that becoming Christian is not so much a one-time decision as it is a life-long process. deciding to trust Jesus is part of that process, but it neither begins the process nor completes it. There may be some who are incorporated into the life of the church who in the end decide not to trust themselves to Jesus' care, but that's o.k. (see Hebrews chapter 6 and the discussion of those who taste the good things of the Kingdom). Much of my current thinking on this idea of becoming Christian is shaped by Reimagining Spiritual Formation
The other assumption behind the four-step approach to evangelism laid out by LCM that I want to question is the assumption that the gospel is primarily information to be communicated. Now, I realize that the overall methodology of LCM indicates that they are very much committed to ministry to the whole person, and the statement "relevant sharing of gospel" doesn't necessarily mean the gospel is primarily information. In practice, however, "sharing the gospel" means communicating a series of facts that must be believed. That's why at every kid's club we do, there's a message about what people need to believe about Jesus or God or the Bible. In fairness, this is probably not so much a strategic decision by LCM as it is a result of the climate of the evangelical church in the UK from which LCM's missionaries come.
O.k. those are my critiques. Maybe in part 3 I'll imagine with you how some of my concerns would affect the practice of LCM. i.e. "What would I do differently?"
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