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The Heart Is Key
- There is a silent emergency going on in the nation at the moment.
- According to the Matthias Trust, over the last 20 years there has been a 90% decline in the number of 15-20 year olds in the church.
- 59% of churches do not have a single person aged between 15 and 20 in the church.
- It is not enough just to have the value of mission if we don’t actually practice it in our churches.
- If we are an apostolic movement, a large part of what this means is fathering. Fathering is about caring for the next generation and putting their needs above our own.
- Tom Shaw has had apostolic leaders ask him about many aspects of his life and ministry, but nobody has ever asked him how often he is leading people to Christ.
- As leaders, we need to be deeply motivated for seeing this generation reached.
Get the Atmosphere Right
- We need to make sure that the atmosphere in our churches is as welcoming and as Biblically healthy as possible, so that the only stumbling block for people is the gospel.
- Five common struggles for people in the Mobilise generation are trust, tolerance, truth, brokenness and aloneness.
Trust
- In the sixties, there was a cultural movement to make pleasure king.
- Our generation is living in the consequences of this shift – high divorce rates, family breakdown and the casting off of moral restraint.
- As a result, many people feel that they can’t trust anyone, including the church (a feeling that is heavily reinforced by the media).
- We need to think carefully about how we can build churches where we enable people to start trusting Christians again.
- We need a culture where there is room for people to express doubts about God and be honest with their struggles.
- There are Biblical precedents for this, such as John the Baptist, King David and Nicodemus.
- Christians who have never expressed doubts can often lack empathy evangelistically.
- We can be very vulnerable with people about the hard times in our lives, and this can help to build trust.
Tolerance
- For many people in their twenties, what has led to most wars and conflicts is a lack of tolerance.
- When people perceive a lack of tolerance in us, it can shut them down emotionally because it touches a particular nerve.
- Jesus was profoundly tolerant.
- Because of our passion for the Bible and for holiness, we can often be clumsy and give off vibes of intolerance.
- Acceptance is not the same thing as agreement.
- If you were to find a Rembrandt in a bush that was covered in mud, your focus wouldn’t be on the mud but on the Rembrandt.
- We need to be a people who model a culture where we focus on who a person can be in Christ, rather than the ‘mud’ that there is at the moment.
Invitations
- Getting the culture right is important. Once this has been done, it is time to invite people in.
- God is an inviting God. He is highly proactive in inviting people in.
- God is not screaming at us to evangelise like a drill sergeant. He gives easy and practical things to do (see Luke 10).
- We need to bring the peace of Jesus all around us.
“Peace begins with a smile.” (Mother Theresa)
- Take ownership of the situations of your life. Make eye contact with people and invite them to receive a smile. This can lead to trust and relational connection.
- Invite people to look at God’s story. Many people will look at the Bible before they are willing to come to church on a Sunday.
“I would rather speak five words of His Word than five million words of my own.” (C.H. Spurgeon)
Q&A
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What effects did you see on your church when you took them through the two-step process?
- There was a lot of pastoral honesty. People revealed that the were struggling with depression, anxiety, etc.
- Leaders tried to model it and became more vulnerable.
- There was a constant flow of unbelievers every Sunday seeing the leaders being open and vulnerable.
- When a pressure/guilt driven model was switched for joy and fun, more people had a sense of being equipped.
- There was a growing hunger for being on mission. People started celebrating smaller wins.
- People were having more meals with unbelievers.
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What advice do you have when people are willing but don’t feel that they have the capacity?
- Jesus was sent by the Father, so he was fathered into the mission.
- So it is the Father who will send us (see Luke 10:2).
- As we engage with people around us, we should be asking the Father what he wants us to say/do.
- We tend to think in terms of ‘relational evangelism’, but Jesus was actually least evangelistically effective in Nazareth where he had the greatest depth of relationship with people.
- It isn’t about adding in more things, but viewing the things that we already do differently.
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What is the most effective way of connecting young people into the church?
- Relationships are important, and so are spontaneous connections.
- Be around people and listen to the Father.
- Be available for people, and have an earnest heart to seek out people who don’t know Jesus.
- Most young people have never experienced churches like ours, and aren’t aware they exist. Connections with young people who are part of the church can be massive.
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Do you have big Sundays that particularly invite people into, or do you invite people every Sunday?
- A bit of both, but more towards inviting people all the time.
- If there are Sundays when a lot of new people are expected, Tom Shaw doesn’t preach but invites somebody with a more evangelistic style to do so.
- Tom Shaw hasn’t found series designed to be attractive to unbelievers have made any difference in the numbers of unbelievers coming along.
- Don’t focus on church growth, focus on church health. Both Rick Warren and John Stott define a healthy church in terms of worship, fellowship, serving, discipleship and evangelism.