STRATEGY PLANNING FOR REACHING THE UK (1)

REKINDLING THE FIRE OF CONTEXTUALISED EVANGELISM

Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8; Num.13:16-30

By contextualised evangelism, I mean evangelism that takes into consideration the conditions, situations and culture of he united Kingdom and Europe. We have a standing mandate from our Lord Jesus Christ – to preach the Gospel to every creature. But we must have a strategy for fulfilling that. The sheer size of the mandate demands a workable strategy (Mat.10:23). In order to explore how we can reach the UK with the Gospel, a little bit of history will be necessary for our purposes. Europe has had a very colourful history filled with wars, conquests, inventions, revolutions, and revivals. During the middle or medieval ages the Church was at its strongest in Europe. Cathedrals were erected. Then came the modern age when religious and other structures began to fall apart and science gained the ascendancy. Today we are in a different age, the age of postmodernism.

1.   The Modern Age

To understand Postmodernism, we briefly note the effect of modernism in Europe. Modernism had a sweeping effect on the life and thought of Western Europeans. It ushered in
(i) Bureaucracy – impersonal social hierarchies that practice division of labour,
(ii) Disenchantment with the world, leading to loss of sacred and metaphysical understanding of all facets of life and culture;
(iii) secularization – the loss of religious influence and religious belief at societal level; (iv) alienation – isolation of the individual from systems of meaning (family, religion, meaningful work, clan); (v) individualism – growing emphasis on the individual as opposed to structures such as family, village, Church.

(vi) Disenchantment of the British society with religion (especially the Christian Religion) reached its height in the modern age. (vi) In the modern age, science answered everything. During the modern age Charles Darwin proposed his theory of evolution which has been instrumental to misguiding people and damaging religious belief (By the way Charles Darwin's father Erasmus Darwin was from Lichfield).

Since then the world has advanced to what is now called the postmodern age

 2.   Postmodern Age

We now in the postmodern era. Some of the distinctive factors can be seen in the following slides.

In the postmodern world image is everything. You see this among so-called celebrities, in the vision media. The catwalk figures of extremely thin young ladies, with hollow chicks and protruding collar bones are projected as desirable. Young people are persuaded to love such figure, leading to all sorts of health and emotional problems This is image.

Disney Land was described by someone as “Postmodernism illustrated”. It is colourful, artificial, yet “real”. (i) It is simulated reality, (ii) a place that exists and is accepted because our imagination makes it so. (iii) where the fine line between reality and fantasy is grayer. This is the power of symbol over substance!

In spite of all we know of this age, there are still opportunities to preach the Gospel and there are yet people who will lend an ear to the Gospel message.

Some believe that faith could re-emerge as scientific thinking loses its significance. But faith is up for grabs, because the postmodern mind does not believe in moral absolutes.

Evangelism in the postmodern society requires vigour, tact and the ability to convince the postmodern man that what you are presenting is the real deal.

Strategy For Conquering The Promised Land

(Num.13:16-30; Prov.6:6-8; Luke 16:8)

Moses and Joshua were strategic leaders. They used spies to gather as much information as they could about nations on their way to the Promised Land. They won enormous victories. Strategy is a tool used by governments, by the military, by businesses. Businesses will do feasibility study. The military will do reconnaissance. Government use espionage; businesses also use questionnaire to gain vital information.

Our goal is to reach the whole of the United Kingdom with the Gospel of Christ. If we must evangelize Great Britain, we need a sound strategy. If one plan fails, we change it to another, but the goal remains the same.

We take the example from Moses the man of God. With a mandate to conquer the Promised Land and divide it up for the children of Israel, he sent out twelve spies into Canaan with the detailed instructions:

(i)                See the Land

(ii)              The People who dwelt there, whether few or many – what is the population

(iii)            Find out the type of development – what type of dwelling places do they have, tents, solid houses, or mansions?

(iv)            Is it Wealthy or Poor – what areas are wealthy and what areas are poor?

(v)              Bring Some Evidence – Fruit.

After spying for forty days they came back and told what they found. Their findings were very comprehensive.

(i)                A very fruitful land evidenced by large clusters of grapes, pomegranates and figs.

(ii)              The People were strong, the Anakim, tribe of Giants dwelt there.

(iii)            Amalekites dwelt in the South

.

(iv)            The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwelt in mountains

(v)              The Canaanites dwelt by the sea.

These findings obviously helped Moses and Joshua in planning. In spite of the discouragement of many by ten of the twelve spies, in spite of the giants in the Promised Land, Israel conquered and occupied it. In the same way whatever giants may pose threat to us we will overcome and win this land for Christ.

To reach the people of this land, we may need a comprehensive mapping of the United Kingdom, which should be similar to Patrick Johnstone’s Operation World, albeit a smaller version concentrating only on the UK. We need to learn as much as we safely can about the culture, the ethics and general lifestyle of UK residents.

We note that multiculturalism is promoted in all regions of the UK. Migrants come into the country with their own cultures, foods and religion. In most cases integration is not possible. The nation has become a vast field of miniature, monolithic subcultures thriving within the larger British culture. In the evangelism field we will encounter many within these groups. How do we reach out to them?

The Mind Of The Postmodern Briton

(Psalm 137:1-4)

The children of Israel were shocked as they landed in Babylon to begin their 70 years of captivity. Babylon was a strange land, overflowing with idolatry. Their tongues cleaved to the roof of their mouths. How could they sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? In a sense the Church in the UK is like Israel in Babylon. What can we see in the UK today that can make us cry out?

i.                    Society is secularized – society is now not only postmodern but also post-Christian. I was shocked when I first heard that description.

ii.                  The church is now on the margins. 

iii.                The Christian story is unknown to majority – in the past many read the Bible and lots went to Church or Sunday School, but no more.

iv.                There is apathy or even hostility towards Christianity.

v.                  A new twist is the emergence of what is known as new atheism.

These are atheists who are determined to destroy belief in God. Foremost among them are the so-called the four horsemen of atheism – Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens (late), Daniel Darnett and Sam Harris. Most people actually believe the teaching and preaching of these famous atheists. Their books sell millions of copies. Dan Brown’s book, “The Da Vinci Code sold millions of copies. Such esoteric, non-historical stories about Jesus usually sell like hot cake.

vi.                There has been a colossal demise of biblical family structures, and replacing it with something contrary to nature. Homosexuality is the one thing ruling the media at the moment, with threats of prosecution if you protested against it.

vii.              Recently MPs voted into law the motion for Three-Parent babies. The nuclear family has now been redefined.

viii.            The Bible and its message have suddenly become incompatible with the British society.

So when you go out for evangelism these are the things you will face in greater or smaller degree.

In light of all these, the question we must answer is, Will the traditional method of evangelism still work? Are there things we would need to modify in our methods to allow us more chances of success? These will be handled in greater detail during the second part of this planning program. 

Evangelizing The Postmodern Briton

(Psalm 14:1)

In trying to reach the people of our nation, we need to bear in mind all of these facts about the British society. When you encounter a person for the first time in the field of evangelism, note these facts:

(i)                Regard them as an unbeliever, knowing little or nothing about the Bible story or its significance. Do not assume they know anything about the great history of Christianity in this land.

(ii)              They are likely to be steeped in secular thoughts, i.e. they have a secular mindset – do not necessarily believe in the supernatural, at least not in Christianity.

(iii)            They might be hostile to the Gospel

(iv)            They are most likely not open to consider the gospel you present.

(v)              Note also that many religions of the world are now represented here and they have their own world views.

(vi)            You will need to have a good grasp of apologetics.

Suppose someone said to you (and many of them will do), "I don’t believe in God", how would you convince them that their worldview is absurd (Eccl.1:1-3)? The following facts may be useful to you. 

If God does not exist, then life is meaningless, purposeless and valueless.

(i) life is meaningless – it does not matter whether you existed or not,

(ii) life is purposeless – if life just ends in death and the grave, then it is all for nothing. It has all been in vain.  

(iii) life is valueless – if life ends in the grave it makes no difference if you lived like Jesus or if you lived like Hitler or Stalin,

(iv) there is no objective moral value. Who is to say whose values are right and whose are wrong if there were no God? You cannot condemn war, oppression, evil or crime. You cannot condemn ISIS or Boko Haram. Neither can you praise, love, self-sacrifice or generosity (see On Guard, W. L. Craig). What is the value of a good knowledge of apologetics in presenting the Gospel to the non-believer (2Cor.4:3-5)?

INTRODUCING THE UNKNOWN GOD: Paul’s Strategy

(Acts 17:15-34)

In light of these, our usual method of evangelism will need revisiting. Is door to door evangelism likely to still be effective? How does the average UK citizen view “intrusion” by strangers? Are there other methods apart from street evangelism that may be workable? When people receive the Gospel that we preach, what cultural distinctive are they allowed to keep (Acts 15:18-20)? What are the pros and cons of appointing local pastors to lead Deeper Life Churches?

Paul ministered to the heathen from a different standpoint. He did not confront them directly with the facts of biblical revelation. Being led by the Holy Spirit he started at their own level (Acts 17:16). How can we incorporate this into our method of evangelism? Since the Bible and its story is alien to many in the UK, we need to revisit our methods of communicating the message.
The Athenians regarded Paul as a babbler, but he was preaching to them the eternal Gospel. He even quoted their own poet (Epimenides) to convince them (Acts 17:28-29).

What does it mean for us to be made all things to all men in order to win some by all means (1Cor.9:19-23)? What method should we adopt ministering to or mentoring people whose culture is vastly different from ours? We should look for suitable methods but our Gospel message should never change.

Let us close with the parable of the sower (Mat.13:1-9) Our ultimate God in evangelism outreach is to win as many as the Lord will grant us the ability to win. It is necessary to do whatever we can as the Holy Spirit leads us to reach these people. We must pray that our message will penetrate confused hearts and minds and bring forth fruit an hundredfold!