Ordinary Lives with Gospel Intentionality by Tim Chester In our book, Total Church, Steve Timmis and I argue for two core principles that should shape the life and mission of the local church: gospel and community. The content of our ministry is the gospel. It’s a word: gospel means good news. So being gospel-centered means being word-centered. And it’s a word to be proclaimed: gospel means good news. So being gospel-centered means being mission-centered. That’s the content of ministry. The context is always the Christian community. Ministry is not an event, still less a performance. It takes place in and through the shared life of the Christian community. So whether it’s evangelism or social involvement or children’s work or apologetics or pastoral care or training, these two principles shape what we do: gospel-centered and community-centered.
Ordinary Life Here’s another way of thinking about it. One of the catchphrases we use to capture our vision is “ordinary life with gospel intentionality” or “ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality.” In other words, what we do is ordinary life together: household chores, trips to the movies, meals, neighborhood volunteering. But running through all these activities is a commitment to speaking and living the gospel. We pastor one another at the kitchen sink. We evangelize by talking about Jesus over a meal.
The Crowded House People sometimes ask if they can come to see the ministry of The Crowded House. We always warn them that they’ll be disappointed. What they’ll see is not a trendy auditorium or a polished presentation or sophisticated social projects. What they’ll see are ordinary people sharing their lives. They’ll see people going to the local bar together or painting someone’s house or sharing a meal or going to the shops. But I hope after a while they’ll also spot the gospel intentionality as people talk about Jesus—discipling one another and evangelizing their friends. In future posts on The Resurgence, Steve and I will try to give you some brief snapshots of what that might mean for evangelism, social involvement, pastoral care, discipleship, church planting, and so on.
Evangelism by Steve Timmis
If you ever want to make other Christians feel guilty, get them to listen to a talk on evangelism. For the majority of us, evangelism is a bit like base jumping—sounds like a great idea, but most of us don’t actually have the guts for it. Whilst it might be true that only a relatively few people are gifted evangelists, all of us can make a significant contribution to the evangelism process. What we need to do is change evangelism from “me doing the gospel thing with my mates” to “us doing the gospel thing with my (soon to be our) mates.” It’s a simple transition, but it makes a world of difference.
Make Evangelism Communal In that context, I then introduce my friend who’s not a Christian to my brothers and sisters (a.k.a. church). My friend gets to see us hang out, laugh and cry, forgive and serve. He sees the gospel in action and he hears the gospel as we apply it to one another. Evangelism is going on all the time, and all I’ve done is bring my friend into a context where he’s going to be exposed to the gospel. Evangelism done this way changes it from being a big scary monster that makes us want to run and hide into a cute little puppy that we all want to hug.
Gospel, Community, and the Poor by Tim Chester
“I know people do a lot to help me, but I just want someone to be my friend.� So said a single mother in my congregation. At the root of much poverty is marginalization and exclusion. When we think of serving the poor our first thought is often of projects. We assume the thing to do is run a welfare program. But perhaps our first response to poverty as the church is to offer inclusion, to offer welcome, to offer community. In our book Total Church we argue that two principles should shape church life: gospel and community. When it comes to the poor, too often conservatives do gospel without community, while liberals do community without gospel. We need to both love the poor and call them to repentance. They are often victims, but they are also always sinners in need of the atoning work of the cross.
Church Planting: Where Gospel and Community Intersect by Tim Chester
The guy I first started church planting with used to tell the story of the first time he attended a church business meeting. He’d recently been converted and was looking forward to plotting the downfall of Satan with the other members of the church. What a letdown! They spent the meeting talking about the restrooms in the church building. Somehow churches have a tendency towards maintenance mode. The great thing about church planting is that it puts mission at the heart of church. When you’re eight people meeting in someone’s front room—as the Crowded House was once—then you can’t help but be about mission. But church planting also puts the church at the heart of mission. So much evangelism today is about me doing my thing with my friends. We have evangelistic ministries divorced from the church. This is not the New Testament way. New Testament mission was church planting. Mission at the heart of church. The church at the heart of mission. Welcome to church planting.
World Mission by Steve Timmis
Is your church doing mission for its own glory or God’s? Want a cunning test to help you answer? Check out how much energy and passion (evidenced by money, prayer, interest) is invested in situations in other parts of the world for which you will get no credit. If it is not proportional to what is invested at home, then serious questions should be asked. If our passion is God’s honor and the fame of the Lord Jesus then we won’t be satisfied until the earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Hab.2:14; Is. 11:9). This will mean we get involved in planting churches all over the place and supporting other churches to plant churches, even when we don’t get a mention. It will mean sacrificially giving away our best people so that unreached areas of the world will be reached for Christ. World mission isn’t the preserve of the mission agencies; it’s the privilege and responsibility of every local congregation of believers (a.k.a. church).
Attractional and Missional by Tim Chester
People often set up attractional church and missional church as polar opposites. Attractional has a come-to-us mentality. It’s about drawing people to the church. Missional is a go-to-them mentality. We take the gospel to people, meeting them on their terms and their turf. But biblical missiology contains both elements. Israel was called to live under God’s reign expressed through his law in such a way that the nations would come to find out about Israel’s God (Deuteronomy 4:5-8). During the reign of Solomon the nations do indeed come to marvel at his wisdom and glory. But as Israel rejects her God, instead of being a light to the nations, she follows the ways of the nations. Isaiah, however, looks forward to a day when Israel will again attract the nations (Isaiah 2:1-5). He promises that God’s Servant will be faithful where Israel was unfaithful, becoming God’s light to the nations (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6). Jesus, of course, is this light: the light of the world, perfectly demonstrating the goodness of God’s reign.
Attracting In and Moving Out When we come to the New Testament church, people often assume a switch of direction from “drawing in” to “going out.” But in fact the attractional missiology of the Old Testament continues. God’s new covenant people are to be a light to the world, attracting people to God’s reign (Matthew 5:14-16; 1 Peter 2:9-12). What has changed is the center! The center is no longer Jerusalem, but hundreds of small communities of light, littered across the world. We simultaneously draw in (through our community life) and move out (through church planting). The problem with a lot of attractional churches is not their missiology, but their ecclesiology. Church is seen as a meeting. Attracting means attracting people to an event or even a performance. But biblical mission is about a community life, ordinary life, lived under God’s Word that attracts people to God.
What's In a Name? by Steve Timmis
I hope I’m not being insensitive with this question, but what is the obsession with dead languages? In fact, I reckon it has almost become a hallmark of contemporary, cutting-edge, hardcore gospel movements that we make up new words from languages that no one speaks.
Gospel Communities Let me explain. The idea of missional communities has become trendy. This enables larger churches to devolve the routine stuff of church life to smaller groups throughout the week while retaining a central teaching session, usually on a Sunday. But why call them “missional” when we have a perfectly good word at our disposal in “gospel”? Gospel communities is exactly what they are: communities that are all about the gospel because they are formed by the gospel and exist for the gospel. Using a word like gospel also helps us in our evangelism. If non-Christians want to know what a gospel community is, you can take them straight to Mark 1:15-20, where Jesus preached the gospel and formed a community around it. Alternatively, you have Acts 2, where Peter preached the gospel concerning Christ crucified and risen, and a community was formed around that. If the same non-Christians want to know what a missional community is, where will you take them then? A dictionary!
Discipleship and Training by Steve Timmis
I know saying this isn’t going to win me any friends, but someone has to tell the king he’s naked. Is it not a quiet madness for churches to largely outsource their discipleship (to parachurch agencies) and training (to theological colleges)? The best context for both discipleship and training is the people of God on mission (a.k.a. church).
Parachurch vs. Local Church Take discipleship as a case in point. It’s in the context of church that we are going to learn best what it means to be a faithful follower of Jesus. Parachurch agencies do a lot of good, but they tend to draw people who share a special interest and who want similar things. By contrast, a local church is usually comprised of people from a range of backgrounds, at very different stages of development and with competing interests. It’s a fact of life that it’s far harder to get on with people like that than it is with people who have more in common. But those are precisely the people I need to make me more like Jesus. It is precisely when the church is a ragbag collection of people who aren’t like each other that “great grace” is essential, and that grace is what turns converts into disciples. The primary context for training should also be the church in situ. I find it strange that this assertion should be so contentious when the weight of the biblical evidence is behind it. Timothy was trained in gospel ministry as he went about doing gospel ministry. Paul took him under his wing, mentored and tutored him, sent him off into various situations, and talked him through whatever problems he had to deal with. The task of training is equipping people to be better gospel ministers, and an apprenticeship model in situ is the vehicle best suited for that task.
Pastoral Care by Steve Timmis
"Therapeutic community" is a phrase in vogue in the areas of mental illness and addiction. Groups are formed in which patients or clients live together for an extended period and take responsibility for each other. It sounds suspiciously like church to me.
The Church: The Ideal Therapeutic Community When we become Christians, we become members of God's household, but we all bring with us our baggage and brokenness. It might not always look like that in many of our churches, but that's only because of the facades we erect to hide the truth. So given that we're all broken, sanctification is about grace putting us back together again as we grow more like Jesus. This is best done in community, which means that church as the community of the Holy Spirit is the ideal therapeutic community.
Brokenness and Self-Worship Sadly, this is often another situation in which we are keen to outsource. Anything too complicated (like depression) or too weird (like psychosis), and we're on the phone to the local therapist before you can say "Freud was a basket case." The gospel tells us that our brokenness is an expression of our broken relationship with God. This is the essence of sin, and sin is insanity. However we express our brokenness, in some way it is because of our refusal to worship God and our obsession with self-worship. You're not going to hear that at the local Mayo Clinic.
The Gospel Makes Us Sane But a word of warning. Seeing church as a therapeutic community doesn't mean that it's an exercise in selfindulgence; a context where we all huddle together and wallow in our condition. The gospel is that which, by the power of the Holy Spirit, makes us sane and heals our brokenness so that we live for Christ as our healing commends him and his grace to others.
Real Life Spirituality by Tim Chester
What images do spirituality or spiritual activity conjure in your mind? I guess many people think of praying alone away from the noise of the family, or sitting in contemplation on retreat in a rural place. It’s about what I do alone, rather than what I do with other people. Spirituality has come to be about solitude, calm, silence. In reality, though, this is spirituality for the well-off. It’s only for those who can afford to go on retreat or have space in their home where they can be quiet. It won’t work for the single mother in a small apartment. It won’t work for the migrant worker who goes to work at six in the morning. It’s not urban spirituality. And it’s not biblical spirituality Biblical spirituality is about: Bible meditation, not mystical silence Passionate engagement, not rural retreat Growing together, not individual solitude
In other words, biblical spirituality, at its core, is about the word of God, the mission of God, and the community of God.
Theology by Steve Timmis
I have a confession to make. I was rather pleased recently when someone wrote to me and told me how impressed he was with my theological ability. He even called me a theologian. I think it was that which really massaged my ego. But isn’t that odd? We’ve turned the task of theology over to academia, and created a title for a select group of people to wear like a badge of honour: Look at me, I’m a theologian! But if evangelical theology is the truth about God in Christ, then all Christians are theologians in every sense that matters.
Theology Is for Life We’ve compounded the problem by seeing theology as the articulation of abstract and often difficult intellectual concepts. But the only theology worthy of the name is applied theology: theology that is worked out at street level in the messiness of life. Election is not a doctrine to be discussed only by professionals in the comfort of a study, but by a group of believers so that they are humbled and thrilled by God’s choice. Total depravity isn’t just something to be argued over in a lecture room, but faced up to by a group of saved sinners as they cry out to the Holy Spirit to open blind eyes. Calvin was right in a number of things, not least when he said, “Doctrine is an affair, not of the tongue, but of life.”
Relational Apologetics by Tim Chester
Why don’t people believe the gospel? It often looks like people have an intellectual problem with our message. They can’t believe in miracles, they tell us. Or they can’t reconcile God with suffering. It’s a problem of the head.
It's a Heart Problem But Romans 1 points to a bigger, underlying issue. Paul says the truth about God is plain for all to see. The problem is not that people can’t believe. The problem is that people won’t believe. We suppress the truth about God in our wickedness. We don’t want to believe because we don’t want to obey. It’s a problem of the heart. So by all means, engage with a person’s intellectual questions (what we might call rational apologetics). But recognize the need for relational apologetics. We need to show people that it’s good to live under God’s reign (Deuteronomy 4:5-8). We’re to be a light to the nations. As Blaise Pascal put it, we need to make people want to believe our message before we can persuade them that our message is true. And pray. Ultimately, only God can open blind eyes.
Children and Young People by Steve Timmis
One of the most frequently asked questions we get about household church is, “What about children and young people?” People seem to think that small church is incapable of dealing with this peculiar breed of non-adults. I have to admit to being rather unimpressed with the question, because it assumes that larger churches have got ministry to children and young people nailed.
Church as Extended Family The evidence suggests otherwise. When it comes to young people, churches are hemorrhaging faster than a hemophiliac in a tattoo parlour. One of the benefits of a model of church as extended family is that it sees children as integral, and keeps them that way throughout adolescence. There is no “bells, whistles, and bright lights” show to entertain them. There is just an ordinary, not very sexy, diverse gospel community of people loving one another and relating to one another. The kids are loved and the young people are discipled. They have people around them who care for them, take an interest in them, bear with them, face up to them, pick them up, and welcome them back when they’ve screwed up. Of course, you can add to this anything you want in terms of peer groups and big gatherings, but if this isn’t the core of what you do with kids and young people, then don’t be surprised when they lose interest because no matter how sexy your meetings, you can’t begin to compete with the sizzle in the world outside.
A Church of the Cross by Tim Chester
The great Reformer Martin Luther spoke of theologies of glory and a theology of the cross. Theologies of glory look for the revelation of God in his mighty works: creation, miracles, spiritual experiences. But this kind of knowledge, said Luther, only puffs people up. Instead God has chosen to reveal himself supremely in the cross. And that means revelation is only discernible by faith. Only by faith do we see in the weakness, foolishness, and shame of the cross the power, wisdom, and victory of God. Theologies of glory lead to pride. The theology of the cross leads to humility—or, in Luther’s language, humiliation. Now apply the same idea to our churches. Churches of glory will put their confidence in mighty works: stage performances, big budgets, large numbers, powerful arguments, charismatic preachers. A church of the cross will be characterized by power in weakness, wisdom in foolishness, victory in shame. Its confidence will be in the sovereignty of God, the presence of his Spirit, and the power of his Word. Jesus said the kingdom of God has been given to “my little flock.” Most of the time it will be under the radar. But, like yeast in dough, it will grow unseen to fill the earth.
Communities of Grace vs. Communities of Performance by Tim Chester I was recently asked to speak on communities of grace. So I got to thinking: What is the opposite of a community of grace? And I came to the conclusion that it's a community of performance. Communities of performance may talk a lot about grace, but they value performance—Christians who have it all figured out, churches that run smoothly, meetings that are accomplished. And so they communicate that what matters is that you perform well.
So is your community a community of performance or a community of grace? Try these diagnostic tests:
Communities of Performance The leaders appear to have it all figured out The community appears respectable Meetings must be a polished performance Failure is devastating, because identity is found in ministry Actions are driven by duty Conflict is suppressed or ignored The focus is on orthodox behavior (letting people think they have it all figured out)
Communities of Grace
The leaders are vulnerable The community is messy Meetings are just one part of community life Failure is disappointing but not devastating, because identity is found in Christ Actions are driven by joy Conflict is addressed in the open The focus is on the affections of the heart (with a strong view of sin and grace)
In performance-oriented churches, people pretend to be okay because their standing within the church depends on it. But this is the opposite of grace. Grace acknowledges that we're all sinners, all messed up, all struggling. And grace also affirms that in Christ we all belong, all make the grade, all are welcome.
What Does a Community of Grace Look Like? Imagine such a church for a moment. Here's Andrew: he sometimes uses porn because he struggles to find refuge in God. Here's Pauline: she sometimes has panic attacks because she struggles to believe in the care of her heavenly Father. Here's Abdul: he sometimes loses his temper because he struggles to believe that God is in control. Here's Georgina: she sometimes has bouts of depression because she struggles to believe God's grace. When they come together, they accept one another and celebrate God's grace towards each other. They rejoice that they are all children of God through the work of Christ. And they remind one another of the truths each of them needs to keep going and to change. It's a community of grace, a community of hope, a community of change.
How Communities of Performance Impede Mission by Tim Chester
Communities of Performance People talk about grace, but communicate legalism Unbelievers can't imagine themselves as Christians Drive away broken people The world is seen as threatening and 'other' Conversion is superficial—people are called to respectable behavior People are secretly hurting People see faith and repentance as actions that took place at conversion The gospel is for unbelievers
Communities of Grace People can see grace in action Unbelievers feel like they can belong Attract broken people People are loved as fellow sinners in need of grace Conversion is radical—people are called to transformed affections People are open about their problems People see faith and repentance as daily activities The gospel is for both unbelievers and believers
Creating Communities of Grace by Tim Chester
How can we create communities of grace? Let me suggest seven ideas:
1. Make the connections We need to teach, speak, sing, and pray grace. But we also need to make connections for people. We can believe in justification by faith for the final day, but doubt justification by faith for the next day. On a Monday morning in the workplace we are still trying to prove ourselves, to find identity in our achievements.
2. Welcome the mess Welcome messy people. Don’t suppress conflict. Don’t hide problems.
3. Stop pretending Don’t hide your own problems. You’ll need to exercise some discretion: let everyone know you struggle and let some people know what you struggle with.
4. Stop performing Don’t put on a show. Don’t push people to perform, to produce results, to get it right all the time. Give people permission to fail. We’ve realized, for example, that polished Bible studies and articulate prayers disenfranchise semi-literate people.
5. Eat and drink with broken people Jesus eats and drinks with sinners. It’s a powerful expression of community. We think we’re enacting grace if we run projects for the poor, but we’re only halfway there. We still act from a position of superiority, proclaiming that we are able
and they are unable. The dynamic is totally different when we eat together. We meet as equals, share together, affirm one another, enjoy one another.
6. Give people time to change How long did it take for you to become perfectly like Jesus? Of course, you’re still changing. There seem to be some sins we’re prepared to work on over a lifetime, but others where we demand instant change. Why is this? The answer, of course, is that we want people to be respectable. We don’t want a messy community.
7. Focus on the heart All too often we focus on the behaviors we would like someone to stop or start. But Jesus says our behavior comes from the heart (Mark 7:20-23). Our focus needs to be on the heart. Our job is help people find joy in Christ.
Don't Just Do by Tim Chester
I was speaking at a church planting conference. It was an open session—lots of Q&A. The next morning I was sharing a cab to the train station with one of the participants. “I noticed last night,” he said, “we kept asking ‘do’ questions and you kept giving ‘be’ answers.” “How do you do evangelism?” “We try to be a community that is intentional about the gospel.” That sort of thing. “Was it frustrating for you?” It was, but only now did I realize why.
A ‘Be’ Church Of course churches do things. There isn’t really a choice between being and doing. But we can get hung up on our programs, on activity, on meetings. We need to be creating a culture, a way of being Christian community, that liberates people so they can adapt on the fly to missional opportunities.
A ‘Bespoke’ Church This might just be a British thing, but if you get a suit made up specially for you we call it “bespoke.” The opposite is “off-the-peg,” when you just walk in the shop, take something off the peg in your size and you have your suit. But if you have the money and the inclination you can go to a bespoke tailor not a mile from my house and get a suit made just for you. Made for you. A perfect fit. Just right. Many people are looking for off-the-peg models of church. They want to take whatever is the latest trend or the successful formula and drop it into their context. But we need to be creating “bespoke churches”—churches that are tailored to their members and their missional contexts.
How Do You Do It? Or people want training programs, manuals, handbooks. People often ask, “How do you train people?” I have as many answers as I have people. It’s about life-on-life training that is tailored to each person. So let’s talk about theology, values, principles. I might even tell you how we put them into practice to stimulate your imagination. But please don’t just copy what I do.