Latest / Woodlands Church Academy's Podcast / Outreach and Missional Vision for midweek leaders- Tim Dobson and Martin Riddall

Transcript

Outreach and Missional Vision for midweek leaders- Tim Dobson and Martin Riddall · Woodlands Church Academy's Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_03: The topic we're going to look at this evening is for either the church partner for us small groups that we're involved with.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_03: How do we think a bit about a vision for outreach and mission?
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_03: So within the Woodlands Church family, small groups, whether the hubs or Midweek Church, pastors, whatever you call them, tend to be a place of gathering and community.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_03: And because of that, sometimes the focus can be more inward-looking.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: So we pray for one another, we study the Bible together, we look after one another, which are all wonderful things, particularly in a church like Woodland Central, where it's quite a large church to be known, to be cared for, to be able to have to care for other people, are all valuable things.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_03: But in the end, outreach and mission is something that as a church we're committed to, it's part of our vision.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: So in some ways, you it's kind of you hope that some of the values that we hold together as a whole church somehow kind of um filter down to uh to our small groups and to and to regular the regular life of Christians.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_03: So this evening, uh Martin uh uh colleague friend Martin Riddle, uh, who works for Agape and myself, we're going to take uh through some uh some input, also some discussions and some questions uh just to think about um kind of how could your um explore how your group could be a context to enable everyone to share their faith, to make a difference uh in their workplace, to perceive themselves as being kind of missionaries within uh within Bristol.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so uh that is the plan.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_03: Can I just pray for us as we start and um uh then we'll do some input stuff.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um Lord, thank you so much that um you have good news that we've encountered ourselves.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_03: I think that there's good news to share with uh with people in this city.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: And we would sort of pray as we talk uh tonight.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_03: You'd encourage us, inspire us, help us along the way as we um uh talk together, as we investigate uh what it is to uh spur people on to uh to be witnesses for you and for your good news in Jesus' name.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: Amen.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_03: Great.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um the good news of Jesus.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not quite sure how you feel about when we talk about outreach or evangelism.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: For some people, they maybe love it, for some people might be a little bit daunted.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but um I think there's reason to be um a bit more encouraged.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_03: I went, I don't know if you've read this book by um Justin Breary.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_03: It's called uh The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_03: Have any heard of the book?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I went to a little conference on Wednesday down at Broadway Baptist Church.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um and he was saying that um within the kind of academic world, where maybe 10 years or so ago, there was quite a strong new atheist kind of agenda that was dismissing Christianity, dismissing faith, dismissing anything that's supernatural.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, within the last kind of four or five years, there's been a real turnaround.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: And some of the kind of uh the more kind of national or even international kind of uh spokespeople for new thesism, new atheism have kind of started to think, well, maybe there's something to faith.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_03: They wouldn't necessarily call themselves Christians, but but actually that they're that they're a lot more kind of open to the possibility of there being God there.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_03: And actually, his whole thesis was that actually there's uh maybe a window of opportunity, uh particularly in the UK, uh, of where some of those influences within society, as they start to change, maybe it's kind of kind of filtered down to um uh to it to everyone else.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_03: So his um he has these three things that he that he thinks that um have really changed in uh in the does kind of is Christianity intellectually kind of trustworthy?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: And he would say that um uh human existence, kind of where is the evidence for how humanity came into being and and mathematical probabilities and and kind of and actually he would say that within the intellectual kind of world that actually where where kind of atheists used to be quite dismissive and quite brash and quite argumentative, actually maybe there is that whole thing about design and God's existence, maybe there.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_03: Human values, where do we get this the sense of of value, human rights and dignity, what is right and wrong that that seem to be commonly held, at least there's some globally that commonly held.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_03: Where did those things come from?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: And again, the just some of the international kind of research around kind of is it just social conditioning?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_03: Is it kind of if it's just evolution, kind of why was that an evolutionary benefit?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_03: And again, would say maybe that's uh um a reason for believing in God.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_03: And again, he he would say that the third thing is um there's a real crisis, um uh a meaning crisis.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_03: He was saying there's a meaning crisis, particularly amongst millennials who say that there's this sense of who am I, what might kind of because um they used to be fairly defined whether it was um my dad was a miner, my granddad was a minor, I'm gonna be a minor, there was a story that you live by, uh, or maybe even some of the kind of the um uh the the ways in which workplace roles, you kind of you knew where you stood within a pecking order.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, now that things are kind of well, you be you and I'll be me, he would say that actually there's a real crisis in in meaning and purpose, and and somehow this idea of the supernatural, the bigger story, a meta-narrative, including God, he would say actually, intellectuals are saying actually that in some ways that's what society needs in the moment, where there's a meaning crisis where that people haven't got a story to live by.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_03: And so he would say that actually there's a change in uh an atmosphere.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_03: So when we talk about evangelism and outreach, maybe 10 years ago it was thinking, okay, we've got to arm ourselves for a real hard slog because nobody wants to listen to you and you've got to have all the arguments to argue against somebody.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, he would say that the tide is is changing and there's more of an openness.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_03: And then I'm not sure if you found the same.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_03: I know certainly here on Sundays, I'll quite often be at the door, and um I mean, most weeks some people just wander in.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_03: When literally they wander past into church, they hear the music, you can see them stop outside the church, kind of listening, and and then they'll kind of wander into the foyer and they said they'll say to me, So last Sunday was was an example.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_03: So, well, uh, can I come in here?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Oh, yeah, come in.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I just want to sit and see what's going on.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_03: Well, come and stand next to the door and listen to the worship song.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: And and again, they'll stand for 10-15 minutes, listen, again, no church background, but they wouldn't come and but they would say, Oh, thank you very much, give them a little card with a website on, and they'll wander out, and there's a real openness of curiosity to the Christian faith.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_03: And I wonder whether we need to regain a bit more confidence that the good news of Jesus is actually good news, that actually we don't have to try and persuade people and cajole people, but actually, there's something about people they actually do want to know.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, there is a spiritual hunger out there, and in some ways, as we lead our kind of midweek church groups and um as we try and encourage people to think about being a witness in the workplace or in their neighbourhood and community, um, I think we need to keep in step with what God's doing, and I think God's on the move, and God is doing things, uh, which is part of what we want to try and say.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_03: How do we see what God's doing?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: Because if God's doing something, we'd be silly not to get involved.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I think there's there is a new openness.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so um a couple of quotes from two evangelists.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, one is this mission mission isn't an agenda item, it's the agenda.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes we think about in church, we've got all kinds of things that we have to have a go at, kind of um, and mission might be one of them.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_03: Or um evangelism isn't an additional programme to run, it's it is who we are.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_03: There's something about we've encountered Jesus, encountered his good news.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_03: We realise that the world is in a dark, bleak state.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, we realise the individuals that we see are living hopelessly and confused and uncertain about climate kind of anxiety, and there's all kinds of things that people are kind of driven by, and and sharing the good news of Jesus is something that we ought to have feel confidence in.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: But the reality is that that people don't feel maybe don't feel confident.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that they know um they in some ways they know the Bible, don't they?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, we've got this idea that we should share our faith.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_03: So whether it's Jesus sending out the twelve, and he says that in Luke um uh chapter nine here, when Jesus had called the twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out demons, to cure diseases, he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, he sent them out.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_03: They'd encountered something about Jesus, and he now says, Now you go and tell people.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_03: He sends them out to every little town and village and say, You go and tell people this good news of the kingdom that you've encountered.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um, he uh the Great Commission, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I've commanded.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_03: There's this idea of that we go and make disciples.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um, just talking to Greg beforehand, Greg was saying that evangelism is just discipleship with people before they become Christians.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's like it is one kind of one continuum.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_03: You just bring people towards Jesus, they encounter Jesus, they find his new life, and they spend the rest of their life following him.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's um, but there's that mandate from Jesus to his followers take the big stuff that you you found out about and uh go and share it with every tribe and nation.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_03: So in Acts, uh, when it starts off in Acts, it starts off with um again the Holy Spirit's action.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_03: You'll receive the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, the Holy Spirit works in life.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_03: He he does bring us peace, he does bring us the presence of Jesus, but actually he brings us confidence and boldness to be witnesses.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_03: That's part of what Jesus is saying here.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_03: The Holy Spirit is is sent for.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, when you go through the Acts of the Apostles, actually you see whether it's uh Peter and John in Acts chapter 8, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um, whether it's um uh Philip, Acts chapter 8, verse 40.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_03: Philip, however, appeared in uh Azotosum, I don't know what that is, and travelled about preaching the gospel uh in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_03: Again, here's Philip, he's preaching.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_03: Who else is preaching?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_03: There's um Paul uh Acts 17, and they said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and about the resurrection.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um so uh it seemed to be those first followers of Jesus they'd encountered him.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, we've just got to tell people, we've got to tell people there's this wonderful news.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_03: How are they gonna know unless somebody tells them?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_03: Kind of now it's wonderful to hear stories occasionally of people having dreams and in their dreams Jesus has appeared to them.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_03: That's amazing, but actually, generally, what Jesus is expecting is his followers are gonna share, his followers are gonna be witnesses, they're gonna give testimony to what God has been doing in the person of Jesus in our lives and through what he's done.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so that's a little bit of kind of um obviously the impetus of uh of the Bible.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, for some of you, you think, actually, I really get that, and it's a real passion of mine.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um, in fact, that kind of uh people who've done research around churches probably kind of have found that 5% of Christians are real passionate evangelists.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um uh in some ways we need the passionate evangelists to help the 95% of us who maybe feel that we kind of should do it, but we're not quite sure.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_03: So Martin is definitely one of the five percent.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um so Martin, I just wonder whether you could you just say, just in a few minutes, kind of why is evangelism so important to you?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: Is that okay?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that is helpful.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's that's that is now, but that's that's no good.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can't you can't just want to be an evangelist and get paid for it.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like that doesn't work, doesn't it?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm interested uh in what Tim was saying.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Five percent of the church are evangelists.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now I suppose you ask the question, what is an evangelist then?
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: So you know you can't just say five sorry, there you go, you can't just say five percent is a you know, you have to know what one is.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, if you look in Ephesians, you've got the the uh fivefold ministries there, and one of the uh ministries that comes from God given Holy Spirit-wise to the church is that of an evangelist.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: And when they say that the job of an evangelist, what it clearly doesn't say, and that person is the one who's going to run around the country doing all the evangelism, what it says is that they're there to equip the church, to support and help the church.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, in a way, an evangelist's job is to be there for the church.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what an evangelist does in his spare time is up to him or her, and what they can do is to go out and talk to people about Jesus.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: You don't find an evangelist who can sit in church and tell the church how to do it that's not out there doing it themselves, and unless you're doing it, then you can't call yourself an evangelist, you're a teacher, and that's okay.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's also another um Ephesian gifting uh for leadership.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got to it's okay, but an evangelist is somebody who'll go and tell.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I also have to just because it's on my mind, Tim, it's exciting to me.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Please forgive me for this.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: But um, Tim's pointed out lots of times in the New Testament, in Acts particularly, where people went and they preached, an individual person, Philip, went to speak to the Ethiopian eunuch, and the whole of Ethiopia got the opportunity to hear the gospel because of it.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: But he also went to that strange name, place Hazatus and others weirdly, but that's another matter.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he just told people about Jesus as he was going home again.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: He had to walk all the way from where he was literally dropped by the Holy Spirit to his home.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: You can read it for yourself, it's a brilliant story.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: But Mark chapter 2 really grips me at the moment.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter 2 isn't about an individual going and telling people about Jesus, it's about a group of people telling an individual about Jesus.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of, because what happens in Mark chapter 2 is Jesus goes and he's in a building, he's in a house, and he's chatting and just chatting to people.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: It might not actually be preaching, but whatever he's doing, he's attracting so many people that you can't get in.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can't not only can't get in, but you can't get near the building, the house.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, there's a great crowd outside, and so the friends of this um paralyzed man, you know the story very well, they got him to Jesus somehow.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: It says some friends carried the paralyzed man to Jesus.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Four of them were carrying him, and because of that, quite often we think there were four of them.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I've carried somebody on a stretcher for many, you know, for a long time, and you can't do it if there's four of you.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: It gets too ex too exhausting, you have to put them down.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: But if there's ten or a number, you can just swap in and swap out and swap in and swap out and continue to carry all the way.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: So a crowd of people means that there's more than four people there helping that person, and and just bear with me, it's to my mind exciting.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: In that crowd, I wonder how many of them were very, very good at being an evangelist.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: But one person perhaps could say to the people in the crowd, imagine crowd, you've tried to push yourself forward in crowds, I imagine, many times.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: I did it yesterday.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, yes, yesterday, and it was in Liverpool yesterday, and I had to go to the front of a crowd.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was ever so hard.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, do you mind if you say I'm just I'm trying to pull and you know, all these people trying to push this lad through on the stretcher, but no one wants to move out the way.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody has to be very diplomatic to say, Will you just help me?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then when they get to the um the to the front door and they realize there's no chance of getting in, somebody else has to think, how on earth are we gonna get them to the top of the house?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: We haven't got a ladder, or maybe somebody did think about it for beforehand and brought a ladder.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe when they're on the top of the roof, then how on earth are you gonna get through the roof?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: It might be made of thatch, but it might be made of concrete or stone.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody had to think about that.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: And my favorite picture in my mind of these lads with the paralyzed man getting in before Jesus is dropping them down.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you look if you've got an old Good News Bible, which I have, it's got a picture of of these men lowering the chap down on on their on on ropes, and he's like just lying flat on his stretcher.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it was probably a stretcher that was that good for a start, it would probably be a bit too wobbly for that.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: And also, these were not experts at lowering people through the roof.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: I bet they dropped him.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: He was paralyzed, he couldn't do anything about it, he couldn't help himself on the floor.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: What a horrible thing to do.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't experts, they weren't good, they did their best, they knew what needed to happen was that the man needed to get to Jesus somehow, and that's all they knew.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's all they weren't evangelists, they just needed to get the chapter Jesus, they were witnesses, they were involved in outreach.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: They were just Christians doing Christian stuff with a non-Christian.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: They got him to Jesus, and Jesus then said, It's all right, your sins are forgiven.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little charming.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for that.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to walk, got him up, and it's all right, walk, it's fine.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I know I've butchered the story a little bit, but the point is that an evangelist will help everybody to get their friends to Christ, and that's what my job is all about.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Why do I do it?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: I will get there.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Two seconds now.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, it took far too long.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Two seconds on why I did it.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: When I first became a Christian, I became a Christian because my friend Mike told me that God really loved me, and I wasn't very nice, and I said to him, Mike, why does God love me?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, I don't know.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: You're not very nice, and it was true.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't like Mike, he wasn't my friend at the time, he was horrible, and um it longs it took six weeks from him starting that conversation to eventually taking me to church.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: And when I became a Christian, I was in the I was in the military at the time, he was too, obviously, we we lived opposite each other.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: God came into my life at um at midnight on August the 18th, 1982, and it was a Thursday, you can check it, and I cried, but I was a roughly toughy soldier, and they don't cry, not even admitting it to themselves, let alone anybody else.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I cried and I opened my door and I walked across the room to my friend who'd witnessed to me, and I just stood there crying, and he was in bed at the time, and it was gone midnight by this time, and he just went like this.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: What have I done?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then very quickly after that, I'd go to the church, and people would bring people, non-Christians to me, they'd bring them to me, and they say, I've just can have a chat with my friend, he's not a Christian.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, You what?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, I'm not a Christian.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're an idiot, then you need to be saved.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: That was my attitude.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's how we did evangelism, and people would become Christians.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's something to be said there, and that is you don't have to be good.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: If I can do it, anyone can do it.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not good, I'm not a good person still, and I'm not like really clever at communicating the gospel.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: I just tell them it's the truth.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Why wouldn't you believe it?
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to what's happened to me, and like people become Christians.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: So anyone can do it, but there is this element of godness about it, which is it doesn't matter how bad I am.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I obviously ought not to just use that as an excuse.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: I ought to work at it, but it's God that does the thing, and when I see that, it's so exciting.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: I know people can go to hell, and it scares me, and it I hate it, it motivates me to know that people can be separated from God.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like the idea much more than that, I know how much God loves people, and they're missing out on so much, and so I talk, and it doesn't matter if it's appropriate or inappropriate, it really does, actually.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I just talk at any time to anybody that will listen to me, and if they say shut up, I'm quite happy to shut up.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: But that's about it, it's far too long, but that's why I do it because it's brilliant.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_03: Listen to the part it's it's quite infectious, isn't it, to think kind of uh I wish I I wish I could be that bold and that kind of um um so I suppose the the challenge for me is in um in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 5, uh it says to Timothy, who's probably his main gift isn't is being a teacher, uh says to Timothy, actually, you've got you've got to do the work of evangelists.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_03: So you may not be an evangelist like Martin, but actually there's something about each one of us.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, sometimes we've got to do the the task or or the work of evangelists.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um and in some ways, maybe encouraging your groups.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_03: You may have some people in your groups who are a bit like Martin that you just love talking to people about Jesus, but actually, maybe most people don't.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um and the challenge is how do how do we think about doing that work?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_03: So um, first question that uh in in groups of th of four or five, um uh what do you think are the barriers of encouraging evangelism or witnessing evangelism?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: uh within your group uh or church at the moment?
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_03: What what do you think some of the barriers of uh encouraging evangelism?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, it's okay just to draw the conversations back for a moment or two.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, we'll just go around the different groups.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_03: So what do you feel uh if if the team is trying to equip us to do this well in some ways understanding the kind of what's happening on the ground first of all might be quite helpful.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_03: So um uh yeah what did you feel?
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_13: Let let's let's go around this way okay anything from this group um we were saying that sometimes people are just afraid to share for like social anxiety reasons like oh that would make the situation weird yeah and then on the flip side things that it's like advising friends too small maybe this is actually going to be out of questions that like maybe are your friends and just having that more soft entrance over time rather than uh going out to people in the street is more of a bold it takes more courage to do that yeah yeah yeah anyway that's well that's the that's an interesting question isn't it does it take more courage to go out into the street to talk to strangers or does it take more courage to talk to someone in your office who you're gonna see the next day and the day after and the day after that's it in some ways you think oh yeah it you they're really brave to do out there but actually if you witness somebody who you're gonna see again sometimes that's even even even trickier isn't it because or witnessing to your parents who aren't yet Christians or your brother or sister that can feel a little bit more tricky can't it but certain certain fear of what people how people respond to you.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_05: Anything else for this group and well we talked a bit about testimonies and I'm just saying like um what Martin was saying like his evangelism kind of as an outpouring of his experience of encountering Jesus and maybe if we I was encouraged to like get people to share their testimonies more in our small group so that we then yeah just kind of lead on that again.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_03: Anything else over here?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_06: Anything that you have mainly I guess apparently there's nothing kind of social relationship is more important.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah yes yeah yeah I mean those those are interesting things aren't they that kind of a relationship wins over knowledge I think I think that human connection and human experience wins over the answer.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_03: So sometimes we feel oh I I don't start the conversation because I'm not quite sure if I'll be able to answer their questions.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_03: Zip answering the question is going to see them get saved.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes it it's it's the relationship that opens the doorway for the reincounter Jesus in some ways the relationship does kind of um bring the question of do you know enough people who aren't yet Christians kind of as well I mean are there enough people who you would say are friends that and again for some people that's a a kind of a a real barrier in encouraging evangelism because oh I just know my church friends and and that's that's it.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_12: So um yeah over here anything that's um we were talking about lots of things um I was saying how I don't really feel like being pushed by young people for evangelism very well so there's a lot of a lack of confidence in approaching those things because we're mainly focused on society shift and how we bring our angularism into that that's very interesting um also talking about like awkwardness uh like the same kind of social anxiety kind of is it appropriate to bring it up how do you go from like you can have those opportunities um like you're just chatting to someone queue while you're waiting for your shopping um to be scanned but how do you go from like talking about the weather to Jesus loves you I think that's one of the things I'm really enjoying about how we like I'm doing a discipleship year here and it's like all these settings that are like work or like the Labour Party or whatever and people are like oh so what are you doing this year?
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_11: And I'm like oh I'm doing the year for check but you you have to be upfront about it because there's no other option and you do have more interesting conversations um rather than kind of just awkwardly shrugging off and you say oh yeah I'm going to subscribe people go oh that's not what most people do people either go to uni or they work so I'm like oh yeah yeah I'm taking a year of it yeah was there anything else yeah we talked about when we were talking about that idea of you know so you're looking for all offending people but also is there that line where you might get into trouble in terms of I don't know if you did it in a professional capacity you know the idea that a nurse is allowed to wear crucifixes are often depressed people and there's that there's that sense of oh could I would I be overstepping yeah we talked about that as well we talked about time and having just other things in your Christian life other things going on and the time thing we thought was quite interesting because as you say in the queue somewhere chatting we just we don't have time to go out and spend loads of time but we come across people where there's a little bit of conversations I think today so um or it comes up that we didn't mention it but my um my hairdresser mentioned that they had um um they were in a lot of pain with with something yeah and they didn't know I was a Christian but I just thought I'm not gonna say I said well um I'm Christian and I believe God heals and I'm gonna pray for you on that so yeah um you I guess you make that decision do you want to say so I might hear so it's not about that wasn't a time thing it's about kind of getting the yeah it's it's the it's an it's an that it's an attitude perspective which is part of what we're thinking in some ways within your groups do you change an attitude to perspective that is a I have something to to to to give and I think the social awkwardness I think is it's it's definitely a fear that's there.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_03: But as I say I think it has changed.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_03: I was on on Thursday I had to go and have some blood taken um so there was a a nurse a young guy there who's just started our J's practice kind of he was taking blood and he just sort of saying oh what did you do and I said oh I'm a church minister and probably 10 years ago if I'd have said that they would have felt slightly awkward and changed the subject quite quickly.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_03: But he said oh that's interesting what kind of things do you that's why Catherine and then I said Tim and and have you ever been to church I used to go as a child and and actually just just in the 10 minutes I was in doctor surgery like you say you you can there was an openness to talk and actually it could have been socially awkward but actually I shouldn't I I think the atmosphere's changing and and and and to be able to equip and encourage and help our folks in last small groups to understand that and and to think about um obviously for for for Kes or for myself that kind of we've got the excuse because we're doing something that is kind of Christian um but to help people think about kind of um yeah what what do you do at the weekend and rather than say I watched the rugby say actually oh I was at church and and this happened or and and and and so that part of being a Christian is part of your normal thing.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah some friends from church went for a walk and um and you can yeah so try to help people think about how you start a conversation that is not awkward.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_02: Great let's group over the ending can I just um in that situation where you're able to talk and say yeah I went to church it was really nice the musical's great and there was a really good message from that point for me I think personally that's where I struggle and how do you then go from what I did over the weekend to come to know Jesus it's great repentance since I mean you you have to start so so I so I said I said to this nurse who I probably won't see again for a I don't know until I'm ill again I don't know but they say to him um do you like so so are you asking questions now as an adult?
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_03: I said well actually that there may be some a church in the EU that's kind of really I mean you're very welcome to my church if you want to so you kind of you push it from a just a conversation to uh where could be the next connection point where could they find out something else about Jesus kind of so you don't you don't have to go from yeah you'd have to go from the next hi you're taking me to some blood okay I'll think about the blood of Jesus see yourself as I guess the catalyst that takes them to the next step of their curiosity done something then yeah and and I think that the deal is that the Holy Spirit is trying to draw people to Jesus so we're just cooperating with the Holy Spirit Jesus says suddenly that that um it's to my advance I go away because I'm when I it's at John 16 so that's the Holy Spirit to you who believe he'll be a counselor to the world he'll convince them of sin righteousness and judgment um and and again that so the Holy Spirit's out there doing that work is it again it's a bit like a doctor's visit kind of he's trying to convince them of of of righteousness sorry of sin of righteousness and judgment like a doctor would say oh I've got this real pain doctor what is it kind of um well it's sin you've got you've got this disease and then he'll say but there's this medicine the righteousness and as I go out the door say oh Tim if you don't take the medicine in six months you'll be dead there's kind of judgment and so the husband's trying to do that and and and we're involved in those little conversations that might help people to realise that the issue isn't that they've not got enough money or their relationships just gone kind of head over heels kind of actually the the issue is that they're doing things that are wrong.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_03: Actually they may realize that things are wrong I haven't got an idea about the solution well Jesus is is the solution or yeah I've heard about Jesus and I've decided I'm not going to actually that there's that's consequences of your choices kind of and and the Holy Spirit is trying to do that and we can work alongside the Holy Spirit but we don't have to do it all in one conversation.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_03: This is a a pastor teacher talking rather than an evangelist an evangelist says might say no we need to get them to pray the prayer straight away and um so there are different ways but I I think yeah kind of you're drawing people towards Jesus step by step and if it's going to be real sometimes it takes it takes time.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah kind of that ties in with the relationship is more important isn't it for the answers sometimes yeah over here anything that you're saying about I'd have to say that uh group but I feel it's um well it's a bit of an elephant in the room here that um you put on there encouraging the banders in in the group and to me the elephant in the room is there's something going on that's a new I'm not gonna be a church or whatever I don't know for me I can we I'm tiny top tiny treasure or I'm a shooter.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_03: You can choose what you're gonna do.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah it can be I mean I I think you're right I think in some of all the things we've said so far the yeah powers of darkness don't want the good news which is light truth to be shared and so we'll come off the back of any little humour fear or question or day and we'll we'll magnify it.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_03: Anything from the screen about the power of sharing our testimony and how maybe in the work is it can be a challenge to express your religious beliefs or the idea of new people a testimony that can't be questioned it's very yeah yeah yeah and and in some ways sharing a testimony is not like sharing um some great theological ideas around the atonement or kind of actually just just I mean that's why you you will be my witnesses a witness I don't know if you ever had to be a witness in a court case but literally you just have to say what you see can't in some ways I I had to be a witness to a car crash I saw once and somebody pulled out in front of this single parent kind of driving along the main road they pulled out and so I was cross examined and I had to be a witness and I literally I couldn't express any of my personal opinions on who I thought was at fault.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_03: I literally just had to say what I saw in some ways to be a witness is I'm just going to tell you about Jesus what I've seen what I've experienced I don't have to be clever to try and explain it kind of that's the that's what the solicitors and the barristers and whatever ganders be doing but but I I just and in some ways how to encourage anybody within our small group to feel that in any space any social context uh kind of that that I'm just telling my story um and and I think I think a story carries a a genuineness and a power with it that that isn't like you're preaching at them it's not that you're trying to cajole them you're not trying to beat them it's just just generally this is my experience my experience of how God has helped me of how God's answered this prayer of of how when this anxiety came my way I've I found a way to find peace you just tell your tell your story um and in some ways maybe in your home groups you you tell when you say anyone got any good news to share actually you may share stories within your home group kind of now is it I don't know if you ever say thought about saying to people well how about this week you've told us that story how about you find someone who's not yet a Christian and you tell them the same story how would that I mean how would that feel so it's not necessarily I used to be like this I used to be a a drug dealing hippie and I've met Jesus and I've changed it's a testimony isn't isn't isn't that a testimony is giving witness to what Jesus has done.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_03: So maybe when you've had a sharing time and someone shared it just a little kind of maybe just a little encouragement what God's doing the life say well why do you need to let somebody who's not yet Christian and see what happens.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_07: I think your question was was really key that was the other thing we discussed because I think a lot of the view of evangelism is an end goal and actually the reality of taking somebody you know you said yourself you re-opened it took six weeks and and that story you gave they didn't go with a full story of this having become a follower of Jesus they simply took that to Jesus and I think that prompting curiosity is much more attainable for everything.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_07: We can fall when someone says I'm really worried we can tell that story do you know what Jesus talks about worry and he says you do not need to worry I will take your bad and that's good news and you're not trying to convince someone to believe something you're just inviting them to the character of Jesus and then that moves them towards Jesus and of course it'd be brilliant if they then go oh I would like to know more about Jesus then they're inviting you to speak I feel that it's really it's much more doable for us all as a congregation to regulate curiosity to Jesus whereas if we were like how I convert somebody that feels quite scary and it's not our job actually our job is to bring people to Jesus our job is not to convert anyone and if we convert people then they come a couple because not what we want.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_07: Depends on who we are I suppose we didn't discuss this but in in response to that I think sometimes there's a risk that what we share is church not Jesus and I think that requires us to have a relationship and know Jesus and then we can say Jesus do I know you hear this tell you this story about him and that is what I actually think to the masses and when I say the masses that are kind of unchurched that's more appealing than or come to church which sadly has quite all that because you say church and oh they're bringing the late scandal we're not talking about that we're talking about Jesus totally I think that's that's we're witnessing to Jesus that's the kind of the the deal um I I think there's a challenge and maybe it comes back to the Brian powers again within a multicultural um tolerant society um uh it's a lot easier to talk about a journey of faith uh or a a spiritual life than I'm following Jesus because or salvation is found in no other name but the name of Jesus that there's contention uh uh around that but that is the that is the deal in the end that they we're not inviting people to find salvation in church it's in Jesus and I'll just testify to what I've seen in my generation and my students generation um is that there's a great opportunity to talk about Jesus not about church because if you've got two I don't know whether I can't learn this in this or not but two possibly three generations growing up that haven't grown up in faith schools haven't grown up going to church don't really know the Bible stories don't really know the religious institutions so it's new to them and it's an opportunity it's an option of many other spirituality offers that we all decided that this is the one that's true and so you can kind of say but you haven't you have a way of explaining this in a new light because it's not bogged down with the old assumptions of oh I went to church in primary school and it was cold and then pews and a whole load of old people because that's not people but that's not everyone's experience of church so yeah just as a little encouragement yeah yeah okay close thanks um so again how if you're leading a midweek church group how and I know there's you maybe feel there's all kinds of expectations on you of what you deliver you want to deliver a good night of the Bible study you want to there want to be some social times it won't be time for prayer um is the Stephen you just saying and here's one more thing that you've got to be doing as small group leaders and I'd say actually it's to do with with culture so uh again within your group is everyone in your group equipped to understand and share their faith naturally among their friendship groups uh again sometimes I think what exactly what would I would I say how would I communicate um and maybe that's kind of one of the things to think okay in this next year as I'm planning our home group programme is there maybe an evening or a session that we could think that is going to help people to equip people to understand how to share their faith naturally kind of with the friendship group um are you encouraging people to think about their workplaces of venue when living out their Christian vocation actually that that kind of to be a Christian isn't just to be a judge pastor or a home group leader actually to be a Christian is to be in where you are kind of whether you're a a mum whether you're in education whether you're in the workplace actually you help people within your group to feel that when I'm doing this on the shop floor serving on a counter kind of being doing the economists look after the tech whatever it is you do for your work actually that is a place where I'm serving Jesus there otherwise we get this kind of you come to church you come to home group and then oh you earn money kind of and so again are you do you encourage people to think about the workplace as a place for living out their Christian kind of sense of core vocation um and is there a kind of do you help people to challenge people to live justly and to work for justice in the locality in the wider world again to to feel that that mission uh is
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_03: About that outward facing.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, when we think about the kingdom of God, it's it's righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_03: There's it is about righteousness with God, but it's peace with our community, it's it's that's inner sense of joy from that comes from the life that Jesus brings.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_03: It's the Holy Spirit.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_03: And again, do we help our home group to understand that?
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, if if within a year you could have an evening on those three that might in it might interrupt with your series that you're looking at, or kind of, yeah, you want to do the book of Hebrews in 10 weeks, whatever it is, kind of um, but I would say maybe think about those three questions, and is there a space where we could do that?
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_03: Or or maybe even is there is there an activity that we could more frequently do?
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_03: There's not a whole evening given to that topic, but actually it sends a subliminal message that these things are are important.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so um again, as a home breeder, again, not putting an extra an extra thing onto you, but it's something to think about within the within the diet of how a small group works.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um so we've got we're gonna try and finish by quarter past nine.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_03: So for for we've got 35 minutes, and what we thought we'd do is um from between Martin and myself, we thought we'd give you a few little kind of top tips.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, actually, what can what here's some creative ideas of how do you work with your group to help and facilitate them, not to feel they've all got to be mass evangelists or whatever, but how do you help them to think about sharing my faith, seeing my workplace as a place of witness, um, feeling confident to act justly in into this society?
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_03: Kind of uh here's some kind of tips of things that we'd like to uh send your way.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um so first of all, I'll just get Martin to explain about these.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_03: So um Martin, you want to explain about yes, of course.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_03: There's one uh connect group here.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_03: If you want to open these up, um, this pack that you're being given is called the Biscuit Trail.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: The Biscuit Trail is um just a resource produced by Agape, who I worked for.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: And um the idea is this um biscuits.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: If I was to come, no, if I was to invite you to my house and uh I'd say, come round for coffee.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I might, if Rachel was kind enough to get me some, I might offer you some biscuits.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't have thought about it, but she might have done.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: But what we would do is we put the biscuits, like they were on their cakes, but never mind.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: On that's mute, that's a discussion point, on a plate, and you might help yourself to a biscuit.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you wanted to, you might have another one.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I wouldn't mind if you had three.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: However many you'd like, you could have, although the more you take, it plus them a little bit more greedy.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: But what I wouldn't do with my biscuits is whilst they were still in the bags, they want a biscuit and shove them all down the throat.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_00: If I did that, it would hurt you, it wouldn't be any good.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's not how you eat biscuits, and also all my biscuits would be gone and I wouldn't have anything left, and you wouldn't like me very much because I just shoved them all down the throat.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if the gospel can be related to a packet of biscuits, then we've got the biscuit trail.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I could offer you a biscuit.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: You could take whichever one you wanted.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: With the biscuit trail, then it's an idea designed to help you, as a small group leader, home group leader, whatever, to help your your group, your friends or people that come there to consider how they might go about um explaining the gospel to their friends or helping their friends to come into a relationship with God.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: And there's 12 cards.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: So what I'd like you to do with these 12 cards once I'm talking to them is what some have already done, and that is spread them around on the table in front of you.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: Just the 12.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's three other cards.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: You might find two at the front and one at the back, or all three at the front, I don't know.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: But the ones I'm looking at are the ones with the very big bold colours and the very big letters words on them, okay?
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, let's put them all out, and then what we'll do is I'll explain this is how you can use this to help people that aren't thinking, do you know what?
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: I know I'm supposed to talk to my friends about Jesus.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how I'm not an evangelist.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: What are you gonna do?
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: Once you've done this, I want you in your groups, if you don't mind, please, to discuss what do you think you should do first.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: Only using those cards there from the pack that you've got in front of you, which of those is the most important to do first?
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_00: You may not agree, it doesn't matter, and that's really important.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's up to you, it doesn't matter, but I am interested in seeing what you do.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, once you've got number one in place, then put number two behind it.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: What's the second thing you would do?
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you could go all the way through from one to twelve.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you a couple of minutes to do it.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: We won't probably go all the way through, but um, just do the first couple as you discuss them and uh and see where you go and see if you can you can put them on the floor, you can put them in a line.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how it does it, but one, two, three, four, five, so you'll put them in first thing to do, second, third, fourth, fifth, etc.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_03: What what do people think about that as a as a resource?
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean if if if you think between now and February, you think, oh yeah, maybe I'd like to have a go at doing this with my group, you can take a pack of cards with you.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_03: Is that okay?
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_03: Because I think we've got ten, we've got ten sets.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_03: So um, if you think, oh yeah, I think I think probably this might help.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_03: So again, in in some of the kind of response, but some of them think, oh, well, I wouldn't know where to start.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_03: How do I start to get our home group to think about this?
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_03: Kind of uh and actually this may be a place where to start.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_13: By between now and February, do you mean we have to give it back by February?
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_03: Well, no, no, I'm just thinking rather than some sometimes I you go to things and think, oh, it's free, I'll take it.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_03: And you not you haven't necessarily in your kind of framework thinking, oh yeah, so so I say February because obviously Christmas is coming soon, so so you you know that you might kind of um but yeah, maybe New Year's resolution, kind of January.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah, we uh uh when we plan the next term, because some people plan a term in it at a time, maybe when it comes to next term, actually, yeah.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_03: We could plan an evening in to do this, I'll I'll take the cards.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_03: So, yeah, I don't unless you need them back in February, but I just it's the question to try and get you to think rather than just thinking enjoy this just now, I'll take a set, and then you just live uh in the back seat of your car for a few months.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_03: Does that make sense?
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, and are there more we can get we can get more packs for you, yes.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: But they cost money.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, these ones uh we've got they're an older version, I've got newer versions coming out at the moment, but the the cost of it that will fall.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_00: But the church will the church will come back.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can have as many as you want.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_00: If I have to pay for them, I'll do it.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we'll we'll yeah, we just again part of this evening is to say to put some things into your hands to say, actually, you could try this.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_03: Because sometimes you think, oh, as a home group leader, oh, I've got this one more thing to do, just haven't got a clue apart from doing a Bible study on the Great Commission.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, kind of how we're gonna start people.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas where it's actually something like this is interactive, and hopefully you found it even just doing it now, it was slightly interactive, but you opinions are being expressed, the focus is the cards and not looking across the room at other people, kind of um, and it it helps with the conversation.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and again, it's great that there's some little, like Martin says, photograph at the front, photograph back.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, there's some little kind of take-home things as well.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_03: Is that is that is that okay?
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um just a just a few other things.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_03: So uh in some ways that could be an evening, or maybe it could be two evenings.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_03: You could do it kind of at the start of the month and at the end of the month, and just see if it if how how it's works.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_03: In some ways, small group could be a place of accountability.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_03: I know some people don't like that, they just kind of just let me go.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_03: Kind of, but some again, if you're leading your group well, and you and if God's on the move, and actually, one of the things is witnessing and evangelism is is slightly easier now than it was five, ten years ago.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_03: Kind of uh, as you lead your group, you want to be leading your group into the things that God's doing.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_03: So if he's doing that, then something like this could be repeated, kind of in six weeks' time, revisit it, and uh, how did you find it?
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_03: How did it go?
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_03: Again, maybe you've you've tried one or two of these things, and even the order you put them in is gonna be slightly different order this time, and and uh it's a different challenge this time.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, you know you've got the conversation going.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_03: Is that something else?
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_03: Great.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_03: So uh that's that's uh again, it's a free resource.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_03: Do take a pack uh away with you.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_03: I've got some more here if there's more than one or two want them on the on your table.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um there's a few other things here that there's a rather than a whole evening, uh, there's just some kind of things that to drop in from from time to time.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_03: So um for me, there's there's things like um uh how how do you just give people some little things to um uh to remember?
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_03: So so so the three B's kind of um again, be friendly, be curious, be ready.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_03: So uh again, it's something you could just kind of put in at the at the end, or if kind of somebody has bought something up that's about sharing faith.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_03: So actually, here's four B's that I that I think just are really helpful uh as far as it stance to be a witness to share your faith.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, be friendly.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_03: That there's there's something about friendliness and natural warmth that uh enables a conversation to happen rather than being slightly kind of uh nervous, angsty, um ardent, intense, kind of kind of lows-gunnies.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_03: You might think, oh, I've got to witness about Jesus.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_03: Kind of whereas kind of be friendly.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, kind of uh what how do we you could like people to be friendly to you?
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you be friendly to them like that, kind of be friendly.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_03: Uh be curious.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, there's something about um uh listening to other people.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_03: So sometimes you go into a conversation and think, okay, I'm gonna be the witness, I've got something to tell them, but actually be curious as to what's going on with them.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_03: What's going on with your life at the moment?
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, kind of what what are some of the kind of questions?
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, what's some things that really interest you?
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, what things in the news are really bugging you?
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_03: Kind of what kind of in your kind of uh emotional life at the moment, kind of how if kind of thumbs up, thumbs down, kind of where would you feel?
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, be curious about people.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_03: In some ways, if they are prepared to be honest about something that they're going through or something they're facing, actually, prayerfully you can then just think about how well here's something that I've found.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_03: Again, the opportunity to witness off the back of something cure your curiosity has called out of somebody.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, there's then a naturalness for conversation that's not I'm trying to lead them through this process and dot at the end, like you're saying, is conversion.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, be I think be curious.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_03: And and if you can help your home group people to be curious about their friends, their workplace, uh, actually be on the lookout for what you can learn about people rather than what you can tell people.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's a great stance to have, I think.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_03: And and and and people like other people to be interested in them.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_03: I mean it's kind of so so so being curious actually opens up relational connection in a really helpful way.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_03: And and then be ready.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so as you're being curious and you're finding out, actually being be ready because there may be an opportunity to say something, to praise something, uh kind of that's you you never know what the where the opportunity would be and so so so be ready.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_03: So again, you could you could you don't have to do a whole evening on that, but just maybe kind of I I keep some things in my back pocket that that's kind of when something comes up in the conversation, uh oh, have you heard about the three B's kind of maybe in your workplace this week?
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_03: Uh we're gonna take a chance to pray for our workplace in a minute.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe be friendly, be curious, be ready.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so this week be friendly to people, be curious with people that you're who you've sat next to uh in the office and be ready because who knows?
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_03: Even today, we've got to pray in a moment in our small group, even this week, God might give you the opportunity.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_03: So, are you ready to take the opportunity God's gonna give you?
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_03: That's okay.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_03: So, um another thing that I think is is uh um it's like an attitude thing, uh prayer, share, care.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_03: Can you kind of prayer, share, care?
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um I hear in Dave and I was Dave and myself were up in a little conference in Coventry and um talking to some people who who um run what they call microchurch, church back, it was a conference about church parting, and and they run something called microchurch.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and what they do is they they have some people who meet in a small group, but the small group is not for them, actually, the small group is to encourage them to be witnesses.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's the purpose of the small group.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_03: And they they have this little catchphrase um uh pray for three people every day, care for three people every week, share Jesus with three people every month.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_03: So in your group in the group, you'll say, actually, here's my three people.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_03: Kind of, here's my three people who aren't yet Christians, here's my three people that are friends, here's three people that my work colleagues, here's three people that are my are my neighbours.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm gonna for the next month or two months, I'm gonna pray for them every day.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_03: So every day I'm gonna make sure I pray.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um once a week, I'm gonna try and find an opportunity to care for them.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_03: It might be just sending them a text, a little encouragement, it may be taking them uh some of the homemade cakes, it may be when I see them at work, asking them how the kids are doing.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just gonna look for one opportunity a week to show some love, to show some care.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_03: Again, no strings of chat attached, just I'm gonna pray every day, I'm gonna look for one opportunity for those three three friends every week to to show some some love and some care.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_03: And then once a month, I'm gonna say, God, will you give me an opportunity to share?
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_03: So prayer, care, share.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_03: Kind of once a month for those three friends.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just looking praying, caring, but I'm looking for an opportunity, being ready to witness, to share a Jesus story with them, to offer to pray for them, uh, share something of my faith.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_03: And again, that's all you could say to your group.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, do you want to try sh could we try this experiment for a month?
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_03: Could we try the pray, care, share kind of thing?
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_03: That in the next month, just think now of three people that you work with, three people that you you go and see quite regularly.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, one piece of paper, write those three names down.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_03: Do you think you'd be committed to praying every day, caring for them, doing act of kindness once a week, and look for in this in this next month, one opportunity to share a Jesus story with them.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_03: Again, I I think it's it's and they would just hold each other accountable to has that happened.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_03: And again, it's not a guilt trick if you haven't managed to do it, but actually, if you aim to do something, you're more likely to do it than if you don't aim at anything.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_03: Even if you fail, you you're more like even if you you prayed for them every other day, you prayed for them more than you might have done.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_03: Even if you show an act of care, love once a fortnight rather than once a week, at least you've shown some more, even if you witness and share once every three months, it's maybe more than you would have done.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_03: So having a little kind of little catchphrase or little kind of something like that with your small group to say, shall we try to think this adventure together for the next month or two months?
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um I think um I think culture and society can be quite harsh for some people.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I think finding uh a countercultural community is is a great weakness in itself.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_03: And in some ways, your small group can be a countercultural community.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_03: I mean that's a hope, isn't it?
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_03: If if if everyone within your small group is open to Jesus, is open to the Holy Spirit, knows the love of the Heavenly Father, actually there should be something that's very different to your small group than um I don't know, uh a local allotment society or a train spotting group or a kind of actually there should be something that's different about about you.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_03: And so at what point do friends get invited into the orbit of a caring group that's not going to cancel them, that's not gonna kind of that's not judgmental, it's not harsh, it doesn't kind of doesn't have a set of kind of if you hit this, this, this criteria, then you're worth something, and if you don't, then you're not kind of actually you're just loved and careful for who you are.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and and so I think although your home group might be a caring care group and it may be a pastoral group, at some point the hope is there's something about the Christian community and family life that you've got there that can you open the door for non-church people to see that, for actually non-church people to be part of that.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_03: Now, again, they may struggle to come to a home group where you're doing a Bible study and then you've got the prayer chair, and someone's in the middle, and you lay your hands on them and prophesying over them.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_03: They may struggle with that.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_03: So it may be that you kind of think, um, I don't know, as a home group, we can have a games night.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_03: So we just go, we're gonna have a games night.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_03: Why not invite some of your friends from work?
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_03: And we're just gonna have a games night.
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna have different board games happening here, whatever, that we'll kind of have a little league and play kind of built teams against one another.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_03: We just have some fun together, come and be part of the community.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_03: And again, for you to invite a work colleague to become part of a games night, it's not like come to after or come to church, it's just come to a games night.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_03: Or it's kind of um uh birthday parties.
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um uh again, when you have a birthday, some people love to have a party.
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_03: Not everyone does, but actually there's it's an opportunity to invite home group as well as non-church friends to a to a birthday party.
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_03: So when I um uh when I was 50, I had a kind of a uh a party with a band dance or another.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and uh again, uh it was I I invited my church friends, I invited my family, including non-Christians, I included my I played tennis with a little 12 people who were non-church friends playing, I played tennis with, that they came along.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_03: Some of the people that I met through uh the food bank that I were regular kind of customers, guests.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, I thought, do you know what?
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_03: Why don't you come home as well?
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_03: And so we had a bar and dance upstairs, there was probably 150 people there, and there was a mixture of my church friends, a mixture of my tennis friends, a mixture of my people that I meet regularly at the food bank, who were kind of psychotic friends, when they realized that it was a kind of a all the food was free, and that there was a it was kind of you bring your own bottle kind of thing, and there's all kinds of bottles at the back.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_03: We did it out on slightly drunk people who were part of that, but but again, they were there, yeah, and and and it it just felt like here's the the different worlds of my life are meeting in an environment that the guys from food bank thought it's a free party.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_03: My tennis friends kind of were slightly curious about it, but they came along and they met all kinds of people.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_03: And again, you you may not do something a bit like that, but it means if it's your birthday and you're going out for a meal, why don't you invite some work colleagues alongside some of your home group?
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_03: Kind of um, or it may be that you think, do you know what someone in the home group would like to have a party, maybe they can't afford it.
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_03: Well, why don't you club together and say, Do you know what we'll run a party in the house here?
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_03: We'll get some pizzas and food, you bring your friends along, and we can just be a community where which invites your friends to become part of this party.
• 1:04:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, there's things like um, yeah, going for a walk when it's a nice sunny afternoon.
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_03: We just go for a walk out to the Cotswolds.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_03: Again, invite your friends from the office.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_03: Like, kind of we're going for a walk.
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_03: Do you fancy coming with us?
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_03: Me with some friends are going.
• 1:04:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um uh Sunday lunch pub trip, ten pin bowling.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, just think of things that that are fun that you can do both with your home route, but actually invite your non-church friends.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and and again, you invite them into a culture where they hopefully they see something that's different.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it's kind of living a life that demands a what was the one you had all that explanation.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:04:41
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and so my non my tennis friends uh next week when I was playing tentative, again, they're just really curious.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_03: They're really curious about why were some of the kind of homeless guys at my 50th birthday party.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um they were curious around some of my church kind of it was in the church building here, they were curious about the building.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_03: And again, kind of the curiosity demanded some some answers to witness.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um uh so can I can I jump in?
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there is a um a great phrase, uh, birds of a feather, you know the rest of it.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but your your friends, people who are like you, um, that's how they're your friends, because they are like you.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_00: You don't really become friends with people who are completely different to you because of the overlap of life, and there's not so much opportunity.
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_00: You might work for them, you might have them in your home group.
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_00: They they're not your friends, they're just people that you know.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_00: But you are going to be friendly with some people in your home group, and you are gonna not friendly, but they'll be your friends.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_00: Not you can be friendly with everybody, they're friends, but you also have friends outside.
• 1:05:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the thing that is important is that they've all got at least you in common, but you've all got something in common.
• 1:05:53
  SPEAKER_00: And because you're the similar ish, so it sometimes seems to be the Got to jump this great chasm to get from your church friends and your non-church friends get together, but actually, quite often, there's some of them, some of your non-church friends, or some of your church friends will be similar enough for it not to be a problem.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_00: With I talk about chasms, jumping chasms, and leaps of faith, but also so you do have to take leaps of faith.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you just clench your fists together and screw your eyes up close and go for it.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a leap of faith.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's fair enough.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_00: But actually, there's also little pixie steps of faith as well.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's easy to do the easy, go for the easy wins.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_00: Get your friends who are friends.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_00: You might find that really and if you're praying in your small group, as we've already discussed, here's what I find strange sometimes.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you say, look, let's pray for three people, let's pray for five people, pray for a number of people, you might find praying for them.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh that's interesting.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_00: Two people in the home group have got the same friend, and you didn't know.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's interesting all of a sudden.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you see the overlap of life just weirdly working, it's incredible.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it is about community, and the community is is is phenomenal, and you can actually bring people into the community a lot easier than you think you can.
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um, just the last thing, we've almost got a pastor.
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um just the last thing.
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not sure if ever at home people you have prayer chair.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_03: Do you ever do prayer chair?
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_03: Kind of at the at the end of the session.
• 1:07:30
  SPEAKER_03: Uh sometimes if you just say, Oh, anyone get any prayer requests, um sometimes it's it's the same voices that always say, I've got this problem, this problem, this issue, this issue, my granny's still ill, whatever.
• 1:07:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and and then maybe some people who never get the chance to say something because kind of and so uh in some of the groups I've read, we we we have prayer chair where maybe two people each week it's their chance to sit in the prayer chair, and they don't tell us what their prayer needs are, we just pray for them, and we listen to God and we prophesy.
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_03: And so actually, everyone, every everyone gets the chance to be prayful, whether they are vocal or non-vocal.
• 1:08:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um uh so we do prayer chair, um, but in some ways to do workplace prayer chair, uh which is a slight variation, where actually we're not just gonna pray for you, we're actually gonna pray for your workplace.
• 1:08:17
  SPEAKER_03: So so tonight, and maybe you can have two or three people on on uh kind of on prayer chair and and say, okay, what's your workplace?
• 1:08:24
  SPEAKER_03: What's your workplace, what your what's your workplace?
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, how do we pray for you?
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, how can we prophesy, listen to God, for you on your path?
• 1:08:30
  SPEAKER_03: And actually, even in doing that, it sends a message that actually your workplace is important.
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, the people that you know in your workplace, actually, as a group, we want to be committed to praying for you too, and and so kind of just thinking of something like that.
• 1:08:43
  SPEAKER_03: That you don't have to that every week, but just kind of once in a while to say, okay, we're not gonna do a regular prayer chair this week, we're gonna do workplace prayer chair, okay.
• 1:08:50
  SPEAKER_03: Three of you, we'd love you to sit on these chairs, and we're just gonna you're gonna have two minutes to talk about your workplace, and then we're gonna pray for you, and we're gonna listen to God for you, prophesy over you.
• 1:09:00
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, that this week we're gonna anticipate God's gonna open a door for you in your workplace for Jesus that maybe wasn't gonna be there because we've been praying.
• 1:09:08
  SPEAKER_03: Is it is that so so um uh and again it's not a whole evening, so you can still do regular Bible study, you can still do all your social stuff, but just when it comes to the prayer bit at the end, rather than saying has anyone got any prayer needs, say this week it's prayer for the workplace.
• 1:09:22
  SPEAKER_03: Does that make sense?
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um just before we finish, any any questions or comments?
• 1:09:30
  SPEAKER_07: One more top tip from my experience.
• 1:09:34
  SPEAKER_07: Having an action that you take directly from the Bible almost as like homework is really helpful.
• 1:09:41
  SPEAKER_07: And I actually I've been doing this for years, but I read a really interesting book recently which talked about the Greek philosophy, the modern philosophy, that a lot of us come from.
• 1:09:51
  SPEAKER_07: We hear a sermon, and our question will be, what did you think of the sermon?
• 1:09:55
  SPEAKER_07: And it's very much a knowledge-based, and there's almost this principle that knowledge will change emotions, and emotions will create actions.
• 1:10:03
  SPEAKER_07: Whereas in the Hebrew, they had an action-based response.
• 1:10:07
  SPEAKER_07: So they hear the Bible and they say, How do we put that into practice?
• 1:10:12
  SPEAKER_07: Then if we use an example of the 12 being sent out, they get sent out and they just do it, and then they come back with it was amazing, but this happens until their emotions change, and then they kind of give it some thoughts and some context and some knowledge afterwards.
• 1:10:31
  SPEAKER_07: And I found that really interesting together.
• 1:10:34
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, I would say we had a group years ago, post-Alpha groups, nobody was a Christian really, they were kind of on the search, and we would meet in a pub and we'd read a line from the Bible, we chat about it, and then there would be like what's our action off the back of this before we meet in two weeks' time.
• 1:10:55
  SPEAKER_07: And by the end of the year, everything president today, and their action, and they all went on to plant other groups, which was amazing.
• 1:11:07
  SPEAKER_07: But there was that something about let's take what Jesus is saying and test, like put it to the test and talk to the John of like if you don't believe it, try it out and see.
• 1:11:19
  SPEAKER_07: And um, I think that's a really powerful tool for yeah, doing some action.
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_03: If if you missed the first session on cypresship and mentoring, um that that was one thing to be kind of said in there is that is that it it is the putting into practice that's the deal, it's not just the knowing it.
• 1:11:36
  SPEAKER_03: So the wise person is the one who hears the words and puts it into practice.
• 1:11:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so yeah, in mentoring the question, two questions I'd ask people this what is Jesus saying to you at the moment and what you can do about it.
• 1:11:48
  SPEAKER_03: And basically, just those two questions in mentoring gets you a long, long way because it actually does call out action.
• 1:11:54
  SPEAKER_07: And we would have a group WhatsApp to encourage each other.
• 1:11:57
  SPEAKER_07: I think it was also helpful sometimes to say a fan's heart.
• 1:12:01
  SPEAKER_07: I remember there was one.
• 1:12:03
  SPEAKER_07: Do you mind?
• 1:12:04
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, the one week was love your neighbour, love your enemy, sorry, love your enemy.
• 1:12:10
  SPEAKER_07: And we decided how do we actually do that about this?
• 1:12:14
  SPEAKER_07: And at the time I had someone who's effectively just bullying me at work, and I decided that I would buy I committed to buying him a bottle of wine and giving him a genuine compliment about something that was good about.
• 1:12:28
  SPEAKER_07: And after we were two weeks before we were meeting, after a week, I basically talked myself out of doing this and I'm not prepared to do this, and then people started texting saying, Well, I've done mine or and then when I said I haven't done mine, it kind of almost also helped that, and then and that ultimately understood that I did do it, but it was hard.
• 1:12:54
  SPEAKER_07: But I think part of our sometimes we wouldn't do the the action, yeah, but it was okay to that was it wasn't like you have you failed, it was like well, why didn't you?
• 1:13:04
  SPEAKER_07: What what stopped you?
• 1:13:05
  SPEAKER_07: Was it fear?
• 1:13:06
  SPEAKER_07: Was it?
• 1:13:07
  SPEAKER_03: I think I think it's like that pre cash air.
• 1:13:10
  SPEAKER_03: If the pre cache air thing is is is you said yourself a thing and you could text that you have you played each week or have you shared this month, kind of, but again, it's not to judge, it's to give people the opportunity to act.
• 1:13:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um folks, that's uh we've probably run out of time, haven't we?
• 1:13:25
  SPEAKER_03: So um uh yeah, where there's no in some ways you your role is to decide.
• 1:13:32
  SPEAKER_03: So why we looked at discipleship last time is because discipling people, bringing people under the lordship of Jesus is really important.
• 1:13:38
  SPEAKER_03: So actually, where there's no discipleship, there is probably no outreach.
• 1:13:41
  SPEAKER_03: So in some ways, if you're truly being a disciple of Jesus, there will be some kind of life that you've got to be able to share, there'll be some kind of passion that you've got that will make a difference.
• 1:13:51
  SPEAKER_03: So um, we do need uh discipleship.
• 1:13:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and uh Dallas Willow says this um the way to get as many people into heaven as you can is to get heaven into as many people as you can.
• 1:14:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um there's something about uh the infectiousness of who Jesus is to you that will make regional witness happen.
• 1:14:13
  SPEAKER_03: It's not his an activity that we need to be doing.
• 1:14:15
  SPEAKER_03: So again, if you go back to your groups and think, oh yeah, I've got to persuade you to do this stuff.
• 1:14:19
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, in the end of the day, it's it's the passion for and the love for Jesus that's going to make it happen rather than an obligation and a duty to do that as well.
• 1:14:29
  SPEAKER_03: Folks, okay, so thanks very much for for pitching in.
• 1:14:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um there's actually if if you want the notes, do drop me a little message.
• 1:14:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um do drop me a little email and uh I can send you the PowerPoint if you want those notes as well.
• 1:14:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um if you if you want that there are some more packs, so if if you if you want to think actually, yeah, in the next few months, I'd love to give that a go.
• 1:14:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um do take a pack.
• 1:14:56
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, if you um uh if you give it a go, and I think myself would just love to hear how it goes.
• 1:15:03
  SPEAKER_00: Oh please tell me how it goes.
• 1:15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um and actually, if you do need any more, forget the money summer, that was a mistake, so yeah.
• 1:15:08
  SPEAKER_00: That was a stupid thing to say.
• 1:15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, but we've got more, and I can get as many more as you need, so just let us know.
• 1:15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Can I just say I want to talk to as many people as possible about this sort of stuff?
• 1:15:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to talk more about it, I have a whole box of materials down the different things, and I'm not gonna show you them now, uh not and give you the plan, but my email is quite easy to remember if you can write things down.
• 1:15:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's just martin.
• 1:15:40
  SPEAKER_00: You do have to spell that right, it's a bit difficult.
• 1:15:42
  SPEAKER_00: R-W-A-W at Woodlands Church, whatever the thing is for woodlands.net.
• 1:15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so it's quite easy to remember.
• 1:15:49
  SPEAKER_00: And if you invite me to come to your house and have a coffee with you, don't have to feed me any biscuits at all.
• 1:15:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'll talk to you about this and all the other stuff that we've got in Agatha.
• 1:15:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you want me to come and talk to your homebrew, why would you?
• 1:16:02
  SPEAKER_00: But if you do, then I'll do that.
• 1:16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Anything at all that I can do to help you to be um to doing more of this is fine, no pressure at all.
• 1:16:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to help.
• 1:16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so please, if you feel that that's something that's useful, please give me a just email.
• 1:16:20
  unknown: Okay.
• 1:16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Please do some of your belligerents.
• 1:16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 1:16:36
  SPEAKER_00: That would be lovely.
• 1:16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
• 1:16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray then.
• 1:16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Father God, I want to thank you so much that you love us.
• 1:16:44
  SPEAKER_00: We've done nothing to deserve it.
• 1:16:45
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we quite often do a lot to deserve not to be loved by you, and yet you still do.
• 1:16:51
  SPEAKER_00: You've chosen us, you've saved us, you've brought us into your uh kingdom, into a relationship with you.
• 1:16:58
  SPEAKER_00: We are adopted as your sons and daughters, and therefore we are princes and princesses, children of the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the creator of everything seen and unseen.
• 1:17:09
  SPEAKER_00: You, Father God, flung stars into space.
• 1:17:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're the one that keeps a planet spinning.
• 1:17:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know how many grains of sand there are on the seashores and in the deserts, you know how much hair we've got on our heads, you know even everything about us.
• 1:17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yet you still love us.
• 1:17:25
  SPEAKER_00: I actually don't understand that, Lord.
• 1:17:28
  SPEAKER_00: But Father, thank you.
• 1:17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you that we're not the only ones that you love.
• 1:17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you that you love those of us, those people in our home groups, you love those people we work with, you know our you know and you love our families, the people that we've written off and said they will never become Christians.
• 1:17:45
  SPEAKER_00: You love them.
• 1:17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you that you give us words.
• 1:17:50
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that when we feel you giving us confidence, we don't turn our backs, we don't turn away from you.
• 1:17:58
  SPEAKER_00: When we feel you uh nudging us, I pray, Father God, you give us the confidence to speak the words, or even maybe just to open our mouth and see what comes out that you give us.
• 1:18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we're not on our own list, and I know that's true.
• 1:18:12
  SPEAKER_00: I want to thank you that you hold us and that you put your arms around us and you shield us and you protect us and lead us.
• 1:18:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I pray for these people, Father, as they take their people into the new year, even that they'll be able to be leading people in the way that you're leading them.
• 1:18:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll be able to see your face shining on them, and they'll be blessed by you.
• 1:18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.