Testimony (The growing church, give us the lost) @ Fatfields
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The Great Commission
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
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17 From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. 18 When they arrived, he said to them: “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. 19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents. 20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 21 I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.
22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
25 “Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26 Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. 27 For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. 28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God,[a] which he bought with his own blood.[b] 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
32 “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. 35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
36 When Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. 37 They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. 38 What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship. -
This is my last service at Fatfield’s Art Centre 20 June 1999 - I was supposed to preach on the theme ‘Give us the Lost’ but changed it to a personal testimony.
This reading from Acts is Paul’s farewell to the Church at Ephesus. It feels a tad poignant as I say my farewell to this fellowship. It has been such a pleasure to be a part of the Arts Centre fellowship in Fatfileds for the last two years. You have welcomed and blessed our family in many ways. I would like to share my testimony with you, I hope it speaks into your own situation. The Lord said in Matthew 28:20 as he was ascending from this earth, 'surely, I am with you always.' That ios a promise which I hope to leave you with - it is a word that ministers to me every day and I hope it has that effect on you.
Introduction
I’d like to do something a bit different this morn - I hope you know by now, after two years with you, that I am passionate about this topic ‘The growing church; give us the lost.’ The idea that from the church fellowship (this holy communion) we go out to reach ‘the lost’, the non church people, spurring each other on, sharing our stories of mission with each other, stories of hardship and joy, stories of people we are praying for, friends who are spiritually ‘lost’ - i.e. outside the kingdom of God - people that we would dearly love to hear about and respond to Jesus.
So what’s different? Well it’s my last Sunday preaching and I’m not going to preach! I don’t want to sound arrogant, but this prayer has been my most frequent prayer or heart cry since I became a Christian 35 years ago. What I’d like to do today is share my testimony with you instead and hopefully it will reflect the constant tussle I’ve had with this prayer: ‘give us the lost’.
Testimony
You see, this prayer itself can be a cop out “give us the lost - for the sake of church growth” we can sit in prayer meetings & services praying ‘give us the lost’ and we can get up, go home and wonder when’s God going to answer and give us the lost. But to think this way is to treat ‘the lost’ like they are a diseased mass. The lost are not a mass out there, they are friends of yours and mine - people who will break my heart if they don’t find Jesus in their lifetime, people who matter so much to me that I will get closer to them, laugh, walk, drink, weep, sport. So when we pray ‘give us the lost’ I want to interrupt that prayer and say let’s name them, who are we talking about - and I hope you’ll say, my Dr J Smith, the vet Bill Jones, my sister (Sarah) my uncle Tom, my mum my dad - I hope you’ll say George at work, Karen at the paper shop, Julie who I play squash with, Sally & Jeff next door - get the picture - the lost have names, & more they matter to God, he has a purpose for them (gt things in store for the people you have named, if only they would turn from following their own ways to following Jesus
Early Years
Since I knelt by my bed as an 8 year old boy and told the Lord Jesus that I wanted to follow him, I have walked this tight rope of mixing it with Christians and non-Christians, as John 17 puts it ‘in the world but not of the world.’
I was the Christian at school who didn’t fit the Scripture Union mould - I wore a little lapel badge “Jesus saves” and yet I knocked about with Steve Eccles and Paul Allum, suspected members of the junior UDA. Many times they taunted me to take the ‘Jesus badge’ off, but I wanted them to know what made me tick. Somehow I wanted them to see Jesus in me.
Then as I came through school I became good at sport - football and hockey in particular - training hard and often. I got selected to play for NI as school boy mixing it with a different bunch and hoping and praying that somehow they would see Jesus in me.
Moving to England
I left Northern Ireland and moved to Manchester to study Accountancy at Manchester University. I continued with sport, hockey. I was selected to play for the University 1st XI and selected to play for Ulster ‘juniors.’ All through this sporting phase I had to weigh up whether I was ‘OF the world’ or I was God’s rep (his ambassador) IN the world. I confess there were times I crossed over and compromised. There were times when I was so involved in training, socialising and flirting that I yielded to temptation. Sin becomes so attractive, luring us away from the Lord. People may know you are a Christian but they don’t see a difference - it is a bad witness. Oftentimes I would come back to the Lord, like a prodigal son - being and feeling a failure - saying sorry Lord, please give me another chance. He has given me so many chances. He is merciful, slow to anger, forgives, cleanses (washes us whiter than snow - Psalm 51:7).
That’s the risk you run in mixing it in the world. But Jesus understands, after all he was tried and tested in all things, as we are (Hebrews 4:15). It is a risk I had to take, evebn though there were times I let myself and the Lord down. It is a risk worth taking to be with the people the Lord has given us to care for - to pray for and befriend - we are their best chance of finding Jesus.
So I graduated from Manchester University and moved to Wakefield to train as Chartered Accountant. I continued playing hockey for Wakefield Mens Hockey 1st Xl(a Premier league team). I guess at 23, it looked like I had it all going for me, sporty, flirty, good job, money, house, Christian.
Honister
Then I went on a Church weekend away [‘never go with us’] climbing in Lake District, camping at Grange. We’d just climbed Scarfell pike and were returning to camp site in our Morris Traveller up Honister Pass, singing choruses (at the time). Then it happened - the accident, near the top of a 1-in-3 gradient Honister Pass. The car stalled. There was some confusion between clutch, brake and hand-brake. The car his the dry stone wall as it sped backwards. It spun over the side and down into the ravine. Tumbling down. I was thrown out and the car hit me and came to rest upon me.
My back was broken at the T11,T12 vertebrae. My broken ribs pierced my lungs. The others who remained in the vehicle survived.
Climbers scurried down the bank and lifted the car off me. A Priest knelt beside me and asked: ‘Feel God with you?’ In my mind I answered NO, I do not. At that instant I heard a voice from heaven saying these words: “I am with you always”).
Meanwhile, another mini miracle happened. The first car to stop and offer assistance was a Christian doctor. He followed the Ambulance all the way to Whitehaven hospital. (He introduced himself to me at a FGB Dinner 12 months later).
I was in Hospital rehabilitating for 10 months. There I was again, mixing it with a new bunch of non-believers. I took some stick off those guys, they nicknamed me ‘Jesus’ and taunted me to turn the lunchtime jugs of water into wine. Read Diary extract 15 January 1980.
The recovery and return to everyday life as a disabled man followed. I continued working for the Accountants and by the end of 1980 I had qualified as a Chartered Accountant. I formed my own Accountancy Practice and, again, I had a new bunch of people to engage with - clients and friends. Besides their Annual Accounts and tax needs, it became evident that some were needy in other respects. Angus was in Debt and drinking to dorwn his sorrows. Gordon was diagnosed with cancer and was dying. Ray was lonely. Started to write about FRANC’s in my journal and pray for them by name. [Read extract].
Jump to 1992, I started to take an interest in the Willow Creek Community Church, Illinois near Chicago. That influenced my thoughts and prayers to think about what it meant to be a ‘Church for the Unchurched.’ I pursued this desire to create a safe space for people to examine the claims of Jesus without Christian jargon, in a non-threatening environment. Yet it must have the challenge of the gospel. We set to build a team of like-minded people in Wakefield. A small team of 20 people met to pray and plan for monthly presentations. It was called The Big If. People were challenged to invite non-Christians to a Theatre in Wakefield for these ‘shows.’ We chose attractive themes such as: ‘Money Matters’ ‘Winning over Stress’, ‘Everyone Hurts Sometimes,’ ‘The Age of Rage,’ ‘Is Sex 4-letter word?’ The Big If had moderate success. To return to our opening text there was a constant issue and it is this: if we treat the ‘lost’ as a mass out there rather than personal friends we are not following our Lord’s lead.
I will finish with challenge, there is huge potential here, praying for a new minister, from a base of worship and warm fellowship we need to spur each other on to pray for the lost. Witness to and pray for those whom the Lord has brought us into contact with - [why not write their names down - it will surprise you how many friends ad erelaticves there are in your circle of influence]. You may need to build up some relationships with non-Christian people.
This centre is a lovely place to invite people to, you are a welcoming people. Play to your strengths, befriend and invite - challenge too. Maybe select a specific service each month to invite non-Christians to : tailor the title and the content to someone who is ‘just looking’ [shop]
If you can respond by caring for & praying for your ‘lost’ FRANC’s leadership will respond by tailoring a service to be enquirer friendly. I’ll finnish with a scripture which haunts me and spurs me on at the same time I hope it has the same effect on you “if no one tells them how will they know..”
