“E” before “NC” in ENC
2 Thessalonians 1-3 Finally, brothers, pray for us that the Lord’s message may spread rapidly and be honoured, just as it was with you, ...”
The spread of the message, evangelism, is first, and planting a new church is second. The spread of the gospel should be the focus of our prayers, and then that God would cause the ‘honouring’ and the building of his church as a result.
A new church should be like all of Christ’s churches, be focused on prayerful gospel proclamation to both ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’.
A core group from a church can begin ‘group evangelism’ which becomes a new church. This is one sort of church planting. Another way of doing this is for an evangelist to proclaim the gospel and gather people. Both sorts of church planting involve evangelism first.
Our prayer, as Paul’s was, should be for the spread and honouring of the Word of the Lord.
Launching new ENC Conferences
We are pleased to kick off a series of new conferences over the next two months. These conferences are opportunities for people to think about and try out new and different approaches to outreach. What are the out of the box things that we might try?
Exchange Conference on 1st June aimed at both clergy and lay people, will be a dynamic forum where delegates can exchange ideas and workshop ways of running evangelistic ministries. Phillip Jensen will give the keynote address, with much of the afternoon given to a range of two minute presentations exploring specific kinds of evangelistic ministries, giving delegates a chance to interact more deeply with ideas that appeal to them in their contexts.
The Other 90% conference on 13th July will look at how our current methods of 'doing church' can be changed to connect with the large number of people in Sydney who are not reached by Anglican churches.
The theme of the conference will be “What will our theology allow that our current practice inhibits?" The idea is to explore practices within our theological framework that aren’t quite what we’ve been doing.
You often wouldn’t invite Muslims or Hindus, or perhaps people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, to our churches in many cases. These are people that we don’t often reach with our current practices, so we’re exploring that. The Common Ground seminar held in the following week looks at that in more detail, looking particularly at engaging with Islam, but much of it is applicable to other minority groups.
Click on the links to register online. We hope you will join us at these events.
- Bruce Hall
For advice about church planting, cross-cultural ministry or if you are after a speaker for your evangelistic event, please contact us.
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In Memoriam
John Charles Chapman
1930 - 2012
www.johnchapmanfoundation.org.au