Lessons from India 2012
I visited India with Compassion UK and was privileged to visit some of the projects they managed and see their work in action. For those of you who sponsor children through Compassion let me encourage you, your donation every month makes a massive difference in the lives of the children and their communities.
On arrival in Kolkata we first visited the areas where Mother Teresa had ministered for over 40 years. The poverty was shocking. Men, women and children were lying in the streets and dying from poverty. What do you do in these circumstances? If I was called by God to minister in Kolkata what would it look like?
We moved on to the ‘House of the Missionaries of Charity’ and there visited the bedroom/office of Mother Teresa. I was struck by the simplicity of it all...
She had no Wi-Fi, data projectors, media software, puppets or worship team. She never staged any outreach festivals, ran a 5-a-sdie football competition or hosted a guest speaker. In truth she never did anything big! She was a tiny wee woman with a massive heart. So what did she do? She did lots and lots of little things really well.
That visit got me thinking; how much of our church evangelism revolves around events and programmes rather than lifestyle? The idea of lifestyle evangelism sounds nice, it rolls of the tongue and makes us feel good when we encourage it in our churches, but my trip begs the question: are we really doing it? For all of our events and programmes Alpha and Christianity Explored, Gala Dinners and seeker-friendly services are we really fulfilling the great commission as Jesus intended? I am not suggesting for one second that we bin these programmes and others like it; they have and will continue to help many people hear and understand the Christian massage.
But personally, I just don’t want to be part of an ‘event-driven’ ministry and attend an ‘Alpha Church’. I want my evangelism to mean more than events. To be daily Spirit-led rather than driven by purposes.To be part of a community centred church where we engage with real people in the real world every day. Not just for an event or series.
So what might lifestyle evangelism look like? What could we learn from Mother Teresa? How do we model her in our neighbourhood?
Well every day she started with prayer (at 5am!) for those who lived (if you can call it living) in her area. Motivated by love she would then move to the streets, homes and communities to pray for others. By 4.30pm she would return to her living quarters for more prayer with the other sisters before returning to her room to respond to her mail and plan ahead. Her door was always open for people to come and speak with her and receive prayer.
Mother Teresa was devoted to bringing Jesus into her community through prayer. And after 800 or so words of typing this is exactly what I encourage you do to. I encourage you to pray for your neighbourhood and I encourage you to pray in your neighbourhood. Don't just pray for people but with people... right where they are. Mother Teresa didn’t bring them back to the church or convent for prayer, she didn’t get out a prayer diary and pop their name in it, and she didn’t give them a flyer to the weekly open church prayer time (all of which are great ways to encourage prayer). No, she shuffled up beside them, leaned into them, lifted a wrinkled old hand, placed it on them and invited Jesus to come close.
A friend of mine, Roy, inspired me a number of years ago by a conversation he had with a fellow business man. They were in a coffee shop and knowing that Roy was a Christian his friend asked him to “keep him in his prayers”. Roy responded “I will but in case I forget let me pray for you now.” “What you mean right now? In the cafe? In front of all these people?” came a surprised and nervous response. Roy smiled; reassured him, and right there and then prayed that God would touch the man’s life and his circumstances.
This is a model I have sinced used on many occasions. To lay hands on someone and invite the Holy Spirit to come and meet their point of need is one of the best tools for evangelism we possess but sadly it is one we use the least.
A lifestyle of evangelism must surely begin with a lifestyle of prayer. Not just for people but with people. It starts when we rise early from our beds and bathe our day in prayer asking God to give us opportunities. Flowing from this, we should then carry that same praying mindset into our schools, universities and businesses - pray without ceasing.
Mother Teresa impacted the world with 40 years of doing just this...meeting ordinary people and introducing them to an extraordinary God.
May we be spurred on to do the same!
More about Mother Teresa:
Mother Teresa was a charity worker in India who founded Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, India. For 45 years she looked after the poor, sick, orphaned and dying. By the 1970’s she was internationally famed as a humanitarian and advocate for the poor and helpless. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1980 for her humanitarian work. Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity continues to expand, and at the time of her death it was operating 610 missions in 123 countries including hospices and homes for people with HIV and AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children and family counseling programs, orphanages and schools. It was Mother Teresa who said, "I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples." This is the statement that joined millions of people in unity.
Mother Teresa's room in Kolkata.
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