This is a piece I wrote for my colleagues in Wycliffe Bible Translators this month:
It’s a long way from High Wycombe to Minehead, especially when you drive the return journey three times in ten days. Still, it was a real privilege to be able to go over to Spring Harvest and to share about what God is doing ‘Reaching the Unreached’. Over the three sessions, almost a hundred people came along, listened, asked questions and shared their experiences; it was a good time. But, and here is the challenge for Wycliffe in the years to come, 100 people is less than 1% of those who were at Minehead during that time.
OK, there were reasons why people didn’t come to the seminar. Let’s face it, I’m hardly a household name (even in my own house!) and my charisma was never going to draw in the punters. On one of the days it was sunny and there were other seminars by better known speakers running at the same time. I can understand why numbers weren’t high… but less than 1%?
Reaching the Unreached is an essential topic for today’s church. The future of the church in the UK depends on us reaching outside of the ever-shrinking boundaries of the church into a scary world where people don’t understand our language and traditions, and there is an amazing amount of encouragement in hearing about what God is doing in other parts of the world. But less than 1% of people at Spring Harvest saw it as important.
At this point, Wycliffe members normally tell me that their church is really motivated for mission. Well, yes, that’s why they support you and perhaps they were among the 1% who came to my seminar. But that’s not the point. The vast majority of churches in the UK have a shrinking interest in overseas mission and very often such interest as there is is restricted to social aid projects.
Partner organisations around the world are asking for Wycliffe UK to send more workers and to fund more projects. We can only do this as more churches get on board with what we are doing, but the reality is that we are swimming against the ecclesiastic tide in the UK. This is the biggest challenge that my successor will face. All of the internal discussions in Wycliffe and SIL are interesting and important, but they are not the main issue.
17 replies on “The British Church and the Challenges for Wycliffe”
RT @kouya: The British Church and the Challenges for Wycliffe: This is a piece I wrote for my colleagues in Wycliffe Bible T… http://t.co…
Have to do more than pray, sorry to say. Until the UK Church engages with the poor, ‘undesirable’, ill-represented of their communities, and delivers – truly delivers – the love of God into their lives, the Church will continue to shrink and be seen as irrelevant and tribal and judgemental. Each one of us (hopefully) knows somewhere this love is happening, but it ain’t what the Church is known for, let’s be honest.
What, exactly, are the local churches asking their congregations to spread around the world? A joyful, transforming message of love, or a means of being tribal in a holier-than-thou way (“you read WHICH version of the Bible? You believe the earth is HOW old? You think WHAT about God healing here and now?” etc etc ad infinitum and ad nauseum.) I think most believers are actually ashamed at heart of what their church has to offer people. Until we are all experiencing some form of genuine renewal, we have nothing of any value to share with others – in this country, let alone overseas!
(Hoping Eddie doesn’t block me for this rant – thanks for reading!)
@kouya so we need to reach the unreached churches in the UK with the message that we need to reach the unreached language groups globally?
RT @kouya: The British Church and the Challenges for Wycliffe: This is a piece I wrote for my colleagues in Wycliffe Bible T… http://t.co…
RT @kouya: The British Church and the Challenges for Wycliffe: This is a piece I wrote for my colleagues in Wycliffe Bible T… http://t.co…
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I am not ashamed of what our Church offers people. It isn’t perfect (but it won’t be with me in it), so I would disagree with your “most believers” from my experience. I would ask you one question “What are you going to do about it?”
I am reminded of this which was posted on Simon Guillebaud’s timeline this morning:
‘“If there is a problem somewhere,” he said with his dry chuckle, “This is what happens: Three people will try to do something concrete to settle the issue. Ten people will give a lecture analysing what the three are doing. One hundred people will commend or condemn the ten for their lecture. One thousand people will argue about the problem. And one person—only one—will involve [himself or herself] so deeply in the true solution that they are too busy to listen to any of it.” Now asked gently, his penetrating eyes meeting each of ours in turn, “which person are you?” – Elias Chacour, recounting a seminary professor’s challenge to him in seminary’
Churches aren’t perfect, but this doesn’t absolve them of sharing what they have both with the local community or the wider world. However, our lack of perfection means that we should be prepared not just to share what we have with the wider world, but to receive from them, too. This is something I covered in my previous blog post.
https://www.kouya.net/?p=5983
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RT @kouya: The British Church and the Challenges for Wycliffe: This is a piece I wrote for my colleagues in Wycliffe Bible T… http://t.co…
I wouldn’t be so worried about the low attendance at Minehead – if you go to a Missions seminar at SH, you are practically saying to God that you are prepared to serve him overseas… and that thought scares people off! But I agree that many churches have lost the vision for overseas mission. (Not mine 🙂 ) We really need to pray about that – but we also need to consider if our message needs to change (when we do get the chance to present something). If we speak focusing on getting support for us, we are not going to get anywhere! Maybe we need to spend more time in prayer asking God what to share and how to share it – and asking God to work with power – and to give people that vision. I have a feeling that part of that vision involves seeing God’s Kingdom on earth (everywhere on earth!)
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I don’t have a solution though I’m not sure the situation is as bleak as you suggest. My experience is that mission is a priority but churches struggle to translate mission as a concept into being missional; and you are right it is a key challenge for the UK church.
Maybe the challenge is that individuals and churches find it easier to give to projects because they have deliverable outcomes and achievable short term goals, or to join campaigns which have impact and create the sense that ‘we are changing something’. I suspect that both fit into our activist culture and desire for the new thing.
We live in a time where emotional connection is more important than ever and it is hard to have that with an organisation, no matter how good they are at telling stories.
Are there ways forward? Perhaps a change of language: from giving to mission to investing in the kingdom. Perhaps a change of approach: from mission agency as the funnel through which giving is channelled to the consultant who helps network giver and receiver.