Street Pastors

Street Pastors Schemes are a relatively new introduction in towns and cities across Britain. Begun in 2003 in response to knife crime in urban areas, teams of trained street pastors are available in some places from 10 pm to 4 am to help or to listen to young people (mainly) when they emerge from pubs and clubs. It's an effective form of practical Christian mission. I learned about them from a friend who is a Street Pastor in London, and I have recently discovered that they exist in many towns not too far from us, including Salisbury and Weymouth. I'm not aware if they have arrived in the Diocese of Oxford yet, but if not, it would be great to get something going!

http://www.streetpastors.co.uk/Home/tabid/255/Default.aspx

How to Pray

 

Evagrius of Pontus

Chapter 3

Prayer is a mental conversation with God; obviously then, one's mind needs tranquility, so that it may be quiet and stand attentively before the Master of the household without distraction, and discuss matters with him with no-one interrupting. Translated from the Greek by John de la Tour Davies.


Comment
Evagrius was alert to the power of distractions to interrupt our prayer. For him, distractions arise from anxieties; so it is necessary to arrive at a state of tranquility if mental prayer is to be possible. In this analogy, God is the Master of the household and the one who prays is like God's steward, who as a good servant would put aside his own concerns and agendas, and come daily before the householder to listen carefully and to receive his instructions. The steward would not act until he had heard his master's wishes. Nothing and no-one would come before that meeting of the steward and the master: it might be the only opportunity that day for the steward to receive his briefing, and if he missed it, the master's plans and purpose could not be effectively carried out.

Anglican Diocesan Missioners conference 2009

I spent the last week in June at the annual Anglican Missioners conference, held in Merville, France. The theme was 'How do we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?' and was focused on the subject of exile. In a post-modern world, the church (often still in Christendom mode, and expecting to draw people in and therefore to Christ through occasional offices such as weddings, christenings etc) is 'in exile', and its song is a strange one to the people of the 'land', whilst our experience of 'singing' it is often of not even speaking the same language any more.

So how do we communicate the good news of Jesus Christ in today's world? How do we achieve cross-cultural mission and evangelism? Things talked about were:

1. Spirituality: people are attracted to things which offer an experience of the 'spiritual dimension'. How do we ensure it is Christian spirituality they turn to?


2. Discipleship: we are called by Jesus to make disciples, not to build churches, so why do we so often start the other way round? Perhaps, I thought, because we focus first on spirituality, offering what we consider to be attractive worship where the presence of God may be 'felt'? Or perhaps, because we feel constrained to stick to what we know: Alpha; house groups; liturgies; structure and order?

I kept saying, "But what about the Holy Spirit?"

I think that I was wondering if we were rather missing the point a bit and getting sucked back into evangelism by works rather than grace.

What I was trying to say was that if the mission is God's mission, the Spirit has gone before us and is already making a home in the land of our exile. To be exiled is to become marginal, and the places where people are marginalised are where God is always at work. So all we need to do is presence ourselves with the Spirit where the marginalised are to be found, and hang out with them.

That's the way all my best evangelistic opportunities happen - when I am alert, and available, and somewhere on the margins. For example, waiting for a bus or at a train station, in transit, people will randomly speak to me and we will have an in depth conversation that has evangelistic undertones. What I find helpful in such situations is to pray in advance of my journey and ask the Holy Spirit to open my eyes to the ones who are searching for God, so that when they speak to me, I will be ready to listen.