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Are mission teams there to act as ‘hired gun’ evangelists, or could they be better used teaching congregations how to love their churches and lead the mission?

Here’s an excerpt from my latest sydneyanglicans.net article:

Yet, it is possible, and perhaps even preferable for the mission team to concentrate less on evangelism, and more on equipping. We assume that because it’s called a ‘mission’ team, the group must be doing outreach. However, the reason they are a mission team is because they are ‘sent’ from the Bible college. After all, the word ‘mission’ comes from the Latin missio (to send.)

 

So, if we remove the premise that a mission team must concentrate on doing the evangelism, then many options open to us that may provide much greater opportunities for church growth (in both number and quality.)

Read this latest sydneyanglicans.net article here.

Last month I wrote an article for sydneyanglicans.net called Praying to Win (see my ‘talks and writings page for details’.) It addressed the surprisingly controversial practice of praying in ‘evangelistic’ gathering.

It was nice to receive some positive feedback from some readers. One reader emailed me, and included the following in the body of his email:

“I have had many people tell me stuff that is going on in their lives, either on the train, at work etc, and the only people who have ever refused when asked if it was OK to pray with them about that, were Christians. Every time I have asked a non Christian about praying with them they have said yes. Whether it be on the train / station, bus,
work and even on the street. Some of those people I have never seen again, some of them I have prayed a few times with since and the door is open to share the gospel message more with them – but every time they have been touched, and said “thank you to me””

In response to this feedback, and at the request of the www.sydneyanglicans.net editor, I’ve written a follow up article further exploring the issue of public prayer as a form of promoting the gospel. Look out for the article in the next few days!

Read article online at www.sydneyanglicans.net, click here. To discuss the article, visit the forums at sydneyanglicans.net.