Lay Parish Evangelist Magazine, June 2010, Issue 3 - Trained but Untamed,

Last Updated on Tuesday, 22 March 2011 15:53

Two Stories in this Issue of the Lay Parish Evangelist magazine:

• Sonia Blake – in training for work at Rawmarsh with Parkgate - discovers shopping and faith sharing can mix!
• Ministry among men – the Ecclesall story told by Barry Byles

Our next meeting – Monday July 5th at St Francis Bramley

The meeting starts at 7.30pm with input, prayer and sharing included.
I have invited Jenny Lowery as guest and speaker. Jenny was Mission and Evangelism Coordinator for Wakefield Diocese but now lives in Sheffield diocese worshipping at Ardsley. She is an excellent and charismatic speaker and is open to invitations to speak at your church or a group in your church. Until recently she was National President of the British Anglican Cursillo Council and she is a member of the College of Evangelists, a group recognised by the Archbishops for their outstanding contribution to evangelism.

See http://www.achurchnearyou.com/bramley-st-francis/
For maps.

Their own website is http://www.stfrancis.me.uk/

Two stories in this issue of Lay Parish Evangelists at work

Sonia Blake – in training for work at Rawmarsh with Parkgate - discovers shopping and faith sharing can mix!

I have been working on placement at Rainbows End Christian charity shop
since the end of January.  This has been a real eye opener for me as I have not had much contact with the Muslim community.  After my first few meetings with Yvonne Hayes (Church Army evangelist at Ellesmere), I realised that this was going to be out of my comfort zone as I had very little knowledge of Muslim religion, culture or language!.  Thanks to Our Lord, this has proved to be of little consequence.  I have made friends of British volunteers, new volunteers (most of whom have very little English) and regular customers. Also callers, such as those from Sheffield Street Pride.  I have been able to communicate with most of the customers who call looking for a bargain.  This involves a lot of demonstrative hand signalling and facial gesturing but what I have found is this:

That no matter where you are or whoever you try to communicate with, no matter what colour, culture or creed, the love of Our Lord Jesus will shine through!.  Yvonne does a wonderful job of showing the people of this area, the real love of Jesus.  Language always seems to be a barrier but this is
overcome by faith.  Just simple gestures such as a smile, a wave or a
kiss (learned that Muslim women kiss on both cheeks) overcomes many barriers and learning some of the language is a great step to a greeting from Jesus!

I am learning so much from this placement and now understand how the
language barrier can be so isolating for newcomers to this country.

So my friends; no matter where you are or what you do, the Love of Our Lord
Jesus will shine through you!  Never give up!

An example of how we can be misunderstood follows:

A rich man from Barnsley walks into a very elite jewellers shop. He says to
the manager " Nah then me owd flower, can tha mek me a statue o me dog in
gold?"  The manager replies "Certainly sir!  Eighteen carat?"
" nah! “Replies the man "chewin a bone!"

Ministry among men – the Ecclesall story told by Barry Byles
Hi, I’m Barry Byles, Lay Evangelist at All Saints Church, Ecclesall, Sheffield 11. Over the last couple of years I’ve been involved with the development of a Men’s Ministry at All Saints and Ian Smith, the Warden of Lay Parish Evangelists, has ask if I could pen a few reflections for our magazine which may be of help to others thinking along these lines, or already operating a Men’s Ministry. I should say at the outset that All Saints has always had a fairly healthy ratio of men/women, something that I know is not typical of many churches. However, we felt that a lot more could be done to attract and maintain men attending church. I suppose one of the main catalysts to this was the fact that our Family’s Minister, Jo Hird had set up a Women’s Ministry at church a few years previously which had proved very successful and gave a vision for us men. Her model to encourage and envision Christian women seemed to translate well for us men as well. 
Over recent years there have been a few activities for men at All Saints and one of the more recent notable ones was ‘The Great Escape’ where about 25 men from church had a weekend at a Youth Hostel in Derbyshire. Simon Bessant, our then newly appointed vicar, came out and talked to us about the ‘testosterone deficit’ in the church generally, and that planted a seed and a desire to take things further. But how? A few months later in early 2008 one or two of us got together to pray and look for ways to progress this Ministry. This led to an open meeting for men in the church to come along and have a brainstorming session on how we might take this forward and from this the Men’s Ministry was born. 
I think at the outset that we were careful not to go for the ‘big event’ but to start small and hoped things would grow organically –which they have done. This produced ‘Saturday at Starbucks’ (SAS) which was a very low organisational event taking place every Saturday morning from 8.30-10am at our local Starbucks Coffee Shop. The management were keen to accommodate us as it filled a bit of a ‘dead’ time before the shop started getting busy. All this consisted of is for guys in the church to just drop in during those times and have some fellowship together. There was no overt Christian input but invariably the conversations would turn to spiritual topics. One young man through just talking to some older Christians at SAS consolidated his faith and led him onto becoming baptised and confirmed a few weeks later. Just chatting amongst ourselves has produced some more interesting spin-offs such as the establishment of a family walking group and a ‘Parenting Day’ at church, to name but two. As the group gained more confidence, a ‘Curry night’ was organised in October and this was a great success with about 30 men coming, some not normal church attenders.
One of the most helpful things we have done is to become registered with the national organisation, Christian Vision for Men (CVM). They are a very inspiring group and have lots of good resources that can be tapped into. Their national executive, Carl Beech came over to speak to us about Men’s Ministry and this proved to be a very helpful evening. This encouraged a few of us to go on their National Conference at Warwick in September and again this was very encouraging. We hope to do this again this year, taking a few more guys from church with us. As we have a large building we are stepping out in faith and hosting a CVM Regional Conference at All Saints entitled, ‘Going for Glory- finding your place on God’s Team’. This is on June 26th and we hope to attract 150-200 Christian men from the Sheffield area and beyond, to come along for the day and be inspired, blessed and encouraged to go back to their own church situations and encourage men’s ministry. We feel this could, under God, be very significant in the spread of the gospel in Sheffield and South Yorkshire and crucial to redress and reverse the drain of men from the church that has happened over recent years. It has been shown that if you can get men to come to church then their families are very likely to be brought in too, so you end up attracting the whole family. Also women in the church are very keen on the Men’s Ministry because it encourages their partners and also provides Christian men who are potential partners and spouses for single women.
There have been quite a lot of other things that have been going off, but I think one of the most successful things has been a group of Christian, and some non Christian, men from All Saints going away for the weekend to Christian Adventure Centre in Wales. This proved to be a good time of fellowship, encouragement and fun and something which we would hope to repeat in the future.
Well, I hope this has given you a few ideas and hopefully inspired you to continue to encourage men back to church in your own situation. What has worked for us at All Saints might not necessarily work for you but I think if the will is there, then the Holy Spirit will lead into some exciting new ventures and challenges, as we have found at All Saints. If you want to discuss anything more, please drop me an e-mail on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Perhaps you can think of men who would appreciate the invitation to the June Conference – pass it on!

Book Review

Smack Heads and Fat Cats

Price: £7.95

Order via http://www.gileadbooks.com/

(join up and you save 10% on orders and get Post and Packing free)
Year: Published 17 September 2009
Author: Chris Duffett
Brief Description: A gripping challenge to love people who are not yet
followers of Christ ...a call to engage in the adventure of being the good
news.

ISBN: 978-0-9558099-5-8 / 220 pages / Paperback

This book is about a subject which isn't too sexy in Christian circles:
evangelism.

Through storytelling and biblical teaching, Smack Heads and Fat Cats outlines a vision for evangelism which doesn't just preach the message, but lives the message. Which loves people enough to show them what Jesus is like.

It's an invitation to join the adventure of being good news. Because everyone,
from the street to the boardroom, needs to hear it.

Summary:

Smack Heads and Fat Cats is a gripping challenge to love people who are not yet followers of Christ and to give them an opportunity to experience what it means to be a Christian. It is a call to engage in the adventure of being the good news.

Written in three parts it outlines: a vision for evangelism; a biblical mandate
for why we should be good news; and how we can do evangelism.

From the Foreword:

"I've read lots of books on evangelism. Yet this one made me rethink some of my cherished assumptions, and above all inspired me to see people as God sees them. I think it will do the same for you. Read, enjoy, and ask God to use you to show and share the faith to others." 
James Lawrence, Director of Leadership Development, CPAS

What people say about this book:

"Chris writes with passion, humour and conviction about what God can do in us, so that we become those who are good news as well as those who speak good news. A book that shouts out what is possible with God."
Keith Sinclair, Bishop of Birkenhead

"Chris is the real deal. His book is written in a catchy and earthy style.
Great stories that will make you laugh and cry. Truth that will refresh your
soul. His encouragement to be the good news is infectious. Buy it. Read it.
Live it. And give it away." 
Nic Harding, Senior Pastor Frontline Church Liverpool

"You've produced a passionate and practical guide to the most important thing Christians can be involved in!" 
Gary Gibbs, National Evangelism Coordinator, Elim Pentecostal Churches.

"This book lives and breathes relevant and urgent mission for others - much like the author."  Neville Willerton,
National Projects Officer for Fresh Expressions, Church Army.

"Chris himself is an inspiration and his infectious love for God and people
oozes out of this book. It's illuminating, enabling and empowering."
Penny Sharp, Course Co-ordinator of Invest Scotland:
Equipping pioneering church planters.

"Chris draws you into his book by lulling you into a false sense of security.
One minute you’re laughing at his stories and the next minute WHACK! you’re thinking about Evangelism in different ways." 
Graham Doel, Baptist Minister

"Whether you think evangelism is an activity or a lifestyle this book will
inspire every follower of Jesus to bring His presence into our communities” Gary Sloan, UK Director Operation Mobilisation

"A great book for those who are secretly afraid of the ‘e' word...engaging, it makes theology of evangelism truly simple.” Nix Shephard, Youth Worker

Biography:

Chris Duffett is an artist, speaker, Baptist minister and the founding
evangelist of The Light Project, a network that exists to bring the
transforming message of Jesus to the UK by actively demonstrating in a relevant way the good news, and to train others to do the same.  www.lightproject.org.uk

Reviews:

Visionary Evangelism

Review in the Baptist Times, Thursday October 29th 2009 by
The Revd Ian Bunce, Head of Mission BU

’This book, by Chris Duffett, an accredited evangelist with the Baptist Union, is a useful contribution to the drought in thinking on the subject of
evangelism.

Many observers have stated that the last 15 years have seen a move of
evangelistic activities within the churches towards social action. This of
course has led to many exciting and godly exercises, not least Hope 08. The weakness of this trend has been the statement recorded in that
connection: ‘Some nice people came and tidied our street, we do not know who they are or why they did it.'

Chris charts his own journey and the discoveries he has made in his own
ministry, and the setting up of The Light Project in Chester. There are moments of conversion in thinking and stories that make you sit up and think. In there main sections, Chris charts a vision for evangelism, why we should do it and a more practical section on how we can engage in it. His passion for God and his love for people seeps out of every page of this partly autobiographical reflection of God at work through his ministry.

Chris's point is that to make a difference you need to get alongside people, without judgement or patronisation. With echoes of Floyd McClung's Father Heart of God, it reaffirms Christ's call to truly enter the world which is inhabited by the ‘smack heads' (heroin addicts), to share the bench, make friends and show the genuine love of Christ in deed and action. This message is helpfully reinforced by case studies that bring the issue alive with real people and the testimonies of the work of God.

This is a read that leaves you examining your ministry, the way we do mission and our understanding of evangelism’.

A copy will go into the Diocesan Resource Centre at Church House

What books/resources are helping you as evangelist – let us know.

Farewell – we say farewell to Celia Richards, LPE at Sprotbrough. She and John Richards, Vicar there and her husband, are moving North this Summer.

Welcome – Richard Sutton was accepted for training as a LPE from September 2010. He is a member of All Saints Ecclesall and was welcomed at the last LPE meeting.