Mission starts with love, says evangelist

Mission in post-modern Britain must begin with sharing and demonstrating more love, says evangelist Laurence Singlehurst, of Cell UK.

"What motivated God's mission? Why did He send His Son?" asked Singlehurst, at a Christian Resources Exhibition seminar on mission in post-modern Britain. The answer, he said, was simple: "Love."

"The most important question we need to ask ourselves about evangelism is 'what should be our motivation?' Love."

He said on Friday that the huge cultural shift in Britain since the 1950s away from a Christian moral framework to a secular humanist and pagan foundation demanded a similar shift in evangelistic methods.

"Our world has moved on and yet in many ways the church is still trying to win the nation using the same old methods of 1952 and we are a little bit surprised why they don't work," he said.

"'Sin', 'repentance', these are not words and phrases that mean anything in our culture today. It's like speaking Japanese. It is a style that no longer works. We live in a different world."

Christians have become a minority group, he acknowledged, in a society that no longer believes in a single truth. "They believe what they can experience. They believe what they can touch. They believe what they can see."

Singlehurst remained positive about the long-term prospects for mission in Britain, however.

"I believe that if we do mission in the same way that we did in the 1950s, we will just die and pass away. But if we are prepared to walk with the Holy Spirit in a new adventure and see new ways to reach out I believe we can still turn this nation around," he said.

"If we are prepared to do some hard work and engage with our communities then I believe we can see something wonderful take place."

He stressed that mission had to take the love of people as its starting point.

"For so long evangelism has been a method," he said. "We keep coming up with a new method. But I felt God say to me that evangelism is not a method, mission is not a method. It is a question... and the question is this: How big is your heart? Do we love people? ... Do we care?

"I believe the foundation to our mission is more love, more care, more connectedness to people. We need to see people in a new way."

Singlehurst argued that mission in a post-modern world had to move beyond the 'truth first, love second' approach to mission of the 1950s.

"In a post modern world I believe mission is 'love first'. Gain some authenticity, build some relationships and then share what you believe," he told the audience. "Because in our world people don't want to believe what you believe until they know how much you love and care.

"And the church needs to walk in a new way," he continued. "We need to reach out in a new way. We have got to be like Jesus. We have got to be incarnational. We need to be authentic."

Connectedness and authenticity had to stay together, stressed Singlehurst.

"We have to be connected to our world. We need to love our world. But at the same time we need to be authentic because if we are just connected and just the same, we have a problem. If we are very holy and totally disconnected, we have a problem."

Sharing love is exactly what the enemy does not what Christians to do, he reminded the audience.

"I don't think the devil cares if we are very holy provided we stay in our buildings...I don't think he minds if you've got flames of fire. What he cares about is if those flames of fire take you out to a lost world and you start holding some hands, caring for some people, demonstrating the goodness and kindness of God. I think he cares a lot about that because then we are connected," he said.

Singlehurst challenged the church to have a bigger heart for the nation and for reaching out.

"It begins by love and love is a challenging thing. We all have to go on a journey about being big hearted," he admitted. "Allow your love to take you out. How far does the love of your church go?"

Singlehurst shared with the audience his inspiration to become a 'secret pastor'. The concept is the brainchild of Argentinean evangelist Ed Silvoso and is rooted in the idea that every Christian is a pastor and their 'congregation' is everyone they encounter in their lives, including non-Christians.

He told the audience of how he had asked God for his own 'congregation' and was soon invited by some non-Christian friends to play dominoes and cards every Thursday, only to discover they were heavy smokers. He prayed to God for a non-smoking congregation only to receive back the answer from God that this was the very 'congregation' that He wanted him to be with.

"Hanging on a cross probably didn't feel too good," he said. "And I have spent every Thursday night for the last five years in a smoke filled room. Why? Cos these are my people and if I don't love them and care for them, if I don't hold their hands, if I don't live out to them Jesus how will they ever know Jesus is real?

"How will they ever know what He is like unless they get to know me and how will they ever get to know me unless I sit in a smoke filled room? I am there with them."

Singlehurst encouraged every Christian to embark on mission together by getting involved in Hope08.

Part of Hope08 is the 'one million hours of kindness' initiative, in which Christians are donating one million hours of their time to their local communities through the running of voluntary good-will schemes and projects. These have included so far graffiti cleaning, litter picking and running mother and toddler groups.

The initiative has proven so successful that Prince Charles has invited young Christians to a reception on Wednesday to tell him about the hours they have contributed.

"Our world is interested when we start to love people," said Singlehurst. "That's what people want to see. They want to see young people that are not out there stabbing each other, but young people who care, adults who care.

"As we go out and demonstrate it makes sense to people...The people want to see our reality before they believe our words. They want to see that [our] love is genuine. They want to see if you will sit in a smoke filled room.

"How much do we really love them? Do we love enough to sit in smoke filled rooms? Do we love enough to speak in a different language?"

Christians need not feel disheartened by aggressive atheists, Singlehurst added.

"You are always going to meet people who for whatever reason are aggressive. Maybe they have had a bad experience of Christianity. Maybe there are all sorts of pain inside of them.

"I think my job is to leave them positive for the next Holy Spirit encounter. My job is not to convert them. My job is to show a little bit of love."

He concluded: "We've just got to have a lot of love and a lot of patience. And sometimes let people's anger just roll all over us. Because with anger, something has happened to them and they need to experience someone who can hold that anger.

"We will meet these people but it is surprising what happens over a period of time. The next time they meet somebody they might be a little bit different because you responded with love and care."