Interview With Steve Timmis, the Final Installment -- Evangelism and Missions
If you have no idea who Steve is, start here .
Here's part one on preaching and part two on membership and leadership.
MM: In Total Church you argue that evangelism is a community project. What does that look like practically?
ST: Let me answer that by headlining the theological rational that underpins that conviction, before unpacking what it actually looks like.
It is our conviction that church is God's primary gospel apologetic. She is the fruit of Christ's death and that which displays God's wisdom to the principalities and powers. If the Fall narrative is about a multiplexed alienation; the gospel effects a comprehensive reconciliation. The primary arena in which this is displayed this side of eternity is in a reconciled community.
It's as though God says, "You've done your worst, Satan; now look on and weep at what I have achieved through the cross". The church as that reconciled community is God's way of demonstrating how, through Christ, he has undone all of Satan's undoing. A defining text for us is John 13:35 where Jesus said "By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another". Our shared life, in which we obey the command of Jesus to love one another, is itself evangelistic in that it displays the gospel. The gospel word is the only explanation for this phenomenon.
Paul creates a great image for us in 1 Timothy 3:15 when he describes the church as "the pillar and support of the truth". Paul may have had the impressive temple of Artemis in mind with its high pillars holding up a marble roof. But in God's economy, it is the household of God that is the impressive structure which puts the truth of the gospel on display for all to see.
This understanding informs our conviction about evangelism being a community project. Our primary method of evangelism is to expose people to that community created, sustained and nurtured by the gospel so that they see what the gospel produces. We want non-Christians to see us living, loving and serving each other. We want them to hear the gospel word as we speak it to one another in our sin and sorrow. We want our shared life to provoke enquiry so that we can explain the good news of Christ crucified to them. We want to invite them into this life lived well by grace as we call them to repentance and faith.
What does this look like? Just ordinary people living ordinary lives together with gospel intentionality. We encourage one another to get out into the world, to build friendships with non-Christians, but to do so with other Christians. So an invite to watch a soccer game involves inviting a mix of Christians and non-Christians. A trip to the movies involves a similar mix. Doing work on the house likewise. There's nothing spectacular about it, nothing to travel hundreds of miles to observe, unless you've got a few months to spare to just do ordinary life together with us. Evangelism for us involves 3 strands: building relationships; introducing to community; sharing the gospel. I may not be great at verbally explaining the gospel to people, or opening up opportunities to do so, but I can make a significant contribution to the evangelism process by introducing people into our community, making friends with the friends of my brothers and sisters, making time to hang out with one another and speaking about Jesus in the warp and woof of life.
MM: What does cross-cultural missions look like in the Crowded House network? Do you send missionaries?
I think it looks like it does in most other situations Mike. Missions is a spectrum that begins in our heart and doesn't end until the far corners of the world. So a passion for God's glory is never going to be satisfied with gospel progress in our neighborhood; it's always looking for the knowledge of the Lord's glory to cover the earth. In specific terms, we're committed to church planting as the most effective evangelistic strategy ever, so we want to help plant churches all over the world, not least in the unreached parts.
We buy into the Radstock model of mission in that we think the local church has the privilege and responsibility for mission so we seek to partner with other churches around the world in the missions task (note: check out more on Radstock here -- MM). For example we currently exploring sending some people to Marseilles next year to plant churches in the city, but we're working hard at working with nationals in the build up to our folk moving over.
MM: A lot of the Total Church approach is geared specifically towards a smaller, house church model. Given that most of the pastors who are reading this labor in more conventional churches, what can they take away from Total Church for their context?
ST: I don't want to be argumentative Mike but I do want to take issue with your view that our approach is geared specifically to a smaller, house church model. I take issue with it primarily because the congregation I lead isn't one! Just under 4 years ago, we closed down a household congregation to replant a declining conventional church. We still meet in a building on a Sunday morning and that meeting looks similar to what most people reading this are familiar with. Since the replant began in 2005 we've planted out of that a few times, and our numbers are back up to the 100+ mark. But in that context, we still aspire to the principle expounded in the book of a dual fidelity to the gospel word and the gospel community. One of the reasons I was keen to go for that replant was the platform it gave us to show how this principle can be applied in more traditional contexts. As intimated in previous answers, we've devolved that congregation into a number of, what we call, Gospel Communities and it's in those that the real stuff of church goes on. I think this is a great model, not least because it's easily adaptable for even really large churches. But you've got to have the courage to move the real power away from the center so that these Gospel Communities have the freedom, resources and responsibility to be the people of God together on mission.
The bottom line is recognizing what our 'non-negotiables' are. If we're right, these are the gospel word and the gospel community. Our shared life together as the people of God is not an optional extra; a "take it or leave it" notion if you've got the disposition or opportunity. Wherever we're starting from, we've got to start taking meaningful community seriously. I really do believe that it's a gospel issue, and one confessional evangelicals have paid lip service to for far too long. I'm not talking about being content with meeting once a week or using the term brother or sister to address one another. I'm talking about life-on-life of such a calibre that it shows nuclear families what family really is all about. And all for sake of making Christ know to the world.
MM: Steve, thanks for taking the time to cover all of this ground. I greatly appreciated Total Church and have found it fruitful in our congregation. Blessings!
I have deeply appreciated this interview. Thank you for conducting it!
Posted by: Dan | Jan 22, 2009 7:40:35 PM