Resources
As you cultivate a culture of mission, it’s helpful to have a few tools that will support you on that journey. Here are a handful of resources that will do just that. These are not programmes of activities to tag on, but sustainable tools that will inspire you.
Click on each item to find out more.
1 Chronicles 5:20b, “He [God] answered their prayers, because they trusted in Him.”
Why call it God’s Place? It’s more a declaration than a name. You are declaring that your village, your community, is God’s Place – it’s a desire and a statement you are believing to come about. Every time you speak of your weekly gatherings or print it in your newspapers and magazines, you are declaring it again and again; ”…the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.” Romans 4:17.
Picking-up Prayer (PuP) has got to be one of the easiest ways to mobilise Christians in strategic, creative and dynamic prayer that takes them onto the streets with opportunities for God-encounters with the public. PuP is praying through the streets of your village while picking up litter. That’s it. Simple. This method of praying gets Christians out of their churches and homes and onto the very streets they want to see transformed. The aim is to bring blessing onto the streets, both physically and spiritually.
Jesus’ summing up of the whole law and all that the prophets had spoken was to love God with our whole being and to love our neighbour as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39). Out of our love for God comes the desire to tell others about him, and part of loving others is sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with them. It’s not the desire we struggle with, but the telling.
For many of us, purposeful expressions of faith mostly happens behind closed doors, whether that’s services in a church building or Bible study groups in homes. When we think of ‘doing mission’ that can feel like another thing to do when your diary is already full. At the same time, we know that the outside world’s encounter with Christianity is dwindling, and people need to know Jesus as much now as ever before. So how can we bring purposeful expressions of faith into the public place without adding to your diary?
Within your village and local area there are places you visit and pass by regularly as you go about your daily routines. There are also places you could visit more intentionally if you had a reason to. Open Wells gives you a reason to be intentional about all the places you visit and pass by. This intention is to pause at that place, even just briefly.
“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.’” Matthew 9:36
Depending on your location you may have a place where a market is regularly held. Farmers, artisan bakers, cottage crafts, takeaways, etc. – they all have something to sell, and they invest in having a stall because it puts them in touch with regulars and potential new customers. We too have something to promote and a reason to invest, build relationships with regulars and hope for potential new connections.
“Then their eyes were opened, and they recognised Him… ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road…?’” Luke 24:31-32
On the Emmaus road, Jesus met the disciples where they were at and walked with them. They started from not recognising who Jesus was, thinking He was a stranger, to having their hearts burning as they realised He was the risen Christ.