Joy and disappointment in mission
From a blog by Fresh Expressions
We tend to share about positive responses to outreach but we don't hear about the disappointments.
Over the past three years the Parson Cross Mission Community in Sheffield have held a dedicated yearly ‘mission weekend’ where they get out onto the streets to share the love of Jesus. One of the team, Becky Davies, reflected on their experiences. Here is an excerpt:
"At our 2017 mission weekend we used the Jesus at the Door evangelism tool which we’d been trained in using the year before by the inspiring and encouraging evangelist Scott McNamara. As we met people we used this simple tool to explain the gospel, prayed with them to experience the presence of the Holy Spirit and asked them if they would like to turn and follow Jesus in response.
"27 people said yes to turning to follow Jesus and prayed through this with the person they had met! It was amazing!
"What followed after this was the challenge of trying to meet up with people, to disciple them, to talk more about the commitment they had made and to invite them into a community of other followers of Jesus that they could journey alongside. This turned out to be quite a challenge.
"My husband and I invited people to a group at our house to find out more about the Jesus that they had committed to follow by reading through and discussing the seven miracles in the gospel of John. We invited people in a multitude of ways and each week people said that they would come.
"For four weeks nobody came.
"I’m naturally optimistic by nature so it took the rest of the team to gently suggest that after four weeks it was probably time to stop preparing for this group. My disappointment was tempered at this point by another member of the team who reflected what an amazingly privileged position we were in that there were 27 people who wanted to know more about following Jesus and that we were part of a team who are excited about telling people about the love of Jesus."
They now over 12 months on from that weekend. Find out what happened next by reading the full blog here.
From a blog by Fresh Expressions, 05/06/2018