Unexpected Transformation

At the last UNOH Surrender conference, Ash Barker said this; “In many ways Urban Neighbours Of Hope was not an idea, it was a place to be in solidarity with those who are poor and to be converted by them so that the Good News of the Gospel can truly come.” Ash’s words have resonated with quite strongly as it is quite counter cultural to or more well known practices of mission where those who are sent with the ‘Good News about Jesus’ are the ones who do the transforming. What Ash is suggesting resonates more strongly with my own experience of cross cultural exposure where I have profoundly encountered the presence of Christ in the other.

I wonder what our expectations are with our approach to mission. Is mission still a term we associate with the few Christians who are sent to far away lands to convert the ‘heathens’? Do we expect that our church will have a profound impact on our local community through the mission of the church? Who do we expect to be transformed and how? In fact I believe it is the call on every Christ follower to be engaged in the mission of Christ and I would suspect that all who do so will never be the same. I believe that when we engage in that which is so much bigger than ourselves , we too are converted by the experience.

Mal White from Kids Hope Aus, was here in Adelaide for a couple of days. Part of his reason for being here was to inspire those of us who are considering being involved with the mentoring program with our local Primary School. On Wednesday night he shared an amazing story with us of how a church was transformed by a school and a community. Yes that’s right…an unexpected transformation happened. In fact it wasn’t even the church that initiated the missional encounter, it was a school from the ‘wrong side of town’.

The church (which hadn’t changed its ways in around 150 years) couldn’t say no to an opportunity to be involved in Kids Hope with their local school. About 6 months into the mentoring program the church was encouraged by Kids Hope organizers to hold a ‘Kids Hope family fun night’ for all the kids and parents. The leadership decided to go with a safer option of inviting kids to Sunday school. Much to their surprise the kids came and the church found that their traditional Sunday school structure didn’t cut it so they had to experiment with alternative methods of conducting their children’s ministry. Another problem developed from there, the parents of the kids started hanging around. The church didn’t expect that more adults might join their small community. To cut a long story short, this church soon found that they were radically transformed by this encounter with their community. All of the old ways of doing things went out the window and they became the church the Holy Spirit had called them to be.

It’s amazing what can happen when a church relinquishes their control of the outcomes of the Spirit. It is not us that does the transforming but the Holy Spirit and we must expect that we are the ones who are transformed by Christ in the other as much as anyone. As Ash would say, when we are converted by them, the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus can truly come.

Shalom
Mark