Recently, in school, one of the year 7 kids who I occasionally teach was misbehaving. He was abusive to me and another member of class, wouldn't leave the room when either of us told him to, wouldn't follow any instructions, verbally abused ther kids, and hit one of them. I was, understandably, not impressed. I gave him an after-school detention, and filled in an incident form reporting his behaviour.
After the lesson, I went to see his normal maths teacher (if any teacher can be truly described as "normal"), and she told me something which explained his behaviour (if not vindicating it). There are huge problems ast home, such that he has been in and out of care homes for the last three years, and that day he was going back into a new care home. He's 11.
For the first time, I realized quite how sad the situations of some of the kids who I teach are. I wished I could un-hand in the incident form, which could get him into a huge amount of trouble. But more than that, I wished there was something that I could do to help...
...which is how I come onto evangelism. I ended up thinking, and this not for the first time, how little many Christians really reach out to the poor. Most of our evangelism is aimed at the middle classes (e.g. wine tasting evenings, where people have to pay £12.50!!! to hear the gospel). Yet it is probably not just our evangelism that is the problem, but our attitude that lies behind it. Do we really believe that Christ came for and to the poor? Do we really do evangelism out of compassion, as we should (Matthew 9)?
Many have suggested that it is often good to concentrate our evangelism on the rich and educated, so that we can raise up a generation of church leaders. I end with a wonderful quote which reportedly came from Mark Aston (of StAG, in Cambridge). He was asked whether he believed that poor and uneducated people could ever be expected to become good and useful church leaders and pastors. His reply (in sentiment, not in exact words): "I think it very unlikely that wealthy or educated people will ever become good church leaders and pastors, unless they are very much humbled."
Brothers and sisters, let us make more effort to reach the poor, and give them a true and lasting hope.
4 comments:
Did you have anything in particular in mind when you were writing those comments on evangelism...?
I'll try and give a more accurate report of what Christopher Ash said Mark Ashton said.
Mark Ashton was asked, "Is it possible for people who don't have a privileged background to become church leaders. They must find it very difficult." [How patronising!] In reply, Mark Ashton replied, "In my experience, those from privileged backgrounds cannot be used of God unless they are first deeply humbled."
Let's not forget Paul's words at the end of 1 Corinthians 1, either.
Amen to all of this. And thank you for your stark reminder of the problems of society. Praise God for groups like CARIS Haringey, one of our Mission Partners at S. Michael's Highgate.
But please, please, stop using the word 'kids'!
Sorry Liam: from now I shall try to call the children, students, pupils, tutees, etc. Just think, it's better than me calling them "kidz" :o)
I shall also look up CARIS Haringey on the web.
You are so right (tragically). My experience of the Body of Christ in England is limited, but it is indeed very upper or upper-middle class dominated. At my local church (Ebbe's, Oxford), there must not be more than 1% of uneducated people in the congregation. We seem to be useless with the poor or uneducated (they are generally the same).
I often wonder why that is. Certainly, there is a strong inertia: this being the situation, middle-class people tend to reach out to middle-class people. Nor I do not cast a stone at them: in a country like Britain, it is particularly difficult to cross over social barriers (either way). But we need to have Iwerne, nay 100 Iwerne, for the poor. Who will start them?
I wonder if there is some more fundamental problem with our type of preaching, too. Christ came for all and was understood by all. Are our sermons understandable without a BA? Can we expound Scripture without Hebrew and Greek? Can we preach repentance without ploughing through Romans? Have we become too intellectual? I think we might have.
Post a Comment