I have always thought that if we truly seek God and want to see or hear from Him, have our eyes open and are willing to hear or see Him in unexpected places, He can meet with us anywhere and through anything. The creative gifts in people all ultimately come from God, so I believe they can connect us back to Him, even they weren’t intended that way. So bearing that in mind, read the words below…

Is it right or wrong, try to find a place
We can all belong
Be as one, try to get a life
If we unify
We should really try
All this time, spinning round and round
Make the same mistakes, that we’ve always found
Surely now, we can move along
Make a better world, where we can belong

Lets come together, right now, in sweet harmony

Time is running out
There can be no doubt
We should sort things out
If we care, like we say we do
Not just empty words, for a week or two

Make the world your priority
Try to live your life ecologicly
Play a part in the big scheme 
Try to live your dream
Just like it seems

Lets come together, right now, in sweet harmony

Now you may recoginse the words from a famous song (see Youtube clip at the end if you don’t remember the tune). But I don’t know about you, but when I heard that song and listened to the lyrics, the only thing I could think is “That’s it! They’ve got it! That sums it completely! That is church”

This speaks to me in so many ways about God and about church, about the hope Jesus gives us and our own relationship to God and the world. Its incredible.

Look at the words again, from a Jesus perspective. It speaks of our own mistakes which seperate us from God – ‘sin’ and how God can redeem them. About living in community together, doing something about the problems of the world. Taking care of the environment and the world around us. Not just saying the right thing, but doing the right thing. Playing a part in a bigger scheme – God’s grand restoration project for the whole of creation, for which the death and resurrection of Jesus was the catalyst.

Ultimately, it speaks of when heaven comes back to earth, when Jesus comes back.

Us being together in sweet harmony with God.

And it reminds me that even though this world is far from perfect, we can experience a bit of that ‘sweet harmony’ right now.

That song to me is now no longer just a great tune, its a worship song. Whenever I listen to it, or hear it anywhere, I think of God. I think of how amazing He is, of the hope that He brings us, what could be possible if we could discover and do church in the way God intended. Of what could be achieved if the church ditched their divisions and religion and focussed on the things that matter. It reminds me of the promise and the hope of the cross.

Some of you may wonder how it does this. But I say again, God can really be found anywhere if you’re looking for Him and listening for Him. Its just a matter of opening our eyes to see it.

If you can’t appreciate that, then have a listen to the song, with pictures taken from the Hubble space telescope which show us galaxies, stars and suns which are millions of miles away, which were all made by God. I mean, I am always blown away by pictures of space, because it reminds me of the awesomeness and power of God. The colours, design, power and sheer size of it all blows me away in awe and wonder.

But put with these lyrics its absolute dynamite.

They show us a God who is immediate, intimate and active in our world, but big, awesome and powerful enough to create stars, suns and galaxies of amazing beauty and power.

They show us that we are part of a bigger story, one that has been going on since the beginning – and that God wants us all to be a part of.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlErcSMUtBU]

Isn’t that awesome?

Honestly, after watching that I don’t really know what else there is to say. What an awesome, wonderful, creative and loving God. What’s more, the God who did all that wants to know us and have relationship with us all, loves us immeasurably, and He accepts and meets us right where we are, how we are, whatever state we’re in. Truly awesome.

If we are really looking for Him, any of us can find Him. And we can find Him anywhere, even in the most unexpected places.

‘Evil is not the opposite of love, fear is’ – Rob Bell

What an insightful phrase this is. We often assume that evil is the opposite of love, the opposite of good. But think about it. Why do we do things contrary to how God intended –  what is often called ‘sin’? Why do we give in to temptation? Why do we do things we know are wrong despite ourselves?  I want to argue that fear, and all that goes with it – insecurities, doubts – is the root of all evil, and that only by having the courage to face our fears and insecurities, and surrender them to God, can we ever find our true identity.

Jesus said Himself, “Perfect love drives out fear”.

Maybe there was a deeper meaning to this statement than what we see on the surface. Maybe its because when we experience or know love – true, authentic love – we feel ourselves. We know our true identity. We experience God, even if we don’t know it. Wherever this kind of love is, God is present, and we feel safe in a way we cannot without love.

But lets think about fear and sin – essentially the rejection of the way of God, practically lived out in our life – and how they are linked.

People sleep around because they are afraid to be alone or afraid of committment.

People lie because they are afraid of people’s reaction if they hear the truth, or afraid of the consequences of the truth. Or because they are hiding something.

People with addictions of any kind are afraid of facing the realities of life, they are afraid of rejection, they don’t like themselves, they are afraid of all sorts of things. They find comfort, identity and security, of a kind, through these addictions.

People steal because they are afraid. Afraid of financial insecurity, afraid of not fitting in with their peer group who might be doing the same, afraid of not being able to fulfill the demands of success our society puts on us.

People who are consumed by anger, who are violent and aggressive, are often afraid to face up to their problems and afraid to deal with them, afraid of what’s inside them. They ignore their pain and grief and let it all build up into anger, and eventually this can control them and lead to physical abuse or violence.

The anger issue was one I faced for a long time. Fortunately I dealt with it before it got too out of control, and as I did it and got counselling and prayer I realized that all this came from my fear. I felt I needed to be in control of everything all the time and everything had to be as I wanted, and if not I got angry. It was a fear of not being in control and wanting to control everything and everyone as much as I could, to avoid pain.  And this fear fed my anger, and fed other bad habits I had.

Our society feeds off fear. That’s how companies sell their products. They try to convince us that we need a certain project, and it will make our life better, fuller and richer. A lot of things are sold to us now based on the idea that they will make us healthier and therefore make us live longer, or that they will make us look and feel younger and maybe prolong our life. Insurance feeds of a fear of something bad happening to us and preparing for the worst.

Not that having material things or buying food or insurance is bad in themselves – but media use fear to drive us towards specific types. And because they do that, this fear overflows into other areas of our lives, very subconciously, and influences how we live. And its totally the opposite of love.

Love makes us feel safe, secure, valued, accepted, welcomed, forgiven. Just as we are. Love drives us to do good.

Fear does the exact opposite.

Think of the areas that you struggle with the most. The things you wish you didn’t do but still do. The bad habits you can’t break. The mistakes you’ve made and regrets you’ve had. I suspect all of them at some level have come from fear of something, which has impacted you and you have compensated for it, or satisfied it in one way or another. From something somebody has said or done to you, or an experience – or set of experiences – you have had in your life that had a deep, and negative impact on you. Maybe issues from your childhood.  Or maybe just growing up immersed in the culture we live in, which feeds off fear. All these things create fears in us, on a very subconcious level.

Fear can be so powerful if we let it, and we need to be aware of its power to influence us if we are going to learn how to deal with these issues. We have to look in on ourselves and see why we act like we do.

I only really started to deal with my anger once I realized it was to do with fear. I understood what was fueling my anger. I understood why I felt that way. And I learnt about a fear of losing control, a fear of responsibility, a fear of trusting anyone, a fear of commitment. I had lost my mum and been bullied, and had been out of control of all these things. I wanted to avoid this pain again, and so compensated with a need to be in control, to get my way. A fear of not having control, of losing control and of the unexpected. All these fears were fuelling bad habits in my life. I realized all the sin in my life was related directly to fear, and I needed to start dealing with it.

And that’s where God meets us.

He doesn’t wait for us to get it all sorted. He doesn’t expect us to ever get it totally sorted.

There’s often this delusion that the blessings of God are reserved for those who’ve got it sorted, those who have dealt with their problems and are now strong, mature Christians. Who always do and say the right thing. That we have to recognize how bad we are and start to sort ourselves out before God will really accept us and help us. That God won’t love us or bless us until we cut out bad habits, cut out the bad decisions and cut out the issues.

Rubbish.

God meets us in our pain. He meets us at our place of suffering. He meets us in our fears.

I know this from my own experience. My anger problems have largely gone now. But they wouldn’t have gone without God’s help, right in the midst of my pain. That’s where He met me and started working on me. In fact, I now know He’s been working on these things for longer than I realized. Now I realize that its an ongoing process which goes on our entire lives.

You see, in dealing with those issues I have opened doors to go into other areas, and see what really was behind that anger, and even where that fear came from. I was at church a couple of weeks ago and the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He said

“You think you’re worthless, but I say you’re worth everything“

God was meeting me in my pain. In my insecurity and fear. Into a view of myself I have and didn’t even realize I had. And I was crying, because I knew He was right. I do sometimes, when I’m at the end of myself and have nothing left, feel I am worthless, not important, insignificant, destined to fail and be hated and abandoned by everyone, and think that is my destiny.  I know in my my mind what the truth is, but at those low moments I have felt like that.

God was pointing this out. He was showing me what my heart really believed – and was insisiting to me what the truth really is, and that it really is true. At that moment I felt a warm, tingling, peaceful and powerful feeling in my heart, like God was changing my heart.

On reflection I now find it a lot easier to believe the truth in my heart, but there are still times when it feels uncomfortable to believe the truth, because elements of those feelings and fears are still there. However, God has transformed my heart, and now I am on a journey with Him everyday learning more about why and how this is true, and discovering that truth with God alongside me. That’s my journey of faith, certainly right now. The journey of discovering and accepting what is already true about me, and what God has said about me.

Its the same for us all. Whatever our fears and insecurities, God wants to meet us in the midst of them. He d
oesn’t expect us to have it all sorted. He doesn’t expect us to deal with it totally all in one go. What He does want to do is tell us what is true about us, how He feels about us, how much He loves us and that we are welcome and accepted as we are. He wants us to recognize these fears and how they influence and wants to cast out these fears with His love.

And that’s a process, not just an instant fix. God wants to work with us to work through and understand these fears, to recognize the truth about ourselves, and help us discover our true identity.

Its the journey of life, the journey of faith.

God is with us all the way through, all He’s waiting for is for us to realize it and work with Him in dealing with the issues we all deal with every day, including our fears. You see, God never intended us to live apart from Him, it was the human race who rejected Him, not the other way round. He’s always been with us, just waiting for us to accept His invitation and join our life to Him.

The truth is we all have fears and insecurities which can control or influence our decisions.

If we have the courage to recognize our fears, and the faith to give them to God, we can be healed and restored, and we can become more like how God originally designed us to be. We can bring more good into the world, and the evil in the world  becomes less almost by default. Fear may still try to attack us, but we can ignore it and reject it with much more confidence, and respond to it far more positively. The world becomes more like God originally designed it. Heaven comes to earth. The world is changed for the better.

God is waiting for us, as we are. Arms open, waiting to welcome us, in the midst of our fear, our pain, our insecurity and anxiety. Wanting us to join our lives with Him and His purposes and identity which He had for us all along. And to work through the problems and fears we have with Him, instead of on our own, and no longer be ruled by them.

All we have to do is accept the invitation of his perfect love – which can deal with all our fears.

This week I have been reading and learning a lot about Mahatma Gandhi. There was a documentary on Sunday about him, and that inspired me to do a bit of research, and also to watch ‘Gandhi’ the superb Oscar-winning biopic starring Ben Kingsley. Now the man wasn’t a Christian, but the more I looked at how he lived his life, his values, his motivation, his attitude and how he treated people, the more I see a life lived by Christ-like values, and which reflected the nature and character of Jesus more than many Christians I know – including myself. Ghandi was a Hindu, but was a student of many religions. He read the Bible, and was even quoted once as saying ‘Yes I am (a Hindu). I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew.”

It appears to me that although the man was himself a Hindu, he certainly understood the teachings of Jesus and valued them greatly.

One quote I found from Ghandhi was very insightful though, and so true in terms of a lot of people’s perceptions of Christians.

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.”

How insightful is that?

I think it reflects what a lot of people outside the church especially, think about Christianity. The essential message of Jesus and His life they get and understand, but they don’t get how people who follow it can be so religious, legalistic and unlike Christ. And the way that we communicate it to them is often very poor, lets be honest.

Now what’s important here is to qualify this.

No Christians are perfect, and by definition every Christian is a hypocrite.

Christians aren’t this separate species of people, who suddenly become perfect and don’t make any mistakes just because we believe a certain thing to be true.

We all screw up at times, we all make mistakes just like everyone else. We aren’t above everyone else or better than everyone else, we don’t have a moral claim on the world and we don’t have a right to sit in judgement or look at those who don’t believe as any different, or worse than ourselves. Its a total disgrace to the name of Jesus to even think like that.

If anyone who claims to be Christian acts like that, then they aren’t following the example of Jesus – He was the one who did have the right, and He never did. In fact He reserved His harshest criticism for religious people, not for people outside the church.

“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”

Perhaps us Christians should learn a lesson from that.

There are churches and Christians with this attitude, and I’ve experiened them myself. It’s usually on a very subconcious level, by people who genuinely care and want to help, whose intentions are good. But I’ve heard it and seen it in the past, and it sickens me. Its those Christians and churches that people are usually describing when they talk about why they don’t go to church – and for good reason.

(And yes, before we continue, I’m aware that I sound slightly judgemental saying all this. But this is only my considered opinion from a bit of my own experience and from a lot of reflection and thought. I am saying it because I’m passionate about Jesus and want His message to be communicated in the best and truest sense. Its not a personal attack or judgement on anyone, its how I think things are. The church needs to have the right perspective on what the message of Jesus means, and we need to be united in that common cause, and that’s what I’m trying to do. Whether you agree or disagree is up to you.)

The problem is that many of these Christians simply don’t know they are doing this, because they come from a religious, Christian subculture which encourages it. Their intentions are good and they love Jesus, but the tone and essence of their message doesn’t paint Jesus in His true perspective. It shows parts of the truth, and sometimes works because of this, but it never gives the full picture.

Its a limited perspective and because of this often comes across badly

This whole issue comes from this idea that has been touted about for years that following Jesus is all about the forgiveness of sins and nothing else. The ‘Genesis 3′ worldview of Jesus being all about sin, and rules, and religion. That you accept Jesus and suddenly all your sins are forgiven and you can carry on your life near enough as it was, with a few minor differences, because you’ve got your ticket to heaven. Jesus is all about taking care of sin, and that’s all.

It narrows down Jesus and isn’t the full story. Certainly not according to the words of Jesus and the scriptures, all of which speak of the ‘restoration of all things’.

Jesus came to showed us how to live a life as God originally designed us to live, and then sacrified Himself on a Roman execution stake after a Roman flogging, being rejected by all.

This made possible the restoration of the world to how God originally designed it to be – including mankinds’ rejection of God – or ‘sin’.

From then on its all been about the human race participating with God in the restoration of all things to how God always intended them, restoring the relationship between man and God, and bringing heaven and earth back together again, as it was in Genesis 1 & 2, how God originally designed it to be.

That’s the real picture.

It changes everything in terms of how followers of Jesus should speak with people who don’t know Jesus and what their attitude should be towards them.

It changes everything that traditionally is associated with ‘being a Christian’ and how some Christians and churches often speak, behave and treat people.

Instead of judgement, hypocrisy and condemnation it becomes about restoration, about finding our true identity, about making this world better, about grace and mercy, about finding God’s best for us and bringing heaven and earth more and more back together and about us all being the same before God – all saved by grace and invited to be part of God’s kingdom, and none of us being totally perfect.

It gives us real, genuine hope.

It tells us the simple truth that we might feel like we are worthless, but we are actually worth everything, and we are welcomed and loved as we are.

Gandhi may not have been a Christian, but he embodied a lot of the qualities that Christ asks us all to take on. If he had been a Christian he probably would have had a huge evangelical impact on the world.

Not many of us will ever be quite like Gandhi, but we don’t have to be Gandhi to embody the qualities of Jesus, the qualities of humility, servanthood, love, grace, mercy, justice, truth and forgiveness.

It starts with us making little changes to our lives and try and bring these values and truths and make them part of our everyday, in all our habits, at work, in how we treat people and talk to people, in the decisions we make – big and small.

If we are choosing everyday to follow Jesus way and not our own, then we will be building His kingdom, helping restore this world to how God intended, and, little by little, bringing heaven back to earth.

Now that’s something worth talking about.

Earlier this week I mentioned that I have decided to get baptised, and today I want to share just how this came about. Why? Well, God has done some incredible things in my life in the last few years, and I really wanted to bless you by sharing this with you. I have left names and specific details out – believe me, it could me much longer – for confidentiality and personal reasons – but the essential message is clear. I also think it may help some of you who read this and don’t really meet me or see me, to know a little bit more of my story. I will be giving my testimony at the baptism service itself, however I only have 5 minutes at the service, and of course not all of you will be there, and this allows me to go into a bit more detail and share with some other people. To give my full testimony, which I will do some day, I have come to realize would take over an hour to speak about fully, yet alone write. I want for now to focus on my story of the last three years, the journey which has led me to this point in my life.

I want to join the story at the moment I joined Vineyard Church Sutton, in September 2006. I told my pastor and assosicate pastor clearly what I felt my calling and gifting was – church leadership – but deep down I refused to believe it, as I had for a long tim. In fact, in hindsight, self-pity, self-doubt and fear, at that point, was my security. This lack of faith in myself, self-pitying, bitterness and resentment was almost defining me, not my faith. This began to change after I joined the church. I had just started counselling for my anger problems, and I underwent in Spring 2007 Personal Prayer Ministry with our church. During one of these meetings, God told the woman who was praying with me four specific things God was saying to her about me. That I had a lot of common sense, that I was emotionally intelligent, had a deep spirituality and a strong committment to to the purposes of God.

I was shocked. I tried to deny this, and expressed my doubts to those praying with me. However, the person praying was one of the wisest, perceptive and God-hearing people in my church, and there was no doubt she had heard from God. It was only since that day that I started to notice these qualities in myself.

In this time I began to see who I really was. That the stressed, angry, immature, over-sensitive, easily intimidated, grieving person I acted like wasn’t really me. It was who I used to be. It was a child inside me which had been controlling me without me realizing, and that the real me was someone totally different. Someone I had never really met, didn’t know or understand, and that God was starting to reveal through the counselling, prayer ministry and through my new church.

Later that year got an even bigger shock. A letter from my pastor, asking me to join the ‘leadership community’ of my church, a group of several people who are leaders or potential leaders amongst our church community. It was the first time anyone in church leadership had asked me to lead, or expressed a belief in a gift of leadership. I could hardly believe it. I thought it was a joke at first, but soon realized that it was a serious request.  I remember my fears with my counsellor, who I met with directly before my first meeting, and talking with her about leaving my ‘old self’, the child I had acted like for so long and allowed myself to be for so long. When I walked into that meeting in January 2008, it felt like I’d let go of that child. For the first time in my life, I felt like a man. I felt like I belonged.

In April 2008 I was best man at my best friend’s wedding. It was big deal for me, a person who never felt he got picked for anything, never got near any responsibility. In front of old friends who assumed that this old self was who I really was, I had responsibility, I had to manage the day, manage people, give a speech and oversee everything. It went well and was a roaring success, and my speech got a lot of plaudits – and I was reminded that I had also got plaudits for my other best man’s speech at my Dad’s wedding, and that for someone who never thought he’d be a best man, I’d now done it twice.

For a long time I’d lived a little in his shadow, which wasn’t his fault and not necessarily even mine. It was just how we were. I needed to find my own identity seperate from him, in my own church. This allowed me to do that even more.

That winter I read with my house group a book about taking steps of faith. As we came to the end, I began to feel strongly once again a call to leadership. God had long been given me a passion for church, for exploring and understanding more about what it means to follow Jesus, what it means to do church, and exploring the way of God as something deeper and bigger than religion, and for communicating this in innovative, fresh ways. It was at this time it began to crystallise into a clear vision of what God wanted – and still wants – me to do with my life.

In January 2009 I completed a 40-day discipleship course with my church, ‘Flow’. The idea of this was to orientate our daily everyday lives around our faith. Daily Bible verses, daily prayers, spiritual disciplines, reading, studying and conducting spiritual exercises, both as individuals and in fellowship. It proved to me that I could do these disciplines if I focussed myself, and committed myself. It also confirmed the things God was already telling me. As part of this course I did a course called the ‘Network Course’, and it revealed that my principal gifts were teaching, leadership and encouragement. I spoke with my associate pastor – probably to get him to tell me that it wasn’t accurate, so that I didn’t have to believe it – but he affirmed me in those gifts, saying that he could see all those gifts in me.

This again shocked me to a degree. Or rather, it scared me. Because it showed me that these visions and dreams I had thought about, these ideas I had, the things I had been writing about, might actually become a reality, and that God really had equipped me with the gifts I thought I had, and that I needed to pursue these ideas. This, I realized was who I really was.

The area I really needed – and still constantly need – to work on was my character. My confidence. My fears and insecurities, my doubts.

For this I had to back to my past. I enrolled on a Living Waters course. This took me back to my childhood, my past, my pain. It helped me explore these in the context of and in the presence of the reality and presence of Jesus, and showed me in a safe environment how these things were linked to my present insecurities and fears. I got prayer and healing, and in this time began to realise how little I had thought of myself, and how much I mattered to God. I understood my fear of rejection and abandonment – by women and by anyone I got close to. I understood how all this time fear had been my god and been ruling my life. I got a certificate of adoption by God, to help me realise that I belonged to Him, and that He would not abandon me.

My problems didn’t disappear overnight, but the process of healing was well and truly begun, and I had the support of an amazing house group and good friends through all this time. My counselling, combined with work at Living Waters, had given me control of my anger. The rage that controlled me had – and has – gone. It was time for the counselling to come to a natural close as well. I had become more self-aware, more confident, more understanding of my own problems and issues and developed ways of dealing with them, I had built up a network of friends to support me, and grown up in many ways, and realized how much I still had to learn. I was taking more of an  active role in church, in particular with the creative arts team, involving speaking at the front and preparing things for church, and my writing had improved and developed, and I was reading more than I ever had.

But there was one surprise to come.

I spoke with someone about getting healing for my epilepsy. Before I had even thought, I said outloud “Why would God heal me? There’s more important people than me, I’m not good enough to get healed”. I stopped myself. I realized what I had said.

At the church service the next Sunday, my pastor talked about the Holy Spirit and about demons. He spoke about how sometimes we allow things to consume and overtake us, and they become demons. He mentioned anger, and I immediately connected. I then realized exactly what God had been doing in my life, how He had healed these demons. I realized I had other ones chasing me, my fears and insecurities, that I still have (and we all have some) and felt confident that God would take care of me. But there was something deeper this time. Something I had not even realized within myself, which was buried so deep only God could reach it.

God spoke to my heart. My heart went warm, tingly and felt filled with power and peace. God said these exact words to me (and it chokes me up even writing them):

“You think you’re worthless…but to me you’re worth everything”

Before I could think, I was crying. Crying is something I rarely do, but I was overwhelmed. At that moment the communion bread and wine came out, and got up and took it as soon as I could. I realized that all this time, and maybe even now, that in my heart I saw myself as worthless and not good enough. That for all the confidence and strength on the surface, inside I didn’t think I was worth anything, even to God. God made it clear to me that no matter what I thought I was worth, that to Him I was worth absolutely everything.

It still feels uncomfortable thinking I am worth everything to Jesus. It still makes little sense to me. But I guess that’s grace for you.

I have been through so much and grown so much, but I feel I am only beginning. Now I’m on a journey with my friend, brother, Father, and Saviour, to understand and truly believe the words He said to me. That I am truly important to Him, no matter what happens to me in my life. That He really does have a plan for me. That the dreams, visions and desires of my heart – and the ones He has put on my heart – can really become a reality.

Now I want to publicly announce this. I want to state publicly what God has done, what God still is doing and that whatever happens in the future, that He will be the one I turn to. He will be the one I orientate my life around. He will be my protector. He will not abandon or desert me. He will be with me always, and that I am worth everything to Him. I want to thank Him publicly and pledge the rest of my life to serve and honour Him.

That’s why I am getting baptised.

I tried today to have a day when I didn’t think about church, theology, philosophy and culture. It worked. Almost. At 11.05pm God spoke to me, and it was a message I couldn’t ignore. Just a short message, but one I knew was so spot on I had to share it then and there. You ever have those moments, when something clicks and you HAVE say it that moment? This was it.

I heard a song and one of the lines in it talked about the phrase ‘break the mould’.

Heard that phrase before? Often in tributes to people “Oh, when God made that person they broke the mould” or about an artist, musician or cultural figure. When we say that phrase we normally talk about people who broke convention, people who pushed the boundaries, who revolutionised their field, who wasn’t afraid to do something different, which changed the world.

It occurred to me that we often think that these people are unique. We assume only certain people can do this or will ever do this. Like Bono (below, pictured at Cardiff) for example.

Why?

Is that a compliment to them, or an escape clause for us?

You see, we were created break moulds. God made us with the ability to create, to make things, to learn, evolve and develop. He imparted a part of Himself into us, that visionary, creative, innovate side. Its in all of us, not just some special people. God made us all with the ability to push boundaries, to do new things. If we didn’t then we’d be static. Things would never change. The world would never change.

Without these people we don’t grow.

This is what God wants as the norm. If we let convention, stability and comfort rule our lives, and we don’t push boundaries in our own life, then we also stagnate. We only grow when we go out of our comfort zone and make a step of faith – whether we’re a person of faith or not. If you look at a lot of the most successful people earlier in their careers, they were risk takers, they all broke the mould, they were all able to see things differently, and weren’t afraid  to pursue that vision.

Now not everyone may have the gift of vision, of seeing the bigger picture. But we can all grow. We can all mature, learn and improve. God wants us to become the best we can be, the way He designed us. Life is a journey of becoming the person God designed us, and playing our part in His restoration of the world to His design.

The world we live in, the convention and culture of the world, is very different to the kind that God originally designed for it, and for us. God calls us all to help restore the world to how He originally designed it, to partake with Him, co-create and participate in the restoration of all things. He calls us to a life by His values, His teachings, redefining culture and bringing heaven to earth in our everyday.

God made us all to be the kind of people that ‘break the mould’. It doesn’t mean we have to be famous, high-achievers, or go off and do missions somewhere. No. It can do, but not for all of us. God wants us to break the mould every day. By doing things differently every day. By bringing the way of God into our everyday life. By bringing the sacred and common closer. By choosing His way in our everyday lives. Our decisions, how we treat people, our language, our values, our habits. All a little bit different to how the rest of the world do it.

That’s as radical as standing in front of 1,000 people preaching change. In fact, in many ways it can be even more powerful – especially in a culture where people are less and less inclined to believe what people say in public. Big change will come when many people change their daily lives to reflect a different set of values. Then it becomes a movement, it becomes more part of our culture, and in turn our culture starts to become a little bit more like how Jesus intended.

Christians started the movement against slavery. And it started with people who supported it making small changes. Changing their own lives to reflect what they believe. Not being afraid to be a little different. Then the more people saw this, the more people understood, and a movement grew up.  In the end, legal slavery was brought to an end. The big issue now is the environment, which was hardly an issue about 25 years ago. But something happened, someone saw a problem. They started little changes and eventually everyone cottoned on, and now suddenly we are all bound by law to be environmentally friendly. Indeed, its through the little things we make such a big difference to our environment.

You see, we can all do our bit to change the world, help God restore it to His design. We simply cannot afford to stick to the world’s mould or be static. Jesus didn’t.

Breaking the mould shouldn’t be something we allow a minority to do.

Its what all followers of Jesus are called to do.

As you’ve probably noticed, the look of this blog has changed. I’ve been thinking for some time it might be time to freshen things up a bit and change the look of this site to something a bit brighter, fresher and more a reflection of where I am.

Many times in past few months I have thought about changing this, but decided against it because it would have been change for the sake of it, and out of impulse rather than reasoning. However now, taking into account the all changes God has been doing in my own life recently, recent changes I’ve made to my own spiritual disciplines and my decision to get baptised next month (more on all that in another blog post), I felt that a change might now be appropriate – for the right reasons. The change is more of a symbol of my own development and change and how I have moved on, and not just an excuse for a change. It feels almost like another stage in my own personal growth.

Personally, I like the design I’ve chosen.More colourful, more creative, less cluttered, more reflective of where I am right now. Of all the options available it was one that not only I liked the most, but also reflected more of me than any of the others.

2009 so far has been a year of tranformation, healing, growth learning and new experiences so far.

It has not always been easy going through this process, but it has been very beneficial for me and made a huge difference to my life and my outlook. I feel like I have learnt a lot and grown up enormously, although I know that its all a process, and I have so much more still to learn. But this year has been a significant one of transformation in my life, that is for sure, something I will explain more in a later post.

It makes sense that as I reach a moment, in baptism, which is not only a recognition of what has already been happening and what God has done in my life, but sybolises a commitment on my part to work with Him and continue this ongoing process of transformation, that my website also undergoes a bit of a transformation too.

Indeed, I hope that as I mature and grow in my knowledge and understanding, that it will be reflected in the quality and content of my posts. I certainly feel that in the last year or so my ideas on what following Jesus and church really is have developed and broadened, and I am sure that will continue to be the case as time goes on.The question of ‘what is church’ will never really be answered fully. It is such a broad and deep question and the debate and discussion over that will go on for a long time.

The purpose of this site remains the same however. It is explore and discuss what Jesus really meant by church, what real church should look like – both in its nature and in its personality in our cultural context. To discuss what it really means to be a follower of Jesus – both today and at all times – and how the church needs to continue to evolve and adapt whilst keeping its message distinctive.

In my next few posts I will explain more about what I envision a local church should be, and will then be examining in more detail what God has been doing in me this year, and why I have chosen to get baptised.

I heard a speaker at the Willow Creek Leadership conference today who has greatly challenged, inspired and encouraged me. To be honest, all of them have done this and I will go into this more in future posts. However today I heard strategy and management speaker Gary Hamel, speaking on innovation, bottom-up leadership and a type of evolutionary leadership in church, and a type of innovative, creative culture, where everyone is free to contribute and participate in the onward creation and re-creation of church. He said not only is this important, but vital to the growth of church in future years.

I also saw an interview with Jessica Jackely, co-founder of a site called Kiva who facilitate loans direct from people online to African entrepreneurs. She spoke of the leadership structure of the organisation, where although there are leaders and decision makers in positions, that the environment is one where everyone contributes to the vision and to the development of that vision. They invite people to come up with new ideas, and give them the facilities to put these into practice online, for example a volunteer came up with the idea for an i-phone application for the charity, and they were able to help them make that happen. She emphasized the need for participation and co-creation, working together. Not having just one man or a couple of people with all the power, and who have all the ideas and everyone else follows just their ideas and few others have influence. She advocates this bottom up, community-based, integrated, evolutionary approach to all leadership and to churches.

All of this was a revelation, but at the same time, confirmed nagging feelings I have had about church structure for some time. I have talked before that God’s original plan is for all of us to be particpants and co-creators with Him, and that part of following Jesus is being a participant and co-creator with Him in the restoration of all things to how God originally intended to be, and that this is the way we find our true identity, and when we really discover church.

I’ve argued before – and indeed the whole reason the site was titled ‘Evolving Church’ – that the church needs to be in constant flux, evolving, adapting, changing, both on a bigger scale and on a local scale, to become the real community of followers of Jesus that God intended, and to be truly effective in the world both locally and beyond. We cannot be dogmatic or static, there is no one fixed model that works in every single area, every single community, every single class structure or region. There are basic, essential principles which underlie how we do church, which don’t essentially change, but the practicalities of church will be different depending on where and when you are, and will evolve and change as the culture and environment around it changes.

I still believe all this. And what I heard today only affirms me in my belief and my trust in the idea of Evolving Church.

It gives me great encouragement to hear all of this from people, people who themselves are making such a difference in the world, and it gives me great encouragement that many others think that these kind of ideas and methods are the best way for the church moving forward.

It also represents a great challenge, as we see what is possible if you work hard enough, have enough faith and believe in what you are doing – and the cause is worthy – then you can achieve much more than many people may have thought possible. It brought home to me the huge potential the church really has, and how important it is that we take their inspiration and ideas on board, so that we don’t keep on lagging behind, but stay instead ahead of the curve, that we are the innovators, the trend-setters, the cause promoters, and the inspiration of our culture. That we get away from religion, to the heart of what our faith is all about. People are tired of the old religion and legalism, and following Jesus was never meant to be that anyway.

Let us be the people who make that possible.

We are the church – of now and the future. Lets make the church of now and the future a good one

I had a conversation with someone I know recently, someone who doesn’t follow Jesus, and someone I thought who had no interest in God. I found that not only does he not have an interest in God, but believes He exists and is real.

No, his problem wasn’t God.

His problem was religion.

I had no problems talking to him about Jesus, the Bible, God and my faith whatsover, and he was even open to a proper discussion on the subject. He even went so far as to say he believed Jesus existed.

But religion? Not interested. Not one iota.

And, to be honest, I was inclined to agree with him.  I’ve written before how if you look at the story of God in the Bible from the beginning and read certain passages in their proper context its possible to understand that Jesus didn’t come here to start a new religion. He didn’t come just to take care of our sin. No, Jesus came to restore all things to how they were originally created to be – including the human race and its sin – and to show us how God has always intneded and planned for us to live. The cross and empty tomb makes possible a new way of life, bringing the sacred and the common closer, and bring God’s way of life into the everyday of our lives.

Before Jesus’ sacrifice it wasn’t possible, religion was necessary in one sense because the seperation between the sacred and the common was very much there, because of the mistakes of the human race. However, once Jesus took care of this the curtain was torn, God – the sacred – could once again become part of the common, the everyday. God could become part of our everyday lives in a much more real way, and God could send His spirit on us to equip us to live this life.

Jesus sacrifice and resurrection actually was then intended not to start a new religion, but to end religion altogether, and initiate a big restoration project on all of creation, with the risen Jesus, the Son of God, at the centre of it all.

Yes, you heard me right.

Jesus didn’t come to start a new religion. I would argue He came to abolish religion altogether.

So, you ask, if that is the case then what is the purpose and role of church?

Well, God has always thought humans work best in community. Right from the beginning He said that it wasn’t good for us to do this life alone. Jesus even speaks of the importance of ‘church’ and it is menitioned as the bride of Christ. In fact, in the absence of religion, church – in the truest sense, in the way God designed it rather than the way we often do it – is the best way to do community and for followers of Christ both to meet and serve together.

Church, in its best and truest form, is important to God, and important to us. In fact, even more than that, we are church.

A church service and church community is where you will connect with other folllowers of Jesus, where you get discipleship and accountability as you look to grow and mature, and know Jesus more. It is where you get support for the things that are going on in your life, practically, emotionally, physically and spiritually. It is where you are taught about what it means to bring the Christ into the everyday, to see Christ in the everyday, and to be Christ in the everyday.

That’s the purpose of teaching/preaching, to enable and equip people to bring Jesus into their everyday more and more, and bring truths from scripture to life in way that helps us in today’s context, in creative, innovative and relevant ways.

But make no mistake. ‘Church’ is not the point. Jesus is.

Some people make church their idol you see. Lots of problems can rise up in a church if you are not careful, no matter how successful or how progressive and positive the intentions.  In fact, success can often be the cause of some problems in itself.

One, some or all of the following problems can rise up in a church if it becomes the idol, or the centre of everything:

-Preserving the status quo, getting everyone to fit to the same mould can become a bad habit. People can get entrenched and happy with how things are and stop being progressive, whatever their original intnentions were.

-A culture can easily build up where you get used to only meeting God at church, where church and associated events are the only places where you are ‘allowed’ to meet God or where God is perecieved to be present.by many. You start to feel guilty – or be made to feel guilty by others –  for not going every single week.. The church can start to exist to defend itself and further itself rather than for the good of the community outside and to serve God’s purposes.

-People start looking to build their own kingdoms and powerbases and this is a detriment to the ministry of the church,and divisions can be formed.

I am not saying these things happen in all churches, far from it. In fact I don’t think it happens now as much as it once did, and a corner is being turned. But one or some of these things can happen in any church, no matter how progressive or successful it mught be, no matter how good its original intentions.

These issues arise because people can easily take their eye off what is the most important thing, which isn’t the church itself , isn’t the organization or institution,

but following Jesus,

helping others to enage and grow in Jesus

and ‘being’ church.

That’s why I believe when starting any church it is vital to make serving Jesus, acting in the interests of His kingdom and glory, being obedient to Him and serving Him and worshipping Him and His interests over the interests of the church itself has to be at the heart of a church’s key values.

Jesus needs to be the point.

We need to promote Christ in the everyday

and help people live that out – and that becomes our evangelism,

it becomes ‘doing church’.

Jesus becomes our whole life.

The life of everyone who is part of that church community, and then part of the lives of the people they know, and so on and so on. And we still have as part of ‘doing  church’ a community of followers who we connect with and who help us grow and mature, and who we can be accountable to, and who we can meet for fellowship and teaching and encouraging together. Not a place where the separation between sacred and everyday is increased and encouraged, but a place where we are taught how to find Jesus in the everyday and how to make Him part of our everyday – then go and do it.

The Sunday meetings are important. Very important.

But they are not the point.

They are not the only place we ‘do church’.

Church was never intended to be an organization or institution, or ‘the establishment’. Its about following Jesus, proclaiming His kingdom, being obdient to Him, seeking to build His kingdom and not our own, seeking not to separate the sacred from the everyday, but promote this idea and teach about how we can do that more and more.

Its His church. Its a community of followers of Jesus.

It so important church leaders are emphasizing always that being church and doing church is as much about being Jesus in our everyday as what we do on Sundays. I think its is absoluetly vital to ensuring a church stays church in the truest sense, and avoids falling into the religious trap which Jesus never wanted His followers to fall into.

The church of Jesus Christ – the community of people who choose to follow Him, ‘Christians’ –  have fallen into the trap of religion. Some are desperately trying to escape and trying to find a way out. Others have fallen away because they have lost hope. Others thought about God but gave up when religion got in the way. Others see Christianity and the traditional church image and don’t even take a second look.

The church is very sick. Jesus wants to save it, like He has already saved us all. Jesus sacrifice was a once and for all sacrifice to ‘reconcile to Himself all things in heaven and on earth’ – all things, literally translated from the Greek, means literally ‘all things’. Jesus has opened the door for the restoration of all things – and that includes not just people, not just the earth, but the church – who are His people, and His bride.

In all seriousness, this topic is so huge and has such repercussions I have a feeling it may eventually turn into a book (the title above could probably be a book title). But I will end for now with this:

I believe people are looking for God. They are looking for a way of life better than the one they have. They are looking for real genuine hope.

But they are sick of religion. They want God, they may even want church. But they don’t want legalism, rules, traditions and politics to get in the way of it. They want something that is liberating, life changing and sets them free from the culture they are in and gives them genuine, authentic hope. They want faith which deals with the real issues in our world today and the day to day problems of life and faces up to them rather than brushes over them.

They are sick of today’s ‘pharisees’ telling them what they aren’t and not, and how bad they are, being guilted into faith, and of being ‘sold’ Jesus like a bad insurance policy.

They want to be set free. They want to be the people they were made to be.

Its up to the church. Its up to church leaders. Its up to followers of Jesus. They – we – are the ones given this responsibility. We are meant to be the answers to prayer. We are the ones with the respsonsibility to rise to this challenge, and we have the creator of the universe to help us. We need to stop dividing and fighting over issues which don’t matter, and unite around issues that do. Issues that matter to Jesus that all of us can make a difference to – locally, nationally and internationally. Projects like the foodbank are one obvious example close to home.

The question all followers of Jesus need to ask ourselves – me included –  is ‘What am I going to do?’ Then they need to do it.

And if you don’t know Jesus, He is looking for you. He is waiting for you. And He’s not the church, He’s not a hypocrite, He’s not against you, He doesn’t reject you and He wants to hear from you. He is so much more than you think or been led to believe.

What are you – indeed, what am I – waiting for?

I was off work sick today, resting and trying to find something to do, and ended up chatting with someone on Facebook. It was in response to a blog post on my pastor’s own blog on this difference between breaking the rules because that’s what it means to follow Jesus, and breaking rules for the sake of being rebellious, even as a Christian. It’s a pretty good post (worth a read, epsecially for those interested in theology), and I wrote an initial response to it. Then a man called Andrew Bindon, who believes slightly differently to me, responded to this. Then I responded to Him.

It ended up being a discussion which allowed me to ask myself questions about what I believe and why, and have intelligent conversation and healthy debate with someone who believes very differently. I think in the end there was mutual respect between us, rather than the bitterness, judgement and division which often gets attributed to discussions on Christianity, especially between Christians and non-Christians.

I learnt more about Jesus, about myself and what I believed and made a new friend, even if we believe totally different things.

Below is the transcript of our conversation over the day. He has published exactly the same on his blog. We both felt that it was a conversation and discussion which many more would benefit from seeing and I’d love to hear your responses. Here it is…

James Prescott (me): What we have to remember is we are not called either to be rebels or to be conformists. We are called to follow Jesus, whatever the implications of that. If we appear non-conformist or conformist, or rebels, as a result of this then so be it. But ultimately its finding the real Jesus and being obedient to Him and His calls on our lives which really matters. I am currently reading ‘The Orthodox Heretic’ at the moment and finding it quite interesting, and have just bought ‘How Not to Speak of God’, which I am looking forward to even more now. Interesting post.

Andrew Bindon: The example of Jesus’s life was not to be a follower of anyone… he wasn’t.

JP: Jesus showed us that the best way to live was the way He lived – the way of God. He was obedient to God and lived the way God always wanted us to live, and made it possible for us to live that life.

AB: The same way that Mohamed was not a follower of Mohamed, and Moses was not a follower of Moses, Jesus was not a follower of Jesus. The example these great spiritual leaders set was to live lives of radical spiritual leadership. They engaged in their relationship with the eternal to such a degree that their engagement became a blessing to all of us.

JP: Jesus wasn’t a follower of Jesus, of course not. But He was the Son Of God, and was at once 100% man and 100% God – as complex as that sounds (and its probably even more complex to explain and understand). He showed us in His life how God wants us to live as human beings, and made it possible for us to live that life. Jesus engaged with God in a way none of us could, and through His sacrifice allowed us all to engage with God in that way. Whether we do and how much we do this is ultimately our choice.

AB: What I’m suggesting is that Jesus engaged with God in a way that all of us could. If we could not then all our spiritual endeavours would be futile. That we do engage with God in that way is the direction where the hope of humanity for a better world lies. If we are to learn from his example, we should not be a follower of anyone, we should especially not be a follower of Jesus – that would be to exactly miss the point of his life and turn his ministry into a false idol.

JP: Jesus asked his disciples to follow Him, and in Gesthemene he prayed for all his followers, and all who ‘would believe in me through their message’. Jesus engaged fully with God because while he was 100% human he was also 100% God. He showed us that this type of life is possible, and that God wants to be fully engaged in our lives, in the everyday. The point of Jesus life was to show us how God wants to live and that following the way of God, and God’s original intention for humanity, as embodied by Jesus, is the best way to live, and furthermore to open us up to a full relationship with Him through His death and resurrection. Jesus showed us that we could fully engage with God and made it possible. Jesus wants us to follow Him in as much as He wants us to engage with God in the way He did, and be obedient to God as He was. Jesus was obedient to and submitted to God’s plan. Jesus and his ministry is no false idol though, Jesus is the Son of God.

JP: Jesus had a special anointing and gifting from God, and was the Son of God, both at once fully man – in terms of temptations, expereiences and emotions – but also fully God – totally without sin. He was tempted how we are all tempted, but didn’t give into temptation once. Because of that He was able to make the sacrifice for the rest of us, which not only made a relationship with God fully available, but also set in motion the restoration of all things in heaven and earth, so that heaven and earth are once again the same place. Jesus showed us a ‘new humanity’, which in reality is the ‘original humanity’ God always intended for us.

AB: I think there is a misunderstanding around the idea Jesus “wants us to follow him”. Wittgenstein pointed out how once you have climbed the ladder of understanding you must throw the ladder away. The ladder is not the point. The ladder only gets you to where you are going, like a signpost that points you the way. Otherwise life becomes about the signpost, rather than the direction it is pointing in. It is a mistake to think that life is about Jesus, in the same way that it is a mistake to think that a signpost pointing towards London is itself London.

JP: You’re talking about Jesus as just some minor prophet from 2000 years ago, when I don’t believe that. I believe He was different to any man before or since, fully God while at the same time sharing all the expereinces and temptations we have. Jesus wants us to live the life God always intended for us, and He showed us how to do this on a very basic level and also made it fully possible through the cross. I call myself a follower of Jesus, because I try to live my life around the values and lifestyle he stood for, and by His teachings about God and life. Obviously I am not him and never will be. But Jesus embodied an atttiude, a way of life, a way of living and seeing the world and other people, and a basic set of principles, and He asks us all to follow those and make those part of our everyday. In that sense He does want us to be His followers. Jesus makes sense of our lives, and points us in a direction different that maybe we would want or expect, of course He does. He helps us see our true identity and is a guide, freind and teacher along the road to discovering our true selves and the role God wants for us in the world, and ultimately in discovering the reality of God in our everyday lives, and making it more of a reality.

AB: Thank you very much for our conversation today James, I have enjoyed discussing this with you. (In between trying to get some work done!) Clearly we don’t agree about some things, but I think that on the whole we agree about more than we disagree.

JP: It has been an interesting conversation to be sure.

AB: Hooray, everybody is happy! Those are the kinds endings I like.

Hope you enjoyed the conversation, and learnt a lot. As a Christian the questions Andrew poses are challenging for us all and ones we should all hear and think about our responses to. If you’re not a Christian but thinking about Jesus, I hope my responses answered some basic questions, and weren’t too full of jargon for you! We are all exploring our relationship with God. Life is a journey and we are all at different places in that journey, and we are all on a journey with God, even if we don’t know it. God wants to be involved in all of our lives, and He doesn’t want to be some distant person away from anything, only called on in emergencies. He wants to be part of our everyday – or rather, He wants us to see Him the everyday He’s already involved in.

He’s just waiting for us to respond to His invitaton. He sent Jesus to open the door to have relationship and restore the world to how it was originally made to be. Jesus has made that way of life available to us all, and doesn’t want us to be part a religion, but a way of life. The way of life intended for us from the beginning, the way of God. Through this we discover our true identity, and can play a part with Him in restoring this world to how it was always intended to be.

Andrew said following Jesus wasn’t important, but I believe it is the only hope for us. The only genuine hope there is for humanity. Jesus offers that hope, and its not fake,

its real.

In the brilliant film ‘The Dark Knight’ we meet a character called The Joker, played with Oscar-winning excellence by the late Heath Ledger. In the film the character tells his fellow criminals he is going to kill Batman. He attempts to do this by getting Batman to reveal his true identity, and is ruthless in his attempts to do this.

Essentially and he goes on TV and says that every day Batman doesn’t reveal his true identity, people will die. He ultimately ends up killing many more people , and eventually another character, the district attorney, pretends he is really Batman, to stop the killings and so that Batman himself can get on with his job. Later on in the film the Joker makes another threat, this time to blow up a hospital unless someone is killed. The link is here if you want to watch the clip, though beware it is a bit disturbing, only watch if you have a thick skin.

Essentially, the Joker is bargaining with Batman. He is in essence telling him “You stop being Batman, and I won’t kill these people” or “If you don’t kill this man, then thousands more will be killed”

The bottom line  in all this is “You do this, and I will, in return, do or not do this”

An exchange. Life and freedom as long as someone complies with certain conditions.

I think sometimes, in fact more often that we’d like to think, that people have this attitude towards Jesus and sin. Essentially for them Christianity becomes all about avoiding eternal punishment in hell. As long as you comply with certain conditions, then you can receive the love of God and you get the ticket into heaven. You recognize how bad you are and make a grovelling apology to a big and distant God who is angry with you, then He might just let you into heaven – which they usually talk about as some place elsewhere, (which as I’ve said before, isn’t actually what the Bible says).

They believe you can only really experience God and meet with Him if you know Jesus. Their evangelism becomes about defending what they believe, and focussed on what people are not, what’s wrong with them, that they are wicked and awful and that if they don’t believe in Jesus, they are doomed to burn in hell. Some Christians even say this as evangelism. Many don’t, but that is essentially their basis for argument anyway. Its almost a security blanket, an insurance policy.

This idea that “If you’re right and I believe I’ve lost nothing, but if I’m right and you don’t believe you’re in trouble”.

No mention of love.

No mention of grace.

Frankly, not loving whatsover.

Its enough to put anyone off the Christian faith and Jesus.

I often think this kind of faith is down to people’s own insecurities. They need to know some people are in and out with absolute certainty, so that they they can always take the high ground and be right, and they need this kind of non-negotiable, ‘in or out’ faith to make them feel more secure about themselves. They don’t like to question or explore any deeper meaning of scripture but prefer to know set boundaries. It appears to me to be like joining a club when you become a Christian when you look at it this way, rather than a journey or a real relationship which deepens or matures over time. It seems like something which doesn’t compel anyone to change their lifestyle at all, merely to believe the right things – when Jesus said, and indeed James wrote in the Bible, that real faith should be shown in our actions. If we have really experienced God then our lives will inevitably be changed, and we will be compelled to change.

That kind of faith, this idea of bargaining with our faith and making God’s blessings about whether you were ‘in or out’ is totally contrary to the way of Jesus.  Jesus didn’t ever do this with regular people. Look at the people He healed, did He tell them all they had to repent or they were going to hell? No. He loved them, He healed them, He blessed them and told them in some instances to go tell everyone about Him.

He told people they needed to repent and believe, but never threatened them with eternal damnation in hell if they didn’t. He loved people first. He let people experience God fully before repentance, not just afterwards. There was no ‘I’ll bless you, but please repent first’. He merely loved, taught and healed people. People recognized who He was and became followers without repentance first.

The solider at the cross who said He was the Son of God.

The man who had demons driven out of him, and was sent off to evangelize almost instantly by Jesus.

The woman at the well.

The woman who touched His cloak and got healed instantly, merely because she recognized who Jesus was and had faith.

None of these people are reported in the Bible as repenting first before they understood who Jesus was, before they knew God and experienced God through Jesus. None of these people were blessed merely becuase they had repented. It was the grace and love of Christ in His words, His actions and how He treated them which stood out and convinced them, even before their own repentance. They recognised the truth of who Jesus was before they ever repented, and God’s hand and blessing were already on them.

God’s love is not conditional.

God’s grace is not conditional.

God’s blessing is not conditional.

Now of course, I do believe fundamentally that repentance is necessary to have a full relationship with God, I am not doubting that or denying that. To know and experience God in the way He originally intended, repentance is necessary. All of us have played a part in the turning away from God that the human race has been doing collectively from nearly the beginning. All of us have made mistakes and done things which seperate us from God or have not helped the peace of the world. But God will speak to us, and we can experience Him and even recognize He is true before we repent.

You see real repentance isn’t just saying sorry. Its recognizing our role in making the world the way it is, and a decision to turn around and live another way, according to another reality. To seek to try and live the way we were originally designed to live, to find our true identity with God, and a choice to reject the way we’ve always lived in favour of another. To make a complete reversal on how we’ve done things before. That doesn’t mean we will always get it right, it means we will work through these choices every day.

Repentance is something you do every day. You make a choice each day to reject the old way you did things, and choose God’s way, and participate with Him in His restoration of the world.

God’s love isn’t dependent on it.

God’s grace isn’t dependent on it.

God’s blessing isn’t dependent on it.

God’s presence with us isn’t dependent on it.

You see, the way to proper evangelism isn’t scaring the life out of people and saying that they are not good enough and without God they are doomed to hell. Its not about shoving a tract in their hands telling them how much they need Jesus and if they don’t believe then their future is bleak and without Him they are never going to be good enough. Its not this at all.

Its not about bargaining, or some kind of deal we have with God, or He has with us.

Ultimately the best way we can evangelize is by loving people even when they don’t deserve it. Its about serving and helping people when you’re not asked, and maybe even without them knowing.Its about showing people that there is a God who loves them just as they are, even with all the mistakes they make, regrets they have and bad decisions they’ve made. A God who made this world and had a original destiny for it and for us, and when we thought we knew better He even sent His own son to die, so that  relationship with Him could be restored. A God wants them to partner with Him in restoring the world to how it was always intended, and bringing Heaven back to earth. A God who can bring us hope even in the times of our deepest despair.

A God whose love is so vast is has overcome even death, and will never end.

So please, lets end this idea of having to bargain with God to bless us and love us. Lets stop limiting Jesus to just forgiveness of sin, and let people see that His sacrifice was about restoring everything in creation to how was intended to be. Lets stop trying to evangelise by trying to tell people what they are not and how bad they are.

Instead, lets show people through our words and our lives who God is, about what Jesus is like, and explain the real meaning of what He’s done.

That its not just to reunite us with God and give us forgiveness, but allowing us to partner with Him in restoring everything back to how it was always planned, and bring heaven to earth.

Because God was never about scare tactics and telling people they weren’t good enough. He was about loving them and showing them the true nature of God.