MCN Reflection — Sharon Hamilton on Presentation by TV Thomas

Sharon Hamilton is employed as the admin-assistant at Argyle Road Baptist Church in Regina, but is also a mother, a writer, and active with Inscribe Christian Writers Fellowship.  Sharon enriches our lives in many ways including alerting us to publication and articles that call for deep reflection on who we are Kingdom People.

She shares her thoughts following the presentation by TV Thomas on the Missional Church Movement of 2024 03 11 (a Zoom meeting).

Sharon writes*:

On the church today is more like the church of the 1st century than the church of the 20th century.

  • I assume he means that our society is more secular and lots of people have no idea what the gospel is about or much if anything about Jesus.
    • One difference may be that a lot of people today think they do know, and they have rejected it. What they “know” is often false, but they still think it (e.g. Science has disproven the idea of God, or Christians hate LGBQT people).
    • Sometimes they actually do know by coming from a church background and have rejected it anyway.
  • He could also mean that society is hostile to Christianity to an extent that it wasn’t then.
  • Or that if we truly live in a Christ-like manner, it will “show up” more in our current society because fewer people are living in the shadow of Christian morality than before.

On individuals in a church can bring change, but you get more results as a group.

  • I expect that this is true if you look at a mission “field” rather than individuals, as he said. For example, many churches are providing food at the Carmichael warming shelter this winter and are having much more impact for those people than individuals could on their own.
  • For individual neighbours in neighbourhoods (the people David Guretzki recommended we focus on reaching out to), it could be that individual focus is needed in order to get to know the people and their individual needs and openness. However, groups could also work together within a neighbourhood:
    • As Nick Helliwell and other groups do in north central.
    • By hosting group potlucks etc. in the same neighbourhood.

On the church needs to be aware of the actual needs of the people in the mission field, not just…

  • I don’t know what size of “field” TV Thomas was referring to. In a large one, maybe this means looking at demographic information? Or probably talking to the people in the area. Like Nick Helliwell is doing with his conversations with Indigenous Christians.

On Missional Church definition: where every believer is on mission to love and be in the world but not of the world.

  • Yes, we all need to be more Christ-like. More focused on the things of the kingdom and not on our own interests
    • Although we are told in Scripture to work with our hands so we aren’t dependent on others, and to care for our own families, and to live quiet lives, so those things are also part of being in Christ and his body.
    • There are also many instructions for us to care for each other, the other believers, as the way of showing the world that Jesus is the Messiah and that we are his disciples. If we are all focused on our unbelieving neighbours and ignoring each other’s needs, that is not a good witness. How many people have left the church because they didn’t like the way people in the church treated each other? (Ed Neufeld’s argument)
      • So I question whether every believer even should be on mission to reach those outside apart from caring for other believers. We should all be striving to follow where Christ leads us, and for some (many? most?) it will be inside the church. This is also a valuable witness, perhaps the best witness for those in our immediate circles.

On my primary calling

  • I see my primary calling at this time to be to serve the people of Argyle Road (as my job and in my volunteer work with children and worship team and just generally supporting the work that goes on in the church).
  • I also have a calling to write fiction. I have questioned this over many years and on many occasions in prayer and listening, and every time I do, something happens to encourage me to continue. While my stories are not overtly Christian, they have Christian themes and I do sense that they can reach people in some ways where other Christian outreach can’t. So maybe this is my outreach. I also have many non-Christian friends in the writing community, and maybe this is how I will reach them.

It is not exactly clear how I can do this in community with other believers, but I am connected to InScribe Christian Writers Fellowship and I guess all of us are striving to use our writing and associated activities for the glory of God.

It takes a lot of time to do this well and so I am hesitant to take on too many other things, however worthy they may be. My primary focus should be what God is calling me to, as it should be for everyone. I think we all need to be careful that we keep our focus on what God is asking us to do and to test other activities to make sure that we are truly being called to them.

On other points

  • Of course God calls people to the mission field, and we as a church and as churches should support those people in their work. Our part may be to “pray for workers for the harvest”, both that God will send them, and also for their work as they do it.
  • “How shall they preach unless they are sent?” Good question. They have to be sent. Not everyone will be on the front lines – although we will all be called to love those around us, however that looks in our context.

What do we define as “mission.”

One more thought about the Carmichael outreach. Although it is definitely serving the poor and needy, does it count as mission? That is, do the people being served also see Jesus in some way? Or are we just hoping that they will notice that it’s church people helping them and maybe sometime wonder about Jesus?

I don’t know the answer to this. It speaks to the larger question of what is mission. At the First Baptist outreach people visit with the ones being served. Maybe that is the opportunity to get to know them and make a spiritual contribution. I know it is important to see them as whole people and that physical needs have to be met first. But is that all we are doing? Or maybe we’re planting seeds. I guess prayer is essential in all of this because it is the Holy Spirit who does the work of transforming individuals.

*  Minor edits, mostly formatting changes, done by Ron Richmond

This page is a response to the presentation by Dr. TV Thomas, available here:

MCN Presentation — TV Thomas (2024 03 11) – RRVista…

 

First published:  2024/03/30
Latest revision:  2024/04/20