Mission in the UK implies holy intentionality, and holy method. Counties UK has brought out a fresh and valuable resource. Peter Sammons evaluates.
Who are Counties UK?
For 125 years, Counties has shared the good news of Messiah Jesus with communities across Britain. Counties’ mission is: “to share the life-changing truth of the Gospel with ordinary people in everyday settings” (from the website) and “equip local churches to make Jesus known through four main areas”:
- evangelists
- schools’ RE resources
- church planting and revitalisation
- training with a focus on community chaplaincy
(Counties- affiliated evangelists are self-employed but receive monthly grants from Counties, as funds allow. They work across England / Wales in a variety of activities, including holiday clubs; training; drop-in centres for support and advice regarding parenting, relationships and finance; youth camps; market stalls; focus groups for men; door-to-door outreach; street evangelism; small groups; evangelism courses; school visits; prison visiting and helping ex-offenders; Christian education and preaching): https://www.countiesuk.org/
Valuable book
The point about Counties UK is that they walk the walk as much as talk the talk. With their background we can have high confidence that their 261pp book “Making Jesus Known Today and Tomorrow” and sub-titled “Spreading the Gospel in Twenty-First Century Britain”, emerges from genuine insight, and practical experience.
Edited by Martin Erwin and Stephen McQuoid, sixteen contributors authored this book, which variety of authorship bestows breadth, and depth of insight. Despite this, the book holds together very satisfactorily as a coherent piece that advances and illustrates its key themes.
Rather than attempt to review the book at length, suffice to comment it is divided to two main sections that explore getting to grips with the task (understanding) and then practical work in contemporary Britain (doing). The contents are as follows:
Contents
PART 1 – UNDERSTANDING WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO DO
Chapter 1
Critiquing the soul of the nation: the many faces of the UK today—Stephen McQuoid
Chapter 2
Reclaiming the heart of the Gospel: what it is, and how it transforms lives—Martin Erwin
Chapter 3
What is conversion?—Stephen McQuoid
Chapter 4
Has church become irrelevant in twenty-first century Britain?—Tim Cracknell
PART 2 – HOW WE CAN MAKE JESUS KNOWN IN THE UK TODAY
Chapter 5
The evangelist in the twenty-first century—Martin Erwin
Chapter 6
Evangelism and the local church—Gordon Curley
Chapter 7
Evangelistic missions—yesterday’s evangelism?—Bob Telford
Chapter 8
Is church planting effective evangelism?—Tim Cracknell
Chapter 9
Gospel preaching—Bob Telford
Chapter 10
Preaching Jesus in all the Scriptures—Phil Davies
Chapter 11
Preaching the Gospel for a response—Bob Telford
Chapter 12
How ordinary friendships can result in extraordinary blessings —Beverley Bedford
Chapter 13
Work as a gospel opportunity —Neil Summerton
Chapter 14
Home as a gospel opportunity—Jacqui McKinnon
Chapter 15
Creating gospel conversations—Jacquie Bodman
Chapter 16
Evangelism in today’s youth culture —Dave Symons& Neil Summerton
Chapter 17
Sharing the gospel with children—Paul Willmott
Chapter 18
Cross-culturalevangelism in the UK—Rupert Abbott
Chapter 19
Sharing the good news online—Matt Rich
Chapter 20
Blended church—a new awakening?—Aderyn Taylor-Roberts
Chapter 21
Healing broken lives—Allan McKinnon
A personal addendum and application—Martin Erwin
Conclusion Martin Erwin
Overall assessment
As noted immediately above, the book concludes with a personal reflection by Martin Erwin, CEO of Counties UK, where he tells about his personal introduction to the ministry of healing and where this might fit in terms of evangelism.
At £9.50 it is remarkably good value for money. As a Trustee with Through Faith Missions (TFM) ( https://www.throughfaithmissions.org/Groups/284471/What_we_do.aspx ) I am naturally interested in “Making Jesus Known Today” at a practical level because the task of evangelism is core business for TFM, and I need to know what useful resources are available to help us. Apart from Rico Tice’s very valuable 105pp book “Honest Evangelism” sub-titled “How to talk about Jesus even when it’s tough”, the literature on practical evangelism to post-modern Britain is pretty sparse, so this Counties UK book is doubly welcomed as coherent, comprehensive, and timely.
Truly, and I don’t give out plaudits lightly, this is a must-read for all serious Christians. If we want to see people reach saving faith in Jesus in the UK, then we must become intentional, active, focused and wise in equal measure. I think this book helps us reach these basic requirements for effective evangelism, whilst recognizing that evangelism has many wonderful facets.
Readership
I repeat, all serious Christians in the UK should probably access this book. But to narrow-down the readership I suggest three specific categories, (1) church leadership both lay and (where relevant) ordained, (2) those actively engaged, or wanting to become engaged, in outreach mission, (3) individual Christians who sense this is an area where they need greater insight. The book certainly is accessible and usable by a broad range of Christian traditions, but the unifying characteristic its readers will surely, and quite simply, be their desire to make Jesus known to those who don’t know Him.
To support short-term missions in the UK TFM (link above) provide basic training to our volunteer missioners, based on a 1 day live (not video-based) course, backed by a helpful 70 page TFM manual. What we deliver in TFM training certainly helps our volunteers prepare for mission with TFM in the contemporary context, but we certainly encourage our volunteers to read and explore more widely. The Counties UK book provides an ideally suitable resource and TFM will certainly have this book on its recommended reading list, going forward.
Connect Evangelists Training Programme
The good news gets even better! Counties UK now provide a video-based course (“Connect Evangelists Training Programme” (CETP))
for all those who want to become more intentional and focused in the task of evangelism. Their book “Making Jesus Known Today” forms primary reference material for the course.
As it happens, I am presently undertaking the CETP course, again with my TFM hat on, as (a) I want to get better at personal evangelism and (b) I suspect that TFM should recommend and encourage more extensive training for our volunteer missioners. On that basis I plan to write a review of the CETP course when I conclude it – some time towards the end of this year, I trust.
(Counties recommend the ‘Connect Evangelists Training Programme’ is undertaken over 6 to 9 months. That sets a suitable pace, and expectation, for trainees).
Counties UK can be found here: https://www.countiesuk.org/training
The book “Making Jesus Known” can be obtained via GLO Bookshop: https://www.globookshop.com/MAKING-JESUS-KNOWN-TODAY-AND-TOMORROW-PB_9781739128319 (Phone: 01698 275343).
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