If you’re a regular reader of The Ewellogy, you know that I am a huge fan of The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, founded by John Stott in the early 80s (https://www.licc.org.uk/). Here is their vision:

We have a dream that every Christian would go out into their bit of God’s world confident that God can work through them, confident that Jesus is good news for the people they meet, good news for the things they do, good news for the organisations they engage in.

And of course opportunities abound. 98% of Christians spend 95% of their waking lives ‘on the frontline’ – in shops and schools and shelters, in homes and offices and gyms.

Several years ago I hosted LICC’s Neil Hudson presenting the message of his excellent book Imagine Church. In the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic and lockdown, what does LICC recommend for churches? On May 3 they posted answers from pastors to the question: What would you pray for God to do in this context to serve people in this season? They responded:

• Instead of trying to keep old ways and systems going simply by utilizing new technology, pray that we would grasp the direction the Spirit is leading, helping us find new ways to meet people’s spiritual, emotional, and discipleship needs.
• Perhaps there are people who will experience real conversion during this season, coming see to see Christianity as a relationship rather than as religious observance. May we see what God is doing, as he calls his people back to what matters most, to be his ambassadors wherever we find ourselves.
• People have said that they are excited to finally gather together again because it will be “amazing”. Surely every Sunday should be like this?! Pray that we may grow in appreciation and praise through this.

I especially resonate with the first one. It’s nice to use technology to simulate the Sunday gathering, but how can we get on with finding “new ways to meet people’s spiritual, emotional, and discipleship needs”?

I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up… (Ephesians 4.11, 12, NIV)