With prayer, with love, with passion and with pain.. and by tapping into the locals :P (Sorry.. duh)
Get talking to some of the local and/or neighbouring churches (if you're willing).. they (should) have some idea of the demographic, and you might be able to learn from their mistakes? And I guess you need all the prayer you can get, might as well get the eastern shore actually praying about it! (It's my shore, so I'll be praying..)
It might be interesting to just plan a church service, advertise in the area with posters on poles, bring a few friendly friends, and just see who turns up. i.e. just jump in and see what happens.
If you want to know more people, you have to join a club, a sport, a committee, a school or tafe course, or get a job. If you want to join a informal social club, you have to own the right car or video game or cloths or makeup. But you will be found out as fake unless you first join the internet forum related to that activity and learn everything about it before you make too many posts.
Before you start a church, maybe you could provide a meeting of another sort. Maybe a friday night group for teens. Give them whatever they want. Maybe a hall, and a safe place to do rap dancing of whatever the kids ar into. Impress the kids with your own skillz, then tell Dad jokes and talk about Jesus.
I like Jonny's "provide another sort of meeting" idea.
I'm just thinking about the handful of people I know (and I don't know them well) from working class suburbs in Hobart - I think the main thing you need to do is earn their trust.
I think those guys can be a really caring community amongst themselves, but they don't trust outsiders or people that they can't place. Remember that a number of them will have had hard lives and have been given no reason to trust other people. As a Sydneysider and a pastor they aren't even going to begin to trust you.
So I think earning trust is your main and first aim. I think it means getting involved in people's lives in any way. And it means being involved in their lives for a long time. It may take years before they really trust you.
The trap with this though is that you can work so hard at being accepted and understood by people that you can end up being more of a social worker. So somehow from the start, you need to make it clear that you're on about Jesus and that he is the reason why you're getting involved in their lives. Of course this will make gaining people's trust harder, but it must be done, or you'll end up gaining their trust and having no good news to share with them.
Best wishes Jimbo. Thanks for loving people low in status. Never forget how dearly God loves those guys. I'll pray for you!
Thanks for the input. I'm new with this interweb stuff, I only just found out its on computers now! I have tried lots of cold turkey stuff, like going to the local neighbourhood centre, and doing leaflets and stuff, but you are right that people are suspicious of strangers. I also think its a good idea to get involved with the pagan stuff thats going on, and put myself out there. Who's in for some door knocking!!
I dont know if you, or those who support you, have got this patience, but if the only church planting we do is in Bible Belt territory, then do we really believe the gospel? In 10 years time you may have a community of real Warrane people who actually can network & share the gospel in that culture.
11 comments:
I wish I knew...
I don't know but I love the blog title!
Nick and I are praying for you guys and we'd love to hear how it's going.
With prayer, with love, with passion and with pain..
and by tapping into the locals :P
(Sorry.. duh)
Get talking to some of the local and/or neighbouring churches (if you're willing).. they (should) have some idea of the demographic, and you might be able to learn from their mistakes?
And I guess you need all the prayer you can get, might as well get the eastern shore actually praying about it!
(It's my shore, so I'll be praying..)
It might be interesting to just plan a church service, advertise in the area with posters on poles, bring a few friendly friends, and just see who turns up.
i.e. just jump in and see what happens.
If you want to know more people, you have to join a club, a sport, a committee, a school or tafe course, or get a job. If you want to join a informal social club, you have to own the right car or video game or cloths or makeup. But you will be found out as fake unless you first join the internet forum related to that activity and learn everything about it before you make too many posts.
Before you start a church, maybe you could provide a meeting of another sort. Maybe a friday night group for teens. Give them whatever they want. Maybe a hall, and a safe place to do rap dancing of whatever the kids ar into. Impress the kids with your own skillz, then tell Dad jokes and talk about Jesus.
I like Jonny's "provide another sort of meeting" idea.
I'm just thinking about the handful of people I know (and I don't know them well) from working class suburbs in Hobart - I think the main thing you need to do is earn their trust.
I think those guys can be a really caring community amongst themselves, but they don't trust outsiders or people that they can't place. Remember that a number of them will have had hard lives and have been given no reason to trust other people. As a Sydneysider and a pastor they aren't even going to begin to trust you.
So I think earning trust is your main and first aim. I think it means getting involved in people's lives in any way. And it means being involved in their lives for a long time. It may take years before they really trust you.
The trap with this though is that you can work so hard at being accepted and understood by people that you can end up being more of a social worker. So somehow from the start, you need to make it clear that you're on about Jesus and that he is the reason why you're getting involved in their lives. Of course this will make gaining people's trust harder, but it must be done, or you'll end up gaining their trust and having no good news to share with them.
Best wishes Jimbo. Thanks for loving people low in status. Never forget how dearly God loves those guys. I'll pray for you!
Also, you need to form a team of Christians that are allready in other churchs.
Thanks for the input. I'm new with this interweb stuff, I only just found out its on computers now!
I have tried lots of cold turkey stuff, like going to the local neighbourhood centre, and doing leaflets and stuff, but you are right that people are suspicious of strangers. I also think its a good idea to get involved with the pagan stuff thats going on, and put myself out there. Who's in for some door knocking!!
Hello Jimbo, welcome to blogology 101!
Hey Jim,
Just popped round to see your blog. Happy to do some doorknocking too.
Fiona H.
Jimbo. Just remember it might take 10years.
I dont know if you, or those who support you, have got this patience, but if the only church planting we do is in Bible Belt territory, then do we really believe the gospel? In 10 years time you may have a community of real Warrane people who actually can network & share the gospel in that culture.
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