Christians working together.... a briefing from Roger Sutton of EA's Gather Movement

4 Lessons from Tim Keller and Movement Day in New York.

Having just got back from attending Movement Day in New York, I am staggered
at the size and scope of what God is doing around the world. Tim Keller
pastor of Church of the Redeemer has been drawing city leaders from around
the world to Movement Day to tell the stories of this extraordinary move of
God. All over the globe Church and Christian leaders in the cultural
spheres are coming together in unity, seeking God in prayer and working
together for the social, cultural and spiritual transformation of their
cities and towns. From Australia to Canada from Indonesia to South America,
from USA to Europe, these leaders are asking the questions, what could our
place look like in 30 years time?

Some key lessons from Movement Day 2013.

1. This is a move of the Spirit. The surprising thing about the story of
these unity for mission movements is that they have been below the radar for
so long. As we uncovered over 100 such movements in the UK, we realised that
in each place God had been doing a deep work of humility, repentance and
renewal. Ordinary pastors and Christian leaders in the cultural spheres had
been slowly building friendships, regularly praying together, uniting
resources in mission and growing in a kingdom vision for their town or city.
This is not the latest fad or the next Christian fashion accessory, this is
a move of God's spirit. Movement day underlined this as we mixed with
leaders from Australia Brazil, Sweden, Canada, and India. We heard stories
from major American cities and Eurpoean capitals alongside small towns in
Indonesia and the South Sea Islands. Each story was unique and each place
was special but they also shared the same common characteristics of
friendship based unity and
regular prayer, resulting in mission. This has not been learnt from a book
nor has it trended on twitter, this is a sacrificial incarnational move of
God in our world.

2. Tim Keller is giving the movement gravitas. We know many cities and towns
owe a great deal to leaders such as Ed Silvoso, and others, who pioneered
the vision to build unity in order to see social, cultural and spiritual
transformation. Arising more from the charismatic/ pentecostal stream the
movement had energy and life and produced some outstanding examples of
transformation. The unity movements across the world are still mainly
founded on this tradition however this is now broadening out to include
those from other traditions. Tim Keller and the work of Church of the
Redeemer in New York, is providing a wider theological framework, a more
nuanced city reaching strategy and a gravitas that is not so easily ignored.

3. The disconnect between church growth and city transformation. It was
sobering to hear the story of Claudio and Paulo who have served in San
Paulo, Brazil all their lives. This is a city of over 20 million people
where the evangelical church has grown to over 30% of the population.
Churches have grown and people have come to full faith in Christ. For many
this is the strategy of transformation, to see as many people come to faith
as possible and so affect the culture of the city. However their experience
is that as fast as the Church has grown in San Palau the state of the city
has decayed at the same rate. A city overwhelmed with poverty, violence and
corruption is not being impacted by the individual spiritual change in
peoples lives. This of course shouldn't surprise us, since we have
perpetuated a dualistic theology for many years, where personal piety and
church commitment is divorced often from the world, of employment, social
justice, culture, education and civic
life. Our strategy must now develop. Of course we want to see Churches grow
and people find faith but we also want to see those Christians being salt
and light in a dark world, affecting kingdom change for the sake of Christ's
world. As Keller put it we are called to be 'burning bushes of Gods presence
in the world".

4. Transformation will be built on sacrifice and humility. I was reminded
again that there is no quick fix to seeing a place transformed by the
gospel, there is no clever strategy that will short cut cultural, social and
spiritual transformation. City wide transformation is built on the personal
transformation of its spiritual leaders. The kingdom is only released
through repentance, humility and sacrifice. One of the most moving talks was
from an older black lady who had invested many years in developing the unity
movement in Kansas City USA. She very powerfully said,

"Everyone brings something to the table, and at the table we have honest,
open, discussion, authentic, preferring one another, speaking the truth in
love. We speak the hard truths, soul searching, tears, questions, silence,
prayer, apologies, dealing with issues, mindsets, thought patterns, more
prayer, emotions and most of all we just keep coming back to the table. We
share our burdens, concerns for our churches, children, for our cities, the
what, why, where. Knowing that before there is moral reformation in our
city, we have to have spiritual transformation. As the Bible says 'They will
know that we are Christ followers by the love we have for one another".
Although there is value in a single grape, in Isaiah 65:8 it speaks of the
new wine being in the cluster not in the single grape. One day I noticed
that the first letters of the mission statement for Citywide Prayer spelled
CUP. C is for connecting in friendship, U is for uniting in prayer, P is for
partnering in
mission. Jesus asked, "Can you drink from the same cup?" What's in the cup?
In the cup there is repent-ability, nobility of humility, community,
diversity, unity, integrity, spirit of hospitality, generosity and
accountability. In order to see hearts transformed, churches revived,
communities and cities reformed, Jesus is saying to us, "Can you (or are you
willing to) drink from the same cup? If your answer is yes, He says, "Drink
ye all of it!"

By Rev Roger Sutton.

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Gather is enabled by the Evangelical Alliance of Great Britain
Gather is enabled by the Evangelical Alliance of Great Britain

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