Over many years now, I and others have sought to recruit church members, especially those seen as mature Christians and ones who claim that the church should be more active in evangelism, to join an existing, or even seed a new, Unbounded Church fellowship. i.e., Groups that are intentionally established in public places as a Kingdom Presence, an ongoing visible gospel witness to those around who are extremely unlikely to ever enter the standard ‘inside four walls with a minister’ Sunday gathering. Such groups provide a great opportunity for those who claim to be committed to mission to actually put their claims into practice in a non-confrontational way.
However, even in the face of the well-documented chronic, decades long, serious decline of Christianity in Australia (the West) the experience has been that only a miniscule number of church members will take up such opportunities.
That is why it was extremely encouraging when a new person turned up recently wanting to participate in one of our groups. I have known her (we’ll call her Rona) for many years as a passionate Christian woman, very strong in her faith, and a lifelong and regular attendee at Sunday services and weekly Bible studies.
As I was talking with Rona about a year ago she told me that she had recently engaged in a conversation with her minister in which she had asked him, “isn’t there more to being a Christian than this?” That was an expression of her deep frustration with the prevalent highly limited understanding of the Christian life (even by those who would consider themselves as ‘mature’) as church on Sundays and bible study, and maybe also with some ‘good works’ thrown in.
If we were looking for a Christian to join and support one of our missional fellowships Rona, a widow who lives alone and who really doesn’t like going out at nighttime, would probably not be a very likely candidate, but there she was turning up at a nighttime group.
It is a mark of her willingness to put her faith into practice, her understanding that the Christian life should be far more than is manifested by the vast majority of church members, and evidence of her passion to serve Jesus, that she is prepared to try something different, inconvenient and for her in many ways uncomfortable.
And oh yes, there is something I nearly forgot to mention . . .., Rona is 90 years old!
Quantum Mission – Something Completely Different for a Kaleidoscope World
unbounded church 