Yesterday we
had the second session of our Lenten Series the 5 Marks of Love. We dealt with
the first of the Marks of Love after the introduction to the program last
week. Just as a reminder the 5 Marks of love
are:
1. TELL: Proclaim the Good News of the
Kingdom
2. TEACH: Teach, baptize and nurture new
believers
3. TEND: Respond to human need by loving
service
4. TRANSFORM: Transform unjust
structures, challenge violence of every kind
5. Treasure: Strive to safeguard the
integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth
Proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom is about that thing
which Anglicans are, to put it mildly, not comfortable with i.e.
Evangelism. How do we proclaim the Good
News i.e. the Gospel of Jesus Christ when we have (speaking generally) not been
taught how to do it and have not, until the last part of the 20th Century,
needed to do it? We do not have the history or experience or training to do
this; it is not part of our DNA. That is
one of the reasons why our congregations are aging and the pews are no longer
full (although we do sit at the back to make sure there will be room in the
front of the church for latecomers to find a spot in a pew—we
are still using pews pretty much exclusively).
In addition there are some of us—the introverts—who
would die a thousand deaths if we had to knock on doors and invite people to
our churches much less engage them in why we are Anglicans and what we actually
believe in. We have a long way to go to
begin to Evangelize.
Actually that would be true if we only consider Evangelism
to be what is portrayed by TV Evangelists and in the media. We need to explore what Evangelism truly
means. That is what we started to
explore in the first of the Marks. What
does it mean to share the Good News? How
can we share the Good News in our lives with others? First we have to know what the Good News is
for each of us.
I have attached the two pages from the workbook that explores
this.
Blessings on your journey.
No comments:
Post a Comment