[RE-]CONVERTING ENGLAND

"What a thoroughly good and enthusiastic group of lay people. You know, if we could hold together, energise and support people like that, we could re-convert England!"

HESE WERE THE words of one of our visiting speakers, commenting on the recent Ebbsfleet Parish Evangelism Weekend. My first thoughts were that he was exaggerating: after all there were only a couple of dozen of us there and we were from one small corner of England. Then I reflected on the apostolic band: eleven men and a substitute - less than a squad nowadays - empowered by the Risen Christ to spread the Gospel message throughout the world. They weren't alone: they were supported (as the Acts of the Apostles tells us) by Mary, Mother of Jesus, and other holy women (Acts 1:14). We hear nothing of Mary Magdalene, for instance, after the resurrection stories but it is likely that she and the other women continued to support the apostles in their work.

The apostles appointed deacons to keep things ticking over whilst they went on to new things. St Paul - a later recruit to the apostolic band - tells us (1 Cor.15:6) that there were over 500 witnesses of the resurrection supporting the apostolic mission and in his letters (see Romans 16) we hear of many people by name who would have attended whatever a Parish Evangelism Weekend would have been called in those early Christian communities, founded by the apostle Paul.

If we want to commune this Eastertide with the Risen Christ, and share in the new burst of energy which is Pentecost, we need to remember these three principles:

(1) putting our own house in order
there is no point in inviting people to Church if what they find there is a drab and dull social club with a 'members only' mentality;
(2) knowing our stuff
we don't need a degree in divinity but we need to know what we need to know;
(3) having a story to tell
each of us has a unique story of God's call to us and walk with us and, if we are to be witnesses, that is what we are witnessing to!

As for re-converting England, we may need to drop the 're-' and concentrate on converting England. Church growth specialists tell us that we do better focusing on those who have never belonged to the Church rather than on those who have fallen away. Mind you, 'Back to Church Sunday' has been a great success and there's lots of work to do there ... So, plenty of room for converters and re-converters to work together.

May the Risen Christ share his peace with you and through you bring his peace to others.

+ Andrew Ebbsfleet



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