The Church and its Calling Ownership and the Church the local church as the agent of change Rev. Gé Drayer 13 Octobre 2017

the local church as the agent of change Introduction 2. A sort of Church History 0 – 400 Jesus and His work 400 – 1500 Church and the Pope 1500 – 2000 Holy Scripture and church doctrine 2000 onwards Jesus and His Kingdom??

the local church as the agent of change Our common history and common problem West: losing influence due to their focus on doctrine etc, making them in the era of secularisation irrelevant to the communities they live in East: losing influence, due to state controled restrictions also focusing on scripture and its doctrine, making them after the Wende slowly but certainly irrelevant for the communities they live in

Peter church and change Common problem: no longer as relevant as we would like to be What do we do? The first question: do we realize the content our original calling? The second question: how could we adhere to our calling and be a blessing?

Oh man, look: there are people outside also, We find it in Matthew 28 also in Luke 24, Mark 16 & John 20 Focus on: They – to make them disciples for Jesus They – to make them faithful to obey His teachings They – to receive life with Him

Conclusion 1: the common overall goal is honoring our Lord Conclusion 2: doing that with all we have Resume: We have to show and to tell to ourselves and the world out there: our lord is King His reign has started and will be there forever! And those how believe will have life with Him…

GOD & HIS KINGDOM Which words come to your mind? And which images?

Margareth Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval Conclusion: we have to work together openly, lovingly, wholeheartedly, passionately towards Gods Kingdom… In that process it is very important to see what this means: Gods Kingdom, his righteousness, his peace and his joy.

Together bring the stick down with your indexfinger only

And we need to help each other and our congregations to understand that! To understand also that we need to proclaim the gospel also with our lives, our deeds, our attitude!!

One of the most influential organizations in many fragile and/or conflict settings are faith organizations!

Raju Matthew 13: 24-33 and 47-48 What are the results in each parable? What did cause that result? What do the people do in each parable? Does that influence the outcome? Conclusion 1: God is responsible for the outcome… not you, not we! Conclusion 2: He wants to use you, us!

Josef Matthew 5:13-16. What does Jesus means with ‘the world’? What are the caraceristics of ‘the world’? What does it mean ‘to be in the world’? We use salt for…? ‘You are salt‘ – meaning? How will we be ‘salt’? How does that salt work and how does it loose its power? Josef

Milton What is light actually? Where do we use it for? ‘You are light’ – meaning? How do we are ‘light’ in the world? Is your church ‘light in the world? Read Jeremiah 29:1-7 and try to explain how Jeremiah wanted the people to be salt and light in their situation What could you and your church learn from this study?

Marcus 6 vers 30 tot en met 44. Who are the important players? What do they do? What are the needs of the people in this story? What do they experience as a ‘need’? What do they have as available resources?

Discuss the following questions with you neighbor: Name the steps Jesus undertakes to do His miracle. Where does Jesus address this story? Where do the disciples focus on? How are the means used to meet the need?

Other questions to discuss together: Why does Jesus go through these different steps? How could he have done this miracle differently? What is the greatest need of the people in your area? What can you/we learn from this special event? Which resources do you/we have: what are our “5 loaves and 2 fishes“? How would a miracle look like in your/our neighborhood or village?

2 Kings 4:1-7 What is happening in this story? Who are the acting people and what are they doing? What is the problem and with what do they solve the problem? How are these resources deployed? What does this section teaches us about how our church could handle the needs of the people in our neighborhood/village?

Does this process actually work? In lot’s of countries in the West and in Africa this African process works But that does not give you a garantee that it will work with your church If it works for your church it will have a transforming impact on both you and your church and the community

There are challenges and benefits Time Challenge to authority Challenge for the church dependency and loss of confidence goes It demands a good facilitator/coach

Benefits for the community: • self-reliance • self esteem • sustainable change • improved community relationships • physical changes: such as better health, sanitation, food security and incomes

And for the local church: become a positive influence in community life build relationships with people outside the church identify and utilize their own resources more effectively become an attractive and growing community empower church ministers by giving them vision and inspiration, and strengthening their skills, knowledge and confidence increase income: church members become wealthier contributing more

Your vision the be church for your area: Z Where are you now, what is our present situation ? Where you you want to be in 5 years from now? What bumps do you expect?

Our journey… What do you need for luggage? Who should join? What bumps do you expect? Who is driving the bus?

1. Envisioning the church use Bible studies and activities to help the church have a vision for working with their community 3. Local church Initiative set up a small initiative using the church’s own resources 2. Using our resources look at the resources the church has and how they can be used in the Community 4. Learning and reflection look back at the church initiative and celebrate what went well and discuss what could be improved on in the future

the process.. Year 1 Year 2 The vision of church Discovering the role of the church Celebrate who we are Collecting area information Analyze the area Make relations Get into action Evaluate Year 1 Year 2