[This may work best either with a music group making all of the sound effects, a group of people with each one making the different sounds, or even dividing the congregation into sections who all make the different sounds. The people could also do actions to go with the sounds]
Bobby is a one-man-band. He comes from a family of one-man-bands. His mother and father were both one-man-bands (or one-woman-band in his mother’s case). His Grandfather had been a one-man-band. His sisters are both one-woman-bands. It is in the genes.
Bobby wears a bass drum on his back with a string attached to his left foot. When he walks it goes ‘Bang, bang, bang’.
He has cymbals between his knees. When he knocks them together it goes ‘tshh, tshh, tshh’ and when he walks it goes ‘bang, tshh, bang, tshh, bang, tshh’.
Bobby has a banjo that he plays. He likes playing it ‘twangy, twangy, twangy’ as he walks ‘bang, tshh, bang, tshh, bang, tshh’.
He also has a harmonica (mouth organ) that is on a frame around his neck so he can play that at the same time: ‘do de do de do de do’ while he plays his banjo ‘twangy, twangy, twangy’ as he walks ‘bang, tshh, bang, tshh, bang, tshh’.
Bobby has a car horn attached to his left elbow so when he squeezes his arm against his side it goes ‘honk, honk, honk’ along with the harmonica ‘do de do de do de do’ while he plays his banjo ‘twangy, twangy, twangy’ as he walks ‘bang, tshh, bang, tshh, bang, tshh’.
When Bobby kicks his right leg backwards it pulls a string that is attached to some bellows that blow air into a vuvuzela that goes ‘maah, maah, maah’ while the horn goes ‘honk, honk, honk’ along with the harmonica ‘do de do de do de do’ as he plays his banjo ‘twangy, twangy, twangy’ and he walks ‘bang, tshh, bang, tshh, bang, tshh’.
Each instrument on its own sounds good. Bobby actually sounds quite good when all of his instruments are in sync with each other.
But Bobby doesn’t want to be a one-man-band. He finds it limiting. He can’t express himself fully. He longs to play in an orchestra where he can blend his melodies with harmonies from different instruments, brought together by the conductor. He imagines how amazing that would sound. But his problem is that people only ever see him as a one man band.
Our mission strategy is designed to help churches and people to work out for themselves how to engage in mission where they are.
If you and I visited an ice cream parlour we would almost certainly order different flavours but rather than insisting that the other person had picked the wrong thing (unless it was salted caramel of course). We would probably ask what the flavours tasted like and we would take the opportunity to learn from each other and perhaps consider what we might order differently next time.
We all live and minister in different places and contexts and I believe that there is no one approach to mission that will fit all of our different situations. The key to the EBA supporting you in mission is for us to help, resource and equip one another to consider what will work in our own situations.
Places we are: How well do we know the area that our church is based in? Do we know what goes on in the community and are we connected to people there. How about the places where the people from the church live and work? How can the church focus more on and pray for these places that God’s love and light would shine in them? LICC’s Life on the Frontline is a helpful resource to consider how we can live out our faith in the places that we are each day.
Opportunities we have: Having identified the places that we are, we need to consider how we engage with the people in those places. Part of this thinking needs to be about how the church can engage with the community that it is a part of and lots of churches run plenty of activities and events for this purpose. In evaluating these events and activities, it is worth considering how much of an opportunity there is to actually connect with and to try to talk with people, people are more important than projects.
We also need to think through how we equip and encourage one another to take the opportunities in our everyday lives to be honest about our faith with others. At the least, can we demonstrate the reality of our faith by saying ‘I’ll pray for you’ to people who are talking about a problem with us.
Part of our consideration about how we take opportunities is to consider where people are on their journey of faith. If we were talking to an atheist, we might talk differently about our faith than if we were talking to someone who believes in and who prays top Jesus but who isn’t a Christian yet. We will also want to consider how we run church events and activities for people who are at different stages of their faith journey.
Inspiration to share: A lot of my best ideas are taken from what others are doing. We want to come up with more effective ways in which we can share the great things that others are doing so that we can all be inspired.
Need God: Sadly, mission can end up being about bright ideas or jumping on (and trying not to fall off too quickly from) the latest bandwagon. How can we pause and ask God what we should be doing? How can we consider what God is already doing in our communities and then join in with that? When we launch out into something new, do we pray and ask God for his strength and inspiration? When people in the church start new jobs, do we pray for and commission them to be servants of God in their workplaces?
Training and equipping: We need to realize that none of us knows everything and that sometimes even if we do know what we want to achieve it can still be hard to know how to accomplish it. We want to either provide or to help facilitate and promote training that is relevant, real and helpful to our situations.
We believe that this is the POINT, for us to engage in mission and to be disciples who make disciples. We would love to hear from you so do get in touch with any questions or thoughts.
Graeme Ross (EBA Mission Strategy Task Group Leader)
