Encounters with Birmingham

Posted on November 12, 2010

So I’ve recently embarked upon the Birmingham City Mission, ‘Urban Challenge’ training year (http://www.christianyearout.net). It wasn’t my intended course of action for the next year but circumstance forced me to make a quick decision, my first choice having fallen through, and by accident or providence here I am. I’ve been on the programme for 6 weeks now and it’s been a mixed bag of experiences but mainly a very positive time and is also a good excuse to fire up the blog again.

BCM has existed since 1966 and it’s concise mission statement, ‘Proclaiming the Gospel, Helping the needy’, is well reflected in the training year I am on. A usual week consists of; three/four days of evangelism in a variety of contexts, a homeless project on Wednesday nights and at least one day of lectures. There are also a number of one-off events such as children’s holiday clubs, schools work and youth events throughout the year. Other BCM projects include, Elderlink, meeting the physical and spiritual needs of many elderly people, and the Resource Centre which distributes furniture, clothing and more to those in need in the city.

I’d like to record two or three memorable encounters I had with the people of Brum.

I met ‘S’ during open air work on New Street one Saturday afternoon. It was a remarkable conversation. He was carrying a lot of anger about the state of the world and the way people treat each other. It was a great opening to ask him, ‘if you feel so strongly about this, how do you think God feels?‘. We went on to have a long conversation where we covered a lot of ground and I was able to open the Bible with him on the street and give him a clear presentation of the gospel. He seemed to receive what was being said very well and I believe he was able to see his own self-righteousness and real need for Jesus. His parting words were, ‘I didn’t expect all that today!’ He was clearly affected by what we discussed.

I met ‘R’ also during open air. It was an amazing opportunity. He had various issues with Christianity. He had a problem with the way he perceived that Christianity tried to solve our problems by referring to something outside of ourselves. For example a God who is ‘out there’ or distant and Heaven as a far off and external place where you go. We talked at length and it was a privilege to begin to change his perception of these things by redefining God not as distant and ‘out there’ but rather as the God who stepped into human shoes in the person of Jesus and who is interested, involved and knowable in a very real sense. Using Rev 21:1-5 I also tried to redefine his view of Heaven to not a place we go as such but more a place coming here in the new heaven and new earth. We discussed a lot of other things too and I endeavored to personalise the general themes we were talking about. Again it was a great privilege to open scripture with him and to explain to him his own need of Jesus. He said it was the first time he’d spoken to a Christian who admitted they didn’t know all the answers (I’ll take that as a complement), and who gave him the time to talk and would genuinely listen to what he had to say. It grieved me that he seemed to have been hurt by Christians in the past.

Most recently I met ‘J’, again on New Street during open air. Until this particular week I’d never met a 7th Day Adventist but this week I met three. I know very little about them and their beliefs but what came through from each of them was an emphasis on works and the place of law keeping in their salvation. The conversation I had with J was a sad one in many ways. She had a deficient view of God’s grace, not believing it to be sufficient to save her, but relying also on her careful observation of the 10 commandments and other good works. As such she had no assurance of salvation, no promise that her sins were wholly atoned for by Jesus’ substitutionary death. She said she knew she was saved that day but had certainty she would still be saved the next. She was what Paul calls in Ephesians a ‘slave’ to the law. We talked at length and no matter how many Bible verses we looked at and no matter how keenly I implored her to see the truth it fell on dead ears. It was like she had a wall of taught doctrine which could not be penetrated. It is in these circumstances that you realise that it really is only a work of God that can open a person’s heart to understand and receive the good news of Jesus Christ.

So three brief reports of some memorable encounters. There’s been many other like this, I’ve particularly had some great opportunities working in Selly Oak, doing door to door amongst the students there. The potential for reaching the students is massive and it’s also great fun to engage with them and try and answer their objections. It’s a challenge, behind each door is a different personality and religious background, but as such it’s also a great exercise in sharpening up one’s evangelism and apologetics skills.

Thanks for reading, please pray for me that I would be wholly relying on God for the energy, compassion and gifting to reach the people I come into contact with in the coming months.