The following are the articles and stories from the June 2025 MIT Monthly newsletter. If you would like to sign up to receive this newsletter from the Missional Initiatives Team, you can fill out this form.
From Our Agency to God’s Agency
By Merv Bud, Missional Initiatives Team
It seems that somewhere along the way the church’s evangelism practices became hijacked by well-meaning but misguided intentions. Perhaps it was through the influence of William Seward, the wealthy promotor and publicist for George Whitfield who helped him create a persona in order to draw crowds to his preaching. Or perhaps it was the birth of modern psychology that became more popular in the mid 20th century as a means to make Christians. For instance, in Soul-Winning Made Easy, written in 1959, C. S. Lovett advocates for the use of psychological techniques as an advantage in helping “subjects” become believers. At that same time, Leroy H. Walker, in talking about training lay workers, writes, “It is well to remind them that the laws of psychology are just as much God’s laws as are any others [. . . ]. We are under obligation to use the best approach we know to help him (the person being evangelized) hear the prompting of God to do the thing he knows he ought to do.” Or maybe it was simply the imbibed pragmatism of the times in which modern evangelism was birthed, which shaped the way people thought and led people to lean towards strategies, techniques, evangelistic formulas, and carefully planned programs that focused upon what works.
It was as if we received the Great Commission from God and assumed that He wanted us to do it without Him – “We’ve got this, God. We can take it from here.” – all by our own wisdom, strength, and abilities.
Such techniques appeared to work in the time of Christendom, but that society is all but gone. Leaning upon our own agency has left us evangelistically bankrupt. It reminds me of the words of Galadriel of Middle Earth from The Lord of the Rings, “The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was, is lost, for none now live who remember it.” It seems that the evangelistic skills we need lie in returning to the pre-Christian times of the Apostles who discerned where God was at work and joined Him, and who recognized their complete dependence upon Jesus to help them to fulfill the calling with which He had charged them.
Whereas depending on our own agency left us feeling in control, depending on God’s agency feels riskier. It requires of us a deeper awareness of God working around us and among our unsaved family and friends and then tentatively pushing on those doors of opportunity when we sense the Spirit might be nudging us. It seems that evangelism like this will not only help non-Christians to draw closer to God but also Christians, as they depend on Him to lead and direct His mission.
Butterflies
By Nathan Solak, Year of Equipping participant from Ridgewood Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin
When I first got to Ridgewood, I realized one thing immediately. It was a church surrounded quite literally on all sides by houses. It truly was a church in the neighborhood.
Yet even though we were in the neighborhood, we weren’t actually in the neighborhood. People in our congregation saw themselves as members of only one neighborhood – their own.
But then we started doing prayer walks. I started to make intentional time to just walk in the neighborhood on a consistent schedule. I made space to stop and talk to the people who lived next to us. I wanted to be part of the neighborhood.
For the most part, people loved to chat. But there was one man who always asked, “Now where do you live again?” As soon as I mentioned that I worked at the church, he shut down. Religion wasn’t for him, and he really wasn’t interested in talking about anything related to God.
But then a funny thing happened: a walking path was installed in front of our church. With this new addition, one of our members with a green thumb suggested we start a small butterfly garden that we could tend to and people could enjoy while they walk, bike, and talk.
We prayed for it to be a place of God’s hospitality. It was a great success, with many of our members having great conversations with people as they’ve worked in the garden. But one day as I was working in the garden, the neighbor across the street, who never had more than two sentences to say, was walking by and mentioned that he really loved the garden and that it was such a nice addition to the walking path.
We sat and talked for over thirty minutes about, of all things, God! Sometimes we need to take off our pastor hat, without discarding it, and be as Paul says, “all things to all people.” Sometimes, just a gardener pulling weeds.
Summer in the NEIGHBOURHOOD: Learning to BE WITH
By Karen Wilk, Missional Initiatives Team
If God is at work in the world, which includes our neighbourhoods, then discovering and joining in with what God is already doing makes so much sense! The Scriptures affirm that God is often revealed in unexpected people like fisher folk, tax collectors, and Samaritan women, and in unexpected places like Samaritan villages and centurions’ homes. How might the Spirit want to reveal God at work in your neighbourhood? And how might you discover that?
Jesus demonstrates God at work through the practice of faithful presence, of being with. Jesus was WITH people. Indeed, His was a life and ministry of attentiveness, of living among, of being, as Eugene Peterson puts it, “flesh and blood in the neighborhood” (John 1:14).
Adrianna has been learning to practice presence in her neighbourhood. She reflects on her participation in a Neighbourhood Life cohort for the last few years:
It has opened my eyes to small but intentional ways that I can be present in my neighborhood. I started walking around our neighborhood loop, praying for my neighbours instead of just hurrying to get my exercise. Then I began to slow down when I saw someone outside, taking time to wave or be interrupted. As kids came along, the conversations were easier to start because everyone loves a baby! Then we hosted an open house to get to know our neighbours and heard much more of their stories. We also got to see who already knew each other and who met for the first time.
It is a slow work, getting to know your neighbours. This initiative has helped me take small steps that grow, rather than setting big goals I know I won’t attain. It has opened my eyes and given me an appreciation for the people around me, as well as the “third spaces” that play a role in our community. When we go to the ice cream shop, the nearby grocery store, the library, the fire station . . . I go with eyes open to what God is doing in my neighbourhood and how I might be a part of that. Even visiting garage sales in my neighbourhood has become an “experiment” – an opportunity to ask people about their stories and share a little of mine.
Summer is a good time to be more intentionally present amongst our neighbours. With its nicer weather, longer days, and more outdoor leisure time, we often find ourselves and our neighbours quite naturally more attentive to one another on our streets and in our communal spaces.
But for many, being with our neighbours – saying hello, going for a walk, enjoying a happy hour – may not be as easy as it seems. We “church people” are so busy with our “church stuff” and doing stuff for others that “just” being with our neighbours is not only low on our priority list but feels unproductive and unfamiliar, even scary.
But what if being with is the greatest gift we can give and perhaps the only way for us to discover and join the Spirit in what God is already doing in our midst – in our neighbourhoods?
For the Missional Initiatives Team, being with, or “faithfully present,” begins with small steps or practices that invite us to make some shifts in both our thinking and our doing. For example:
- A shift from the back yard to the front yard/driveway/balcony. . .
- A shift from simply going to church to being the church practicing neighbourly love right where we live. . .
- A shift from our agendas to God’s agenda and being attentive to those next door. . .
- A shift from telling to listening and listening some more. . .
- A shift from fear and assumption to trust and curiosity. . .
Jesus said, Love your neighbour. Your neighbour is the person who dwells (bour) nearby (neigh). To love is to know and be known, which begins with being with! How might you be with your neighbours this summer and discover God already at work, right next door?