We want to start a bible study in a non-churchy place – like a coffee shop – at a time that isn’t a “church time” – like a Tuesday night. We want to present the Gospel and examine the Scriptures simply and steer clear of non-essentials. We want to worship Jesus together simply, without a lot of hype, pressure, or showmanship. We want to love the people around us truthfully and openly, because God is real and He is near.
Values
These are a few things that are close to our heart:
- A home for hungry people. Psalm 107:35-36 says “He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs: there he brought the hungry to live…” We believe that there are many in Northern Ireland who are hungry for reality, hope, freedom, deeper connection with God – in short, hungry for the Life that is only found in Jesus. For whatever reasons, cultural, historical and spiritual, many of these folks have not found this Life in their religious upbringing. We feel God is calling us to be home for the “post-churched”, the disenfranchised, those who have been inoculated to the Gospel by violence and cultural christianity.
- Calling people to Jesus. We believe that Life is only found in Him. I don’t have their answers. Our church doesn’t have their answers. Doing church “cooler” isn’t the answer. Living connection with Jesus is the only answer. Jesus said “Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28) We believe He really wants us to take Him up on that.
- Worship is the battle. God deeply impressed Psalm 27 on me on the plane ride home after our first trip in 2005. Worship is our motivation – that God would be glorified, that more people would worship Him, and that we would be more intimately connected with Him – but it is also the work itself. As I worship Jesus, He changes me and takes my eyes off myself. As we worship Jesus together, outsiders see Him and are made hungry. As we live worshipful lives in every area, cultures are confronted with Him and spiritual battles are won that we aren’t even aware of.
What Could Happen?
We believe this is a first step in a larger, longer process that starts with planting Bible-teaching, neighbor-loving, Jesus-worshipping communities where pre- and post-churched people can encounter the Living God. The second step is training, believing in, and releasing those people into the callings and giftings God has given them – freeing them to be radical and creative in following Him. This may involve starting a training program using a coffee roaster or some other business to support them. Our long term hope is that through this work and the work of many other unrelated groups and individuals, the Irish and Northern Irish would be released to touch this world – using their natural friendliness and stubborn persistence to send missionaries to post-Christian Europe, using their newfound prosperity to pour into the global AIDS pandemic. Not because we’re awesome or know what we’re doing, but because God wants to be known. What could happen?
