Lessons from Mission week

Well I'm just on my way home from a week of missions events with Dundee University CU. Was great to get to know the guys in the CU, as well as the good folk from the UCCF Scotland team who were helping out as well. Dundee justifiably holds claim to being the sunniest city in the UK. What with that and a 24-hour bakery, there are worse places to live.

Two particular lessons have stood out for me this week:

1. Sharing the gospel is a terrific way to preach it to yourself again. I lost count of the number of times it happened. Talking about how we can be confident in God's love; how it is the death of Jesus brings about full forgiveness; why it is Christians go to church - it was such a reminder to me of what a great privilege it is to be a Christian. There's something about explaining it to someone else that really serves to underline it in our own affections. Hence, of course, the illustration of the Christian life needing to be like the Sea of Galilee and not the Dead Sea: having an outlet is what keeps everything fresh and living.

2. I've also been struck abut how important it is to speak about the Trinity in evangelism. It is surely no exaggeration to say that one of the greatest tragedies in the contemporary church is how little the Trinity is considered, let alone celebrated. Yet according to Matthew 28:19-20 it is the name into which we are baptized as Christians - that which now characterizes and defines our new life and identity. As such, is it vital in explaining just who this God is we now claim to know and follow. More than anything else it demonstrates the uniqueness of the Christian faith, explains how someone else can pay for our sins and makes sense of reality. Three consecutive conversations one evening, with a Muslim, Hindu and then Buddhist highlighted just how much I needed to talk about the Trinity if they were to have any chance of understanding God.