There is a whole section of society in the UK that is unreached. I'm not thinking about a particular ethnic minority group (although they do feature in this picture), or a particular county, but the vast numbers of people who live on council estates, in inner-city tower blocks and are largely excluded from mainstream Christian churches and church culture.
The Church in the UK has become dominated by the middle class. For example, most ministers are expected to study for a three-year theological degree before they take up leadership roles. There's nothing wrong with a theology degree, but it's meant that there's a generation of church leaders who are nearly all middle class.
And the sermons they preach are middle class too. They involve long words, complicated trains of thought, philosophy and intellectualism. How would an illiterate person off the street cope in one of our church services today? They wouldn't.
Does that mean we should shut down all the churches? Of course not. But I think we need to open our eyes to the sections of society that we're not reaching through our apologetics talks and wine-tasting evenings. We need to look at working-class people and their culture of interaction, at the benefits sub-culture that's arisen and how people communicate. If we can't preach the gospel in a language that they can understand, we're failing in our basic mission, as given to us by Jesus (Mt 28).
Paul Bassett, who is still working in Melbourne Hall Evangelical Free Church, Leicester, gives a big challenge to middle class Christians in middle class homes and middle class churches.
'It is in our inner cities that we generally find the red-light areas, where crime and prostitution abound. The inner-city dwellers are mainly poor, whereas the challenge comes to a church that is chiefly middle-class. Never was there a time when we needed more to remember that “God is no respecter of persons” and that “the common people heard him gladly.” (Acts 10:34; Mk 12:37)
'We must begin by living there. This is far from easy; it demands a real sense of calling, and a certain degree of sacrifice. It involves the whole family, and it may affect the education of the children. It may also demand adaptation to a very different environment, possibly a violent one.'
But God is there! God is concerned for the lost! When we prayerfully seek Him and ask Him to reveal Himself to people, He hears us.
'We need to remember that men of God have stood where we now stand and, with God-given courage and indomitable spirit, have tackled the seemingly impossible task of winning wicked cities for God.'May God give us the courage we need to get out there into the tough places, and take the gospel to reach the unreached.
'How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"' Romans 10:14-15
