Right Here, Right Now

I had a knee replacement 8 weeks ago, so in between lots of exercise I have had time to catch up with some reading!

Right Here, Right Now by Alan Hirsch and Lance Ford is a ‘must read’. This book got me very excited, so I make no apology in doing a review for this blog.

When I read Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch in 2006 it blew my mind but I felt frustrated as I couldn’t communicate Alan’s ideas to many of my church leaders, even though my own understanding of mission had been liberated and energised. David Bosch said, ‘It is not so much that God has a mission for his church in the world, but that God has a church for his mission in the world’. That simple idea was hard for me to explain!

‘Right here right now’ challenges us to start today…. yes, you and me….and start in the place where God has put us today. I have been waiting since 2006 for my church to have mission at the centre of everything, but many are still muddled and think of mission as just a great extra activity. I can’t wait any longer…since reading ‘Right here right now’ I am no longer frustrated, I am released like an arrow out of a long bow. As Prof Leonard Sweet said in his review of the book, ‘It’s now time for doing’. God wants us all to be involved in ‘every member ministry’

Mission is risky, it means going out of our comfort zones. Jesus intended us to pair up, so don’t go it alone (Luke 10). We know from several studies that within three to five years of a person becoming a Christian, they will have few meaningful relationships with anyone outside the church. Hence our own mission activities should be focussed outside the walls of the traditional church, and we need to keep strong connections with the secular community.

Anyone reading this who wants to talk or pray further can email me at eddie.james@cvm.org.uk or post a comment. You may find shapevine.com useful.

A final quote from Albert Einstein ‘There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.‘