Thursday, October 25, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Saint Patrick and Evangelism
You might celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day this Saturday by wearing green and patronising your local Irish Pub, but to really celebrate the man, you might want to bring a friend along and tell them about Jesus!
Patrick is the apostle of Ireland – credited with most of the population of the island embracing Christ within his lifetime. There are some who would say that he is the first true missionary since the apostle Paul: if not, he is surely the first missionary to venture outside of the Roman Empire.
By the time Patrick died at the ripe old age of 115, after 60 years of ministry, the vast majority of Ireland would have adopted his very indigenous, very vibrant Christian faith.
In many ways it was best explained as a conversion not to Christianity, but to Christ. Patrick was not spreading a religion: to have more people under the control of the Church; but he was spreading the Good News that the Creator wanted to have a relationship with them through his Son. It was the good news of inviting people to live the life that they were created to live, in the family of the One that they were created in the image of.
Patrick’s message was good news that pulled people out of fear based, and often-oppressive religious systems and beliefs. Patrick himself recognized that the gospel was good news as he suffered as a slave on the hills of Northern Ireland. He returned to Ireland not to conquer it for Christ, but to woo people into Christ’s love.
Patrick was a missionary unlike many others. Patrick was not Irish (gasp!), he was born in Roman Briton. But he didn’t reach the Irish as his “target audience.” In his writings he speaks of “we Irish:” he sees himself as one of the Irish. Because of his enslavement, he already had an understanding of the culture and ways of the Irish, and he felt no need to “civilize” them into Roman ways.
Even the Celtic cross is a sign of the marrying of the Celtic culture and Christian faith – The circle was an important symbol to the Druids, and instead of destroying it as evil and devilish, Patrick placed the cross over it. This doesn’t mean that he adopted the traditional religion into his Christianity: there was much to be discarded it was a fear-based religion that included human sacrifice and fearsome and arbitrary gods. But the Celtic Christian faith was one that spoke to the same earthy “felt needs” of the people, and it adopted much of what was good and pure from the traditional culture.
George G. Hunter III writes about Patrick’s method of spreading the gospel in “The Celtic Way of Evangelism:” “Patrick’s entourage would have included a dozen or so people, including priests, seminarians, and two or three women. Upon arrival at a tribal settlement, Patrick would engage the king and other opinion leaders, hoping for conversion, or at least their clearance, to camp near the people and form into a community of faith adjacent to the tribal settlement. The “apostolic” team would meet the people, engage them in conversation and in ministry, and look for people who appeared receptive. They would pray for sick people, and for possessed people, and they would counsel people and mediate conflicts. On at least one occasion, Patrick blessed a river and prayed for the people to catch more fish. They would engage in some open-air speaking, probably employing parable, story, poetry, song, visual symbols, visual arts and, perhaps, drama to engage the Celtic people’s remarkable imaginations. Often, we think, Patrick would receive the people’s questions and then speak to those questions collectively. The Apostolic band would welcome responsive people into their group fellowship to worship with them, pray with them, minister to them, converse with them, and break bread together. One band member or another would probably join with each responsive person to reach out to relatives and friends. The mission team typically spent weeks, or even months, as a ministering community of faith within the tribe. The church that emerged within the tribe would have been astonishingly indigenous.” - p. 21
Patrick’s is a great model for evangelism today in our post-Christian world. Some of the people who walk in his spirit today are The Alpha Course, Ed Silvoso & his model of Prayer Evangelism & the people involved in the MoveIn movement.
Wish someone a happy Saint Patrick’s Day & tell them about the Jesus that Patrick loved!
By the time Patrick died at the ripe old age of 115, after 60 years of ministry, the vast majority of Ireland would have adopted his very indigenous, very vibrant Christian faith.
In many ways it was best explained as a conversion not to Christianity, but to Christ. Patrick was not spreading a religion: to have more people under the control of the Church; but he was spreading the Good News that the Creator wanted to have a relationship with them through his Son. It was the good news of inviting people to live the life that they were created to live, in the family of the One that they were created in the image of.
Patrick’s message was good news that pulled people out of fear based, and often-oppressive religious systems and beliefs. Patrick himself recognized that the gospel was good news as he suffered as a slave on the hills of Northern Ireland. He returned to Ireland not to conquer it for Christ, but to woo people into Christ’s love.
Patrick was a missionary unlike many others. Patrick was not Irish (gasp!), he was born in Roman Briton. But he didn’t reach the Irish as his “target audience.” In his writings he speaks of “we Irish:” he sees himself as one of the Irish. Because of his enslavement, he already had an understanding of the culture and ways of the Irish, and he felt no need to “civilize” them into Roman ways.
Even the Celtic cross is a sign of the marrying of the Celtic culture and Christian faith – The circle was an important symbol to the Druids, and instead of destroying it as evil and devilish, Patrick placed the cross over it. This doesn’t mean that he adopted the traditional religion into his Christianity: there was much to be discarded it was a fear-based religion that included human sacrifice and fearsome and arbitrary gods. But the Celtic Christian faith was one that spoke to the same earthy “felt needs” of the people, and it adopted much of what was good and pure from the traditional culture.
George G. Hunter III writes about Patrick’s method of spreading the gospel in “The Celtic Way of Evangelism:” “Patrick’s entourage would have included a dozen or so people, including priests, seminarians, and two or three women. Upon arrival at a tribal settlement, Patrick would engage the king and other opinion leaders, hoping for conversion, or at least their clearance, to camp near the people and form into a community of faith adjacent to the tribal settlement. The “apostolic” team would meet the people, engage them in conversation and in ministry, and look for people who appeared receptive. They would pray for sick people, and for possessed people, and they would counsel people and mediate conflicts. On at least one occasion, Patrick blessed a river and prayed for the people to catch more fish. They would engage in some open-air speaking, probably employing parable, story, poetry, song, visual symbols, visual arts and, perhaps, drama to engage the Celtic people’s remarkable imaginations. Often, we think, Patrick would receive the people’s questions and then speak to those questions collectively. The Apostolic band would welcome responsive people into their group fellowship to worship with them, pray with them, minister to them, converse with them, and break bread together. One band member or another would probably join with each responsive person to reach out to relatives and friends. The mission team typically spent weeks, or even months, as a ministering community of faith within the tribe. The church that emerged within the tribe would have been astonishingly indigenous.” - p. 21
Patrick’s is a great model for evangelism today in our post-Christian world. Some of the people who walk in his spirit today are The Alpha Course, Ed Silvoso & his model of Prayer Evangelism & the people involved in the MoveIn movement.
Wish someone a happy Saint Patrick’s Day & tell them about the Jesus that Patrick loved!
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Saint Patrick and the End of Slavery
We’re a few days away from Saint Patrick’s Day, and it will be a day of grown men marching in funny green hats, drinking way too much green beer & inviting anyone to kiss them because, for today, they are Irish. Like many of our Saints’ Days, the celebration has taken over, and it has become much less than the actual person we are celebrating.
Contrary to popular belief, Saint Patrick looks nothing like the guy on the front of Frosted Lucky Charms cereal! Patrick was born in Roman Briton in 387. At the age of 16 he was captured by Irish raiders and sold into slavery in Ireland. In slavery, he embraced the Christian faith he was born into. Through dreams and visions from God, Patrick was able to escape back to his family.
He was trained as a priest and, through dreams from God, he was called back to Ireland to be an apostle to his former captors. Patrick was an amazing evangelist: in his lifetime, Ireland was converted to Christianity.
Patrick preached a holistic faith that encompassed every area of life. Thomas Cahill says in How the Irish Saved Civilization; ”Patrick is the first human being in the history of the world to speak out unequivocally against slavery. Nor would any voice as strong as his be heard again till the seventeenth century.” By Patrick’s death, slavery was completely abolished as a practice in Ireland – way better than driving out the snakes!
We have two writings from Patrick that have survived into our time. One is his “Confession,” which is a brief autobiography; the other is his letter to Coroticus. This public letter to Coroticus is a powerful statement against slavery.
As the Romans pulled out of Briton, the Romanized Britons had very few ways to support themselves so some of them took to piracy, raiding the neighbouring counties for booty and slaves.
Contrary to popular belief, Saint Patrick looks nothing like the guy on the front of Frosted Lucky Charms cereal! Patrick was born in Roman Briton in 387. At the age of 16 he was captured by Irish raiders and sold into slavery in Ireland. In slavery, he embraced the Christian faith he was born into. Through dreams and visions from God, Patrick was able to escape back to his family.
He was trained as a priest and, through dreams from God, he was called back to Ireland to be an apostle to his former captors. Patrick was an amazing evangelist: in his lifetime, Ireland was converted to Christianity.
Patrick preached a holistic faith that encompassed every area of life. Thomas Cahill says in How the Irish Saved Civilization; ”Patrick is the first human being in the history of the world to speak out unequivocally against slavery. Nor would any voice as strong as his be heard again till the seventeenth century.” By Patrick’s death, slavery was completely abolished as a practice in Ireland – way better than driving out the snakes!
We have two writings from Patrick that have survived into our time. One is his “Confession,” which is a brief autobiography; the other is his letter to Coroticus. This public letter to Coroticus is a powerful statement against slavery.
As the Romans pulled out of Briton, the Romanized Britons had very few ways to support themselves so some of them took to piracy, raiding the neighbouring counties for booty and slaves.
You can imagine how horrified Patrick was to hear of the tables turning and British Christian raiders coming to make slaves of the Irish. One of the raiders was named Coroticus. Patrick describes how he had just baptized and confirmed a large group of young men and women, when on the very next day, the chrism “still gleaming upon their foreheads, they were cruelly cut down and killed.” Those that resisted faced instant death; the remainder were taken prisoner – the men into slavery, the women to endure a lifetime of sexual abuse at the hands of the pagan Picts.
Patrick writes a hasty letter and sends a delegation of priests after Coroticus and his men to call them back from their wicked ways and return their Christian brothers and sisters to their homes. The priests were rebuffed and laughed at. So Patrick wrote a second open letter; a great rebuke, calling Coroticus and his men to repentance. If they do not repent, the letter calls all other Christians to excommunicate them and have nothing to do with their company or their wicked ways. In the letter he derides Coroticus and his men as “dogs and sorcerers and murderers, and liars and false swearers… who distribute baptized girls for a price, and that for the sake of a miserable temporal kingdom which truly passes away in a moment like a cloud or smoke that
is scattered by the wind.”
Today, slavery is as great an issue as it ever was in Patrick’s day. In fact, there are more slaves today than there were at the height of the African slave trade or any other time in human history! This March 17, you can honour Saint Patrick by doing something to end slavery in our generation. You can become part of advocacy organizations like Not For Sale, rescue organizations like International Justice Mission, and after-care organizations like Ratanak International. And pray for the 30 million people enslaved today, that they would see justice and freedom in our time.
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