Making Connections - building relationships with people at the edge

Making Connections:
building relationships with people at the edge
By Tim Lovejoy
Scripture Union. 124 pages.
ISBN 1 85999 289 7

From his wealth of personal experience, the author takes us through the various stages in building relationships with homeless people. In each chapter, he takes up one particular ingredient of the task and illustrates it powerfully and helpfully. He does this from a combination of his own involvement and the occasions in the Gospels where the Lord Jesus meets the needs of outcast people.
The book raises issues which require further thinking, e.g. Lovejoy sees part of our motivation as being 'looking past our first impressions to see someone's potential, or glimpsing beneath the surface to find the hidden treasure . . . believing in people's ability to contribute spiritually' (p.37). One asks whether Jesus came to earth because he saw our potential?

Again, he asks us: 'Will your way of working ensure that the self-esteem and dignity of those to whom you are committed are retained and enhanced?' (p.108). Whilst one sees where he is coming from, these are the very things which keep thousands of people from humbly submitting to Christ. It is important to communicate the immense value of a single person in the light of the cross; but it is only as returning prodigals and forgiven sinners that we find our true dignity.

Each chapter closes with a further Bible reference to follow up, and some important questions to address. This should prove a valuable work for all who are interested in reaching and helping society's rejects.

Malcolm Jones,
Crockenhill

© Evangelicals Now - February 2000
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Main Articles

• A youth worker's nightmare
  'I ask you, members of the jury: 'How many of you could defend yourself if you were falsely accused? How many of you could produce 16 witnesses and 100 letters of reference to defend yourselves?'
• Ready to die? When the question is suddenly personal
  Helen England describes how it feels to face death in the aftermath of a car crash
• Rome and the Lutherans
  The declaration on justification signed by the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation (reprinted from World Magazine)
• Bringing men back to church
  Suggestions and strategies on how to get men back into church (reprinted from The Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood)
• The beauty of God
  Can we properly call God beautiful?
• The Crowded House
  Steve Timmis concludes his series on planting a network of household churches in Sheffield (part 2 of series)
• Monthly column on hymns and songs
  The prominence given to music in modern worship
• Kingdom cool
  Style and content in the 21st century church - how should we confront the culture and what should the focus of church be?
• Monthly column on the arts: notes from the Dome
  The music chosen for the Millennium Dome and Cliff Richard's Millennium Prayer
• Monthly column for youth leaders: snoozing in the armchair church
  How to encourage young people to participate and become involved in the wider church

Other articles

• A New Kind of Living
• The Iron Giant
• Cantatas (BWV 105, 179, 186) by Johann Sebastian Bach - CD review
• Star Gazing - (Audio tape)
• Matters of Life and Death - An extract from the book Matters of Life and Death giving a Christian response to the consequences of limited resources in the NHS
• Holy Communion for Amateurs
• The Claims of Truth - John Owen's Trinitarian Theology
• Paul the Apostle - A Biography
• Learning in Christ's School
• Setting Hearts on Fire - a guide to giving evangelistic talks
• Be Sure What You Believe - the Christian faith simply explained
• Let's Explore - the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes
• Whatever Happened To The Ten Commandments?
• Making Connections - building relationships with people at the edge
• Geneva Commentary Series - Judges
• Sins of the Fathers