Man on a mission

In May, the FIEC announced Andy Paterson as their new Director of Mission. EN asked him about his vision for this new role.

EN: Director of Mission is an unusual title for the FIEC. What does it mean?

AP: Originally, the role was entitled Director of Outreach, but that has overtones of a building-based church making forays into its community. A better metaphor is that of mission, where each believer sees themselves as called to live out and speak out the good news of Jesus within the context of their homes, neighbourhoods, workplaces.

EN: Why do you think that believers today are hesitant about doing just that?

AP: There are a number of reasons. One is that many have been taught to operate in the way a God-gifted evangelist would work, and become plagued by a false guilt when they struggle to find the opportunities that evangelists seem so adept at producing.

Instead, the biblical model for most believers is to respond to the opportunities that arise when their distinctive, gracious, holy, loving, intentional lives trigger questions from those with whom they live and work. Another way of putting this would be to recognise that evangelism is not yet part of our joined-up thinking; we keep making a false divide between the spiritual and the secular.

EN: So what about evangelists themselves?

AP: Again, I think the low priority we give to the recognition, training and employment of evangelists in the churches we’re part of reflects this confused thinking on the identity and role of an evangelist. Because we expect every church member to act as a God-gifted evangelist, we fail to develop those who really are! From the variety of words used by Luke in Acts when describing the work of evangelists and apostles, it is clear that the work of ‘an evangelist’ is multi-faceted.

Too often we define the work of an evangelist too narrowly and, from my own experience in church life, we’ve seen evangelists who proclaim the gospel, are skilled at apologetics, love street work, are masters at the sketch board, or thrive on door-to-door work. We need to value each one of them.

EN: You mentioned your own church experience. Could you describe what that’s been?

AP: I’ve been pastor at Kensington Baptist Church in Bristol for over 23 years. We’re an inner-city church in the poorest part of the city, working on a road described by the Times and Sunday People as the most dangerous in Britain. There’s a broad ethnic mix within the area and we’ve tried to reflect that and connect with the various groups. Through trying to be real and relevant in teaching God’s truth and living it out, God has graciously kept adding to our numbers, so whenever we get near to having 400 in the congregation we’ll try and plant out. A few years ago we sent folk over to establish Headley Park Church under the leadership of Neil Todman and Peter Mawson, and last September we established two satellite congregations, one in Emersons Green (the Village Church) and one in the city centre (BC3). In addition to that, we’ve kept developing our work among the large Somali population through the Easton Jubilee Trust, and we now help feed the homeless at the Wild Goose cafŽ, serve the incoming Roma community, as well as getting involved in local council and media initiatives.

EN: So why leave all that to go and work with FIEC?

AP: Good question! It is a massive wrench to leave a thriving church that we love with all our hearts, but all we can say is that the Lord confirmed to us in a number of ways that the challenges we’ve faced at Kensington extend throughout the nation. There’s a passion to see the good news of Jesus reaching into some of our poorer and more excluded communities and to help encourage churches which are wrestling with these challenges.

Because this is a national role, we’re able to keep living in our home in inner-city Bristol and keep developing the friendships we have in our community. We have a great team of leaders and staff who are more than competent in moving Kensington on. Furthermore, the opportunity to work with John Stevens and the other FIEC directors at such a time as this in our nation is immensely exciting.

FIEC’s new structures have cleared the way for a strong, visionary leadership which is proving very attractive for independent churches and a growing band of young leaders and planters. There is a distinct sense that we can do something together as a family of churches that will impact the nation.

EN: What will that look like specifically in your area of mission?

AP: I will be disappointed if FIEC churches have not planted another 100 churches over the next five years. Within six months of starting, both of our new satellites had doubled in size. Indeed, Headley Park Church has already planted its own satellite congregation within five years of being established. I hope to work with others in developing an FIEC church planters conference that will attract the best independent church planters and enable us to share best practice and wisest insights. By working together nationally we can help identify significant geographical areas that have no gospel witness and do some strategic planning. We’ll also need to address the lack of gospel resources for those from a non-academic background, as so much that is produced today seems to assume a university education.

I also see the shape of some smaller FIEC churches changing radically as they move away from a building-centred approach to a community-engaging strategy. I want to be available to help FIEC churches, small or large, work through the challenges that their unique communities face them with.

EN: You seem to emphasise community engagement as well as gospel proclamation.

AP: Unashamedly so. The evangelical scene has matured sufficiently not to drive a wedge between the two. Without doubt, communication of unchanging gospel truths must be our priority, but that is not to say that alongside it we’re not passionate about doing good in our communities. I’ve been amazed at how often the New Testament writers urge believers to ‘do good to all’ and I’m not sure that evangelicalism has fully grasped that. We need to love the lost, period. The question I want to ask our churches is not only how they are intentionally reaching the lost but how they love them as well. The two must go together.

EN: What about the global scene? Does your mission brief extend beyond these shores?

AP: If we are seeking to cultivate a love for the lost, we can’t put a block on such a concern reaching overseas. I hope to go on working with various agencies that will facilitate FIEC churches getting hold of what God is doing globally. Maybe it will be possible for ‘smaller’ churches to band together in supporting a worker and praying through that worker’s challenges and triumphs.

We also need to be aware that the UK has become a mission field. We need to develop a receiving as well as a sending culture, giving opportunity for overseas workers to contextualise through internships in the FIEC.

EN: I get the feeling that FIEC is growing in confidence.

AP: And it should do. Too often there has been an inferiority complex gripping our churches as we attempt to imitate the works of others. But when you begin to get a bigger picture of what’s being done across the nation by FIEC churches, you see some remarkable, bold and imaginative initiatives. FIEC itself is growing numerically and many from ‘outside’ are looking in and observing gospel people who have a strong biblical confidence in independency.

We’ll be developing the FIEC website to showcase some of these initiatives and challenge each of us to think clearly and carefully about what gospel ministry really means. In these strange and exciting days of opportunity and confusion, I believe FIEC is uniquely positioned to help reach the nation for Christ. It’s with trepidation and excitement that I’ll be taking up this role full-time from the start of next year.

Interview with Andy Paterson