This year sees Agapé Ireland’s 50^th anniversary. A lot has changed, but some things seem to keep cropping up – like the comments made by on-lookers. Here’s a sample:

‘Let people decide for themselves’.

Of course they’ll decide for themselves – you can’t decide for them! That would be pushy proselytising. But, before they decide, they’ll be needing the basic information – and that’s where you come in. Your job is more like that of a newsreader.

See how it helps your self-concept by imagining yourself sitting behind that prime-time news desk, delivering the day’s stories.

First, how are you supposed to begin? Do you start, “Sorry, but here’s the news”?

How about, “Here is the news at around about 21.00 hours, depending on your view of this kind of issue, with no necessary implication that there is any such thing as a universally recognised time system”?

Or, try and imagine this. You turn on the news, you get the intro jingle, and then some guy walks up to the mike and roars at the top of his voice, “Good evening! Here is the six o’clock news!”

What’s wrong with this picture? Everything. The news is, well, the news – it’s what happened. You don’t apologise for it, modify it, nor take it back once you’ve said it. Neither do you need to yell. That wouldn’t help your credibility. They won’t put up a sign on the autocue that says, “We’re not sure about the next item so do it really loud.”

Just tell people the truth (‘with gentleness and respect’ the Bible says) and let them decide.

‘Religion is divisive – just look at the North’.

It’s not just the North. More than ever before, the conversation has to be about Jesus. We need to do better than repeating the mantra, ‘It’s about a relationship, not a religion’. We have to follow through on that. Jesus himself reserved his bitterest criticism for the then leaders of organised religion.

In Agapé we have always been adamant about not endorsing any particular denomination. We lost friends as a result. We did, however, make new friends who wanted to travel with us towards eternity.

When Agapé staff member Alan Brock, a doggedly faithful servant of the gospel at University College Cork, was finishing his time with us, we held a surprise ‘leaving do’ in the Metropole Hotel. In his impromptu speech he referred with glee to our policy of non-endorsement, ‘I leave you as I found you’, he said, ‘with both your feet firmly planted in mid-air’!

‘Let the local church do it’.

They can’t. They are busy doing very important things that God has handed over to them – like baptising believers, gathering them together and caring for needy people. They may actually be looking for someone like you who could represent them as an ambassador of Christ to a wider world.

Years ago, my wife Pam and I left Irish shores to go into the great unknown as missionaries, leaving the small church in Dublin which we attended. It had been established practice in those circles to give any outgoing missionaries a letter of introduction to be shown to whatever Christians they might meet. It would say something like, ‘We, the elders [at least a couple of them] commend this person to your care’.

But in our case, the dear friends in the church decided they would all sign it, every last one of them! We framed that page and kept it wherever we went (I think it’s still in the attic). They wanted to express that we were personal representatives, yes of Christ, but also of their local church.

‘There’s actually a ban on proselytising by religious student groups. It’s illegal’.    

When the apostles went out to preach the gospel they came up against the same story (independently) – that this preaching was “illegal”. In the book of Acts they were told, depending on the audience, that it was against the Law of Moses, or counter to the Roman law, against the Imperial cult, against the local law (in Ephesus) and, for good measure, against the ceremonial Temple law.

There’s two ways to look at this – either you can say ‘you can’t win!’ or you take a look at the gospel they were communicating. That gospel said that there is a great God over all who can forgive their sins through Jesus. Some of the authorities didn’t like the idea that there was a “great God over all” because that would mean he was over them too.

Anyway, you weren’t thinking of proselytising, were you? Just news-reading.

‘Recent research casts a doubt on the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection’.

Nope. The evidence is still sitting right there where it has always been. However, something has changed in academia in the last few years. The older, dafter objections (like ‘Jesus didn’t really die’) are being quietly jettisoned, with some embarrassment. There’s even been an academic study on this issue by Gary Habermas.

Of course, the resurrection was only one part of a two-part process. Christ himself said that upon his ascension, the Holy Spirit would come to take his place, not just in the tight-knit geography of Galilee-Jerusalem but anywhere and everywhere people would bow the knee to Jesus. Which is why a tsunami of change crashed through the Roman Empire – and through people today.

The evidence is still the same – and it’s more accessible. Indeed, the earliest book of St. Paul’s letters in existence (c. AD 180-200) is held in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle, the property of the Irish nation (granted by the said Chester Beatty). This manuscript is not only the oldest extant edition of the letters of Paul, but it is one of the oldest manuscripts in book form in the world. And it’s now digitised so you can see them at home and the library puts ads on the radio to encourage us to go and see the Biblical manuscripts in person!

And, by the way, here’s a tip about ‘research’ – just because it’s recent doesn’t mean it represents more rigorous work.

‘Get a proper job’.

Agapé Ireland began in the day when jobs were scarce. Some university friends kept telling us ‘Get a proper job’. The Department of Social Welfare (as it was then called) agreed with them. They wouldn’t let us pay social insurance. Since our income was ‘by faith’ they thought that was too iffy for any kind of insurance. (They’ve changed their minds since!).

Nowadays the holy grail is ‘job satisfaction’. But what could be more proper and more satisfying than getting a commission. People are delighted to receive a commission to paint a portrait, write the score for a film, sculpt a famous public figure. When the Army takes on officers, they give them a ‘commission’ – loaded with privileges and responsibilities which are not available otherwise.

Christ has granted us a commission to disciple the nations. You can’t buy or procure it anywhere else. If you feel it in your bones, step forward, take delivery of it and say, ‘Thank you’. The Irish nation still needs discipling. Of course, your work doesn’t need to be called ‘Agapé’. It doesn’t need to be called anything at all.

Once you feel that you have fulfilled your spiritual obligations to your own culture, what about all the others? And if you happen to be Irish like me, you are gifted (whether you’ve thought about it or not) with four assets so rare they mark you out as belonging to a tiny percentile of the world’s population of believers. These include instant access to a passport, ability to speak a world language, access to third-level education and hard currency.

These last 50 years have seen a vast migration of peoples from many cultures, including those coming to Ireland. But the majority of people hasn’t migrated. They are still waiting for somebody like you to move and break ranks from your peers (or inspire some to join you), put in the hard graft and learn a different language (you can’t do that on a ‘short-term missions project’). Imagine the pleasure of then smiling, holding out your hand and saying, ‘Hello’ in Jesus’ name, to someone who’s never met anyone from Jesus before.

I’ll help you if I can.

David Wilson

author, The Electrician’s Children available from Footprints and on Kindle