How Elim churches can be really good news to their friends and family

John Kirkby explains how an app is helping turn Christians’ good intentions into actions

INTRO by Mark Greenwood
I love Bradford and its curries (they are the best) and even its football team – they aren’t the best! What I love even more, however, is how God uses this often-overlooked city to inspire and equip the church nationally and globally through ministries that started there.

My good friend and fellow Bradfordian, and Bradford City supporter, John Kirkby, started Christians Against Poverty (CAP) in Bradford to help people out of physical and spiritual debt. Having moved on from CAP a few years ago, John is now the visionary behind the amazing ‘i61m’ – a movement aimed at helping Christians to be Really Good News by helping them share life, share faith and share Jesus.

I asked John to share with us how i61m can help Elim churches reach their friends and neighbours.

Isaiah 61:1: “The Spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news.”

Why are the majority of Christians NOT sharing the good news of Jesus with their friends and neighbours? If that’s you, let me tell you, you’re not alone! And the next 500 words and five minutes could change that!

In early 2021, 25 years after founding Christians Against Poverty, I’d just handed it on and had some time to seek God for ‘what’s next?’ I began asking myself some uncomfortable questions. Do I have any non-Christian friends? Am I just enjoying my wonderful Christian bubble? Do I bring my faith into my friendships or leave half of myself at the door? When was the last time I played a significant part in my friend finding Christ?

When I heard the word ‘evangelism’ though, I pictured gospel presentations to strangers. That was just not my gift. It’s not that I didn’t want to share Jesus… I had good intentions, I just didn’t know how to turn them into actions.

Can you relate to that? Evangelical Alliance research suggests eight out of ten Christians are in the same place. The truth was at best uncomfortable, at worst brutal and very humbling. Gripped by this realisation, I started to apply my God-given entrepreneurial gifting, knowing Jesus had to have a way to change this. We had to find a different kind of journey. A way every Christian could share their life in authentic friendship, grow in confidence to share their faith and ultimately to share Jesus.

God has led us to a unique solution which is helping Christ ians become Jesus-sharing people, and congregations become Jesus-sharing churches. i61m is not a course, it’s a journey, and one I believe every church and every Christian can begin.

Thousands of leaders and Christians are realising they have to do something or the UK church just won’t grow and God’s kingdom won’t expand. Now churches are committing to partner with us on our two-year road map to bring about a change of culture.

The i61m Act-setting app helps Christians turn good intentions into actions. Spending time together in church small groups (in person or online) brings in accountability, encouragement and prayer. i61@home is the ‘plug and play’ series that leads groups through the journey each month with special guests, authentic discussions and an opportunity to celebrate successes and discuss disappointments in a fami liar environment.

I pray that right now the Holy Spirit will catch your attention as he did with my wife, Lizzie, and myself, and that you decide to find out more and move forward on your journey of sharing Jesus. The change has started in my life and it can in yours too. I’m now building real friendships, shar ing my faith and inviting my neighbours to encounter him. COME ON! Together let’s go and be Really Good News to our friends and neighbours!

OUTRO
What a simple and wonderful way to be intentional about being Really Good News by sharing your life with those around you. As we think about Easter and what Jesus did for us, is there someone that you can begin to share your life with?

It may be that you often share your life with people but you’ve never shared your faith with them. Could Easter be that prompt that you need?

Maybe you do share your faith with people regularly but have never really shared about Jesus and what he did. Why not pray that Easter gives you that platform to do so?

Go to i61m.org, watch i61@ home on YouTube, and download the i61m app for FREE.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

Enjoy this article? Don't forget to share