I am looking forward to gathering with friends tonight to celebrate the launch of a book I never thought I had in me. Writing a book has never particularly been on my radar. For so long music was always my passion and I always hoped that it might be something in that direction I would be celebrating in this way. But as one door seemingly closed for this season another opened and the idea of producing a book that unpacked our heart behind our Because You’re Loved initiative began to form.
I grew up in church, from an early age my parents were widely involved in their local church and so it was a big part of my upbringing. I count it a huge privilege to have grown up in church although if I am honest there were somethings I struggled with. Even during some of my teenage years when I began to drift wrestling with the boundaries of faith I had a understanding of God’s love for our world and in many ways felt a sense of responsibility for my world. My struggle though, was always with the question how? How could I engage my world with my faith? I pretty sure I’m not on my own in this, I guess many of us wrestle with this question, for us it is not a question of should we share our faith but how.
For many years The Pais Movement has been advocating that we need a fresh approach to mission something that resonated with me in my struggle to figure out how to share my faith in my personal world. I love that so many places offer mission trips to share our faith for a couple of weeks abroad and I love that in many areas lots of churches are partnering to put on big gospel events but what about our everyday contexts is it possible for us as ordinary people to rewrite the stories of our communities, sharing our faith in coffee shops, in the break room, in our local supermarket, at the school gates?
Because You’re Love was really born out of that question, how can we reach our everyday world? And together with some amazingly talented friends we began to build a framework around some graphics, social action, indiscriminate acts of kindness, story telling and parties, all the time trying to keep simplicity at the core of our ideas.
In its first form we launched it as a resource for local mission in our community on the North Coast of Northern Ireland with a handful of volunteers. It was incredible to see people really enthusiastic to share their faith in their everyday contexts, whether that was school, university or work. We made our resources available and before I knew it Because You’re Loved projects were popping up all over the world with Pais teams in Ghana, USA, Kenya, Germany, Brazil, India, Pakistan, Australia and England all using it to resource thousands to share their faith.
We hope my book will help more ordinary people engage more of their friends and family in their everyday lives with Jesus. It unpacks the why and the how behind our initiative and comes with the links to download all of our Because You’re Loved resources for free.
It is available in paperback and on kindle via amazon.
If you would like to find out a little more about the book, I was recently interview by Mafy Media and you can check that out below.
“Long may we come alive and may our worlds come alive as we engage with the culture of Heaven and see His will done here on earth as it is in Heaven. Long may our hearts resonate with the nearness of the Kingdom, refusing to be held back by risk or polarisation. Long may we pursue the adventure of making His Kingdom our primary concern and mobilising our lives according to his heart for humanity. Long may we facilitate encounters and long may be equip those who come alive through encounters to share their discoveries. Long may God’s love transform our world!”