if you build it they will come

I was listening to a speaker from the Irish Mission talking today. Usually when I think of mission I think of men in safari hats and khaki shorts chasing after men with bones through their noses. He, however, was talking about Carnlough and Waterfoot - places in the Glens of Antrim. Loads of sheep but cannibals are rare.

He talked about his work and, later, about the relevence of the battles in Chronicles 5 to modern mission. But the bit I was interested in was the bit where he said that the Roman Catholic parents had asked them to set up Children's Activities over the winter. Here are the very people they had come to save - to point out the error of their ways. He wasn't leaving us in any doubt about his opinions concerning the afterlife for RCs. He felt they were following a false path. And yet here were these people coming to him. Why? I can't imagine a group of Muslim or Budhist mothers coming up to me in S4 on a friday afternoon enrolling their kids in the School's Scripture Union.

I think - and I could be wrong - I think that there are a couple of reasons these parents came looking for this programme to be set up by a bunch of Protestant missionaries. I think that, although there are undoubted and inescapable differences in the denominations the perceived end game is the same (sort of - we'll ignore pergatory for the purposes of this post) but the other, and in my mind more important, reason is this. Although it wasn't mentioned I am assuming there had been some kind of summer programme for these kids. I'm also assuming that it was fulfilling a need in the community and I'm assuming the parents of these kids felt it would be worthwhile if there was something similar during the dark months. I'm assuming they had found a trust and respect for the people who ran the summer scheme and who else would they go to for something more? As Kevin Costner knows - if you build it they will come.

Isn't that a great way to reach out to people? To be able to get to a stage where you're not running round like a headless chicken forcing hard truths down people's throats - oh I know that's a necessary part of it - I just like the idea of people coming of there own accord with requests. That would be good.