Fruitpickers

A few years ago, we started Discovery Dinners to address the most common brokenness in the Western middle class, purposelessness. A few dinners later, and we discovered a whole group of people within those who were spiritually searching. So, we formed another group, Discover Life which is a fortnightly long form Discovery Bible Study. Couples gather for breakfast, share their joys and pain and open the Bible to discover Jesus.

Bear in mind these people are hard bitten religious sceptics, with little to no church background – the very people we are told are the ‘hardest to reach’ from the harvest (and so we usually don’t try).

We thought you might like to see what God alone has done and continues to do in such people’s lives.

It has gone from this a few months ago;

• (with arms crossed, and no idea what to expect) “No, I definitely don’t trust God, my daughter has chronic anxiety and won’t go to school. Where is God, I don’t believe him?”
• “My brother is a Catholic and preaches all this religious stuff at me all the time, but his life never measures up and I hate it. It gives me the creeps.”
• I think God is within me, maybe we’re all God? Maybe there’s lots of Gods?
• There were rocky marriages, deeply troubled (adult) children, uncertain foundations – and no answers to a way out.

To this today….

• “Oh my God, where do you find these passages, I never knew this stuff was in the Bible.”
• “Every week we turn up, it seems to speak directly into where I am.”
• Our daughter has started to go to school.
• “I love it that nobody tries to teach us, that we just read and answer simple questions and find it out for ourselves. I love that about this, thank you.”
• “I’ve learned I needed to forgive my son. In fact, I have discovered I am so judgemental.”
• “I take these stories home with us, and we discuss them all week. We’ve started sharing”
• “My son was sharing with us how he was teaching his grandson to ‘fight back’ against the other kids. My wife just looked at me, and we shared Jesus’ story about turning the other cheek, and how to love those who hate you. Our son looked at us in amazement.”
• “What does eternal life mean? How do I follow God, how do I trust him?”
• “I don’t share anything like I do here with anyone else, about what is really going on inside my life. I love coming here!”
• “God loves me, and so I can love myself. My daughter needs to hear this.”

We want people to be encouraged that nothing is impossible for God, that he can and will transform lives. All we need to do is turn up. And pray, lots. God does all the work. We don’t teach, we don’t explain, everyone takes a turn leading, everyone hosts breakfast in their homes – we set it up deliberately so that it is not about Michael and Sally, and so build away from us towards him.

Will you try to reach out to those who are lost and find a way to gather them into a community that discovers who Jesus is, and be amazed as he transforms their lives before your eyes? We guarantee just one thing, nothing in this life – and we mean nothing, will fulfil you as much as watching the King at work in someone’s life. Praise God.

(If you want to know more, leave a comment).