ARTICLE 1 - PARTYING FOR JESUS, AN INTRODUCTION You have studied fasting. Nows the time to study feasting!

Purpose My goal here is to open up an aspect of Jesus ministry that has been much neglected. His first miracle took place at a party. He was regularly invited to parties. Many of the words in the New Testament that you and I treasure were first spoken at parties. Jesus was accused of being a winebibber, friend of sinners because he was so often round for dinner with tax collectors and other dodgy types. Such accusations had to have some basis in fact. People only make accusations they think might stick. The modern church clearly lacks the winsomeness of Jesus. (Winsomeness - an old fashioned word meaning naturally attractive and attractively natural Sweeting Dictionary definition) Many find the Christian scene off-putting, unnatural, unpleasant even. I am not talking about really evil people who do commonly react against what is wholesome. I am talking about ordinary folk, your neighbour or colleague, my neighbour or colleague. I am also talking about the millions of Christians worldwide who dont do church anymore. It is very noticeable that few reacted to Jesus himself in such a way during His time on earth. The only real reaction against him came from hypocrites and Pharisees. The possessed man called Legion (because he had a legions worth of 5,000 demons in him) ran towards Christ, not away from him; the winebibbers and the tax collectors must have found Jesus equally appealing. Jesus got a lot of party invites, it would seem. He also turned up. His purity did not cause people to back off. Modern Christians seem to get few invites, and dont go anyway. So this article is not really about parties at all. It is about bringing the winsomeness of Christ into the secular environment. If you have a shaky walk with God this is not really for you. You will just be taking your half heartedness and disobedience into an environment that is already perfectly familiar with both

these things. Read a different book if getting right with God is your need. Or more wisely, get down on your knees right now and repent. The world welcomed the Saviour a lot of the time. It rejected the Saviour some of the time. The world is fickle and unreliable, but not unremittingly anti God. Christ loves it and it can be reached. Problems Anthropologists make a very simple categorisation of religion into no more than 4 parts. True Christianity is classed as a sect. To them a sect is simply a belief group who define themselves, through membership etc. The act of baptism defines us, ergo we are a sect. Hinduism is indefinite, so it is something else. Muslims have the Five Pillars, therefore they are a sect. Some anthropologists make a second division between world-denying and world affirming beliefs. They then make their personal judgements about which group are which. True Christianity does not really fit this. WE are both deniers of the world and affirmers. But what the anthropologists see are groups defined by shared behaviour. They therefore class monastic orders as world-denying. Sadly they also class evangelical Protestantism as world denying too on the basis that they observe it to be rule driven and excluding. If we are to get out of the rule-driven, excluding, yuk category, we need to change both our thought patterns and our practices. It works both ways. New practices challenge old patterns of thought and behaviour. We change. Good new practices bring good change, even if bad things happen during the change. New ways of thinking about the Gospel story result not so much in embracing new practices as in taking hold of the core truths and applying them to the current situation. We have got the world-denying bit perfect! Now is the time to work on the world-affirming aspects of the Gospel. After all, it is meant to be GOOD NEWS. There is a strong case for arguing that if our message is not good news, then it cannot be the Gospel, Thus, if it is BAD news it certainly is not the Gospel. Parties are usually good news statements. They have a good news subtext

- Isnt it great? Weve been married 50 years - Were delighted. Our little girl has been born. She is both beautiful and healthy. Because parties are inherently good news events I will be seeking to show that they have great role to play not just in pre-evangelism, but as a direct means of introducing people to Christ. We do not just want people to have a better, more accurate perception of the Church. We want people to, as a consequence, meet and follow the Head of the Church. Obedience Jesus did not order us to Party or die, dude. His commands are somewhat more profound. However, parties are just as good a context today for obeying His commands as they were when He so obviously chose to attend them during his time on earth. They are also just as good, or perhaps even better, as a context for expressing Christs heart. Yes, parties are culture not theology, but they are also universal. Every society that has ever existed has had parties. Parties are as much part of the human condition as going to work and not having enough time. The Biblical approach to work has been studied. The Biblical approach to time management has been studied. Now it is time to study a Biblical approach to partying on down! Scripture For some of you conformity to Scripture may not be very important. You want stuff that works. You like the idea of Christianity as a constant round of fun events. Im afraid that is not where I am coming from. I have written this because I feel there is something deeply Biblical that we have neglected. I do personally prefer fun events to gloomy religious observations. Most people do. However, our faith is built round the Cross, not a party. Partying for Jesus is only an expression of our faith. It is not the heart of our faith, a faith which says Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.

I am not recommending the next quick fix for churches or groups. I will say, however, that the church which parties is a healthy place to be. Jesus turned up at parties. Jesus still turns up at parties. Type casting Every party does not have to have balloons, or booze, or dancing, or lots of people, or food, or music, or embarrassing games, etc. However a party with none of these things might just be a bit sterile. A tea party is not a disco, but both can be celebrations, and both can be celebrations of Christ. Old people have parties as well as young people. Childrens parties can also have the aroma of Christ. What some may call boring, others may find really appealing. What is acceptable in some cultures will be unappreciated in others. Modern Christians might be quite shocked at what really took place at the wedding at Cana of Galilee! Anecdotes All my anecdotes are as accurate as I can remember, which is not, therefore, an absolute guarantee of accuracy! Where possible or practical I have checked with the person involved. Even then, I have my perspective, and they have theirs. One guy has fallen away, for instance, and has a very jaundiced view of what he did for Christ. Having said that, all actually happened to an actual person in an ordinary home, village, town or city just like yours. What is a Jesus party? A number of times I will use a term I have coined, and write about a Jesus party. What do I mean? To me a Jesus party is a party which the people throwing the party go into it with the specific goal of glorifying Christ. Its a party where Jesus is invited and Jesus is welcome, a party where I expect Him to turn up. I can take this attitude with me to someone elses party, but that does not turn it into a Jesus party. I am never surprised when people ask to become Christians at our Jesus party, even if that was not the focus. I am never surprised when a person who has been to our Jesus party eventually does find the Lord. They have already been introduced to Him at my house.

In the New Testament Zaccheus was in a good position to throw a Jesus party as soon as he got down from his tree. Luke the tax collector threw a Jesus party to introduce the Lord to his pals. Jesus had His feet washed at such a party, and made sure that Lazarus didnt miss one! Biblical terminology and parties Your translation of the Bible will not call everything I call a party, a party. It will refer a lot to feasts. Food is always a factor! We will one day attend the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. In His time on earth, Jesus and His family celebrated the Feast of the Passover. He gave a parable about a Marriage Feast, and of course, attended a very famous one in Galilee. You may have read an article about fasting before. This is probably the first one you have read about feasting. The other major pointer to party moments is exemplified in the various parables Jesus told about lost things sheep, coins, sons. Each parable ends in shared rejoicing. Rejoice with me says the woman who finds the lost coin. These times of shared celebration are also really what we would call parties. When you apply this mindset to the gospel narrative you will start to notice literally scores of party moments. Effectiveness As I have written this I have become only too aware of the potential for falling between two stools. I can see myself alienating the evangelical over things like drinking and turning off liberals with my constant appeals to Scripture. I can see myself as seeming too trendy for conservatives and too conservative for radicals. Even definitions of effectiveness show what camp each of us is in. For some, effectiveness is incarnation of our theology or something equally high sounding. For others it is being socially relevant or more welcome or more popular. For me, effectiveness has always meant more people converted to Christ, enjoying Him and obeying Him. I am roused by anything to do with Kingdom with a capital K, but have had enough of blathering about that Kingdom to last several lifetimes. I heartily approve of healing and speaking in tongues etc, but only as long as Jesus is glorified. (Oh no, Ive alienated the anti-Charismatics

and the Charismaniacs as well now.) I welcome social engagement and feeding the poor. But when all is said and done, I do not want to put much of my time and money into things that are not converting. Do these Jesus parties lead to conversions? The simple answer is yes. My secret desire for every party, dinner or event I have ever hosted is that someone find Christ through it. I can remember sitting on a table of eight at a black tie dinner being grilled by six curious pre-Christians, all with sad tales of ill-treatment at the hands of the religious. We started talking about death (as you do) and I testified to several deliverances from imminent death in my own life, some amazing, some quite fun. The anger turned to laughter. Another table asked me over to share with them. It must be good, if the other lot are so involved, they said, Tell us about Jesus too. Most of those I shared with that night were actively hostile to religion. Several were Freemasons. A few were very bitter due to tragic family circumstances. All became more open than you would expect. One lady asked me to pray with her at the table. I have stayed in touch with all fourteen of those people. None are saved yet. All are investigating the claims of Christ - years later. None had heard the real Gospel before. On the other hand two members of my last small group were first contacted through parties we held. I have personally led to Christ around twenty people at parties. Some of those stories will be mentioned in other articles. Around a hundred and fifty different people went through our home over a twelve month period a few years ago. Think how difficult it would be to get all those folk along to church! Many of them now know each other, so there is some glue for the future. In fact, my wife and I consciously treated them as 4 cell groups, formed around 4 sets of people and locations the foody group, the wifes work group, the outdoor pursuits group, the pub quiz group. We treated then as if they were believers and even went away together on house parties just like a real church! This level of relationship was fed by the parties. Such parties do not replace formal or informal evangelism, but they are certainly a good environment for the latter.

Another measure of effectiveness would be how much good fellowship or joy is engendered. This is where we all get stuck. I know from letters, phone calls and conversations that many have been very touched and blessed. I cannot quantify this for you. I cannot even give you an adequate impression of quality. You will also find me often putting a stress on the importance of honouring others through events. I feel that Jesus parties can be a great way of increasing the amount of this much neglected virtue, particularly in the local church family. Summary Many commentators on church life have noticed that where people want to be together, there is that manifestation of real Bible life. Ask yourself these questions? Does my church activity leave me time to party with those I serve with? Do I only socialise within my church and my religious comfort zone? Am I wanted and welcome at the rejoicing of others? Do I give priority to being with people at their celebrations?

Jesus had time to waste with the local business people, do you? Jesus had time to waste with the local pub crowd. Do you? Jesus had time to waste with his wider family. Do you?

Copyright: Dr Mike Sweeting 07/04/2011