LRLR, what’s in a name?

by EU GradsFund

I work alongside the Sydney Evangelical Union. It is one of the biggest Christian groups in the country, let alone the Southern Hemisphere. It is filled with students who have been faithfully taught from the bible, part of evangelical churches, and are able to be trained in evangelism and discipleship. Since 2010 we’ve had an emphasis on helping our students see themselves as gospel resources. We particularly want them to think of the difference they could make toward those who are less reached with the good news of Jesus, or are less able to access the spiritual resources to help them grow.  We call this value the, “Less Reached Less Resourced” or “LRLR”. 

In light of this value, we encourage our students to think about where they will church, where they may live and what jobs they take. We want students to particularly be open to the LRLR because there is an inequality of gospel resources throughout the world. Paul addresses this in 2 Corinthians 8 where he encourages generosity, not so that they would be “hard pressed” but so that there may be equality (vs 13). Hence we encourage students as an expression of generosity and loving care to move to a place where the resources are fewer, and by their presence they could further the impact of the gospel by living amongst, and strengthen a community of believers. We see this as being particularly true of areas of Sydney which are highly multicultural, the rest of Australia or overseas.

This brings associated tensions. As students and graduates are captivated by the LRLR value, those convicted begin to think about moving from their home church. Some have found it difficult to extract themselves. They are often given a variety of attractive reasons to stay and told how much they will be missed by well meaning friends and pastors. I understand; these people are often key people in the congregation and to lose them can feel like a backward move. It is hard to give some of our best for the sake of others. No one likes to lose an asset!

But we need to be aware of being influenced by the cultural value of self gain over the model Jesus gives us –  sacrificial giving for the good of others.  In the NT we see this in the examples of the Philippians giving to Paul, and the Macedonian churches giving to the poor in Jerusalem. Giving means we have less than what we started with, but the Bible teaches us that when we give to others, we gain. It seems illogical and certainly runs against the cultural norm.

So where exactly are the less reached or less resourced? On a world scale it is easy to identify. Take a look at a website like Operation World or the Joshua Project and we see large swathes of South Asia identified as having no significant christian presence – no christians no bibles no churches.

But what about closer to home?  As we narrow down on Sydney what makes for a LRLR location? This is where another tension begins as most churches I know claim to be less resourced in some way. 

Let me give you a few scenarios. 

Scenario 1. Chatting with a student they proclaim, “Our church is LRLR!  We have stacks of people who are not saved.  In my suburb, heaps of people have never heard the gospel, and it’s impossible for my church to reach them all”. 

Scenario 2. At one Christian Conference, a woman said to me, “you know people think just because we are a church in an affluent part of Sydney with a reasonable size congregation, we are resourced. But we struggle to find bible study leaders every year, and adequate helpers to run Sunday school”. 

And yet I find myself saying to the student or the outsider, “I actually don’t think your church is LRLR”. This of course begs the answer to the question, “how do you decide?”. Is it the church that is small, or in a highly densely populated part of Sydney? Is it a church which is recently planted, or fragile? Is it a church in a place where people are self-reliant on their wealth and don’t see the need for God, or are irreligious full stop? In response to the scenarios here are a few thoughts, though later I will suggest that less resourced perhaps is not primarily about the church.

In the first scenario less reached equals not saved. It also tends to suggest that “reached” must equal a positive response to the gospel. Under this understanding 13 year olds at a local skate park could be considered unreached because there is no positive response, such as visiting a youth group or attending a Sunday service.  However in the EU, reach is not solely about conversion, but having access to hear the gospel. We look at what stops exposure to Jesus from happening or being effective. For example, perhaps there are language and thought barriers, cultural differences or religious barriers. It could also be the inability to access these people due to geographical challenges. 

To illustrate this on a larger scale consider Maiki.  She lives in Japan and studies at her local university. However she has never heard about Jesus because there are no other Christians on her campus. No Christian witness in the form of an IFES Group, no missionaries who work in her part of the country to introduce her to Jesus. Hence her access to Jesus is limited at best if not non-existent. Now one may say, “but there are churches in Japan. Surely she could go to one?.” Except for the fact that in her region there is not a functioning Christian church.  “Well how about access to the internet? Surely she could google Jesus?” 

Indeed Japan has internet access but Maiki has no reason to google Jesus, nor will google analytics bring any Christian content onto her Facebook feed because she has never heard of him and hence has no reason to go seeking him. 

Likewise consider Michael. He is an Aboriginal man living in a remote community in Arnhem Land. Not only are there no other Christian aboriginals living in his community, but again there is no church presence, no bible in his own tribal language and definitely no internet.

In both these examples the EU would classify them as less reached because they have little to no access to Jesus. This is different to the person in Sydney who may not know Jesus  but actually has access to christians, a church or a bible, but chooses to reject Jesus. So on this basis, “is Sydney less reached?”.  Broadly the answer is no. If you live in the metropolitan area there is plenty of access to churches and bibles, exposure to Christian concepts through Christians who may live in the neighbourhood, churches, books, podcasts, SRE, and even the news (albeit Christianity in this sphere is often treated negatively).  Particularly if you are born in Australia and have English as your primary language there is no shortage of things you can get your hands on to learn about Jesus – if you chose. The suburb next door to where I live is one of the most irreligious suburbs in Sydney.  But if you asked people if they had heard about Christianity or Jesus, very few would say no. They may not be positive toward nor interested in the slightest about Jesus, but they would probably not claim they had never heard anything about him. These people have the opportunity to respond but have chosen to reject the gospel.  The less reached are those who do not have the ability to make a choice because there is no access for them to choose how they want to respond to Jesus.

However I do think there are pockets of Sydney that are less reached. When looking closely at our city on a map there are suburbs which are home to those with low functional literacy, limited education, dominated by a particular religion or highly multicultural. What this means is that in a suburb where speaking English is difficult or is not spoken at all, a person would have more of an issue in hearing about Jesus than the average Australian. Also in areas where reading and education is low, how “reached” will these people be when our churches largely are led by those who hold university degrees and operate with a requirement that you have the ability to read and understand ideas which can be quite complex. 

Perhaps as you think about the suburb you live in ask yourself if the average person would be able to hear about Jesus in a way that makes sense and is accessible to them?

In the second scenario less resourced becomes conflated with an individual church’s needs. Every church has needs and challenges to ministry. Every church could always do more if they had more. However in the EU we define “less resourced” as an inequality of spiritual resources which are needed to help someone grow. “Less resourced” looks at what resources exist for a person who has become a christian and needs to keep growing spiritually. These things would include access such as a gathering of believers, faithful bible teaching and access to equipping and training. 

The distinction we make is that resources are not about primarily what a church has or doesn’t have. This is because a church itself is a resource for the new believer. This does not mean that “less resourced” can’t apply to a church. In many areas of the world there are believers but they are unable to pay for pastors, and don’t have anyone who can teach or disciple them. They are very vulnerable to cults and other pressures as they have no resources to build them up. The challenge is to consider what this looks like in Sydney and NSW.  

Here are some questions you could ask yourself as you again think about the people who live in your suburb.  If anyone came to your church newly converted 

  1. Would there be a fellowship of believers they could access and find acceptance? A church congregation? A bible study? Some other Christian regular gathering such as a university christian group? Or would they need to travel outside their suburb, several kilometres to access these things?
  2. Would there be teaching they could access? Faithfully preached sermons, small groups they could join or short courses explaining Christianity? Personal devotional material?
  3. Would it be in a language they could grasp? Would the language be easily understood by the recipient?
  4. Would the church service, bible study or other materials reflect the literacy and education level of the recipient?
  5. Would the resources understand how the gospel might interact with their cultural norms or religious background?

In respect to these questions Sydney Churches overall are richly resourced for a new convert – if they are reasonably educated and literate English speakers. However, some groups of people live in parts of Sydney where there are fewer churches in the community compared to the population, the resources are not available in the language they primarily speak, or are not matched to their learning style. People who are less resourced are going to be those who have cultural barriers. For example, they don’t know what a church may look like in Sydney (particularly if it meets in a school), or they may have social pressures upon them because they come from a more collectivist culture rather than individual like the west. They are more likely to be of a religious background whose world view is not ours, or are people who find it uncomfortable reading and find the level at which church operates a struggle – or perhaps just plain weird. 

Here is where the LRLR value comes into play. We try to help our students understand the intersection between need and resources and where there is inequality. Because let’s face it there are areas in Sydney where spiritual resources are clustered and other areas where the pickings are slim. There are plenty of resources for the Western English speaker, but more needed for our communities which are all becoming more and more multicultural and religiously diverse. 

Before I finish, let me offer a corrective.  A misunderstanding that some have is that promoting LRLR means we neglect or even devalue ministry in other areas. It is seen as black and white: LRLR ministry = good, non-LRLR = bad/unnecessary. Sometimes there is a reverse snobbery where those in the most needy areas may have a tendency to devalue the work others are doing in more established areas.  The purpose of the value is not to elevate one ministry above another, but we believe students have real gospel freedom to take up opportunities in response to need. We don’t see the EU as saviours of a church who will go and “fix” it by their presence. However we do think that our students can perhaps tip the balance in terms of a church engaging in nurture and care of believers. Through some of the activities we run amongst international students, those from a Islamic background or where we send mission teams, we do expose students to different groups of people who are not like them and try to help them interact with them in accessible and loving ways.    

We want our students to think about what they could faithfully steward and voluntarily sacrifice for the sake of the kingdom in whatever context they find themselves in. We want students to be able to talk about how they can serve Jesus with all that they are as their life circumstances and situations change, so that they can make an impact for the Kingdom. Therefore we pray that those from the EU will flood God’s church and bless it with the experiences and training they have received to rebalance the inequality. 

– Celia Toose, EU Senior Staff

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