DAVID ADAMS reports on how the Church of England’s Thy Kingdom Come initiative has become a global, cross-denominational prayer movement…
The concept of evangelism – telling others about the “Good News” of Jesus Christ – may not have been the highest priority for some in the Church of England in the not so distant past but a new initiative called Thy Kingdom Come and aimed at prompting people to pray for others is changing that.
First launched in 2016, Thy Kingdom Come was initially aimed at encouraging people within that particular church denomination to set aside 10 days – the period between Ascension Day and Pentecost – to pray that they may be a more effective witness for Christ to their family, friends and neighbours.
LAUNCH: Rev Canon Chris Russell (right) and Archbishop Justin Welby at the launch of the initiative at Lambeth Palace in London. The initiative was also launched at Bishopsthorpe by the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu. PICTURE: Supplied.
But it has quickly morphed into a global prayer movement involving people from across Christian denominations and, with an estimated 500,000-plus people from more than 85 countries – everywhere from the Falklands to Cuba, Russia to Ghana – taking part last year, there are expectations more will be involved this year as it’s held from 11th to 20th May.
“The business of being witnesses to Jesus Christ and of praying to be witnesses compels us to look into the world around us,” said Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at the launch in late January. “It compels us to seek, to experience the compassion of God for a world caught up in lostness, in sin, but also in suffering and pain, in oppression of the poor, in cruelty, in abuse, in outrageous inequality, in all the things that go against the Kingdom of God.”
Noting there is “no limit to what the Kingdom of God does”, the Archbishop added: “The Kingdom of God when we pray for the Kingdom to come, the Kingdom will transform individuals, the Kingdom transforms society, the Kingdom transforms the globe and the Kingdom transforms the cosmos.”
Rev Canon Chris Russell, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s evangelism advisor and one of the minds behind the initiative’s creation, says the idea for Thy Kingdom Come came from a series of three “personal priorities” Archbishop Welby had when he assumed the office of Archbishop of Canterbury in 2013.
“The first is prayer and the renewal of religious life, the second is reconciliation both within the church and the church as a reconciling body, and the third is evangelism and witness,” Rev Canon Russell says.
“We’re committed to evangelism because of Jesus Christ, because of His love…[and] the transformation that has brought in our lives and the fact there’s no greater decision that anyone could make than to become a follower of Jesus.”
– Rev Canon Chris Russell, evangelism advisor to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.
To explore how these priorities might be brought about, Archbishop Welby and the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, joined in establishing an archbishops’ evangelism task group to look at how, in Rev Canon Russell’s words, “there might be a culture change in the Church of England around evangelism”.
Rev Canon Russell says it was quickly concluded that the starting place was prayer.
“And so we talked quite a bit about how we might call the whole of the Church of England to invest in prayer as a primary first action in evangelism, knowing that evangelism really is the work of God. People come to Christ and come to faith because of the work of the Spirit in their lives and in their hearts…”
Rev Canon Russell says it was a “no brainer” to call the church to a season of evangelistic prayer between Ascension Day – which marks the day when Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven – and Pentecost – the day when the Holy Spirit poured out upon the disciples in Jerusalem.
“Because that’s the time of the waiting on the Spirit; that’s the time that…the first disciples go to Jerusalem and wait for power from on high that they might be witnesses. We felt like calling the church to prayer at that time was really apt…”
Rev Canon Russell adds that while, when the archbishops first issued the invitation for the Church of England to join in praying for effective evangelism, there was some scepticism – “I can’t believe we’re using the ‘e’ word again” was how he characterised some responses – but added that once people had recognised that the initiative was not about bolstering declining congregations or getting the church some positive publicity but in fact about sharing Christ with the community, there had been a strong response.
“We’re committed to evangelism because of Jesus Christ, because of His love…[and] the transformation that has brought in our lives and the fact there’s no greater decision that anyone could make than to become a follower of Jesus,” he says. “[W]e’ve found across the church at every level, there has been a huge resonance with that, of people getting behind that and comprehending that this is actually one of of the prime vocations of the church. So we’ve been really heartened by it because I think there’s been a big…sea-change in the currency of talking about evangelism across the Church of England in the last few years…”
There’s little doubt that some of the initiative’s success across denominations and nations is due to the fact that, from the start, the organisers weren’t overly proscriptive in how people took part, providing resources (this year available in seven languages), but allowing congregations to put their own spin on how they can get involved.
The launch of Thy Kingdom Come at Lambeth Palace. PICTURE: Supplied.
“We don’t care how people do it but we just want people to be as creative and as bold and as engaging as they can [be],” says Rev Canon Russell. “So there have been 24/7 prayer rooms in churches around the country, there have been people prayer walking, there’s some liturgy published…We’ve tried to say, come and pray and pray in your own way.”
To that end, various other church denominations including the Methodist, Catholic and Baptist churches have also begun producing their own resources for the event.
“Ecumenically, our desire is to work with everybody,” says Rev Canon Russell. “We’d love it if this became part of the church calendar, worldwide, that everyone between Ascension and Pentecost just got in the habit of praying for the empowering of the Spirit that we might be effective witnesses.”
Emma Buchan, project manager of Thy Kingdom Come and the Archbishops’ Evangelism Task Group project leader, says social media has played a key role in taking Thy Kingdom Come around the world.
“Social media is how [the initiative] started to move outside of England, outside of the UK,” she says.
Ms Buchan adds that the fact more than 50 denominations are now involved is “hugely encouraging” as are the many stories she’s heard about outcomes from past years.
“I’ve heard people say that they thought they’ve had like a spiritual shift in their church, that they’ve seen huge fruit…there’s almost been like a seismic shift in what’s happening in their church.”
– Emma Buchan, project manager of Thy Kingdom Come and the Archbishops’ Evangelism Task Group project leader
“There’s lots and lots of stories of people who have been praying for people who have seen them come to faith…” she says. “And there’s so many stories of where people have been involved…beyond their normal boundaries and capabilities and being totally and utterly dependent on God and the most miraculous things have started to happened. And they’re really encouraging stories.
“I think it’s been really encouraging for clergy who have been involved and it’s been really encouraging for people who have been praying and I think it’s been really encouraging for Christians on the ground. I’ve heard people say that they thought they’ve had like a spiritual shift in their church, that they’ve seen huge fruit…There’s almost been like a seismic shift in what’s happening in their church.”
One of the key misconceptions that the initiative is keen to address is that evangelism is only the task of some Christians.
“We’ve tried to say every church should be involved in evangelism, every Christians should understand themselves as a witness,” says Rev Canon Russell. “But also we’ve tried not to be directive about that in terms of saying what you need to do…That’s the other thing in evangelism – there aren’t any easy solutions, there aren’t any ‘Just add boiling water and it’s all going to happen, it’s all going to be easy.”
He describes evangelism as a “long term commitment to our friends and our neighbourhoods, our families and our work colleagues” and adds that it’s not “something that we do to people, it’s something that we believe that God is at work turning people’s hearts to him and we have the amazing privilege of partnering with God in that.”
But it does mean telling others about Jesus.
“When Archbishop Justin started talking about evangelism as a priority, we heard that saying that is often attributed to St Francis of Assisi – ‘Preach the Gospel at all times and where necessary use words – which we kind of hit out of the park because…there’s no evidence that St Francis ever said it, and, as Archbishop Justin said, ‘If he did, he was wrong’.
“We think the proclaiming of the Gospel is absolutely about using words. Of course, words count for nothing if our lives and our witness and the things that we do and our priorities don’t match up with the words that we say. And quite rightly so. But we’ve tried to be unashamed…[that] actually this is about how we speak and how we communicate and how we proclaim…”
Rev Canon Russell says that while that means encouraging the gifted evangelists within the church “to be stirred and released”, it also means helping every Christian come to the realisation that they are a witness.
“Being a witness is what every Christian is – and we’re called and we’re equipped for that by the work of the Spirit in our lives. Witnesses simply say what they know and say what they’ve seen. So every person is a witness to Jesus and we simply need to say and to live out what we ourselves have understood and what we ourselves have experienced of the transforming love of Christ.”
