CONGREGATIONAL STORY
Embracing evangelism
Ross Munro, evangelism associate at Lowe Memorial Presbyterian Church, describes his exciting role within the south Belfast congregation.
I
was that guy! You know, the parent who drops their child off at Sunday school and then heads home for the hour. With just enough time to stick the frying pan on for a nice cooked Sunday morning breakfast before going back to collect the little one from church. That was me. Why? The combination of being made to go to church when I was younger and the loss of my father had left me angry with God. “If God is real and is meant to love me why would he allow this to happen to me?” This was the question that would regularly echo through my mind into my early 30s. I didn’t doubt that God was real but because of the hurt I kept him at a safe distance, or so I thought. Dropping my daughter off at Sunday school soon became a problem though because she was enjoying it! Other children attended the first part of the service with their parents before leaving for Sunday school and I didn’t want my daughter to be left out. Her enthusiasm and my guilt at not participating with her finally meant we began to go to church as a family. That church was Carnmoney
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Herald February 2019
Presbyterian and from walking in as strangers we became like family. When we eventually left, I had become someone equipped and supported to step into God’s work full time. Their example of demonstrating Christianity in action, for which I am eternally grateful, has given me a vision for how I want to continue to evangelise to those around me and has
…part of my role is to feed into this ministry… where every member can see themselves as a witness.
shaped my outlook for my job at Lowe. Lowe has a motto: “A church in the community and a community church”, which it seeks to fulfil through various ministries, aiming to bring the church to people wherever their starting point may be. One of the ways we do this is through the purpose-built café area called ‘the hub’ which was developed to bless the parents who leave their children off to youth activities during the week. Parents can stay and avail of free coffee, WiFi and company, which gives us an opportunity to engage with people who otherwise wouldn’t attend a service. Along with a dedicated team of volunteers, part of my role is to feed into this ministry and to be part of the culture here where every member can see themselves as a witness. I love this part of my job as it reminds me of the place I started from; the challenge is to engage with those parents who come to the door but who aren’t ready to come through it. There are of course those who aren’t coming to the church at all in any capacity and evangelism by definition is to spread the gospel by public
