Field Number One - Meet People

Now we are settling in on the new housing estate, we are starting to meet people. This fits our current missional task: to simply meet people, get to know them, and work out who is who.

This represents 'Field number 1' in the 'Four Fields' discipleship making model. Field one is all about entry to a new area, getting to know it and discovering the people, organisations and networks that already exist within it. Conceptually it is an empty wide open space - a liberating space in which Jesus can direct us: because we no pre-conditions or pre-fixed ideas! Within that space we are free to meet people: this phase might seem random, but the process of meeting people is for us purposeful and intentional - it is exploring the first field.

In the conversations we might have we can talk about who we are, and therefore potentially talk about our faith in Jesus. In our intentionality we will follow up at least by praying for those we have met by name, but at this stage we are not setting out to quickly win people over for Jesus or win any potential argument. We don't need to do that because we are still in the first field. Time will come later to more directly point people to Jesus, engage in apologetics and so on (these are tasks for fields two and three!). For now, it is enough to just meet people, learn about them, and begin the seed scattering process as we go.

This is a process that will take time. We can deliberately involve ourselves in activities that afford opportunity to meet people, and we can put ourselves out there ... but either way it will take time, maybe many weeks. We should not rush this stage, resisting the temptation to feel frustrated and want to push on prematurely: faith, patience and discernment are required before considering ourselves to be entering the next field!