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Jonathan Mortimer has been liaising for the past year with leaders of East Sussex churches in his role as Coordinator for the South Coast Mission Walk in September, which is an East Sussex event under the banner for Hope 08. It will enable several towns to work together. I met up with Jonathan recently to find out about the man behind the role. Brought up in a Methodist church-going home Jonathan loved running and fishing as a teenager. He became a Christian at Bristol University in 1979 during a mission called Down to Earth. Just over a decade later in 1991 he was a student at Oak Hill theological college when visiting lecturer, Daniel Couzens challenged the group asking "what practical difference does knowing Jesus make to you today?" Realising he didn't have an answer to this Jonathan began a quest to find out. He read "Knowing God" by Jim Packer and discovered that ‘A little experience of God is worth a great deal of knowledge'. At the time he was also studying church history reading about past great pilgrims who had taken the ‘good news' of Jesus to people outside the church. This helped to shift his thinking from that of an academic to experiencing faith as a vital daily walk with God. It was a turning point. He joined Daniel and others on a Walk of 1,000 Men, which transformed his life. One of the defining moments during the walk was to see God at work through wonderful healings and extraordinary conversions. The mission was aimed at reaching men outside the church and Jonathan found it humbling to discover that his own self-reliance and use of clever words wasn't needed for this. He discovered instead that God wanted his servant heartedness rather than his head knowledge. I asked Jonathan what motivates him to do a walks now on a regular basis. "Last year we did Walk Cumbria giving free coffee and bacon butties to people leaving pubs and clubs. I saw a lot of sadness and emptiness. One guy, in particular, who was on his third bacon butty, poured out his heart to me and then gave his life to Christ. The following day he was received into a local Salvation Army church. It's that type of scenario that keeps me motivated." Why did he decide to make the walks his daily work I wondered. "My aim is to see mission and evangelism at the heart of every local church. Mission in the Greek language means 'to be sent' and Evangel in Greek means 'to proclaim good news' so every Christian in every church should 'be sent to proclaim the good news'. Jesus told his disciples to do this - but first we each have to become good news. I want to help the ordinary Christian learn to proclaim the good news." Jonathan is married and they have two daughters. He was ordained into the Anglican church in 1992 and until June 2007 was a Parish Priest in West Sussex. I asked him how his heart for mission works out in practice in his own local church. "Experiencing God's help in mission as a Team Rector in Crawley helped me understand that when we are most needy of God we experience him more." He told me about a 4 week course he ran recently in a pub called "Evangelism that looks like you", which was aimed at helping Christians be good news outside the church. Why a pub I asked? "Because it was a lot warmer and it sells better beer than I can get at church!" How difficult is it to get churches to work together was my next question? "In mission I find there is more that radically unites churches than divides them. Before every Revival there has always been a heartbeat of prayer. Billy Graham would only go places where church leaders were meeting and eating together and also praying for people. In Eastbourne church leaders are already meeting and friendships are evident everywhere. This is time well spent because unless leaders trust one another they can't work together. Trust comes from choosing to spend time together in each other's company. You can't build real trust in a committee meeting. It has to be in a social context, a chance to relax and be yourself. We can talk about a variety of topics when eating together and Jesus set an example for this." What do you see as the future for the church in this country? "It is true that in every age where mission is at the heart of the church it will grow and be healthy. Inward looking churches can't grow. Through Faith Missions has 6,000 prayer partners supporting every mission. We are delighted to be in partnership with the Revival Prayer Centre and the Churches Together Hope for Eastbourne leaders." So many churches are now signed up to take part in the walk that Jonathan asks for prayer for enough experienced mission team members to be recruited to support and work alongside the newly recruited East Sussex churches teams getting ready for the walk. The South Coast Mission Walk takes place in September starting in Hastings on the 13th and in Eastbourne on the 20th.
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