The Frays in London

December 3, 2014

3:43

Download High-res videoDownload Standard-res videoDownload Low-res video

Billy and Lorelei Fray discuss taking faith-filled risks to share the good news in London, England.

Transcript

When we first came over, I had some great counsel from this older Christian gentleman. He said, “Let what you’re doing here just be a mystery.” And that’s great advice. And what he meant by it was, like, don’t come here with this preconceived notion of a mission or a task. People know when it’s an agenda. Just follow wherever the Holy Spirit takes you, and learn to trust it, and learn to hear His voice and get better at it.

We’re Billy and Lorelei Fray, and we’re here in London, England, with marketplace ministries.

Both Billy and I, before we came here, we spent some time really processing what is God calling us to, and we both heard the phrase, “Take the risk.” So that’s been really formative in us. And then what does it look like to continue living a risk-filled life over here? It’s not about “move to London, take this big risk, and then play it safe and get comfortable there.”

There’s been kind of a past history of a lot of hurt in the church, so even just bringing up the idea of church in general, people withdraw and put up walls. The idea of a relationship with the living God who loves them and is pursuing them is unknown basically. So there’s such a need here just for a revelation of who Jesus is.

At the end of the day, I mean God is community. It’s just who he is. As it applies to London, like people are just starved to be known, to be known in community. So it’s a natural fit. God longs to be in connection with them, and they long to be in connection with Him, even if they don’t know it.

It’s easy to meet people, but to actually reconnect with them and spend quality time with them and get to know them—that’s a bit more difficult. How do you naturally build those relationships and truly bring church into the culture. We’re looking into using pop-up dinners, art exhibits, and doing music venues, where we’ll have local bands that are preforming. So it’s like really just playing into the rhythms of the culture that’s already existing. It’s not this “Let’s try to force something and try to draw people to it.” It’s “What’s already happening?”

You don’t have a separation of a compartmentalized life, you know. You’re just in it all the time and you’re really looking for that one conversation or ten conversations that God opens up a door, and you’re already ready. We really want to trust God and that shouldn’t feel risky, but sometimes it does because we get caught in this rift of “I want to provide for my family, and I’d like to have certain things.”

But ultimately, I think it’s absolutely imperative that we step out in risk as Christ followers, because I think it’s in that space, you know, where it’s in the now and the not yet where, if you take that step of faith, that’s where God catches you, you know. And it’s like things that are on His heart that He’s planted on your heart—that’s where it converges and things start to happen. Take a risk, you know; try some things that may look different and be completely out of the paradigm that you’re used to. But that may be really effective.

Could it fail? Absolutely. You know, is the risk worth it? I’d say absolutely, especially when you meet a face of a person that’s on the other end of what that risk means. It’s absolutely worth it.

Share

Get Involved...

Pray.

We cannot “Live the Call Together” unless prayer is central to all we do.
Pray with us »

Serve.

Is God calling you to service? We’re here to help you connect your passion with God’s purpose.
Serve with The Alliance »

Give.

Help build Christ’s Church by supporting the ministry and workers of The Alliance.
Give today »