An Encouraging Note to You, from Our Friend Rico Tice:

Dear Friends and Partners of Dawson & Shanna,

The Revd Rico Tice

My name is the Reverend Rico Tice. I was ordained into the Anglican Church in 1994 and then spent 29 years as an evangelist on staff at All Souls, Langham Place in London. In that time, I also set up Christianity Explored, which is a charity that seeks to help churches and individuals look at the person of Jesus in Mark's Gospel. I’m honoured to have been asked to be one of the keynote speakers at Mission to the World’s Global Missions Conference this upcoming November in Atlanta. I left All Souls in 2023 to work full-time for Christianity Explored and in part in protest at the apostasy of the leadership of The Church of England, took my family out of the Anglican Church and joined the International Presbyterian Church of Ealing (IPC-Ealing) and delightfully we found ourselves in Dawson and Shanna's Home Group.  

I wanted to write, because I just can't speak highly enough of their care and leadership.

First of all, they both have such a clear and winsomely reformed theology. It has been wonderful to be led by people who have such a grip on the sovereignty of God. I really can't think of anything that Dawson has said, as he's led study after study, which hasn't been theologically faithful. There are a number of people in our group, for whom English is a second language and they then personify the old adage that 'those who understand deeply, teach clearly'. The notes that are given out are clear and really enable people who struggle with the language to follow along and take home something solid and digestible. It's obvious they've been so well trained.

Secondly, their theology is followed up by really self-sacrificing lives. I rang them last week and they were out with a couple, both young Christians and the wife was in the middle of really a bit of a breakdown, and it was just so typical that they had their arms around that couple, when I spontaneously rang.

Furthermore, last Monday we had a birthday celebration for a dear man in the group. He's 42, single, lives with his mum and is pretty vulnerable. Shanna organised the party which they hosted in their back garden. There were three cakes and when I drove him home, he said to me, "That's been the best birthday I've ever had". It's just simply living out what it means to be a church family and opening your home again and again.  

And then there is their evangelism. There has been a constant stream of men that have come to IPC-Ealing with Dawson. When I went for a haircut in Pitshanger and tried to raise spiritual things with the barber, he said, "Oh there's an American who comes in here called Dawson, who has spoken to me about this". Furthermore, I was driving through Greenford, a village near Ealing, on a Saturday morning and there were Dawson and Shanna out on the streets doing open air evangelism.  

So as I commend them, there's theology, care of the church family and evangelism. All three have been modelled and embodied by the Beans. There's a real joy in the Lord in them and, as we have interacted with their children, we have just felt that their kids are with us in this great work, but nevertheless are themselves and have lots of personality. My wife Lucy thinks the world of Shanna and has so appreciated her example, and I have appreciated Dawson's. I really want to wholeheartedly commend them both to you their partners in ministry, the Board at MTW, and now to their new church in Prague, Faith Community Church. They are outstanding Christian workers, who have certainly shown themselves to be really effective in the cross-cultural context of West London.

 

1 Thessalonians 1:3 springs to mind - "We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ."

 

Warmly in Christ from London,

 

The Revd Rico Tice

Evangelist & Founder

Christianity Explored Ministries

www.christianityexplored.org

www.honestevangelism.com