So we’ve been in a preacher search since July of last year. It’s been an interesting experience. We’ve spent a lot of time with a lot of preachers, listened to a lot of sermons.
(If listening to sermons makes one holier, I’m the holiest man on earth!)
Just spending time with these good men, hearing their stories, and talking about Jesus and his church has been greatly uplifting and encouraging. There are a lot of great preachers out there doing excellent work.
Very recently, a preacher we’ve been talking with asked us,
Does the church have a process for making disciples of Jesus?
That pretty much hammers home the question we’ve been wrestling with these last several posts. Do we?
Well, in anticipation of our meeting with the preacher to answer this question, we elders discussed the question. And we discussed the question in terms of: Is our church producing any disciples? After all, call a program what you will, if you’re not making disciples, you don’t really have a program for making disciples — right?
And we concluded that our congregation has a lot of disciples, and that a great deal of disciple-making has happened in the last 5 years. We’re not entirely sure how much of that is our doing — versus the Spirit changing hearts despite us — but it’s certainly happening.
We could stand to do a better job. Not everyone is as transformed as he or she ought to be (ourselves included), but the direction of change is very positive.
So where how is it happening? It’s not obvious. Here’s our thinking —
* There is no one disciple-making program. Everything has to point in that direction. It’s not nearly enough that classes push members toward discipleship, but they help. The same is true of sermons. And small groups.
* Short-term missions help. They can be radically transformative for many.
* Efforts to serve the poor help — so long as the effort isn’t a detachable ministry. It has to be built into the DNA of the congregation.
* Other programs, such as support for adoptions and work among a nearby housing project transform people.
You see, disciples don’t come from a six-week sermon series or a quarter of Sunday school lessons. They don’t come from a special Wednesday night series. They come from serving others — within and without the church.
But service to others has to be part of the curriculum and the preaching, or else you’ve made it seem optional. If it’s not important enough to be taught from the pulpit and in the classes, it’s not important.
I think a big part of the change occurred from a series of Sunday school lessons we taught several years ago, explaining the missional nature of the church and encouraging individual participation in service, not as a “mark of the church” but as the transformed nature of God’s children.
Shortly thereafter, one of newest members volunteered to chair a committee to find service projects our small groups could participate in — and he and his committee did a great job. We asked the small groups to all participate in some sort of service effort.
Pretty soon, service projects were bubbling up from everywhere, because the membership felt empowered to do what the Spirit was already urging them to do.
The role of the elders is important, but in part, their role is to get out the Spirit’s way. That’s a cute way of saying that the elders have to lead but not control. If the elders aren’t pushing a service-to-others agenda, it won’t really catch fire in the church.
Once the elders give the direction, the ministry leaders will surely take the ball and run with it. Indeed, in many churches, the desire is there but the leaders stand in the way. But once the elders set the vision and give permission, the Spirit will do his thing.
Pretty soon, ideas and initiatives and ministries will bubble up all over the place — far too much for the elders to control. Which is okay. They don’t have to control the Spirit. They do need to make sure that the staff isn’t overwhelmed, that the budget process follows the Spirit’s lead (rather than choking the Spirit’s work), and that the church stays just this side of chaos.
“Just this side of chaos” means something like:
* We don’t need a policy and job description for everything.
* Some ministries need to die, and we should let them die.
* Very few decisions should have to go through the elders.
* The elders should be aware of what’s going on without being in control of what’s going on. (But sometimes they will have to step in.)
There is no precise science to how to do this, not that I’ve found. You have to trust your members, be available to help and support, and realize that God’s work in your church is a whole lot bigger than you.
As a result, the elders likely won’t get a lot of credit for the successes that happen. That’s okay. If you took the job hoping for the praise of men, well, you made a huge mistake.
Now, having said all that, I think we can do better. We can be even more intentional about pushing the membership toward service and submission. We can be certain that Jesus is preached from the pulpit — not the cute and cuddly Jesus who makes members rich and solves all their problem. No, the Jesus who calls us to join him on the cross. That’s the only Jesus who changes people.
We can re-double our efforts to teach Jesus in the classes. We can better publicize and communicate service opportunities. We can do better — and that will surely always be true.
Ultimately, it’s about creating a new church culture, a culture in which submission and sacrifice, service and suffering are honored, where Christianity has been redefined in terms of the life of Jesus — so thoroughly that the members think they’ve always thought this way.
Jay, I really agree a lot with the direction of this post. And one of the difficulties in making this type of change in the DNA of a group, is the depth mad completeness of the contrast between this view of congregational life, and the prevalent view within our broader culture.
One of our general failures is to underplay how radically different a believers view of life on earth really ought to be. The contrast between the spiritual point of view and the worldly point of view.
Jay, your statements, “… service to others has to be part of the curriculum and the preaching, or else you’ve made it seem optional”; and “…its about creating a church culture…where Christianity has been redefined in terms of the life of Jesus — so thoroughly that the members think they’ve always thought this way” are so RIGHT. Nothing is a substitute for GOOD preaching, because good preaching CREATES. Otherwise, why do it?
About your preacher tryouts. Maybe its changed since I was a youth, but, in growing up in a small southern town, I can remember preacher after preacher, even those who would hold our meetings, beginning their sermon, “I want everyone here to know that I’m just a good ol’ country boy who likes beans, turnip greens and cornbread”. Well, I like them too, but even as a teenager I got very tired of the “good ol’ country boy” intro.
My point is that I came to appreciate preachers and teachers who could pull me in and make listen by challenging me to stretch; not those who tried to sell me that they were just like me. I want to be more than me; but that’s me.
God bless in your preacher search.
Your commments are right on. But is there a place for the use of mass media without falling into the marketing trap?
Keith asked, “But is there a place for the use of mass media without falling into the marketing trap?”
The answer is that there is – when Jesus is the focus. Of course, it takes more than a radio or TV program. There must also be teaching of the individual leading to conversion – and beyond. One of the partners we at Eastern European Mission have in Ukraine is a good example of this.
*He preaches on a national TV program where, in his own words, he talks about “What I know about God and Jesus and how they changed my life.” (For more on this see this blog I wrote about him sometime back. This TV program generates interest – shown by an average of c. 300 requests for literature each program.
*With the literature, a Bible Correspondence Course goes to each respondent. Tens of thousands have completed these courses and many have been baptized.
*He conducts an anual “Church-planting Seminar” where new converts are taught to begin a church in their home by:
#Beginning to worship (if they have not already begun)
#Letting others know what they are doing and why
#Making a difference in their community
To help them know how to do the later, they are taught how to begin to become involved in the lives of orphans. All of this puts them into a real mode of serving other people (as Jay has been emphasizing).
So, the mass media is not the total program, but it is a key part of it.
This is one area few people can tell you exactly what this looks like when it is done well. For many congregations making disciples is a little nebulous. It is hazy and we don’t see the process clearly. Part of that is because there is no perfect “cookie cutter” program to get it done.
We are just starting a few things to try to get more intentional in making disciples. We have an okay number of baptisms and new members each year (usually about 40-60) but if you asked us how that happens we couldn’t really give you a straight answer. We would have something more like the list you have of things that probably contribute to this but nothing solid that says, here is the path.
So we are creating a path that we can get people down toward spiritual maturity. We created an online tool that categorizes those we are reaching out to (non-Christians we have contact with and/or attend) into 5 groups. We are calling this “Church Steps.” On this a private online form you can add people and move people forward through the system in a visible way/format. If you click on the people you can view relevant information (if you have the permissions to do so), print rosters, get an email list of those in a given step to import into your email client to contact them, etc.
The steps include:
1 – Attract (people we know are interested but who haven’t attended)
2 – Welcome (people who have come in the door but aren’t connected)
3 – Relationships (people who are connected with others in the congregation)
4 – Transformation (people who are engaged in Bible study to become a Christian and/or small group/Bible class)
5 – Integration (once they are baptized they move out of step 4 and we get them involved back into this process of helping others through it).
This is getting underway at the end of this month. There is a lot more I could say about this but that is the gist of it.
Perhaps if the question had been…
“How are you yielding to the Spirit working through your congregation to glorify Jesus through making disciples in love, peace, and unity?”
…the answers would have been different. Doesn’t the question, “Does the church have a process ……” betray our “shadow thinking” that we assume the responsibility for coming up with our process. Is the process the Spirit working through a submitted human organization for the glory of Jesus or it a human organization working a process that mentions Jesus for divine authentication? Can we even recognize the difference anymore?
Jay reported: “Pretty soon, service projects were bubbling up from everywhere, because the membership felt empowered to do what the Spirit was already urging them to do.
The role of the elders is important, but in part, their role is to get out the Spirit’s way.”
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I could kiss you square on the mouth.
Matt wrote: “So we are creating a path that we can get people down toward spiritual maturity. We created an online tool that categorizes those we are reaching out to (non-Christians we have contact with and/or attend) into 5 groups. We are calling this “Church Steps.” On this a private online form you can add people and move people forward through the system in a visible way/format. If you click on the people you can view relevant information (if you have the permissions to do so), print rosters, get an email list of those in a given step to import into your email client to contact them, etc.”
>>>
Matt, I understand the database and data-gathering and classifying of people into presorted groups, but can’t tell from here why you are doing it. I can’t find any connection between your first sentence with the rest of the paragraph. Can you help me understand? Who is supposed to be emailing these people and to what specific purpose? What is the intended purpose of this data-gathering? Surely it’s not just to get people on an unsolicited church spam list…
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Matt said of his proposed “Church Steps”–“The steps include:
1 – Attract (people we know are interested but who haven’t attended)”
>>>>
Attract people to what, exactly, Matt? It sounds like step one is “get them to come to our church”. Is that the first thing you are after with this program?
Charles,
There is so much here that I just don’t have the time to fully explain. I appreciate your questions and don’t mean to be confusing. Our model is in the works. It is not perfect nor will it ever be perfect but it is intentional and involves/requires action on the part of our members to be involved in the lives of others who are seeking.
Why are we doing all of this? We realize that not everyone we are reaching out to is in the same place in life. We realize that not everyone we are reaching out to has the same needs. So wherever someone is at we can place them into a step that shows us what the next needed step would be. So if they have never come to anything (small group, personal Bible study, Sunday worship, etc) we hope to continue to invite them and be mindful and prayerful of them until they do. That leaves them still in Step 1 until they actually come to something, anything. Many come but aren’t connected. That means they have walked in the door, attended something but don’t necessarily know people (those in Step 2). That shows us they need to get to Step 3 by forming relationships with others in the church. Again, each step shows us what their next pertinent need would be to get them further involved. Let’s say they have started to make some friendships but haven’t yet studied the Bible with anyone yet they are in Step 3 but haven’t yet made it to the transformation step. I know life is not this cut and dry but you have to start somewhere. So we know what they need next is a mentor and invite to a one-on-one Bible study. By the way, we just finished developing an inductive evangelistic Bible study through the Gospel of Mark that I think is really good. So those we see under Step 3 get invited to a Bible study and/or small group where they continue to learn more/be transformed. That would put them in Step 4. In order to get through step 4 they decide to become a Christian through the Bible studies and so we know it doesn’t stop there…they need to get involved in ministering to others (Step 5) so we know they need to be invited to participate in ministry. So with each step we know there are certain needs the people in each one have and we are lining up people to reach out to each one to help move them toward Christ and mature faith. That is why we are doing it this way. Hope that helps and please ask whatever questions you have.
Part of me does feel like this is somewhat attractional. However, we have not limited their showing up to only include a Sunday morning service. They may show up through a small group, help on a service project, etc. This also puts our members on a mission to be involved in the lives of those who are seeking.
It’s no wonder Compassion and World Vision are having so much success. Their mission is to serve (show Christ) while preaching and teaching Christ. I remember about ten years ago being apart of a young adult group that invited someone along on a mission trip that was not a Christian. In her words that was the most compelling thing she had witnessed in seeking to that point. I think this post makes an important point. Many times we do a great job of passing on doctrine and teaching knowledge in classrooms. Which are very important. Though we often lack the hands on training in serving and doing ministry, and often the service that is promoted is serving other members in things like handing out bulletins and making coffee. Not bad things mind you but not exactly life altering. This mindset is something we in Christ really need to work on. I know someone who has preached Christ in pulpits as a Gideon who left town and went to the beach right after the tornado in town and by his own words it was because it was hard to do anything around here. He knew people personally who were effected and needed help. While on the other hand people who didn’t know anyone here left the comfort of their own lives and came here to help out and actually slept in their cars because of a lack of places to stay. That’s Christ in action. My cousin rarely goes to church and was hit pretty hard by the storm and Samaritan’s Purse came and removed trees from his yard and prayed for him. All they asked was to give him a bible afterwards. He can’t say enough about those guy’s. Serving is a very powerful tool in reaching people for Christ. Far more powerful than preaching down to someone. And more importantly it’s what that man that God Jesus taught us to do.
It still seems like your focus for what a disciple is centers around serving others. That’s part of the story, but it’s incomplete. Disciples are actively involved in urging one another to be holy. Any “program” for making disciples has to involve members in each other’s lives, actively teaching, admonishing, warning, helping, and encouraging toward righteousness.
Matt, is it possible that there is a “step zero”, which would encourage the believer who knows this person to truly befriend him and introduce him to other believing friends outside the framework of church activities? Could it be that we might make friends and fall in love with these folks BEFORE we introduce them to our organizational activities — rather than thinking of those programs as the entry point? The idea of “we’ll gladly love ’em if we can get ’em to show up” seems backwards to me. I think they’ll be likely to show up if we love ’em first.
In my mind, what is missing in so many efforts like this is the idea that people are attracted to Christ in the believer rather than to Christ in a meeting. Befriending unbelievers is not considered an end in itself, but strictly a means to getting them to church. It’s less like true love and more like running trotlines. Many of these well-intentioned systems turn out to be processes for attaching people to the organization. In fact, that is often the only way they measure the results of these efforts: does this person now attend services regularly, help with Sunday school, drive the church bus, give money consistently?
If we are hoping to create a path to spiritual maturity, are these REALLY the mile markers? Does the character of Christ consist of such organizational participation?
Charles,
Not all people start in step 1. Some start in step 3 because they already have relationships that are solid within the church. So again, this is not the perfect system but it is something to get us started. It is intentional and well defined. It is more attractional in what it counts than I would like but there is a missional component to it as we are educating and motivating people to form these relationships and be more spiritually engaged in the relationships with non-Christians than they already are.
Also, I didn’t mention this but one big piece of this is a regularly held meeting where we will talk over this, pray over this, continue to give direction to the people involved in this process, get people studying one-on-one (which I just finished writing material for), etc. This is why I said there is more to all this than I can cover here and I just wanted to let you know that I love the questions you are asking and the perspective you have and the concerns you have raised and can assure you that we are on the same page here. I have written extensively on these things on my blog.
The whole point of all this is not the building. The whole point is getting people with people to help them connect with the Gospel, Christ and grow in their faith. Hope all that helps. Keep the questions coming…they are helpful.
Some people start in step minus 3. Some people grow up with parents who use them for their drug business, who have parents that turn them on to drugs, who eventually go to jail or prison because of their involvment with drugs. You’ll never meet these people in Church or other ministry where they come to you. You have to go look for them but once you look, they are pretty easy to find. And “Drugs” can be substituted for with whatever criminal or deviate activity you wish.
Charles wrote,
This is supposed to be motivating?
Sure, Jay, it is an encouragement to continue to do well no matter badly you are treated.
My response does say a lot more than just “liking” your comment. I reserve such an enthusiastic reaction not just for “getting it”, but for “getting it when hardly anyone else does”.
Now, if you could just get the “kiss”thing. It’s like when you were a little kid and your elderly great-aunt– the one who looked like Rutherford B Hayes with bosoms — wanted to hug you and kiss you. You just have to learn to appreciate the intent and suffer through the actual exercise of it.
Not unlike what I do with most sermons I hear…
Matt, I appreciate your response. And I agree that we are on the same page in spirit, if not entirely in concept. We don’t have to do things the same way, and it tends to be much more fruitful to ask such questions as I do of people who are actually trying to move forward in a godly purpose.
There is a natural tension in such things: rather like a race car driver and a crew chief. The crew chief who calls for a pit stop actually interrupts the driver’s progress in hopes of helping him win the race. Now, if the interruption is for the sake of showing off the crew chief’s knowledge and intellect, he slows the driver rather than helping him. But if he provides insight that eventually makes the driver more effective, then every pit stop is worthwhile.
Alan wrote:
What’s the role of the Holy Spirit in this process?