One In Jesus

I get emails —

We’ve begun teaching the servant example of Jesus and looking at examples of the many successful groups in Asia Minor in the 1^st century, particularly how they were able to enter a godless community and yet successfully make disciples.

Where we are struggling is making the direct connection between serving others and generating opportunities for sharing the gospel.  We certainly have faith that if we love and serve the fruit will come but we’d like to be taking the right steps to make that happen.

Are you aware of teaching material that can help us bridge that gap?

I think we “conservatives” have been out of the service & love business so long that we don’t know, as a practical matter, how this is supposed to work.  People my age, now 50, haven’t had any example to follow in conservative works.  But with the encouragement of our younger group, we’re certainly willing to learn.

There are some books, but I’d suggest a different approach —

1. Teach the theology of missional Christianity. There are several articles here, including especially An Unconventional Approach to the Mission of the Church from several years ago. It’s not the best writing on the subject ever, by any means, but it’s written to address Church of Christ sensibilities. Here a link to other articles on the same subject.

In the Churches, it’s critically important that the presentation be solidly grounded in the Scriptures and that some traditional objections be anticipated.

2. Give the members freedom to seek out ways to serve and teach about Jesus together. Let Sunday school classes or small groups seek out separate efforts. Let the Spirit do his thing. Don’t seek to control with too many rules and approvals. In fact, you might give each class some seed money to start and no other rules.

3. A few years ago, we appointed a committee to meet with local community service agencies to find out how we can help. We wanted to avoid duplicating services already in place and the unimaginative tendency to do what we’ve always done before — sing at nursing homes.

We had nurses, social workers, and others call around and put together a list. And some of our small groups took on a portion of the list and were transformed. Most importantly, it transformed our way of looking at our place in the community. We began to see ourselves as part of a network of interconnected resources, all serving these needs. It was a big, big deal.

But we insisted that we would only serve if we could share Jesus in so doing. We do not take on projects that do not bring glory to God.

4. Our best ideas and best ministries come from the members, not books or seminars. Those things only serve as catalysts to help free the imagination and help us respond to the Spirit with less fear and more anticipation. Empower the members — but instruct the members. Remind them that this is all about the gospel, not just feeling good about ourselves.

5. I’d suggest that you encourage your members to spend some time studying how other churches have done it — not as a pattern to follow but as an exercise in freedom and creativity.

For example, there’s the Christian Chronicle’s series on Churches that Work. You might also look at my series on Ministry Ideas (and don’t forget the comments):

You’ll find plenty of other examples at the Christian Standard and Christianity Today websites. Just browsing these sites, looking for good examples, can be an incredibly uplifting experience.

6. Be sure your church is involved in mission work in a big way — including both long-term and short-term missions. Bring in missionaries to talk with people in class and small groups about how they do what they do. The same methods often apply here.

And a church that supports missionaries will necessarily be a more evangelistic church. In fact, some of best efforts are mission trips that are specifically evangelistic. When members train in how to teach the Bible in a foreign land, they are also training for local Bible study — and they often catch fire from the experience.

7. Finally, yes, there are books. I’m sure the readers can recommend some. I’d be interested in their thoughts.