TILL HE COMES Blog

Yesterday I introduced the two basic discipleship models. Today, I review the pros and cons of each model as presented by Matt Chandler.  

Pros of the Mechanical-Linear Discipleship Model

1. There is no better way to disseminate information, and get people to learn Bible and theology.
2. It has had some historical success.
3. There are TONS of resources and curriculum.
4. It’s easy to measure. How many went through all the steps?
5. It’s easy to motivate people to join and participate.
6. It lends itself to great theology.

Cons of Mechanical-Linear Discipleship Model

1. It’s hard to sustain. It starts big, and people fall off every week.
2. It can lead to coldness.
3. It lends itself primarily to the mechanical, mathematical, engineering types (which is a good thing) but most others have trouble keeping up.
4. Such programs have a tendency to become very sacred, and if you later try to stop such programs, people get angry.

Pros of the Organic-Relational Discipleship Model

1. It seems to yield the greatest results. People stick around when there are authentic communities. If they feel safe, they are much more prone to stick.
2. It tends to appeal to a broader group of personality types. Most of us are not intellects. But almost all of us are relational. We all long for and want community and relationships. It still allows the intellects to cross-pollinate.

Cons of the Organic-Relational Discipleship Model

1. We are all sinners. If we are not intentionally maturing, we won’t mature. Maturity doesn’t just happen.
2. It’s nearly impossible to measure. The only thing you have to count is numbers, and that doesn’t really tell you much.
3. It’s nearly impossible to control. You get leaders teaching very strange things in their groups.

Curiously, there is a huge schism over these two approaches today, and generally, this schism seems to follow along generational lines. Those who are in their 20s and 30s lean more toward the organic model while those over 40 lean heavily on the mechanical.

There may be ways to blend the pros of both while avoiding the cons. We’ll look tomorrow at what Matt Chandler is doing in his church, and maybe make a few general suggestions for what other churches can do as well.

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The number one question in most churches today is “How can we properly, adequately, and effectively make disciples?” If this isn’t your church’s number one question, you should probably shut down the church and go read Matthew 28:19-20 again.

This was the topic of Matt Chandler’s session at the Regional Acts 29 Conference yesterday. (They recorded the session, and so if/when I find out how to obtain the audio, I will update this post with that information.) In the next three posts, I will review what he said. It parallells exactly what I’ve been thinking for about a year now, which is why it was so exciting to me.

Today, I will simply introduce in broad brush strokes the two most common methods of making disciples in our churches today. Tomorrow, we will discuss the pros and cons of each, and on Friday, we will present a few ideas for how to take the pros from both approaches and incorporate them into the church while avoiding the cons.

Organic Discipleship

Matt began by pointing out that there are two basic approaches to making disciples in churches today. The first is relational discipleship (which he called “organic”), where the church encourages people to get together in some sort of home groups where they hang out, develop relationships, and just trust the Holy Spirit to work in their midst bringing them into the knowledge of the truth. They will often have some sort of “designated driver” to lead the group in a particular direction, but often the leader doesn’t really know how to get people “home” or what that “home” is. This approach tends to generate lots and lots of numerical growth in a church, but very little deep spiritual growth.

Mechanical-Linear Discipleship

Then there is the content-based model of discipleship, which Matt referred to as the “Mechanical-Linear” model. It will often have certain steps and classes that a person has to progress through on the “path” of discipleship. In this approach, discipleship is often equated with learning. There will be notebooks full of notes, classes that people can take, and different levels to aspire to. This approach does not get the great numbers that the organic approach does, but does give a few people a lot of information and knowledge about the Bible and theology.

During my five years as a pastor, I adopted and leaned heavily upon the Mechanical-linear model. I even spent time in certain sermons and Bible studies to criticize and condemn the Organic model. Now, three years out of pastoral ministry, and looking at heading back into it through church planting, I have been able to think, reflect, watch, and study these two models at work, and see numerous pros and cons to both. Tomorrow, I will review the pros and cons of each model that Matt Chandler has seen. 

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I attended a regional Acts29 church planting event today. It was the second one I have been to, and you can read about the one I attended last year here. The guest speaker today was Dr. John Hannah from Dallas Theological Seminary. He spoke about spiritual formation, and specifically, how to overcome sin in our lives. I would rate it as only somewhat helpful.

However, a few things he said rang so true in my life that it was like the dawn rising in my life. Below are these things. Matt Chandler spoke as well, which was excellent. He may be one of the most creative and thoughtful pastors of this generation. I will make a post tomorrow about what he said. But here is some of what Dr. Hannah said:

A Popular Christian Lie
He said, “Someone once told me—and if I could remember who it was I would shoot them—that the longer you are a Christian, the easier it gets.” He is right. That is an outright lie. If we are really making progress in the Christian life, it gets harder and harder. Spiritual attacks become more frequent. Temptations become more powerful. The unanswered questions become more numerous.

Sure, there are a lot of positives and benefits to following Jesus, but we should never tell someone that becoming a Christian will solve all their problems. It won’t. Sure, it solves some, but in many ways, being a Christian introduces more problems than it solves.

The Christian’s Nine Lines
Second, generally, when people draw the progress of the spiritual life, they put a cross on the left side, and heaven on the right side, and a squiggly line between the two that goes up and down, hopefully trending upward. He said that in his observations, there should be nine lines, one each for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). Notice the things that are not on this list: Bible reading, church attendance, tithing, etc. Sure, these things may be present as a result of some of these nine areas, but the truth is that someone can read through the entire Bible every day, give 100% of their income to God, and attend church every day of the week, but be failures in all nine of the things on this list. So where are these nine things on your chart?

Clearings in the Rain Forest
Dr. Hannah likens the Christian life to a rain forest. When you first become a Christian, and you fly over the rain forest of your life, it is thousands of square miles of impassible and inhabitable jungle, full of twisted vines, rotting leaves, and deadly predators. But as you make progress, and continue to fly over your life, you begin to see clearings appear. You are not sure why those clearings are there, or what they will be used for, but they appear, and over time, get bigger and bigger. Then organized buildings and roads appear. And areas of the jungle become useful, habitable, and productive.

Is the rain forest ever completely cleared? No. There will always be areas of jungle that remain. Also, everyone’s jungle is quite different. Just because a clearing appears in a certain area of my life does not mean that same clearing will appear in the lives of others. That area of their life may never get cleared in their entire lives. But that is because the master planner knows what he is doing, and knows what he needs.

Waiting for a Fall
When you grow in your mental knowledge of truth, but not in your participation of that truth, it’s just a matter of time until you fall into grievous sin.

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Some days, I’m ashamed to be a Christian. Today is one of those days, and I want to issue a public apology to all people everywhere who were ever hurt, slandered, abused, or hated in the name of Christ. I am sorry for what has been done.

The reason I feel this way today is because of a website I ran across which is solely dedicated to spreading the terrible idea that the God of the Bible hates everybody. The site is so mean and hurtful and angry, I kept wondering if it was just a terrible, horrible, awful joke. I am not going to post the site, because I don’t want anybody to go to it. It is the most despicable, hateful, hurtful, angry, website I have ever come across, and it is all run by “Christians” who claim to be working for “the Gospel.”

One entire section of the site is geared toward helping Christians gather and picket people and businesses with signs that say “God hates _______ (fill in the blank).” I am astounded at the people and places they are planning on picketing, and the way they do it is despicable. They call such events “Picket Crusades.” It’s very reminiscent of the actual Crusades, except that swords and horses have been swapped out for signs and bullhorns.

Personally, I think God hates “Christians” who do such things. Maybe some of us other Christians should get a group together and go picket these picketers. We could write signs that say “God hates people who make signs that say ‘God hates _____ (fill in the blank).’” I’m jesting, but that would be quite a circus.

The truth is that while I feel very sorry for what has been done in the name of Jesus, I also feel very sorry for the people who do it. What is going on in their lives, hearts, and minds to cause them to say and do such things? I feel awful that they think this is the way God is. I wonder what can be done to show them the true love and grace of God?

Anybody want to start a ministry focused on reaching Christian picketers?

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I have a friend who wants to plant churches, only he’s nearly rabid about reaching those that most churches don’t (or won’t) reach. He figures that just as Christ came into this sin-sloshed world to save us, he needs to go into a sin-sloshed place to reach the unreached of our culture. I can’t disagree on that.

But guess where he wants to go? He wants to be a bi-vocational church planter, and for his job, he wants to tend bars. He figures that pastors and bar-tenders have a lot in common. He may be right about that, but does that make it right?

Oh, and by the way, his wife wants to have a ministry with strippers. She wants to go into strip clubs with a female friend of hers, and befriend the girls in there. If necessary, she says she will buy lap dances, but rather than get a lap dance, use the time to express the love of Jesus to them. She wants to have them over for dinner, and give them birthday parties, and teach them how to manage a budget, and cook meals, and care for babies.

Is this kind of outreach and evangelism “legal” for Christians? Or, maybe more Christians should be doing this kind of thing, and the only reason we aren’t is becuase we’re afraid of what ”legalistic” Christians will say.

What do you think?

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OK, this crisis series is starting to depress and bore me, so this will be my last post on it. I’m learning more and more every day, and so I am realizing the series could go on forever. But I want to move on. So in this post, I will close with three things: Some advice for those who have friends facing a crisis, some advice for those facing a crisis, and a story my wife ran across yesterday which sums it all up for us.

1. For those who have friends facing a crisis.

If you have a friend facing a crisis, just go be with them. Just listen to them vent. Don’t chide them for their emotions, fear, anger, hurt, despair. Please don’t quote Scripture unless they ask you to. Don’t offer theological truths which you think will help them. Don’t ask them what sin they might have committed to make God discipline them. In other words, don’t throw rocks. If you are afraid of saying the wrong thing, don’t say anything at all.

Most of the time, hurting people just want others to be there. If you see something tangible that they need, offer to provide it for them, food, clothing, money, helping hands, resources. The only intangible aid you should offer is prayer, and only say “I’ll pray for you” if you are also thinking of ways to be an answer to your own prayers.

Though our crisis is not catastrophic, my father died when I was two, and my mother says that what I have written above holds true in that sort of crisis as well. A friend of mine lost his brother in a hiking accident a few years ago, and he confirms this as well.

2. For those facing a crisis.

One of the things that bothered my wife and I initially is how when we shared with others that we were going through a crisis, they responded by sharing a crisis that they were facing or had faced in their own lives. Our first reaction was, “Don’t try to turn this around to you. I’m the one in pain!” But then we realized, “Wow, how self-centered is that?”

Yes, pain hurts, and sometimes life stinks. But it’s this way for everybody at times. And one way to get over your own pain, fear, hurt, and disappointment, is to realize that it’s part of life, that others are facing it too (and many of them much more than you are), and that you can either have a pity party for yourself, or try to help others through their own pain, which in turn helps you. And to help others through their own pain, go back and look at point number one above.

3. A Story

One day a Rabbi stood on a hill overlooking a certain city. The Rabbi watched in horror as a band of Cossacks on horseback suddenly attacked the town, killing innocent men, women, and children. Some of the slaughtered  were his own disciples. Looking up to heaven, the Rabbi exclaimed, “Oh, if only I were God.”

An astonished student, standing nearby, asked, “But, Master, if you were God, what would you do differently?” The Rabbi replied, “If I were God I would do nothing differently. If I were God, I would understand.”

Like it or not, I think the Rabbi is right. The best we can do in a crisis (and maybe the most we should do) is simply say, “I don’t understand.”

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I’m in my final semester at Dallas Theological Seminary, and wow, am I looking forward to being done! I love studying; I don’t like seminary. Maybe someday I’ll explain why.

But here is a hint: In my “Eschatology” class (study of the End Times), three different students who were interacting with the professor used the following terms: “ontological bridge,” “theological taxonomy,” and “epistemological center.” And yet we wonder why the average seminary graduate has a difficult time connecting with the average person on the street.

Thanks to seminary, I understood what they were saying, but all I could think was, “I hope those students don’t preach much.” If seminary is teaching us to talk like this, seminary is a failure. If you ever catch me talking like this, come burn my books.

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God continues to teach us things in this crisis as we seek to learn in and through it.  

One things we have learned is something all of us know, but which was good for us to experience. God can take our anger. Wendy and I were discussing this and she talked about how it is just like our children. Children often get angry at their parents for not giving them something that they really wanted (like candy before dinner), or taking something away that they had (like a sharp knife). The parents, if they are good parents, do this because the parent sees the bigger picture and knows what is best. While we don’t enjoy having our children upset at us in such situations, we can handle their anger because we know that we did what was best.

Similarly, we are God’s children. As our Father, He sees the big picture and knows what is best for us. We may get angry and upset, and if we do, He can take it because He knows we just don’t understand. I don’t think such anger is sinful or carnal, but just anger from ignorance. I think God would rather have us come to him in anger than run from him in anger. Nor does he want us to be angry, but come to him as if nothing was wrong, becuase that’s not genuine.

Yesterday, one of my daughters was angry at me, and I couldn’t figure out why. As I tried to figure out what had happened, I gently probed her with questions. But rather than answer my questions, she just kept saying “Nothing!” No matter what I asked, that was her answer. I realized that this is how I am acting toward God if I don’t vent my anger to Him, and instead just clam up about what I am feeling.

The Psalmists all understood this, and in the Psalms, we encounter some of the most angry writing in all of Scripture, and much of it is directed at God. The Psalmists had raw emotions and were not afraid to vent at God.

God wants to be with us in our pain and anger, especially if He is the one who caused it. This is because going to Him when we are angry and frustrated at life and at Him is an indication of our love for Him.

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Ok, so I have a problem. It’s more than a problem; it’s an addiction. There I said it. The first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem, right? Of course, I’m not sure I want to recover from this problem. That’s probably another problem.

I have a book addiction.

But it gets worse. My wife has the same addiction. So do my three daughters. We are doomed. When we moved from Montana to Texas three years ago, our moving van was half filled with books…over 100 boxes. While in seminary, I have easily added another 10-15 boxes. In my study, I have ten bookshelves crammed with books, and on top of every shelf is a pile of books almost to the ceiling. Out in the garage, there are 20-30 boxes of books that I was not able to unpack  because there wasn’t room in my study.

And I am not just a “book collector.” There is not a single book I own that I don’t want to read. The ones I don’t want to read, I give away, throw out, or sell on Amazon. I want to read every single book I own.

Here’s why I am posting this. I counted today, and in my pile of books that I absolutely MUST read as soon as possible, there were 191 books. With a lot of pain and heart-wrenching agony, I was able to narrow it down to just 40. As I looked over these 40 books, I realized that they fell into three categories: Bible backgrounds, church planting/leadership, and missional living.

That tells me a lot about what I want to do with my life and where I am headed. I want to understand the Bible so that I can take what it says and lead a church to reach out into this world with the love of Jesus Christ. Even as I think about this, it gets me excited.

So what’s on your reading list, and what does it tell you about who you are?

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Wendy and I continue to face the biggest crisis of our adult (and married) lives, which when compared to the crises many people go through, may not seem like much of a crisis, to us it is pretty big. Though we have felt the whole gamut of emotions, we are still trusting God to get us through, and are learning some valuable lessons. At least, we think they are valuable… 

One of the primary things we have learned is that as Christians, we can learn a lot from non-Christians about how to take care of people who are facing times of crisis.

When you, or I, face a crisis, what is the typical Christian response? The normal Christian response when others are facing a crisis is to quote Bible verses and announce theological platitudes. We’ve all heard them: “God will never leave you nor forsake you.” “God is good, all the time.” “Jesus will be there for you. Just continue to depend and rely on Him.”

Contrast this with the normal non-Christian response. They don’t have Bible verses and theological truths to fall back on. So they fall back on the only thing they can fall back on…themselves. If they want to help, they offer to help. They give a listening ear. They sympathize. They can’t say, “God will provide for you,” so they provide for you. They can’t say, “God will be there for you,” so they try to be there for you. They can’t say, “Take it to Jesus. He can handle it for you,” so instead they say, “I know it hurts. Life sometimes stinks. I’m here to listen or just sit with you.”

This doesn’t mean those verses and theological statements are not true, but that in a crisis, they are not very helpful. In fact, I think that many times, we Christians use Bible verses and theology quotes as an excuse for not helping. But in the (paraphrased and amplified) words of James, “If a brother or sister is without food and clothing, and one of you says, ‘Be warm and well fed. God will provide for you. I’m praying for you. Just have faith.’ but you don’t do anything to help clothe or feed the person, of what use is that?” James is saying that if you are going to pray for a person, or pronounce theological truths, back up those words with some action.

When someone is facing a crisis, act like a non-Christian and pretend you don’t have helpful Bible verses and handy theological clichés to toss around. Instead, actually do something helpful. If nothing else, just offer to listen without lending advice.

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