TILL HE COMES Blog

Did you see The 2008 TIME 100 list? Every year, TIME magazine compiles a list of of the 100 most influential people of the past year, divided up into categories like “Leaders and Revolutionaries,” “Scientists and Thinkers,” and “Artists and Entertainers.”

In previous years, I have noticed that at least one pastor made it onto the list. Several years ago Rick Warren was on the list (because of his Purpose Driven Life book). I think that Rob Bell made the list last year. This year, pastor Richard Cizik got half a spot, and an Eastern Orthodox leader, Bartholomew I, also made the list for his stand on environmentalism as a spiritual responsibility. Oh, and of course the Dalai Lama was on the list, as well as the Muslim leader Muqtada al-Sadr. The person I was most excited about was Isaac Berzin, especially when I go fill up my car with gas. Every nation in the world should be sending millions of dollars to Isaac.

I believe that if we, as followers of Jesus, are truly going to be living radical, missional lives of purpose, protecting the planet, healing the abused, giving water to the thirsty, feeding the starving, inventing new and better ways of doing things, and leading the way for global change, then every year we should see more and more Christians on this list. Of course, it is quite likely that many of the people on the list are actually Christians. For example, I think I read somewhere that Craig Ventner is a Christian, and he’s on the verge of “creating” life. Crazy stuff.

I’m not trying to be imperialistic here. I just think that if Christians are trying to live the Kingdom of God, then we should be the most innovative, artistic, and creative activists on earth! We need to be the pacesetters, the trend makers, the world shakers, the vision creators.

Erwin McManus, in his book An Unstoppable Force, put it this way:

The church was never intended to be a monolith but a movement creating moments that change history. …The first century church didn’t keep up with it’s time… The first century church changed time. It rewrote history. It radically impacted culture. The church was the forerunner, not the runner up. And out of the church’s influence came the greatest art, the greatest music, and the greatest thinkers (p. 66).

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What is the best program for making good disciples? In other words, how can a person be adequately trained and prepared to be a follower of Jesus?

If you check with the local Christian bookstore, you will find that the most common way to disciple someone is to take them through some sort of discipleship manual. This book or workbook is designed to teach the person some basic biblical and theological truths as well as some instruction on basic Christian disciplines like praying, reading the Bible, attending church, and tithing. This is why discipleship almost universally takes place in a “discipleship class” and is often a subset of the “Christian education” department.

I’m not against such methods…except that they don’t seem to work. Very few people who go through such programs actually end up acting much like Jesus. If the goal of a discipleship program is to help a person act like Jesus, then our discipleship programs are failing.

Discipleship = Serviceship
The best discipleship program is one that follows the actual method Jesus used in making disciples. Did He teach His followers the Bible, how to pray, and what to do with their money? Absolutely. But unlike most discipleship programs today, Jesus always taught His followers within the context of service. They would go feed 5000 people, and then He would teach them. They would go heal the sick and then He would teach them. He sent them out two by two, and when they came back, He would teach them. Teaching was almost never isolated from mission and service.

You want life transformation to result from your discipleship programs? Add mission. Add service. Don’t just teach; obey (Matt 28:20). I have often thought that a better word for discipleship might be serviceship, or better yet, apprenticeship. How does an apprentice learn best? By doing.

All Together Now!
And this service and mission is not a later stage or second step to discipleship. It’s not (1) learn, then (2) serve. Ideally, learning and service go together. However, we often banish new believers off into the endless cycle of Bible studies so they can learn basic Christian doctrine before we let them serve. And instead of taking the class, and then going out and serving, they often just move from one class to another. They emerge thirty years later with a well-worn Bible, bloodshot eyes, and a hyper-critical, judgmental, puffed-up personality and ivory-tower attitude that is no longer useful for service.

To maintain a soft heart, a proper discipleship program trains both the head and the hands.

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Today I was reading a discussion over at Bob Robert’s blog about how getting conversions should not be the primary goal of church planting. Instead, we should aim for what Jesus tells us to aim for, which is making disciples.

The issue, of course, is “How best do you make disciples?”

For now, the comments by Bob Roberts reminded me of something very similar I read in Exiles by Michael Frost. He writes that after they started their church in Australia, some older Christians started coming “to take quick look at how we were doing and if it was working.” He says that he “discovered that most of these older people were survivors of similar community-building experiments from the 1970s” and had become jaded and cynical. They told Frost that his new community “wouldn’t last” (p. 108).

He goes on to say that after studying the transitional nature of the early church in Acts, he realized that aiming for community is not a goal in itself, but is instead a by-product that is gained through aiming for a better goal - that of mission (p. 109).

And this brings us back to the question of discipleship and reasons for church planting. How does a person become transformed? How best can we make disciples? I’ll take a quick stab those questions tomorrow.

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In Part 1 and Part 2 of this short series on the Future of the Church, I wrote about how the church needs to escape the attractional, church-growth model of the church, and become more missional. Doing so will enable us to prepare for the world-wide reawakening of the church that is coming.

In this post, I want to focus on a process by which you personally can prepare for this reawakening.

1. You must reimagine the church as the body of Christ. Forget everything, and I mean everything, you know or think you know about the church, what it is supposed to be, do, and look like. Then, start reading the Gospels with the understanding that Jesus is showing by example and teaching with words and works how His followers are to live and act. I believe that Jesus’ life is God’s dream for the church. If we are the body of Christ, then we must be the body of Christ now as He was 2000 years ago. When people say they want to get back to the early church the way it was in Acts, I believe they have not gone far enough back. They need to get back to the way Jesus lived and acted. He is our church model.

2. Follow up this study by reliving the life of Christ. In other words, try to live like Jesus lived. But here’s the key: You can’t do this by yourself, because you are not Christ, and you are not the Body of Christ. It is only “we” who believe in Him and follow Him who are His body, and so we can only live as He lived, and do what He did, in concert with other members of the body. So, find some other like-minded people, and together, start trying to be Jesus to the world. As the body, you can help the poor, set captives free, help the blind to see, heal the sick, feed the hungry, and show people the way back to God. And I don’t mean with miracles, though I don’t rule miracles out. It is amazing what a few people can do together who share a common desire to help others.

3. Don’t revert! When people start to join with you, and your numbers begin to grow, and people start coming to faith in Christ, resist the urge to protect what you have gained by reverting to more safe and common ways of doing church. Trying to become safe and protected is the beginning of decline and ineffectiveness. I’ll let you decide what this looks like in your context.

When you embark upon this process, you’ll notice that once you are able to discard everything you think you know about church, and begin the adventure of reimagining church (step 1), your life begins to spiral upward in some new and interesting ways (step 2), which then causes you to both seek more from Scripture (step 1) but also desire to run from risk and return to what is safe and known (step 3). So this is a constant process of going back and forth between reimagining (step 1) and reliving (step 2), while warding off the temptation of reverting (step 3).

I know because I’m right there. It’s a terrifying and thrilling place to be.

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In the book Back To Jerusalem three Chinese church leaders tell about their vision that God is going to use the Chinese church to finish the Great Commission. They note that in general, the church started in Jerusalem and moved Westward into Northern Africa and Europe. While there, it experienced several cycles of awakening and decline for about 1500 years.

Then it jumped the Atlantic and for about 500 years, the church has experienced several cycles of awakening and decline in North and South America. During the time, the church in North Africa and Europe has been in steady and steep decline.

In the last few decades, we have seen the decline of the church in North and South America while the westward moving “church wave” seemed to move into Asia. These Chinese leaders have recognized this, and are making plans to send out thousands upon thousands of missionaries into the Middle East to “finish circling the globe” and so get back to Jerusalem.

I believe these Chinese are exactly right and have seen what God is doing. I have also read that the Chinese Christians are not only sending missionaries to the Middle East, but also to Africa, Europe, Australia, and North and South America.

I am not sure if there is more to their vision than just getting back to Jerusalem, but it seems to me as I watch and learn and pray about what is happening worldwide, I am beginning to see signs of renewal and reawakening in all the places that the church has been previously. I am seeing exciting things happen in Europe, Australia, North and South America.

I believe that at about the same time the church “gets back to Jerusalem” there will simultaneously be a worldwide reawakening of the church. The world will explode one last time with the message of Jesus. And then, the end will come (Matt 24:14). The return of the church to the place it started will spark a worldwide renewal of the church.

What can we do to prepare for this? Live as missionaries right now, wherever we are, and whatever we are doing. More on that tomorrow.

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Thanks to a comment by Brad on yesterday’s post, I found the Missional Church Network blog. (See? Posting comments on someone else’s blog does work! If you make comments on the blogs of others, it helps people find your blog.)

I love everything written by Alan Hirsch, and so when I saw a post containing a YouTube Video by Alan from the Exponential Conference, I had to watch it. I have embedded it below, but here is what Brad wrote about the video:

When asked about church planting in America as compared to planting efforts in the UK or his own Australian context he states that church planting in the United States is ”too bonded to the church growth movement.” He goes on to say that the church in the West has not yet adequately considered the missionary nature of the church. 

In other words we in the West are too centered on how to get our individual churches to grow, primarily through attractional means, rather than seriously considering how to think as a cross-cultural missionary focused on reaching those who have no interest in attending our church functions.

I can’t agree more. As we embrace a more missional stance to our culture, we will start to see some staggering results (more on that tomorrow). Thanks Brad (and Alan)! Here is the video:

Tomorrow I will share a vision of where I think the North American church (and the worldwide church) is going, and how you can play a part.

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Over the past year, I have experienced a huge paradigm shift in my thinking about life and ministry. As a result, I have watched with interest how this shift has affected my theology and my ministry practice. Below is a brief explanation of the shift that has occurred, and a few of the resultant ramifications.

The SHIFT: 
I no longer view myself as pastor, or church planter, but as a missionary…and not just any missionary, but a missionary to a cross-cultural, unreached people group. In plain English, I view myself as a person who wants to introduce Jesus to a group of people who don’t know much (if anything) about Him, and as far as they are concerned, don’t really care to know Him.

The Ramifications:
There are many changes I’ve gone through, but here are four examples:

1. Use of “ministry” time. While a pastor primarily does ministry among the people of his church, a missionary focuses on the people who are not yet part of a church. He immerses himself among them and learns their culture, their language, their issues, their needs, and their concerns. He lives life with them and among them. Practically, while in the past, I have spent most of my pastoral time in the church office and with church people, in the future, I want to spend most of my time out of the church office, and with the people of the community.

2. Vocation. A pastor wants to get paid by the people of the church so he can free himself up to do “ministry.” This is not bad, but a missionary will often get a job in the community so he or she can live and work among the people, and be seen as one of them. I don’t yet know what I’m going to do, and maybe some of my income will come from the “church budget” but ideally, I want to be living and working among the community. This also has the added benefit of freeing up as much money as possible to actually serve the community. (Many churches are handcuffed by pastoral salaries and building mortgages. Imagine what the church could do in the community and around the world if it didn’t have to pay for pastors or buildings!)

3. Bible translation. (This one I can hardly believe.) As a pastor who focused primarily on preaching and teaching believers, I wanted a Bible-translation that was as close to the Greek and Hebrew as possible. Now, I want to use a Bible that is as close as possible to the language of the people I am working among. When Wycliffe goes into a community to translate the Bible, they don’t try to make a translation that is hard to read but instead, while trying to maintain accuracy, try to get a translation that is as close as possible to the vernacular. So, while I used the NASB and the NKJV, I now think I’m going to switch to the NLT.

4. Truth meets life. I used to be a professional theologian-pastor. All I did was read, write, think, talk, and teach about the Bible and theology. I now believe that while doing so is valuable and important, if it does not result in loving and serving others (especially those who are not followers of Jesus), then I don’t really know the truth I talk so much about. While some pastors can afford to live and work in an ivory tower, missionaries must get down and dirty. Theology must come to grips with life. I have discovered that as I try to live with and love other people (especially those who are not like me and don’t believe the way I do), a lot of what I thought and taught becomes much less important. Knowing the various views of the rapture are not that important when you are talking to a drug addict who is facing divorce. Truth, I believe, is both tested and forged on the anvil of relationships.

If you are undergoing similar shifts, please let me know in the comments below. Maybe I will add more as I think of them.

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I was able to get my hands on a free copy of The Tangible Kingdom last week, which thrilled me because I was going to buy it anyway. It’s the newest book from The Leadership Network, and so far, I haven’t read a book from them that I don’t like. The Tangible Kingdom was no exception, and it is going on my “Missional Must-Read” Book list.

This book really hit me hard, partly because the story of Hugh Walter (one of the authors) mirrors so closely my own story. He was well situated in the established church, but didn’t feel quite at peace with himself, or with God, in such a position. So he left it all behind to see if he could find (or create) something that was still true to Scripture, but was also more effective in engaging and redeeming our culture. Doing so created lots of tension. Here is what he wrote, which is exactly what I am feeling:

You can’t go back, but forward doesn’t feel much better, because forward may not pay the bills or make it any easier to live the Christian life you’ve always wanted to live (p. 18).

He made it through this time of uncertainty (so there’s hope for me!) and ended up in Denver planting a community of faith called Adullam with some friends. As people wanted to learn more about what they were doing and why, they also developed a Web-based practicum for pastors and church planters to help them innovate new ways of effectively being the church.

What I found most refreshing about the book is that the authors are not trying to criticize, judge, or condemn the way the typical church functions today. Instead, they just explained what they are doing and why, and how it is effectively bringing people into the Kingdom of God. His bottom line premise is that the church is supposed to be living out the Kingdom of God in our communities and with our friends. As we do this, the aroma of the Gospel simply attracts people to us. They put it this way:

Church should be what ends up happening as a natural response to people wanting to follow us, be with us, and be like us as we are following the way of Christ (p. 30).

Do you find that other people are strangely attracted to you, your life, your family, and the way you “do church”? If not, it may help to read this book.

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Ok, I need to rant, but I’ll try to do so in love…

I listened to a message a while back by a famous pastor in Seattle who gave a message called “Building a City Within the City” in which he basically argued that God’s heart was for the city, because that is where culture and education and art and music all happen. Rural people, he implied, are trying to escape culture and remove themselves from what God is doing in the world. I remember getting quite upset at hearing this since some of the most godly people I know and have ministered with live in rural settings.

I thought about blogging about this, but then decided to let it go. I hate to be critical.

Then yesterday, I read at Chris Elrod’s blog that someone at Exponential stated that “Urban church planters care way more than rural church planters about cultural relevance…probably because they need to.” I love Chris and his blog, and he is only reporting what was said, but now I’m all fired up again! I get upset at the same sort of thinking that comes from urbanized politicians who view rural people as backward, Bible-thumping hicks. Some of the smartest, hardworking people I’ve ever met live out in the boondocks.

I pastored for five years in a rural setting and now three years in an urban setting. I can say with complete confidence that while the two cultures are very different, effective rural pastors care just as much about the culture as do effective urban pastors. And in fact, to be effective, I could argue that a rural pastor must care about the culture more than an urban pastor. Here’s why:

In a city, there are so many varieties of people, that any type of church culture will find connections with someone. In a city, even the most culturally ignorant pastor can still gather some people who like whatever “culture” is in that church.

In a rural setting however, the people are more culturally homogeneous, which means that the pastor must understand the culture to gather anybody. If a successful urban pastor tried to set up an urban-culture church in a rural setting, they would fail miserably. At the same time, if a pastor came from a rural church into the city, and brought the rural values with him, he will probably still be able to gather some people.

The bottom line is that to effectively pastor anywhere, whether in the city or in the country, the pastor  must be a student of that particular culture. Just because urban culture is more diverse (even that point could be debated!), this does not mean that urban pastors care more about cultural relevance than do rural pastors. And it definitely doesn’t mean that urban pastors care more about God’s mission and the kingdom of God than do rural pastors.

I can feel myself getting more worked up…I better quit here.

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I was just listening to a message given by Michael Frost, and in it he read the following poem by Adrian Plass. It is exactly what I am thinking and feeling. For me, following Jesus has become a life full of deep faith and great fear. The poem portrays both wonderfully.

When I Became a Christian
By Adrian Plass

When I became a Christian I said, Lord, now fill me in,
Tell me what I’ll suffer in this world of shame and sin.
He said, your body may be killed, and left to rot and stink,
Do you still want to follow me? I said Amen - I think.
I think Amen, Amen I think, I think I say Amen,
I’m not completely sure, can you just run through that again?
You say my body may be killed and left to rot and stink,
Well, yes, that sounds terrific, Lord, I say Amen - I think.

But, Lord, there must be other ways to follow you, I said,
I really would prefer to end up dying in my bed.
Well, yes, he said, you could put up with the sneers and scorn and spit,
Do you still want to follow me? I said Amen - a bit.
A bit Amen, Amen a bit, a bit I say Amen,
I’m not entirely sure, can we just run through that again?
You say I could put up with sneers and also scorn and spit,
Well, yes, I’ve made my mind up, and I say, Amen - a bit.

Well I sat back and thought a while, then tried a different ploy,
Now, Lord, I said, the Good book says that Christians live in joy.
That’s true he said, you need the joy to bear the pain and sorrow,
So do you want to follow me, I said, Amen - tomorrow.
Tomorrow, Lord, I’ll say it then, that’s when I’ll say Amen,
I need to get it clear, can I just run through that again?
You say that I will need the joy, to bear the pain and sorrow,
Well, yes, I think I’ve got it straight, I’ll say Amen - tomorrow.

He said, Look, I’m not asking you to spend an hour with me
A quick salvation sandwich and a cup of sanctity,
The cost is you, not half of you, but every single bit,
Now tell me, will you follow me? I said Amen - I quit.
I’m very sorry Lord I said, I’d like to follow you,
But I don’t think religion is a manly thing to do.
He said forget religion then, and think about my Son,
And tell me if you’re man enough to do what he has done.

Are you man enough to see the need, and man enough to go,
Man enough to care for those whom no one wants to know,
Man enough to say the thing that people hate to hear,
To battle through Gethsemane in loneliness and fear.
And listen! Are you man enough to stand it at the end,
The moment of betrayal by the kisses of a friend,
Are you man enough to hold your tongue, and man enough to cry?
When nails break your body-are you man enough to die?
Man enough to take the pain, and wear it like a crown,
Man enough to love the world and turn it upside down,
Are you man enough to follow me, I ask you once again?
I said, Oh Lord, I’m frightened, but I also said Amen.
Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen; Amen, Amen, Amen,
I said, Oh Lord, I’m frightened, but I also said, Amen.

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