I am writing a book which I intend to publish in serial fashion here on my blog. What you have in this post is the chapter titles and the introduction. The first post of each chapter will be in the nature of a rough draft. I would love to have readers' comments, criticisms and suggestions on each post. If you would like to be certain to see each chapter as it is posted, please leave a comment to that effect and I will put you on an email list to see that you are kept up to date. If you would rather stay somewhat anonymous, you may find the posts by searching "Leading a Horse to Water" in the blog labels and making comments on the blog itself.
Leading a Horse to
Water: The Great Commission in the 21st Century
Alternate title
Leading a Horse to
Water: Making Disciples in the 21st Century
Introduction
Inviting pagans to church is not the best strategy; after
leading the horse to water…
Unbelievers
won’t get anything if it’s real church
Believers
won’t get anything if it’s all evangelism
Doing a
little of both shortchanges everybody… and it has failed
Chapter One: Matthew 28:19-20
The Great Commission: Make Disciples
What is a disciple
How to make one follow
Offer
something they want/like
Deo
Gloria: make God look good
Chapter Two: John 13:34-35
Do the obvious thing: love one another
Do the
less obvious thing: love the “enemy”
Chapter Three: 1 Corinthians 9:22
Package the Gospel for atheists and agnostics
Philosophy
101: what works
Avoiding
nihilism and utilitarianism
Guarding
against syncretism
Chapter Four: Matthew 9:17
New wine for new agers: God as ET
Reading
the enemy’s playbook: the sci-fi gospel
What
does it mean to be “extra-terrestrial”?
Chapter Five: Matthew 10:16
What not to do
Don’t
be so earthly-minded you’re no heavenly good
Don’t promise wealth and health
Don’t
promise happiness
Don’t
expect holiness
Don’t
use church language
Don’t
be ostentatious
Chapter Six: Ephesians 2:10
epilogue: it’s all God’s doing ultimately
“Not by
[our] works, lest any should boast”
“I do what I see my Father
doing”
Introduction
I
attend a pretty good little church. Actually, it’s not little; it’s on the high
side of average statistically. We run about 100 on any given Sunday. According
to the Christian pollster George Barna, the average Protestant church size in
America is 89 adults. 60% of protestant churches have less than 100 adults in
attendance. And anyway, size is not the most important statistic about a
church.
I
am very happy with just about everything we do as a congregation: we have vital
praise and worship times; we hear Bible sermons every week; we have several
Bible study opportunities going on all the time; we pray openly for one
another; we help each other out as needs arise; we collect enough money to
maintain church operations and make significant contributions to a number of
local and foreign ministries. So far, that’s the portrait of a healthy church.
However,
as I look over the group that gathers under our local banner each week, I
discover that almost all of the attendees are refugees from churches elsewhere
in the area. I am quite certain that less than ten percent were brought to
Christ through the ministry of our church; possibly less than five percent. I
assume that the majority attend my church because they, like the founders of
this body, were not happy in their previous church. This may be fine; I believe
in different strokes for different folks. No one church will be perfect for all
believers. That too is healthy.
What
is not healthy is the lack of new converts. Even a cursory reading of the New
Testament makes one realize that evangelism, sharing the Gospel, reaching the
lost is a major focus of the church. If new people are not being added to the
church, an important purpose of the church is not being fulfilled. Because I
know many of the people I share my Sundays with, I am certain that they would
agree with what I have said. I am also certain that many of them would respond
as one did recently when I expressed my dismay about our lack of new converts:
we need to invite more people to church. That may be one answer, but I don’t
think it is the best answer.
The
idea of inviting people to “church” to convert them to Christ leads ultimately
to the question: what is the Sunday service for. The answer is debatable. Some
believe that Gospel proclamation or evangelism, is the primary purpose of the
Sunday church meeting. Others believe that teaching the Scriptures primarily to
believers is what it’s all about. Not a few modern churches attempt to balance
both of these elements in every meeting, particularly on Sunday morning.
This
confusion over the purpose of Sunday meetings may explain at least in part why
the church has not experienced significant growth in the last couple
generations. It may also explain why young people are not staying connected to
any church when they reach adulthood. The bottom line of a study done by Lifeway
recently seems to indicate that irrelevance played a role in the decision of
young people to leave church. Young people don’t think church has anything for
them. Although what’s-in-it-for-me may be a selfish motive, it is legitimate to
ask the purpose of attending Sunday church. If the leaders are confused about
purpose, is it any wonder the attenders are too?
The
answer to the confusion may be to choose to be either fish or fowl. If the
leadership of a local body believes that evangelism is the main reason to hold
services on Sunday morning, they should swing whole-heartedly for that fence.
Make everything about Sunday attractive to non-believers (more on this later).
This is basically what the “seeker friendly” churches have been trying to do
for the last couple decades. While this is a worthy goal, current
research suggests the tactic has not been an unmitigated success. Perhaps
the tactic needs rethinking.
If
on the other hand, a church decides that Sunday morning is for believers, then
they must find another path than the Sunday morning service to appeal to the unbelievers.
Assuming good Bible teaching is part of the service, sooner or later the
congregation will come to the realization that a significant command of Jesus
is being ignored for all practical purposes. I am not suggesting that solid
preaching of the Word cannot bring some unbelievers to repentance; nor am I
disregarding the important work of the Holy Spirit in conversion (more on that
in the last chapter). But delving into the intricate beauty of the Word of God
will be lost on all but a few unchurched listeners. “Pearls before swine” may
be an apt analogy. The challenge is to determine how to reach the not-swine.
The
authors of Simple Church, xxx, have researched successful churches and found
what they believe is the key to success: in a word, focus. According to xxx,
growing, vital churches have one main goal, and every program they offer leads
directly to that goal. Although the churches studied by xxx use different
language, I will summarize what they are doing by calling it what the Bible
calls it: discipleship. Successful churches are successful because they are
making disciples. My purpose in this book is to offer suggestions to help less-than-successful
churches become successful in this truly biblical sense. I will not answer the
question of which type of Sunday meeting is best; perhaps either will work if
done properly.
Because
I believe that all the best ideas come from the Scripture itself (what a
concept), the suggestions I will make rely primarily on at least one specific
passage of Scripture. Hence what you hold in your hand is a series of
exegetical sermons on the topic of church growth. Someone is saying at this
point, “Oh goody! As if we haven’t had anything like that before.” I say with
all humility that there are countless other books available which do what I am
proposing, and they have been written by Christians with far more serious
qualifications than I. However, I am a unique person with a unique way of
looking at things (as are all persons), so I will nonetheless undertake this
challenge. Besides, God seems to be prompting me to do this. Whether it is just
for me or for others too is for you to decide.
The
first chapter will explore just what Jesus was asking of His followers when he
commanded them to “make disciples.” If we don’t know what the task at hand is,
it is pretty hard to know if we are doing it. There is probably nothing
startlingly unique in my exposition, but I feel it is necessary to lay the
correct foundation for what follows. Subsequent chapters will offer conceptual
understanding and practical applications of some very specific things which I
believe flesh out the command: make disciples
If
you follow me to the end of this literary journey, you will find me saying in
the last chapter that nothing we do, no matter how brilliant – how biblical,
will result in anything eternal if the Holy Spirit is not in it. Some have
heard this before and concluded that if it is “all God” anyway, there’s no use
troubling ourselves about evangelism. Wrong. It is one of the great mysteries
of God’s purpose that He does, in fact, want our participation in this greatest
of endeavors. It is my prayer that this little book may contribute in some
small way to that purpose. Having read it, I pray readers will be better able
to fulfill Jesus’ last command to us all: make disciples.
(Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations
are from the English Standard Version.)
No comments:
Post a Comment