Our culture isn't messing up our effectiveness in mission and discipleship. We are. Our congregations are perfectly calibrated for the results we’re currently getting in mission, discipleship and multiplication. There is our way for our results, but then there’s Jesus’ way for Jesus’ results. We need a healthy whiff of leadership "smelling salts" so we can wake up, clearly see what we are doing to ourselves, and start reforming our ways to Jesus’ ways.
The following presentation (with a few edits) was given at the 2020 Best Practices for Ministry Conference in Phoenix, AZ under the title, “Smelling Salts for Leadership.” This is week 2 of the 5 week series:
Smelling Salt #2
In the U.S., we don’t have an outreach problem, we have a discipleship problem.
Outreach is not something separate from discipleship. Outreach is the expected fruit of discipleship. If we disciple people the same way Jesus disciples people in the gospels, outreach happens. If we don’t, it doesn’t.
Aren’t convinced of that? Then ask, “How many people would each of your members need to reach per year in order to double the size of the congregation year after year?” The answer, of course, is only one person per year. One person per year is not a very lofty goal. The problem is not that we have too lofty an outreach goal. Our problem is that our people are not discipled to reach even one person in a year.
In Ethiopia, Mekane Yesus (a Lutheran church body with 8 million members in a country the size of the southeast U.S.) has a goal of baptizing 10 million people in the next 5 years. They think the goal is too small. Their people are already discipled to reach their neighbors and friends with the good news of Jesus. Thus, even a goal of 10 million is easily within reach. All it will take is for each member to reach slightly more than one person each in the next five years.
How did we get here? In the U.S. church, for generations we have taught that the ultimate expression of Christianity is attending worship services, going to a Bible class and being elected to a committee rather than
a) self-sacrificially loving our neighbors and
b) sharing God’s good news with them.
Regarding self-sacrificially loving our neighbors: we are thoroughly discipled (trained) to attend church. However, we are under-discipled in the main practice Jesus points to as His top discipling/training goal (John 13:35); we are under-discipled in using the most valuable asset we could have as a congregation (1 Corinthians 13:13); and we are under-discipled in using the most important and powerful outreach tool we have been given as individuals (Mark 12:31). What is it? God’s love. (Galatians 5:6, 14, 22; 1 John 4:7-12; Hebrews 10:24-25)
We talk about God’s love, preach about His love, sing about His love, and memorize verses about His love. But His love’s power is only experienced by others when we actually offer it to others... especially those who don’t deserve it.
Remember: The experience of God’s love becomes the evidence of God’s love to unbelieving people.
One can accurately predict what the congregation’s growth or decline will be in the coming years simply by looking at the number of members investing in friendships with pre-Christian people. (By “pre-Christian” I mean someone who does not yet know and trust Jesus.) If very few members are investing in such friendships, decline is inevitable no matter how much money we have for buildings, programs, P.R. and staffing. On the other hand, the more our members invest in such friendships, the more growth we will see. “You reap what you sow.”
At some point we need to realize that mission really does come down to this: spending actual time with actual pre-Christian people so they can actually experience God’s love, joy, peace and truth through us.
Regarding sharing God’s good news with our neighbors: we also ignore another important skill Jesus has at the top of His training goals (Luke 10:1-9, 24:48, 1 Peter 3:15). Church-goers and even church professionals are generally terrified about sharing their faith outside of church. Why? Simple: because we never practice it. And because we never practice it, we are left untrained, uncertain, uncomfortable and afraid of it.
We become experienced, skilled and confident at whatever we practice the most. When your congregation comes together, what do you practice the most? Church-goers generally practice sitting and listening the most. What if we started practicing sharing the Good News of God with each other for the sake of sharing it with our pre-Christian friends and neighbors?
Questions to Prompt Action:
How many friendships with pre-Christian people do each of our members currently have?
Are you and your members having regular dinners with sinners? (see Matthew 9:10)
What is considered the most important outcome of all the congregation’s corporate efforts? (Hint: is it something like, “Our members are experiencing an increased capacity for loving unlovable people in their neighborhoods?”)
What do you practice the most when your congregation comes together?