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In his final farewell to his followers, Jesus charged them with the greatest single task in the history of mankind. After assuring them of his God-given authority, Jesus left his followers with this: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."[1] Then he was gone. He left no “how to” manual behind, issued no strict code of conduct, discussed no standard operating procedure. Instead, he entrusted the single most important story ever told to a motley group of followers and trusted them to find a way to take that message to the ends of the earth.
While he was still with them, Jesus made some extraordinary promises to his followers. He promised them spiritual authority in their endeavors.[2] He promised them that they would be empowered by the Holy Spirit to take Christ’s message to the ends of the earth.[3] He promised his followers that they would perform great works rivaling those of Jesus, himself, and that they would be granted whatever they asked for in his name.[4] Jesus essentially promised his followers overwhelming success in their efforts to spread the gospel. And his extraordinary promises remain true for us to this day. So if Jesus has promised us authority, power and success in our efforts to take Christ’s message to the ends of the earth, how is it possible that twenty years ago sources were already citing that somewhere "between 60 and 80 percent of all churches in America are either plateaued or declining in membership and/or attendance?"[5]
I believe the answer to this question is essentially two-fold. First of all, I think most churches have come to understand the Great Commission to be nothing more than a good suggestion, at best. The American church has adopted its own set of priorities. As a result, it is no longer doing what it has been called to do. We get a glimpse of this calling in Luke 19. Here we find Jesus doing what he often did: ministering to those furthest from the trappings of religion. When Zacchaeus, a tax collector, is transformed by Christ’s presence, Jesus affirms the purpose for which he had come: “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”[6] Ministering to “the sick” was the purpose for which Jesus had been sent.[7] And to his followers, Christ says, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”[8] As Christ sends us out, his promises remain true and steadfast to this day. However, he has only promised us success in doing what he has called us to do: spread the gospel.
Secondly, I believe we have failed to embrace our God-given freedom to use our creativity in the task to which we have been called. Although Christ’s calling on our lives to spread the gospel is clearly communicated in the Scriptures, the methods by which we are to do that are not. Like the disciples after Pentecost, we, too, have been given the freedom to take the gospel and run. (When everyone needs the gospel, there is no wrong direction.) One would doubtfully assume this to be true, however, if they were to survey the landscape of Christianity in America. Sadly, many churches have come to look eerily similar in form and expression. In some cases, creative expressions have been mocked and ridiculed for nothing else but their unwillingness to conform. The church must reclaim its freedom to creatively express itself in whatever ways are necessary to reach those in unique local contexts. The following proposal is an effort to do exactly that.
In the 1990’s, a movement swept through the American Church called the “seeker sensitive” movement. One of the valuable outcomes of this movement was that churches became increasingly intentional in the way they designed worship gatherings. Fewer and fewer churches were operating with the assumption that methodology didn’t matter as long as they “preached the truth.” More churches were asking hard questions about their methodology and many of those conversations were taking into consideration those who did not yet know Christ. This was extraordinarily valuable. One of the negative results of the movement, however, was that with so much of the focus being directed towards the worship gathering, less energy was being committed to ministery outside of the church’s four walls. More and more energy and resources were invested in Sunday mornings, inadvertently demanding that more people spend more time in the church building, and fewer being freed to be the church elsewhere. What the church greatly underestimated, however, was how many people are simply not interested in going to church, regardless of how great the service might be. By investing so many of the church’s resources in Sunday gatherings, the church was essentially limiting itself to potentially reaching only those people who were ready and willing to show up to a church building on Sunday morning. While many people were reached through the seeker sensitive movement, many more remained untouched. My desire is to model the type of intentionality that characterized the seeker sensitive movement, while being careful not to invest too many resources in the worship gathering.
You see, “The Church” is not a building. It is not an organization, nor is it an institution. The church is essentially God’s people. It is the global movement of Christ followers fulfilling God’s purposes in the world. Therefore, the gathering, or in other words, the Sunday morning worship service is really only a single expression of Christ’s church. While it is important, it is not the sole expression of what the church ought to look like. If the church is God’s people, then it has the capability of taking many forms. Taking this into consideration, my proposal is for an evangelistic strategy that is expressed in three distinct movements.
The first movement is the gathering. As I have briefly mentioned, the gathering refers to the weekly meeting of the church community to worship. The gathering is not meant to be simply a gathering of the saints for music and a spiritual “fill up.” On the contrary, for us the gathering will be a very strategic part of our mission. As it stands, the worship gathering remains the most identifiable element of any church by the culture at large. When one uses the term “church” with those outside of the faith, it is typically understood as a physical gathering of people in a physical location. When someone is invited to church, the gathering is what they expect. Therefore, it remains a valuable opportunity for ministry.
The gathering is to be designed with those furthest from Christ in mind. They are the priority in all that we do. After all, the church is to be a missional movement. It can never be assumed that those present know Christian jargon or common biblical references. We must go to great lengths to make sure our language is accessible and that it does not alienate those who need Christ. The goal is to create an environment that is welcoming. It is to be a place where people can participate even if they are no where near ready to make a decision. We also must be careful to give people grace, space and time. Although I recognize that there is value in encouraging people to make a conscious decision at some point, this is not something that we try to short cut. Putting on the full court press can result in pressuring someone into a premature decision, or worse, cause them to bail on the process. I think there is value in respecting God’s timing in bringing people to salvation.
In creating the worship gathering, we will be intentional about the kind of music we use. Although genre preferences are entirely subjective, we should do our best to make sure that our style of music reflects the general preferences of our target audience. It should also be noted that in wake of postmodernism, experience has become far more valued than information. Therefore, the goal of Sunday morning is to create an experience that is engaging and meaningful. Creating experience also involves utilizing the power of story. This can be done through film, interview, drama, testimony, music or through the message. Among other things, stories can really be used to give flesh to the vision and to serve as a continual reminder of what we are all about. It can also be a powerful way to demonstrate the power of the gospel. We will seek to utilize the power of story in our gatherings.
The second movement is the business. The goal of this movement is to start an independent business in Lincoln that can generate income, serve the city, and be a “Third Space” where people can find identity and community.[9] As a missional movement that is aimed at reaching those who might not be willing to attend a worship gathering, the business will not be publically associated with the church, nor will it be identifiably Christian. The business will essentially consist of three parts. It will be one part art gallery, one part concert venue, and one part coffee house. The purpose of both the art gallery and the concert venue is to promote the work of local artists. This will be done by displaying and selling artwork in the coffee house and by hosting special events such as art shows, workshops, etc. The primary goal in doing this is to connect people in the church with the local art community. The atmosphere of a coffeehouse affords us a neutral place for those relationships to be initiated and built over time. Circulating the work of local artists provides us with ongoing opportunities to build relationships with them. Another important element to this business concept is having the space to function as a viable small concert venue. This truly sets the coffeehouse apart from other like businesses and opens up a wide array of possibilities for using the space and generating additional income. It also creates further opportunities for promoting and connecting with local music artists.
The third movement consists of humanitarian partnerships. Despite the fact that interest in Christianity has waned in recent decades, interest in global humanitarian efforts has skyrocketed. This may be partly due to the fact that global events are no longer distant realities, but rather are brought right into our homes in streaming, up to the minute information through the endless reach of the web. One has only to turn on their television to see live video coverage of events unfolding on the other side of the world. The distance between global neighbors has been virtually eliminated. One of the positive effects of this “glocalization” is that we have become increasingly aware of the needs that exist all around us and many are willing to step in and help. I have found this to be especially true of younger generations. As the church, of course, we are called to be instruments of compassion and generosity.[10] As we strive to flesh this call out on both a local and global level, we will seek to be strategic in partnering with those outside of the church. This surge in humanitarian interest affords us great opportunity in serving alongside people who do not know Christ.
As a church, we will partner with local organizations that are already doing great things but need help. Instead of “reinventing the wheel,” so to speak, we will send our people to serve with organizations that are already seeking to meet real needs both locally and globally. When we come across needs that are not being met, we will seek to empower our people to create movements to meet them. On a global level, we will seek to establish a long-term partnership with a church outside of the U.S. that is strategically located in a place where great needs exist and where there is potential for impact in neighboring communities. Our intent is to help resource them with finances, people, med supplies, and whatever else they need to care for the people in their community and to reach them for Christ. The goal is to send teams of our people there at least once a year to provide love, encouragement, development and support.
At the core of all three movements is the undercurrent of Christians that makeup the church. While they can most obviously be seen at the weekly worship gathering, they are represented in all three movements. The element that binds all three movements together is relationships. This is where the real ministry happens. Although the business is not publically affiliated with the church, nor are the humanitarian movements overtly Christian, all three provide opportunities for those who are a part of the church to know and build relationships with people who do not know Christ. All three movements also essentially function autonomously. This allows for each to pursue excellence in its own right, while also providing opportunities for meaningful relationships to develop without anyone ever having to set foot in a church building. While we hope that people will one day choose to worship with us, it is not necessary for them to do so in order to be ministered to or to even begin serving on mission with us. Both can happen long before a conscious choice to follow Christ is made.
Vital to the effectiveness of this strategy is having a core group of people that really understand and embody the vision. In order to do this, we must really be intentional in helping those who are a part of the church catch the vision for what we are doing, equipping them to partner with us, giving them opportunities for personal development and direct involvement, staying in regular communication, and keeping the vision in front of them. Practically speaking, this strategy will not work if the three movements are not given equal value. If the strategic partnerships and business movements come to be viewed as merely evangelistic initiatives, then it is likely that the church will eventually slip into the common trap of finding its primary identity in the gathering and investing the majority of its resources there. When this happens, the church stops being a movement altogether; opting instead to be little more than a static institution that encourages its members towards moral living. In order for the church to stay on mission with Jesus Christ, missionality has got to become a part of the culture of the church. It must become a central part of its identity. We will strive to do this in a few different ways. First of all, our calling to spread the gospel will be represented in both our mission statement and core values. Secondly, it will be reflected in the way we invest our resources. A significant portion of our finances will be committed to partnerships and the business movement on the front end. The goal is for the business movement to eventually generate income that will be used to help propel other missional movements, such as humanitarian partnerships local and abroad. As I have already mentioned, this value of missionality will be repeatedly communicated in the gathering. It will also be reflected in our leadership. We will only put people in positions of leadership who are living out the Great Commission. Another way that we will seek to make missionality a part of our culture is by clearly identifying “wins” and celebrating them when they happen. For us, our most identifiable win is seeing new people come to Christ. Another way we will seek to help people stay on mission with us is through biannual one day gatherings in which we give back to those who are giving to others through missional movements. The experience will need to be so valuable that our leaders will not want to miss it. The primary intent of this biannual gathering will be to gather and equip our leaders, to get everyone on the same page, and to cast vision for the future. This will be an intentional investment in the people who are on mission with us. It will be one of the primary ways in which we create and sustain movement. One of the ways that we will align new people with what we are doing is through our discipleship process. Before people can serve in a position of leadership, they will need to go through some basic curriculum with a leader in the church. The one-on-one format is meant to be more flexible and more personal than simply sitting through a “membership” class. The meetings will serve to help us get to know them, to identify their unique strengths and passions, to make sure they are a committed follower of Christ, and to orient them with the core values of the church. When they are finished, they are commissioned as a lay leader in the church and immediately incorporated into all leadership goings on that they desire to be a part of.
I suppose one of the dangers of such a decentralized model like this is for people to feel a certain level of disconnection. I am currently a part of a church that casts its net so far and so wide that it often feels like the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. For some this can at times be discouraging. For others, however, this can be exciting and tremendously empowering. A decentralized, multifaceted model like this means more ways to potentially get involved, more relational interaction with people who do not yet know Christ and potential for impact. On the flip side, it also means less micromanagement, less control and less interference. Just as God has extended us the freedom to creatively minister in our local context on a corporate level, we also strive to extend that creative freedom to those who are a part of our church on a personal level. The goal of the three movements is to catalyze opportunities for evangelism. We recognize that others have come before us and more will come after us who God leads to create entirely new movements. Not only do we welcome this, but we celebrate it! As Paul affirmed in his letter to the church at Philippi, the most important thing is that Christ is being preached![11]
Most can agree that the need for missional movements is great. The church has lost its place as a prominent part of American society. Some speculate that we are on the fast track to becoming the next Western Europe, with its beautiful churches, now nothing more than historical landmarks and tourist attractions. Reports have shown that church attendance in the United States is declining in nearly every major denomination. In Lincoln alone, there over 90,000 young adults between the ages of 20 and 34 and no one is effectively reaching them. Less than 3 out of 10 are connected to a church. Of the 30,000+ college students in Lincoln, less than 10% are connected to any sort of ministry. We must come to realize that what we have been doing is just not working anymore. We can no longer expect them to come to us. We must go to them. This shouldn’t surprise us. This has always been our calling. If only we will be faithful to take Christ’s gospel to those who need it most, we have been promised that our labor will not be in vain. We will see lives transformed by the gospel. We will see the brokenhearted bound up. We will see captives freed. This is why the church exists. This is our mission. This is the purpose for which we have been created, for such a time as this. Let us venture out together into the unknown, into the darkness so that the light of Christ might shine brighter still. The hope of an unbelieving world depends on it.
[1] Matthew 28:18-20
[2] John 20:21-23
[3] Acts 1:7-8
[4] John 14:12-13
[5] Vaughan,
Megachurches and America's Cities, 99.
[6] Luke 19:10
[7] Matthew 9:9-13
[8] John 20:21
[9] Frost, Exiles:
Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture, 2006.
[10] Matthew 25:31-46
[11] Philippians 1:18
Above is a sketch from my journal. I sketched this as
I was mulling over this concept of the church in three movements. While the illustration
ought to more clearly show the three elements as being movements (rather than
static elements), it does effectively illustrate the common element that binds
all three movements together: relationships.
