Introduction
The Bride of Christ has had no shortage of critics. Shots have been fired all throughout church history – many for good reason. And yet, she is the Bride of Christ. She is God’s method for reaching a lost world. And she must be cared for and fought for. One of my concerns is that the communities of the gathered Bride throughout North American have, in many ways, lost their way. They have forgot their purpose. They have neglected their mission and traded it for a wacky blend of the superficial religion and the American Dream. Over the last few years, I have slowly developed several convictions about the church, especially as it pertains to North America. First, we don’t know how to make disciples. Sure, we know how to have Bible studies with a plethora of fantastic curriculum to boot. Some have worked up the courage to evangelize, others have joined a small group, some have accountability partners, while others are financially supporting missionaries. All these can be very good things. But none of them capture the essence of discipleship. Second, we have succumbed to consumerism and superficiality in so many ways. Churches all across America are filled with pew warmers who simply want to be entertained while they stare at the backs of heads. Third, we are too enamored with the Sunday morning “show.” Driven by the Church Growth Movement, pastors have felt more and more the need to up their game. As a result, many worship services have turned into elaborate productions that foster an “entertain me” mindset. Francis Chan has written, “We might all benefit from a simpler experience of Church. It would lead to deeper relationships and a stronger dependence on God. We might find that the things we added to improve our churches are the very things that crowd God out.”[1] Fourth, bigger is not better. Jesus invested in 12 guys. Twelve. When the focus is on building a mega-church, it is nearly impossible to disciple well. As a result, many hearts remain untouched by the gospel. They’ve had religious experiences, but no one has modeled what it means to follow Jesus. Fifth, all is not lost. I am aware these points are largely negative. Criticism doesn’t help all that much unless is infused with encouragement. Anyone can deconstruct. It’s rebuilding that’s the tricky part. That’s what I hope to do through this paper. I believe the way to renewal in the American church and at my local church is through Missional Communities. Here is my hope for Brown Corners Church: to get every member at BCC passionately committed to disciple-making and send them out to fulfill the Great Commission through Missional Communities. PRIORITY 1: MAKING DISCIPLES As I have previously stated, I prefer the term shepherding hearts to discipleship.[2] But the terminology is not nearly as important as understanding and putting into practice the biblical concept. What is a disciple?In its most simple and basic form, the definition of a disciple is a follower of Jesus. To tease this out a little more, we see that “a disciple is a person who is following Christ, is being changed by Christ, and is committed to the mission of Christ.”[3] How are disciples made?So there’s this thing about disciples: Jesus told us to make them. He started the job and then told his own disciples they were to pick up the torch and keep it going. This is how he worded it: And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18–20, ESV) But was this mandate simply for the very first disciples? Did Jesus have future Christians in mind when he issued this directive? John Legg states: “It has sometimes been argued that the Great Commission applied only to the apostles and that the missionary mandate ended with them. By any standard this is contrary to the whole ethos of the new covenant, but in any case, ‘all things’ must include the Great Commission itself. The command to evangelize and make disciples of all nations is thus self-perpetuating. It is given not just to the apostles but to the church—the church of every era.”[4] The mandate is clear. The work of discipleship belongs to the followers of Jesus. But the most difficult question becomes: How? There are many methodologies we could explore (some helpful, most not) here but such a pursuit is outside the scope of this paper. I maintain that we make it too complicated. When we look at the life of Jesus, the way he made disciples was through everyday life with his disciples.[5] They ate together. They walked together. They served together. He used teachable moments. He took advantage of the moment to teach them and point them to the Father. Now, I realize we’re not Jesus. Most have jobs and families that take priority that keep us from wandering the countryside with 12 other guys day after day. But these are precisely those whom we should be discipling. Those under our roof. Those with whom we naturally interact on a daily basis (though, as I will argue below, to be truly missional will require us going out of the way of some of our daily routines and creating new ones). One of the key shifts in thinking is to remember discipleship involves the whole process of bringing someone to Jesus and building them up in Christ. We shouldn’t separate evangelism and discipleship. A great blow has been dealt to the mission of the church by well-meaning pastors who have separated these. Evangelism is viewed as sharing the gospel at work, handing out tracts door-to-door, or inviting an unsaved person to an outreach event your church is hosting. Discipleship is what we do once we’ve “closed the deal” and the individual has professed faith in Jesus. It is often relegated to Sunday School, a Bible study, or some other curriculum-driven program inside the church building.[6] So the question begs to be asked: where does this sort of discipleship best take place? PRIORITY 2: MISSIONAL COMMUNITIES What exactly are Missional Communities and what do they have to do with making disciples? A community of Christians, on mission with God, in obedience to the Holy Spirit, who demonstrate the gospel tangibly and declare the gospel creatively to a pocket of people. [7] What an MC is not 1.A small group Perceptions of the purpose of small group as well as their role in the local church varies. Some churches place a great deal of dependence on them while others have never implemented them. Todd Egstrom writes about his experience at Austin Stone Church: These groups often understand the centrality of the Bible, the need for community, and the purpose of the group beyond itself. I’ve had great experiences in this kind of group. But I’ve often found there is a significant struggle to invite others to join in, and it’s often difficult to mobilize an entire group to do something outside the regular meeting [emphasis mine]. In trying to balance a number of different objectives, small groups often struggle to produce mature disciples of Jesus and multiply into new communities. Why? I think it is because success is still defined as attendance at an event, rather than events helping relationships become natural in the rhythms of everyday life. Small groups often try to do community and mission outside the normal routines of life by adding an event into the week, rather than redeeming everyday life with gospel intentionality and involving community into normal life. A missional community understands the value of different kinds of gatherings. A missional community sees itself as a network of relationships with a common mission, rather than being defined by attending an event. Missional communities gather, but the gatherings have different purposes. I have also found that often times a group will try different kind of gatherings outside of their regular meeting times (for example, Third Place, The Family Meal and LTG’s) a couple times, then abandon them because they “didn’t work.” I work hard to teach them that these practices are not a magic bullet, but healthy rhythms that will produce more faithful communities over time. Small groups begin to shift as people start to put into practice rhythms that enable them to hang out with their friends far from God in natural ways. When a small group has actual names of people to pray for and ask God to save, and those people start to show up in places with the community, they are headed in the right direction.[8] For these reasons and more, we need to think beyond the small group. 2.A hangout time It is all too easy for Christians (especially when they like each other!) to shoot the breeze about what I call “surface stuff.” Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with talking about our kids’ activities, the latest movie we watched, or when the MLB season will start up again, but our gatherings need to be spiritually purposeful. It doesn’t mean every time you gather with someone it has to turn into an revival service. We must always be on the lookout at those things which are in danger of hijacking our conversations and drawing us away from spiritual depth and heart realities. 3.A Bible study A missional community will study the Bible, but that is not their sole reason for gathering. Bible studies are good but can often turn into an information dump. There is a time and a place for the classroom and for intense teacher-student instruction. Even for a discussion-based Bible study. The problem with so many Bible studies is that the scriptures don’t make it from the head to the heart. Furthermore, it’s only one component of the gathering (see below). The scriptures teach us that the church is sent out on mission and an MC seeks to do more than simply study God’s Word, but certainly not less. Characteristics of a healthy MC 1.Prayer God’s people cannot accomplish the Great Commission on their own. We must have Jesus right in the middle. We must have the power of God’s Holy Spirit infusing all that happens. We cannot script the work of God in our community. We cannot manufacture the work of God among our people. We cannot schedule revivals, fix broken marriages, heal sexual abuse, break through to hard-hearted rebels, or uproot doubt and fear. Only the power of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ are such miraculous transformations possible. We dare not think we can accomplish anything eternally worthwhile without prayer. From the very beginning of the church, God’s people gathered for prayer (Acts 1:24; 2:42; 4:31; 12:12). If we are going to accomplish anything for the kingdom of God, it must begin and end with Spirit-led prayer. I think it wise to provide some guidance in prayer but create an atmosphere of freedom for believers to allow the Spirit of God to guide the course of the prayer time. 2.Genuine fellowship Growing up in the Baptist circles I did, we came to associate one word with fellowship: potluck dinners. Lots of casseroles, bread, and pie. We always had to consume some variety of vegetable before we dove into 4-5 desserts (really?). There was a great strategy to maximizing space on those all-too-small paper plates, but this is neither the time nor the place. I believe the Baptists had at least one thing right with their hearty carry-in dinners: food (see below)! But there was usually something conspicuously absent: genuine fellowship. Oh, don’t get me wrong. We called the place where we ate these meals the “fellowship hall.” And we would always ask God to bless our time of fellowship before we started feeding our faces. But when I compare my experience to the biblical concept of fellowship, it seems something was missing. In Acts 2:42, we are told the early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship…” There’s much we could say about being devoted to the apostles’ teaching. Many (though far from all) of our churches have a devotion to the Word of God. The ones I’ve grown up in do very well at this. But being devoted to “the fellowship” is another thing altogether. The word translated devoted means to “remain faithful to a person or a task”[9] or “to be busily engaged in.”[10] The word fellowship comes from the Greek word meaning commonness and “connotes a variety of close relationships ‘involving mutual interests and sharing.’”[11] More than having a few laughs around a table in a church building, fellowship involves a sharing that goes much deeper than a few moments in a public context can allow. It involves sharing life together. Jeff Vanderstelt states, “This is what we call life-on-life discipleship – life that is lived up close so that we are visible and accessible to one another, so that others can gently peel back the layers and join us in our restoration.”[12] J.I. Packer writes, “We should not … think of our fellowship with other Christians as a spiritual luxury, an optional addition to the exercises of private devotion. We should recognize rather that such fellowship is a spiritual necessity; for God has made us in such a way that our fellowship with himself is fed by our fellowship with fellow-Christians, and requires to be so fed constantly for its own deepening and enrichment.”[13] 3.Heart-to-heart sharing One of the great tragedies of the institutional church is making the church a place for sinners to go hide. The worship service from the top down is designed primarily for the consumer: I go sit in a room designed similar to a movie theater or a concert and people sing for me (I can join them if I want), someone preaches for me (or at me), and then I can leave. In many churches throughout North America (especially the larger ones), I can slip in and out without even being noticed. And better yet, without anyone really getting to my heart. Now I realize almost every church is doing something to try and combat this tragic tendency. It may be a simple greeting time, potluck dinners in the “fellowship hall” (see above), encouraging you to attend classes or studies, etc. But what we don’t see is that our number one problem is the structure of our Sunday gathering. We put most of our time and effort into producing these gatherings all the while knowing deep down (I think) that these gatherings are not the best way to make disciples. They can be a great celebration. We can be challenged by the pastor’s message. We can be blessed by the corporate worship. But no time is afforded to putting into practice the “one another’s” of scripture. And rarely, if ever, will I be forced to share what’s going on in my heart. Robert Thune and Will Walker write: “Did you ever notice how patient you are— as long as no one is getting on your nerves? Or how loving you are— as long as you’re surrounded by people who are easy to love? Or how humble you are— as long as you’re respected and admired by others? Every one of us is a saint in isolation! It’s in community that our real weaknesses, flaws, and sins are exposed. That’s why community is essential— not optional— for transformation. We can’t become the people God wants us to become outside of community.”[14] They go on to say: “Trying to fulfill these ‘one another’ commands helps to reveal our sin, drives us to Jesus in repentance and faith, and causes us to depend on the Holy Spirit for transformation. Community is the laboratory in which we learn to rely on God’s grace and experience the gospel’s transforming power” [emphasis mine].[15] This is why an MC is so crucial. 4.Studying the scriptures Once again, in Acts 2:42, one of those things the believers were devoted to when they gathered was “the apostles’ teaching.” The unfolding of the Word of God was an important part of those times together. We are told by the apostle Paul in his second letter to Timothy: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16–17, ESV). Simply put, this means studying the Bible is important for Christians who want to know how to be disciples of Jesus. How can we follow him if we don’t know him? And where do we learn from him? The Word of God. Studying the scriptures is, according to Puritan Thomas Goodwin, an occasion “to bring down and lay before us the heart of God.”[16] Our souls are laid bare before God and one another. Hearts can be pierced and repentance can take place in community as we become convicted by the Holy Spirit through the Bible. 5.Food (probably) It seems as though it was quite common for the early church to gather around the sharing of a meal (Acts 2:42, 46; 20:7). Perhaps this was for communion, though many think that celebrating the Lord’s Table turned into the common meal. In this, they were simply following in the footsteps of Jesus. Jesus was constantly sitting down for a meal with his disciples. In fact, two gospel writers describe Jesus as one who “came eating and drinking” (Matt 11:19; Luke 7:34). Why would mealtimes be so important to Jesus? Because that’s where life happens. 6.Worship Finally, one of the other reasons believers gather is for the purpose of worship (Acts 2:46-47; Col 3:16). We gather to celebrate the greatness of God. He alone is glorious and worthy of our praise. Even the gathering of two of God’s people is an occasion for corporate worship (Acts 16:25). Whether or not there’s musical accompaniment is of no real consequence – we can simply read the Psalms together and offer up spontaneous words of praise. Footnotes [1] Chan, Letters to the Church, 174-175 [2] Shepherding the Flock paper, 2019 [3] Putnam & Harrington, Discipleshift, p. 51 [4] John Legg, The King and His Kingdom: The Gospel of Matthew Simply Explained, Welwyn Commentary Series (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press., 2004), 530. [5] I highly recommend The Master’s Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman [6] I don’t want to say that using studies or curriculum is wrong. In fact, we should have some sense of where we need to go with a disciple. While it must be Spirit-led, we can utilize some sort of plan or curriculum to stay on track. The problem we run into is when we see the class or the materials as discipleship, rather than doing life together. [7] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-makes-a-missional-community-different/ [8] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-makes-a-missional-community-different/ [9] Ceslas Spicq and James D. Ernest, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), 191. [10] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 881. [11] BDAG, 552 quoted in G. Walter Hansen, The Letter to the Philippians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009), 32. [12] Saturate, p. 95 [13] J. I. Packer, God’s Words (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1981), 193. [14] Robert H. Thune and Will Walker. The Gospel-Centered Community (Kindle Locations 405-409). New Growth Press. [15] Robert H. Thune and Will Walker. The Gospel-Centered Community (Kindle Locations 419-421). New Growth Press. [16] Thomas Goodwin, The Works of Thomas Goodwin, vol. 4 (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1862), 207.
2 Comments
Russ Hyde
11/9/2022 01:05:55 pm
LOVE IT, keep it up! Know that I am praying for you!
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Krista McCumber
11/9/2022 07:55:38 pm
The lack of raw openess yet a never-ending potluck spread based on human effort & little to feed the soul.
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