disciple – Page 2

February 2, 2009

Are ‘fringe’ building churches such a bad thing? Maybe not…

The problem is not so much with what churches are doing; it’s with what they are not doing.

Many churches are so focused on growth that the majority of their resources (money, materials and people) are focused on growth initiatives; i.e. building campaigns, community events, etc. This leaves little left for internal growth initiatives. In other churches, particularly those overseas, there is precious little resource to invest in either external or internal growth. Either way, churches are struggling to help people to grow. We are adding to our numbers, but we’re adding ‘fringe’ and we’re not helping ‘fringe’ move to the core.

BUT, what if there existed a community of ‘core’ believers whose sole purpose was to birth new believers from the ‘world’ and develop baby believers in the ‘fringe’?

If this community was effective, it would complement churches of all sizes, shapes and styles while filling this all important gap of internal spiritual growth. It would have to be orthodox and yet inter-denominational. It would have to be united on the essentials of the Christian faith, but mature enough to give and receive the freedom granted by grace. It would have to be seemlessly global, not bound to a region or local church body. It would have to be large in number, but it would have to be more concerned about the maturity of the community than it’s size. It would have to be simple for community members to communicate with one another; it would have to be accessible, transparent, authentic, and helpful to those outside of the comunity.

If such a community existed, ‘fringe’ building churches could leverage the community to supplement their existing internal growth initiatives, practically free. If such a community existed, a small town church in west Texas, an isolated body of believers in Zambia or an underground small group in a communist or muslim country would have equal access to the same global support structure as a mega-church in the USA.

Does this sound exciting? Do you want to engage? Let me know…

January 29, 2009

Zero Church Aptly Named?

A few posts ago, I alluded to a mailer I received that provided a pretty good example of a “fringe building” church rather than a “core building” church.

Note that I have never attended this church nor do I know anything about it or their leadership…I’ve only received the mailer. Therefore, the only comments I intend to make are about the mailer and the audience it is obviously designed to reach.

Here are some observations:

About Zero Church

“Most churches are okay, but we think…”. In other words, if you are unhappy with the church you are currently attending, then come to zero church. Is this church reaching out to unbelievers or to people who already have a church home but are hoping to find a church that is more entertaining?
“We have a talk, but no preaching.” Can you imagine the apostle Paul or any hero of the faith telling it’s audience, “hey, i’m not here to preach…let’s just have a talk.” God calls us to teach His Word…why are we ashamed of that?
“We have an offering, but not for us…” Does this mean that 100% of what people give to zero church goes to the poor and oppressed? If that’s true, wonderful! But, I wonder where the money comes from to pay salaries, rent space, buy office supplies, etc?
“We have a band, but not much worship music”. If it’s not worship music, then what is the purpose of the music? Entertainment is all I can think of.

“Talk” Series

The good thing about how this series is described is that at least the word “biblical” is included. These topics are wonderful for a Christian counseling session. And, believe me, I’m all for Christians helping other Christians “learn how to say no”. But, the mission of the church is to make disciples, right? How do these topics help us make disciples? How do they call people to Christ? Again, my point is not about style of worship/preaching…it’s about what the style is producing. Series like this educate people on how to live their lives in a western materialistic culture, but they do not educate people as to their sin condition, God’s grace, genuine faith in Christ, and the ultimate importance of obedience. People become better parents, spouses, friends, and co-workers not primarily by studying how to become a better parent, spouse, friend or co-worker…they do it primarily by learning God’s word, believing is, and obeying it.

At the end of the day, I just don’t understand why churches feel like they cannot be proud of the God we serve and that somehow God is pleased when we hide Him for the sake of “building His kingdom”. My belief is that God does indeed save people in churches like these, but he does it despite faithless methods and not because of them. The natural fruit of churches like these is ‘fringe’ which, as I have argued, is actually hurting the Church not building it.

We ought to be going out into the world, sharing the good news of Christ, and serving them in His name; we should not be not pulling the lost into our communities and calling them part of the Church when God has not made them part of the Church.

I understand my stance is probably not very popular. My intent is not to be unpopular…just aligned with the God we serve as best I can be. I’d love to hear your thoughts and observations.

January 22, 2009

And so, our mission is…

… to help willing people move from the fringe to the core (discipleship) and from the world to the core (evangelism).

My observation is that the majority of local churches today, particularly evangelical churches in the west, are focused mostly on the evangelistic portion of this mission using mostly a strategy of “attractive” worship services. It’s staggering to see how much money is being poured into these ‘attractive’ worship services; it’s even more staggering to observe that many churches are coming to the conclusion that to make the service ‘attractive’ they must minimize the role of God and the Bible in it.

This weekend, I received a flyer in the mail for a new local church in my area. I don’t have it with me at the moment, but I saved it…maybe I’ll scan it and upload it if I think about it later. But I noted that it did not have the word “God” anywhere on it. It also contained a number of comparisons between it’s style and other (obviously, less ‘attractive’) styles of worship. The phrase, “we have a talk, not a sermon” comes to mind.

Now, I understand the concepts and purposes of the “seeker” church and the “emerging” church, but what kind of a church believes they have to hide God to be effective? Would God really call us to something that requires us to hide his Name to be successful? Isn’t the power to save in the gospel itself? Isn’t the biblical model for evangelsim Christians sharing their faith unashamedly with other Christians, in large group, small group, and one-on-one settings? Looking at today’s churches, you would think that the power to save is in concerts, dramas, social events, community service, and pop psychology ‘talks’…that it’s more important to go to church, be in a small group, have a good marriage, help people find their parking spots and not be stressed out than it is to have a genuine, personal, saving relationship with the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ which demands that we give up many (not all) elements of comfort to do the right thing and not just the popular thing.

My purpose in saying these things is to make a very specific point.

That point is that unless something is done to reverse the trend, we will soon find the visible Church dominated by the fringe…an intermingled group of lukewarm believers and Godless non-believers united not by one faith in God but by one faith in the world’s system. The core will be reduced in size, influence, and effectiveness. We will all rejoice in our election of leaders who promise a hope that is of ourselves and not of God.

If the core is going to do anything to reverse the trend, it has to rise up now. Time is running out …

January 21, 2009

Who is living on the ‘fringe’ of the Church?

I don’t want to belabor the ‘problem statement’ too much before getting into some thoughts on the solution, but I think it’s wise to go one level deeper before moving on.

Let’s briefly elaborate on ‘core’, ‘fringe’, and ‘world’ then conclude with “so what?”

Core

These are obviously genuine believers in Jesus Christ. They know their Bibles, or are working hard at knowing their Bibles. Internally, they struggle to think and act as Christ would, whether that is popular or not. When they mess up, it really hurts yet move on in God’s forgiveness. The core is seen by the fringe and the rest of the world as generally loving and ‘good’ but also a threat to principles they hold dear such as ‘tolerance’ and ‘relative truth’. The core’s firm belief in one God and one Savior makes the world and the fringe very uncomfortable, and this causes constant friction with these groups yet also unites the core in one Faith.

World

These are obvious non-believers in Jesus Christ. Whether they label themselves athiest, agnostic or a believer in some other faith or cult, all deny one of the beliefs that make Christianity, Christianty. These include historic essentials such as the diety of Christ, the atonement of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and the return of Christ. In general, these people are not upset by being called ‘non-Christian’, for they are not trying to be Christian.

Fringe

For those thinking I’m being kindof black and white, here is the gray area…the vague overlap of the ‘core’ and the ‘world’. The ‘fringe’ includes those people who would call themselves a Christian but who think and act differently from either the world or the core. People in the fringe may or may not be ‘regenerated’ (born again). Some are genuine believers and simply immature; others are not believers but really like being in community with other believers. Regardless, they all look about the same; they have little knowledge of the Bible, little motivation of study it on their own, little motivation to be more like Christ, and little motivation to act as Christ would act in situations where that “Christlike action” comes with personal risk or sacrifice. Their focus is largly on conforming to the norms of the “church” community; and, because the ‘church’ community is mostly fringe (more on this in a later post), these norms align more with the world’s guidance on how to become happy and comfortable and less with God’s guidance.

So, what does this mean? It means that you, the reader, fall into one of these groups. If you are in the world, you probably don’t care much about any of this. If you are in the fringe, I am praying that God would call you to the core. If you are in the core, I’m praying you might help me help those in the fringe whom God is calling to the core get there.

More to come…

January 19, 2009

Let’s begin…

…with a couple of assertions and see what happens.

There are three kinds of people in this world: “Core”, “Fringe”, and “World”. The ‘core’ includes obvious, genuine, mature believers in Jesus Christ. The ’world’ includes those who are obviously not believers but one day still could be. The ‘fringe’ includes those who either are believers and yet look like the world or are not really believers yet look like believers. Either way, those in the ‘fringe’ look and behave in a very similar way; and, it’s often really hard to tell the difference between a believer and a non-believer because of the way each have been ‘conformed’ by the culture around them.

For the most part, western evangelical local churches…especially ‘large’ churches…are doing a really good job of growing the ‘fringe’ but are not doing much to grow the ‘core’. Therefore, the ‘fringe’ is growing at a faster pace than the ‘core’.

How are we so far?

January 19, 2009

Why would anyone start a blog?

Quite frankly, I don’t know. But then again, I did not know why anyone would want to join facebook until I did!

This blog is not intended to be simply my random ramblings. Rather, I want to stream some thoughts on the state of the Church and gather input in preparation for the launch of a discipleship ministry that God has placed in my heart.

I look forward to engaging discussion with whoever the Lord leads to this thread.

John