6 Shifts...

"Change" is a powerful word.  It excites some...and terrifies others.  And yet...

The world has changed.

Is that too powerful of a statement?  I don't think so.  In fact, I think we (followers of Jesus) need to come to terms with the change that has already happened.  We no longer live in Mayberry (if we ever actually did).  We live in a postmodern, diverse, experiential, and mysterious world.  We live in a post-Constantinian world.  (If you want to read more about this change, you can read my previous blog post here).

So how are we, as followers of Jesus, to respond to the changes that have happened?  I'd like to propose 6 shifts that need to take place in how we think:

1)  Mission:
 

The mission of the Church is to go and make disciples by teaching and baptizing in the name of the triune God.  That is what Jesus set forth in Matthew 28...

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.”

This mission has not changed.  However, how we think about fulfilling that mission must change.  We must move from thinking about our mission institutionally (for example, “St. Andrew’s mission is…”) to understanding it personally.  The mission of the Church in this new normal is realized when a group of Jesus followers seek to honor their heavenly Father and fulfill God’s redemptive mission in all they do.  Wherever they are.  Whatever they do.  Whomever they are with. 

2)  Discipleship:

This is a biggie!  Fundamentally, the shift in how we make disciples presses against our previous experience of “Church” and how we think about “Church life”.  We have been convinced that discipleship and education are one and the same.  To make disciples, we erroneously believe, means that we should teach intellectual truths.  If people believe the right ideas they will be “in” the discipleship club.  Here is the problem:  Right belief isn’t the same as following Jesus.  Education is not the same as discipleship.  The Pharisees knew more doctrinal statements and could quote more scripture than you or I can.  And yet…they didn’t believe in Jesus.  At the temptation of Jesus in the desert, Satan quotes scripture to Jesus…but he isn’t a Jesus follower.  You see my point? Education isn’t discipleship.  

What does that mean, practically?  It means we must move off of our classroom-based approach to discipleship.  One-size-fits-all programs that are designed for efficiency and uniformity do not produce disciples.  They may produce knowledge, but not wisdom.  They may produce the right answer, but they don’t produce Gospel transformation.  We must move from a program model of ministry to a relational/rabbinical model of discipleship coaching.  We must learn to walk together in real life situations, seeking to follow Jesus (and therefore to honor our heavenly Father) in all that we say and do.  This cannot be done in a classroom.

3)  Growth:

This one is tied to the previous one.  Simply stated, we must stop looking at the weekend attendance numbers as the indicator of our growth/”success”.  Churches around our country (and certainly in our community) are full of people who show up for an hour or so, do the passive “Church thing” and then go on with their lives – never thinking about how their new identity in Christ shapes their daily life.  Instead of looking only to weekend numbers, we must begin to evaluate the growth that happens when disciples multiply disciples.  Success is not just more people…but more baptisms, more transformation, more followers of Jesus who in turn share the hope they have in Jesus.

4)  Evangelism:

Have you figured out yet that all of these 6 shifts are tied together?  Just checking…

Our previous thought was that we existed to rescue people from the world and bring them into the Church.  We took this pretty literally.  The goal was to clean people up.  It was to teach them “Christianese”.  It was to get them to “Church”.  Instead of talking people out of the world and into the Church, however, we must push faith out of the pews, out of the private realm, and intentionally take it into the world.  Evangelism is not a program or a tactic.  Evangelism is what happens when God’s people live out their identity in Jesus and intentionally talk about Jesus with those around them in daily life.

Martin Luther said, “It is the duty of every Christian to be Christ to his neighbor.”  I think those are good words to live by…

5)  Finances:

I find it interesting how many of us fall into one of these two categories.  We either don’t give much because we see finances as private resources, or we give out of some perceived social obligation.  We must transition beyond this point.  We need to begin seeing everything as an extension of God’s grace.

He provides for us.  That is simply true.  He is radically generous with us.  We must begin to see finances as an extension of His generosity…and for His purposes.  We must begin to function with “whole-life trust”.  When we trust God with everything (including finances), we can begin to practice radical generosity.  With our time, with our finances, with our life.  We don’t give financially to an institution.  We trust God with our life and give generously to Him.

6)  Families:

This is another biggie.  For the past 20-30 years, we were led to believe that the way to grow the Church was to specialize the ministry.  We developed specialized “pull out” ministries for our kids, our youth, our older adults, etc.  We believed that as we developed these specialized ministries we could more faithfully make disciples of people from different generations.  However, two problems exist with this type of thinking.  First, this model of ministry has a tendency to be evaluated based on activities rather than discipleship.  As long as there is a lot going on/being offered to our youth (for example), we are convinced that we are doing appropriate youth ministry.  Busyness=faithfulness.

However, this is simply not true.  The second problem is that the body of Christ isn’t segmented.  It isn’t homogenous.  When we pull children or youth out for specialized ministry, they get a faulty image of the Church…and…it is more difficult to transition them back into the “adult Church”. 
Instead of segregated/specialized ministry, we must develop an integrated family model of ministry.  We must seek to develop ministry that functions as a unified Church family that shares life and works together for the Kingdom of God.  Children.  Youth.  Adults.  Older adults.  Each sharing life with one another and helping one another more faithfully follow Jesus. 

In the late 90’s, I was part of starting a new worship community.  It was targeted at people in their teens and twenties.  It was a good…but flawed…vision.  When we began, some of the older adults from our “mother congregation” wanted to come and check out what we were doing.  They could, but only if they stayed in the balcony.  We didn’t want them “invading” the space or the experience of those we were trying to reach.  Like I said, it was an honest mistake.  Shortly after, however, one of our high school students came up to me and asked what the deal was with all of the adults in the balcony.  I explained the “why” to him.  It was then that he said something that forever changed my idea of ministry.  He said, “John, I get why they are being asked to stay up there.  But here is the deal.  We need them.  We learn how to worship, serve, and live with Jesus by watching people like you and Jill.  We need more of you here to model following Jesus for us.” 

Ministry can no longer be segmented based on age.  There is no such thing, really, as children’s ministry or youth ministry.  There is only ministry.  God’s people.  Sharing life together.  Seeking to follow Jesus together and impact their world together.  We have to transition our thinking about the value of family. 

Summary:

So there you go.  6 things that I believe need to shift as we seek to faithfully live out our new identities in Jesus…and our mission to make disciples of all nations.  I am sure I could come up with others, but these should be enough to get you thinking.  I certainly am…

*NOTE:  Though the specific comments and explanations are mine, the rough outline for this post was taken from Neil Cole's book, Church 3.0.