Archives: Episode

Come, Follow, Fish, and Teach Others to Do the Same

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” Matthew 4:19 (NLT)

Many people are called by God to become disciples, but Jesus said that few are chosen. (Matthew 22:14)

When we truly hear the call of God through the words of the Gospel and the inner voice or prompting of the Holy Spirit, we are immediately faced with a choice. We can resist, ignore, or surrender to God’s call.

Many people are sifted out immediately because they will not obey the call to come, but even more are left behind by the next requirement. People initially come to Christ because he is wonderful, loving, generous, and offers everything a person would ever truly need, including everlasting life. The consumer in us thinks that this is a “deal” too good to pass up, and we are correct.

However, once we come to Christ and spend time with him and begin to read the Bible, it dawns on us that there is a cost to following him. In fact, following Jesus will cost us everything.

A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, 26  “If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. 27  And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:25-27 (NLT)

Jesus laid down his life for us and asks us to show our allegiance to him by doing the same. It is one very important way we glorify God. But out of stubbornness, selfishness, fear, pride, or for some other reason, it is at this point that many turn back and make the decision not to follow him. They eliminate themselves from the ranks of the “chosen.”

For many are called, but few are chosen. Matthew 22:14 (NASB) 

Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14  "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Matthew 7:13-14 (NASB)

Jesus promised that he would transform those who follow him into fishers of men, and telling others about the Gospel makes us just that.

This means that every true follower of Christ shares the Gospel with others.We may not be evangelists or preachers holding large meetings, but we can share one-on-one with people as the Lord directs and provides us with opportunities.

Followers of Christ are called disciples. They make the commitment to follow Jesus and, with the help of his Holy Spirit, obey his teachings and share the gospel message with others. When our hearers respond to the Gospel, a new responsibility confronts us.

Jesus wants us to teach these new followers to do as we do. This is called making disciples.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 (NLT)

Discipleship is a journey that begins with a call, which prompts us to come to Jesus the Savior. If we continue on the journey, we must decide to follow Jesus the Lord. Along the way, Jesus will teach us how to fish for people. Some of those who hear our message will also respond to his call to come and follow and fish. We are responsible to make them into disciples, too. This is the discipleship journey.

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Part 11: Mending Nets, Rebuilding Walls

 

 

 

 

 

Mending Nets

Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a net used to catch fish. A large net has to be kept in good repair; so, mending the holes that inevitably appear is a primary responsibility of fishermen.

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19  And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20  Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21  And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. 22  Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Matthew 4:18-22 (ESV)

The English word “mending” is a translation of the Greek word katartidzos, which can mean to mend, restore, equip, or to prepare. These fishermen were mending and preparing their nets to bring in a huge catch. It was how they earned a living for their families.

Paul the apostle used this same word in his letter to the church at Ephesus.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12  to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13  until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, Ephesians 4:11-13 (ESV)

In this passage the Greek word is translated “equip.” It is the same idea as preparing, with the  implication that people need to be restored, taught, and equipped in order to properly function as a giant net which the Holy Spirit can use bring a great multitude of people into God’s eternal family.

Jesus told those fishermen who became his first disciples that he would make them into “fishers of men,” if they would follow him. He would call, equip, mend,  prepare, and send them out to fish for people, gather people into God’s kingdom through the gospel, and teach them to replicate themselves in others, which is discipleship. The Lord will do that for anyone who makes Jesus and his kingdom his or her first priority.

Jesus is fashioning his people into a mighty net to gather in his end time harvest.

Rebuilding Walls

Switching metaphors, in the Old Testament, Nehemiah returned to Israel to rebuild Jerusalem, which the Babylonians had demolished and whose walls were still in ruins. Rebuilding walls is not as disconnected from mending nets as one might think. In those days, city walls offered the residents a measure of security from hostile forces. Our neighborhoods can be viewed as a type of city. Our spiritual enemy, the devil, wants to run roughshod over people. Our disobedience to God and lack of community has effectually removed our protection from the devil’s activity. Many in our neighborhoods are experiencing oppression under Satan’s thumb because they have no advocate or Savior, no one to love them and show them the way to safety through faith in Christ.

Nehemiah organized the Jews to contribute to the rebuilding effort by asking them to commit to labor on a particular portion of the wall, quite often right next to their own house. (Nehemiah 3:28) This is a good strategy for us today. Just as Nehemiah took personal responsibility for restoring Jerusalem and asked the people to “own” rebuilding the part of the wall close to them, I believe Jesus asks each of his disciples to look upon his or her own neighborhood with a heart of compassion, realizing that if we do not rise to the occasion, many in our own community will spend eternity away from God’s presence.

He wants us to build the kingdom of God right next to our own home.

Application

Jesus told his followers to pray to the Lord of harvest to send forth laborers into the masses of harassed and helpless people all around them. (Matthew 9:35-38) In context, Jesus spoke about people needing shepherds, which can be understood as those who care about other people enough to watch out for them, provide for them, go after them, and protect them.

Any follower of Christ who cares about people can be used by God in his or her neighborhood to be a fisher of men and a restorer of the wall.

Our neighborhoods should be better places to live because of us. This will happen when we take responsibility and start being what Jesus called “salt” and “light.”

How will this happen? We can pray in secret for our neighbors, pray for them personally and publicly when they share some need with us, visit them, have them over, and do loving acts of service for them.

God wants us to learn to be a good neighbor as a lifestyle, not something we occasionally check off on our “to do” list.

We often earn the right and privilege to share Jesus with people by first loving them and building a genuine relationship with them. Our ultimate goal is to introduce people to a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus. That is the most loving thing imaginable!

The world is weary of people who only tell them about Jesus, but otherwise seem to have no real interest in people. Jesus was quickly able to convey an enormous amount of love for those he met. It generally takes us a while to make a breakthrough into people’s lives.

The old saying that people don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care is true.

Let’s make it our goal to destroy the commonly held assumption that Christians are judgmental know-it-alls, who don’t really care about people. Instead, let’s be menders of nets, re-builders of community, lovers of people, and proper representatives of the kingdom of God.

Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes. Isaiah 58:12 (NLT)
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Part 10: How graciously do we engage people?

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus said that his followers would be known by their love. Why is it that many times Christians are associated with judgment instead? Maybe it is because we have foolishly forgotten how desperately we need mercy and forgiveness ourselves. When most of us first became followers of Christ, we clearly understood how far we were from living up to God’s holy and righteous standards. We jumped at the gospel’s amazingly gracious offer of complete forgiveness and reconciliation to God. But over time, we often lose sight of our own need for mercy and begin to think more highly of ourselves than we should (Romans 12:3). How does this happen?

One possibility is that when we place our faith and loyalty in Christ, he sends the Holy Spirit to live inside us and change us from the inside out. When we experience this grace, we start thinking, speaking, and acting in a more God-like manner, tempting us to look down on those who have not yet experienced such grace. We start thinking of ourselves in a self-righteous way, instead of humbly appreciating God’s work in us and wishing the same for others. Instead of graciously sharing the good news of forgiveness, reconciliation, and life with those who need it, we stand off to the side and judge them. This goes against God’s heart, undermines our own grace standing with God (Romans 5:1-2), and misrepresents the gospel.

Judgmental people do not make good fishers of men because we lose our ability to make a heart connection.

People intuitively know whether we love them, merely tolerate them, or actively judge them. They will be drawn to love but repelled by self-righteous religious smugness. Those who want to be good fishers of men must extend the same love and mercy toward those who are humbly seeking God that God has extended to us.

When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well in John Chapter 4, he was able to discuss their doctrinal differences, which were major, but he first established that he cared about her and was interested in talking to her. Jesus accomplished this by breaking through a wall that self-righteous Jews refused to cross. He engaged in conversation with a Samaritan, and a woman to boot, quite probably one who was despised even by her own community! His loving engagement opened the door for her to safely ask her doctrinal questions. There is something crucial for us to learn here. Jesus could have despised and rejected her because of her erroneous beliefs and immoral lifestyle, but instead he drew her to himself and transformed her into the evangelist who brought an entire village to faith!

I have watched Christian friends of mine exhibit the exact opposite, and I am sure I have as well. Once we were engaging some men in conversation about God and the gospel, when one of them said plainly that he did not believe the gospel or even accept that the Bible is trustworthy. Instead of patiently engaging this person as a concerned friend, they showed righteous indignation. Why do we do this? Do we imagine that we are superior to the person who honesty confessed unbelief? Do we think it’s our job to defend God’s honor? Are we the doctrine police? Do we not remember when we were just like them? Maybe not, if we were saved during childhood, but those of us who came to Christ as adults should be able to recall. A wise person who witnessed what happened later commented that we Christians need to learn how to argue better. We owe it to ourselves, the Lord, the people we are trying to reach, and to the gospel to learn how to engage dissenters without putting up walls, showing irritation, or saying unkind things.

A large part of our problem is that we have limited our conversations to church people who think as we do. We tend to “hole up” in our “fortress” churches instead of getting out into our communities where dissenters live.

This is very unlike how Jesus did things. How can we turn the tables on this sad state of affairs? Here are some suggestions.

  • Make our first priority to connect with people outside of our church “comfort zone.” 
  • Secondly, determine to love people and get to know them personally. This requires us to actually be interested in people.
  • Thirdly, look for opportunities to inject something spiritual into the conversation. Asking to pray for any obvious needs that come up during conversation is a great way to overcome barriers. Listen to the Holy Spirit and go with whatever he tells you. Sometimes we can only start to get to know a person on a first encounter. Other times we may actually have an opportunity to share the gospel with them. Each person and situation is different.

The only rule is to love people and listen to the Spirit.

  • Fourthly, we should try to continue to love and engage those who disagree with us or initially reject our message. Who knows? They might change their minds.
  • Know when enough is enough. Sometimes we may have to walk away from a relationship that is bearing no fruit. That’s a hard call.
Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. 6  Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone. Colossians 4:5-6 (NLT)

That’s how Jesus fished for people. We can, too.

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Part 9: Surprised…again!

 

 

 

 

 

If you were tasked with planting a new church, which of these groups of people would you target – the affluent or the poor? The well-connected or the marginalized? “Beautiful people” or the ones Jesus called the “least of these?”

Surprisingly, Jesus instructed his disciples to go after the least likely people.

He called them “the least of these my brothers.” It is not that those who are “better off” regarding worldly affluence are unimportant. Rather, their affluence often works against them, making them feel important, self-satisfied, in control, and without appetite for God and his blessings. It is the hungry who search for and find God.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.Matthew 5:6 (NASB) 

And Jesus said to His disciples, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24  "Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Matthew 19:23-24 (NASB)

The “least of these,” as Jesus called them, are those on the margins of society who do not inwardly feel that they have earned the right to be blessed. Jesus called them the “poor in spirit,” which means they are spiritual beggars who are well aware of their need for God. (Matthew 5:3) They include the hungry, (who are usually poor), the stranger (which may include newcomers, aliens, the homeless, the lonely, the abandoned, and anyone who does not really “fit in”), those lacking proper clothing, sick people, and prisoners. They may have gotten to their state by choice or by happenstance. Regardless, they are the prime “ground” in which the gospel seed can grow.

Usually these people are overlooked because they do not seem to promise any return on the investment we may make in them, but this is where we get it all wrong.

Then he turned to his host. “When you put on a luncheon or a banquet,” he said, “don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward. 13  Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14  Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you.” Luke 14:12-14 (NLT)

The key to understanding why it is vital to invest in the least likely is because Jesus promised eternal reward to those who do.

If all we are looking for is what kind of immediate return on investment we can get here on earth, it makes no sense to spend time and resources on the “least of these;” but, if we care about eternal reward (and we should), it makes perfect sense. This is completely contrary to how most people in the world and many in the church think. The kingdom of God is often akin to looking at a photo “negative,” in which dark areas are light and light areas, dark.

The kingdom of God is many times a complete reverse of what the world thinks and values.

And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God. Luke 16:15 (NASB)

The “poor in spirit” are people who have humility, who are open to being taught, who have sorrow for their sins and a purity of heart, and who respond to the gospel and choose to follow Jesus. Quite often these people come from the edges of society, but sometimes wealthy, well-connected people are among the poor in spirit, too. Take for example, Nicodemus, a wealthy and well-connected Pharisee who became a disciple of our Lord.

No matter where we find them, God is building his kingdom with humble people who are hungry for him. Every time such a person emerges, it is a surprising work of the Spirit. Such people are not “normal” as the world goes.

Finding the “Poor in Spirit” and the “Least of These”

Once we settle on the kind of people Jesus wants to use to build his church, we must depend on the Spirit to guide us to them.

Jesus surprised the religious world when he chose rugged fishermen to become his disciples instead of gathering people from the religious elite. He surprised his own disciples when he chose a hated tax collector to join his band. He surprised them again when he included women, especially a despised Samaritan woman, who became his chief evangelist to bring an entire village to faith. I suppose many were surprised when he chose each of us, too. Would you consider yourself to be a likely or an unlikely candidate?

Would it surprise you to discover that every person who comes to Christ is unlikely? It is only by God’s grace that any of us make it.

How surprised were his disciples when the Lord commanded them to lower their nets into the deep, resulting in a tremendous catch? Do we depend on God to show us where to fish?

It is possible that the Holy Spirit may send us to what we might consider an unlikely fishing hole.

The elderly are not usually prime targets for evangelism, but I have discovered that the Spirit is working in the lives of older people, too. God has not given up on them, and neither should we. It’s never too late as long as we are breathing. My ninety-three year old father in law put his faith in Christ a week before he died! What a surprising gift of grace!

Assisted living centers are filled with neglected people who are often on the very edge of eternity. Would the Spirit of God send us to such as those? Perhaps God would lead us to work with the poor, those with felonies, actual prisoners, sick people, or children without a functional family support structure. The list of possibilities is enormous.

The important thing for us to realize is that God will guide us to the people in whom he is working and drawing toward Christ, if we ask him. Seek and you will find…

Once we find them, we can simply start loving them and see how God leads us from there. The pay for such labor is not much, but the benefits are heavenly.

The question is are we willing to be led by the Spirit to find those he has set his heart upon, or are we going to settle for using the world’s methods of marketing and promotion?

Are we willing to be surprised again and again by the Holy Spirit?

Prayer

Dear Lord, I want to be surprised every day as you lead me by your Spirit to seek out those you are calling to yourself, no matter where I may find them. Holy Spirit, lead me to those you want me to love and serve on your behalf. I trust you to develop compassion and faith in me to make a difference in their lives. Help me to be bold to share the gospel with them. Surprise me, Lord, again and again. Amen.

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Are We Developing Disciples or Coddling Immature People?

 

 

 

 

Without constant attention and steadfastness, pastoring a church can easily devolve into enabling codependent, lazy, and fearful churchgoers who want nothing to do with the Great Commission besides paying it lip service.

Jesus, the greatest shepherd of all time, taught his followers that a good shepherd would leave the flock in order to go after missing and lost sheep. This seems strange to many pastors, who make it their life mission to tend to every need of the already safe sheep. (Matthew 18:12-14)

If we think of pastoring as raising children, things will probably get clearer for us regarding our pastoral priorities.

One of the worst things parents can do is hover over their children in order to try to protect them from every danger imaginable, instead of allowing them to explore and learn on their own, under limited parental supervision. A derivative of this kind of unintended parental “abuse” is to do everything for the child, which sends the perhaps unintended message that the child is incompetent to manage life on his or her own.

Parents harm their children by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

Well-intentioned parents can hurt their children despite having the best of motives, if they fail to understand that their mission in child rearing is to produce responsible self-governing adults, not permanently dependent offspring.

Sometimes pastors adopt the same misguided strategies and make it their goal to keep people in a constant state of needing them.

Instead of training their church members to read, understand, and apply the Bible’s teachings for themselves and to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit for themselves, they want their people to rely on them for guidance and wisdom. Instead of equipping and teaching their people to take initiative in sharing the gospel with those who yet do not know the Lord, we may train them that the extent of their missionary responsibility is to bring people to church so that the pastor can do all the ministry. The list could go on. What are we trying to do? This is certainly not how to make disciples.

What if pastors taught their people that their main duty and occupation is to learn what they need to learn in order to leave “the 99” to go after those who are lost or straying? How would our churches be different if pastors prioritized preparing their people to be active disciple makers instead of passive churchgoers? Would it cause our churches to lose members, or would it infuse them with new life and vigor? Probably both. The ones who want nothing to do with growing up into spiritual adulthood will be able to find other pastors who will coddle them, but the ones who relish the challenge of being a disciple who makes disciples will be very grateful.

We cannot make it our top priority to gain members, if we embrace making disciples. Instead our goal is to prepare and send out Great Co-missionaries.

Missional pastoring will lead us to nurture, equip, motivate, and launch people into their communities to go and make disciples. Our programs and priorities should be reevaluated regarding how they help make and send disciples. Our people should be told that our goal is to help them grow up to spiritual maturity, which is the work of missional pastoring.

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Developing Missional Churches – Part 3: Using the Equipping Model for Mission

 

 

 

 

In the first article in this series entitled Developing Missional Churches, I looked at some tensions that challenge our attempt to fulfill our God-given mission. The first is the tension between attracting consumerist church shoppers to meetings and making disciples. For those churches which choose to be missional, a second tension involves choosing between using the attractional model to win people to Christ or using the equipping model to train people to do ministry themselves. In my second article, I examined how some missional churches use the attractional model to effectively preach the gospel to large numbers of seekers. This article looks at how the equipping model can be employed to make disciple-making disciples.

Leadership Goals of Equipping Churches

I have already established that Jesus charged the church to be missional when he gave us the Great Commission. Mission includes going, preaching, teaching or equipping, and launching. Whereas missional-attractional churches often are very successful at presenting the gospel to those who are drawn to their services, with many surrendering their lives to Christ, they may struggle to produce disciples who can minister in their own right. This is why the equipping model is needed.

The above continuum places attractional churches on one end and equipping churches on the other. Of course, real life churches are going to be somewhere in between. My continuum places what I call a “hybrid network” in the middle. I will talk about that later. Pure equipping churches do not employ attractional techniques or strategies. In fact, Hugh Halter, pastor of Adullam in Denver, sometimes deliberately makes his services less than perfect just to remind people that we do not go to church to be entertained. At LifeNet, we never have to try to do that. It comes naturally.

Equipping churches seek to develop disciples by giving them adequate Bible knowledge and competent ministry skills and launching them into the community to do the work of ministry.

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12  for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; Ephesians 4:11-12 (NASB)

Instead of adopting a strategy to invite people to church meetings to hear the gospel from a main speaker, equipping churches develop disciples who are competent to share the gospel themselves outside the four walls of the church.

Leadership Strategies of Equipping Churches

Leaders of equipping churches necessarily will be missional, and they also must be committed to training. This is the biggest difference in leadership strategy. Instead of maximizing their own pulpit time, they will seek to step aside to make room for their disciples.

This means equipping churches are willing to put less polished speakers and worship leaders in the forefront in order to develop them. This runs counter to the accepted attractional strategy, which always puts the best of the best in front of the crowd.

Think “teaching hospital” when you think of the equipping church. Think rock concert when you conceptualize the attractional model.

Equipping churches can be led by any of the “five-fold” ministry, but missionally-minded teachers always will have a large role to play.

Equipping churches do not rely simply on classroom or lecture style teaching. Instead, they use Jesus’ method, which blends instruction with demonstration and application.

This means their disciples will be able to effectively share the gospel, pray for the sick, cast out demons, counsel, and do other facets of ministry. The doing is part of the learning. Until the disciple does, he or she is not a disciple. Unless churches develop a way for people to have “hands on” opportunities to practice their ministry skills under supervision, equipping will not take place. Obviously, listening to a talking head for an hour each Sunday will never accomplish this. Equipping church meetings are designed to maximize disciple making. The small group setting is ideal; although, it is quite possible to break a large church down into small discussion groups on the fly. In order to facilitate the application of teaching, ministry opportunities must be created, ideally outside of the church meeting. All sorts of creative options are available, everything from door-to-door visitation to men’s nights out, to starting or joining some sort of affinity group or club.

A necessary part of equipping and launching disciples is decentralization.

Nothing bottlenecks ministry as much as forcing all decision making through a top-level choke point. Equipping churches expect to produce mature ministers who have the wisdom and courage to be spiritual “entrepreneurs.” Just as natural dads release their sons and daughters to establish their own families, equipping churches adopt a strategy of equip and release. For this to work ideally, launched disciples will maintain a healthy relationship with their mentors and launching churches, having the same values, mission, and strategies.

Integrating the Attractional and Equipping Models

Neither the attractional nor the equipping model is perfect. Both have strengths and weaknesses that can be complemented by the other. In his book, AND – The Gathered and Scattered Church, Hugh Halter advocates creating a hybrid church that incorporates elements of both. (You can read my summary here.) Having pastored both types of churches, I am intrigued with the possibility of integrating the two into one “mean, lean missional machine.”

Larger attractional model churches usually have nice facilities, established programs for youth and other sub-groups, and resources. Equipping churches, especially the small group variety, may have none of the above, but be rich with missional vision and committed people. The blending of the two can provide pastoral stability (modality) with missional passion (sodality).

Such a hybrid makes room for people who may not be willing to go the more radical missional route of the equipping church, but who support it. It also provides programs and resources not otherwise available to smaller equipping churches.

Such hybrids will necessarily be led by those who see the need for both expressions of the church.

The leadership team will need to make room for the more fluid expression of missional sodality within the protective covering of the modality, the larger “mother” church. Disciples and leaders that come out of the equipping ministry of the hybrid church, can be plugged into the various small groups as leaders or be encouraged to start their own through evangelization.

Hybrid missional churches will be able to conduct schools of ministry for training and equipping future leaders. This training will include hands on mentoring in the doing of ministry.

Hybrid leaders will need to resist the desire to “rein in” the more sodalic expression of the church, and sodalic leaders will need to properly relate to the modalic church. This will have to be worked out over time, but the possibilities for mission are huge and probably worth the effort.

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Developing Missional Churches – Part 2: Using the Attractional Model for Mission

 

 

 

 

The church was created for mission, namely the Great Commission, which requires the church to…

  • Go – There is an apostolic mandate on the entire church to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
  • Make Disciples – Disciples are followers of Christ who obey his teachings, his Spirit, and the Great Commission.
  • Teach them to obey – Disciples must train their disciples to do as they do.

Missional churches embrace the Great Commission and focus their resources and energy toward that end.

We live in a culture that has been warped by consumerism and has produced a church “clientele” that begs to be entertained. Recognizing and capitalizing upon this bent, attractional churches use their resources to provide the most attractive church services possible in order to gather the largest following. In this article, I assume their motivation is to advance the kingdom of God.

Ingeniously many very large churches use the attractional model missionally as a platform for preaching to seekers. I call these missional-attractional churches.

Many people are being drawn to these churches and are responding to the Gospel, and many of these churches take spiritual development and growth seriously. These churches are most likely led by apostles, evangelists, or missional pastors.

The Missional – Attractional Leader

Anyone who is an Ephesians 4:11 “five-fold” or “ascension gift” minister / leader (apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, or teacher) may be primarily pastoral or missional. Every true apostle will impart an apostolic (sent or missional) mindset to the churches they oversee, making them apostolic in their own right. By looking at Paul’s and Peter’s apostolic ministries, we also observe a strong pastoral element.

Apostolic churches will take care of their own people while maintaining an outward thrust of evangelism and discipleship of new converts.

Evangelists are by nature missional. Prophets and teachers may be either. Pastoral leaders naturally focus on the well-being of the sheep under their care and can easily be consumed with doing so, at the expense of the Great Commission. However, Jesus advocated missional pastoring in his parable about the one lost sheep.

So he told them this parable: 4  “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7  Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Luke 15:3-7 (ESV)

The Christlike missional pastor never loses sight of the lost, and even prioritizes his ministry toward them, but his work with those outside the church will always have a pastoral touch to it. Jesus exhorted his followers to pray for more shepherds to be sent out into the harvest.

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36  When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38  therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Matthew 9:35-38 (ESV)

These laborers by context are clearly shepherds. Hurting people cry out for caring individuals to wade into their world of sorrow and pain, bringing pastoral grace and ministry with them.

Caring for lost sheep is just as pastoral as taking care of the church.

Missional churches can be led by any form of the five-fold ministry, as long as mission is prioritized. But if only the core leaders are missionally minded or if the church’s ministry focuses on the use of the gifts and abilities of a select few, is that really being true to the Great Commission? Attractional churches that focus on winning the lost by effectively leveraging their resources and the talent of a few may win a lot of people to Christ, yet miss the mark when it comes to developing disciples who make disciples. We are seeing today what happens when attractional churches succeed in gathering lots of people who are not committed disciples. The center cannot hold in those churches. Either the people will leave or the leadership will cave to the soulish demands of their clientele.

There is a difference between serving the Great Commission by marshaling members to support the local church’s Sunday services and serving the Great Commission by equipping and launching all the members of the church into the harvest field as ministers in their own right.

Although I admire the effectiveness of attractional churches in drawing the lost, I still question their effectiveness in discipling them. The Great Commission is not to win the lost: it is to make disciples of the lost, which requires equipping. Equipping churches will be the subject of my next article. I hope you will continue on this journey with me.

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Developing Missional Churches – Part 1: Tensions

 

 

 

 

Developing missional churches is one of the great challenges facing modern church leaders who live in a consumerist world system.

By missional I mean prioritizing the pursuit of the Great Commission, Jesus’ marching orders to the church. This article will address two of the major obstacles to achieving this missional goal.

Tension #1: Attractional vs. Equipping

In the United States, we live in a pronounced consumer culture, in which people are trained from an early age to view life from a “what’s in it for me” vantage point.

This consumerist mindset has infected the church, too, resulting in many people having rather shallow reasons for attending or not attending a local church.

The culture has molded our people to look for a church that provides the most return on their investment, which is often measured by how a particular church blesses them personally. Unfortunately, because we are mostly selfish in our orientation, we gravitate toward those churches that are attractive, comfortable, and impressive. To put it another way, people will “shop” churches to find the one that offers the best programs, facilities, worship experience, preaching, and other benefits, such as being a place to network with other successful people in the area. Not surprisingly such a search often leads consumer Christians to the biggest and most successful churches in the area. This is to be expected because the church growth movement that began in the 1980s taught leaders how to market their churches to the masses. This leads us to a very important point that has proved to be a disaster in many cases.

Churches that want to attract Christian consumers must choose to provide the things for which people are shopping.

Consumers need to be attracted, which has led to the development of the attractional model of doing church. This way of operating tries to present the very best Sunday service possible in order to attract the largest number of seekers and church shoppers, as well as provide a great experience for its members in order to retain them. The disastrous aspect of this model is that many leaders have compromised the gospel to “keep ’em coming.”

In stark contrast, Jesus taught his disciples that they must be willing to lose everything for his sake, which is a direct attack on consumerism.

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:33 (ESV)

The opposite of the consumerist church is the disciple making church, which prioritizes training and equipping its members to do the work of the ministry.

Comparing attractional churches to equipping churches is like contrasting going to a concert with going to school. It’s pretty easy to guess which one most people will choose. Disciple making churches cannot be consumer oriented by definition. The two ways of doing things are diametrically opposed.

Strong disciples are built through teaching them self-denial for the sake of the mission, which will alienate consumers, whose purpose in life is to consume blessings for themselves.

What draws consumers will pull disciples off track.

Leaders who wish to prioritize the Great Commission will have to face the giant of consumerism and choose to turn their backs on its allure in order to make disciples.

Tension #2: Modalic vs. Sodalic

A writer named Rob Yule, from New Zealand, wrote: “A modality is the static or geographical form of the church, the church as a local or regional community. A sodality is the mobile or missional form of the church…” Another, perhaps, better way to conceive of the difference is that modality is a function of the pastoral ministry of the church to its own people; whereas, sodality is its outward (missional or apostolic) thrust toward those who do not yet know Christ. This second definition is how I use the two words in this article.

Church leaders, because of calling, gifting, training, and/or personality, usually emphasize either modality or sodality in their ministry. These two ways of seeing and practicing church seem to be in opposition to each other, creating some tension in the church world.

Jesus launched a worldwide missionary organization called the church, whose marching orders are found in the Great Commission.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19  "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20  teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20 (NASB)

He promised his disciples that the gates of hell would not be able to withstand its missionary advances. (Matthew 16:18) The preaching of the Gospel turned the world upside down in a very short time, as bands of early disciples, often led by apostolic (sent) ministers, went forth with the sole objective of preaching the good news of Christ’s resurrection and lordship and establishing churches whenever groups of disciples responded to the message.

But just as a conquering army must organize and consolidate its gains, the church found that tending its new converts tended to be a full-time occupation.

The Apostle Paul probably spent more time tending the newly formed churches than he did in active evangelization of unreached people. Nevertheless, he never lost his zeal for and commitment for taking the Gospel to unreached areas. (Romans 15:20) He used established churches as bases from which to launch and sustain his ongoing missionary endeavors. (Romans 15:24) In terms of a conquering military army, churches can be viewed as outposts from which greater advances can be made while maintaining conquered areas.

Both the pastoral (modalic) and the apostolic (sodalic) callings are fairly all-consuming. Paul was one of the few, it seems, who was able to keep both front and center in his life.

It is my belief that true apostles have this calling and ability. They are essentially missionaries who care deeply for and maintain a pastoral relationship of some nature with the churches they help start.

Unfortunately, however, many churches are led by pastors who may unintentionally stray from the Great Commission and settle for being modalic self-absorbed institutions. This is because it is difficult to maintain both sides of the equation – mission and pastoring.

The tension between the pastoral and apostolic calling is a second challenge in developing missional churches.

Most church leaders I know are in favor of reaching out with the Gospel to those who still do not know Christ, but fewer feel the need to devote their resources and energy toward motivating, equipping, and launching their members into the harvest field. Those who have prioritized mission are divided between using an attractional model or employing the equipping model. Which is better at making disciples? Which is better at bringing in new converts?

Two questions will be addressed in the following articles in this series.

  • Should church leaders equip the entire church (modality) to become members of a Great Commission harvest team, or should the Great Commission be delegated to specialized sub-groups (sodalities) in the church?
  • Should churches rely on drawing people to evangelist-led attractional meetings or focus on equipping average followers of Christ to competently penetrate their neighborhoods and relational groups with the gospel in order to make disciples?

I hope you will stay with me as I look at these two questions in the next two articles.

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How God Removes Deeply Embedded Lies

This is the tenth article in a series entitled Wonderful Counseling. I sometimes use other names for this ministry, such as Personal Prayer Ministry and Biblical Healing and Deliverance. The adjective "wonderful" is used because Jesus is the "wonderful Counselor" of Isaiah 9:6. This ministry attempts to make room for Jesus to personally counsel people by means of the indwelling Holy Spirit, with human ministers acting as facilitators. This makes it different from most counseling. It is highly effective at teaching the recipient how to hear the voice of the Spirit and to receive his life giving words.

 

This article will show how God helps us to remove deeply embedded lies that are the building blocks for powerful logical arguments that seek to block us from knowing God or believing his promises.

One of the major ways Jesus sets us free from bondage is by identifying and removing these deeply embedded lies and replacing them with truth.

According to Paul, these strongholds are built upon a sinful logic or reasoning that sets us at odds with the truth of God’s Word and tempts us to impugn God’s character.

For though we live as human beings, we do not wage war according to human standards, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not human weapons, but are made powerful by God for tearing down strongholds. We tear down arguments 5 and every arrogant obstacle that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NET1)

Satanic lies are very deceptive, and often we do not even know we believe and serve them until the Holy Spirit shows us.

An important concept for us to grasp is that we can believe one thing in our intellects and quite another thing at the heart level.

We may have good theology at an intellectual level but be practical idolators or atheists at the heart level. What we say we believe may be betrayed by how we act or think. If there is a disconnect between what we say we believe and how we act, there are probably embedded lies hidden deep in our hearts that must be identified and expelled. If we react emotionally and negatively out of proportion to the provocation, that also may point to a lie-based stronghold in our lives.

What we do, say, and think when we are under pressure usually reveals what we really believe down deep.

Unless we allow the Lord to reveal what these lies are and replace them with a revelation of himself and his truth, we likely will stay in bondage. Lie-based strongholds resist most attempts to remove them; so, simple debate is usually fruitless. We cannot reason with fear and unbelief. It takes divine intervention.

Lie-based strongholds are built upon stubbornly held internal arguments and conclusions (or speculations) which are based on our observations and experience of life.

Example of a Logical Stronghold Built on Lies

Over the years I have been privileged to work with many sexual abuse victims. Any person who has experienced the betrayal and traumatic pain associated with abuse as a child at the hands of people who should have protected him or her, will often have great difficulty trusting God for protection as an adult. I think this should be rather obvious.

The argument will probably sound something like the following. God did not protect me from being abused when I was young; so, why should I trust him to do so now? Either he was not able to protect me or chose not to protect me then. Why is anything different now?

This logic seems to be impregnable because it is based on personal experience, which cannot be denied.

We must concede that God, since he is almighty and sovereign, did allow the abuse to happen. Logically, based on his or her interpretation of personal experience, the person holding this position feels justified in concluding that God cannot be trusted. This argument can hold us tenaciously in its grip in spite of clear Biblical teaching that God is our defender and Keeper. (Psalm 121:7-8) This is a perfect example of a lie-based stronghold, one which I have seen God help several people to overcome.

The lie at the root of the stronghold is that God is not trustworthy.

This is the same lie that Satan presented to Eve in the Garden. It is perhaps the most insidious of all lies, especially when we are presented with seemingly inescapable logical proof that it is so. Perhaps you know someone whose faith in God was derailed by such an argument. I do. Anyone captured by this satanic logic is in deep trouble, and without the help of God’s Holy Spirit, will likely stay enslaved by the lie. How does God liberate us?

We tend to believe what we see and experience more than we believe God and his promises because deep down we are fiercely independent in our sin nature.

When we are born-again, we receive a new identity. Our reborn spirit is joined to and loves the Lord. (1 Corinthians 6:17 and 2 Corinthians 5:17). However, even though our spirits are reborn, we still have a connection to Adam’s sinful independence through our yet unresurrected bodies, which the Bible calls “the flesh” (Greek: sarx). We are beings who are a combination of a new creation spirit and an old creation not yet resurrected body. Our souls (mind, will and emotions – the personality) are conflicted as a result. (I have written on this extensively in my series, Living Free in the Spirit.) We have a sort of “split personality.” Part of us loves God deeply and wants to serve him, but the “flesh” still wants to be an outlaw and live off God’s grid.

The “flesh,” still insists on making its own decisions and evaluations instead of relying upon the Lord and trusting his words.

The “flesh” never disappears and cannot be rehabilitated. According to Paul, the “flesh” was crucified with Christ and also must be constantly put to death by us. The flesh wants to be able to provide for itself rather than trust an invisible God. It wants to protect itself, instead of relying on God to be its defender. All of this reveals that we still hold to a presupposition that we are better off on our own in life, which is exactly what prompted Adam and Eve to reject God and choose independence so long ago. They failed in their test.

We must overcome this temptation to opt for self-directed independence, if we are gong to experience the freedom Christ died to give us.

Sinful logic has a very limited perspective and does not factor in God’s wisdom and understanding. It is not built on any sort of revelation of God or faith in his promises. Think of how modern TV shows and movies are written and produced. Most of them present a version life in which God is never in the picture and people fend for themselves. Marx called religion the “opiate of the masses,” a crutch for weak-minded people who cannot handle life on their own. The “flesh” laps up this sort of logic, which is one reason so many fall for the lies behind Marxism and evolution, which are God-denying, man-glorifying approaches to life.

The Way Out

If a person who is captured by such a stronghold wishes to experience freedom, he or she must eventually reject sinful logic and make a decision to rely on what the Bible says about God and his promises.

I can almost hear you thinking, “Yeah, right. That sounds pretty easy, but actually is close to impossible.” Exactly! That is why we need God’s help. When we approach God in prayer, asking for his help, he will never let us down. He is more willing to help us experience freedom than we are to seek it. Jesus already paid the price for our liberation. The Holy Spirit is waiting for us to ask for his help.

Changing how we think about things is called repentance, which comes from the Greek word metanoeo and means literally to “change the mind.” Changing how we think precedes changing who and what we believe.

Repentance moves us from trusting in ourselves to trusting in God.

Repentance and faith are gifts from God. (Acts 5:31 and Ephesians 2:8) Unless God reveals himself to us in a personal way, we cannot repent or believe using only our own abilities. The Holy Spirit is always at work when people truly repent and trust in God from the heart.

Bondage derives from sinful logic, but a heart that turns back to God in simple trust will experience freedom.

That is why it is vital for us to take any of our lie-based logical strongholds directly to the Lord in prayer and ask him to help us with them through his written Word and the Holy Spirit. Lie-based strongholds are always arrogant and proud obstacles that stand between us and knowing God. The only way to destroy such a stronghold is to confront it head on with repentance, humility, and a determination to move forward with faith in God and the truth of his Word. We cannot make it through this process without God’s direct help.

This brings us to story of Gideon, which I will cover in the next article. I will show you how God helped him to confront the lies he believed about himself and God and how he became an overcomer as a result.

Go back to Part 9: All Bondage Is Built on a Lie

Read Part 11: How God Moves Us from Fear to Faith

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Part 9: All Bondage Is Built on a Lie

This is the ninth article in a series entitled Wonderful Counseling. I sometimes use other names for this ministry, such as Personal Prayer Ministry and Biblical Healing and Deliverance. The adjective "wonderful" is used because Jesus is the "wonderful Counselor" of Isaiah 9:6. This ministry attempts to make room for Jesus to personally counsel people by means of the indwelling Holy Spirit, with the human ministers acting as facilitators. This makes it different from most counseling. It is highly effective at teaching the recipient how to hear the voice of the Spirit and to receive his life giving words.

 

The very first attack Satan made against humans was in the form of a lie. It has always been his most effective weapon.

Jesus said the following about our adversary while speaking to the Jewish leaders of his day.

You people are from your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. John 8:44 (NET1)

The enslavement of the human race to sin, death, demonic oppression, and the world system began with a lie. Satan, disguised as a talking snake, suggested to Eve that God did not have her best interests in mind when He forbade her and Adam to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The lying serpent flatly contradicted God’s warning that they would die if they ate it. Instead he promised them that they would become like God, knowing good and evil, something that was obviously very attractive. Eve swallowed the lie hook, line, and sinker, and Adam followed her lead, failing to stand for truth. Believing that first lie and acting upon it opened the door to sin and death through a flood of deception that still works to undermine the revelation of God and our love and devotion to him.

As a result of that first sin in the Garden, every human being enters the world procreated in the image of our first parents, complete with a fallen human nature. The Bible calls it the “old man” or the “flesh”.

As a result of our inheritance from Adam, we are programmed to believe lies and reject God and truth.

Adam and Eve did not have this problem, since God had created them perfectly without any default leaning toward sin. This only shows how powerful deception is. Adam and Eve were unable to resist the lie, even though they did not have a sin nature. Where does that leave us who do? In need of a Savior!

Deception appeals to our inborn sinful desire to be “like God” without having to be dependent upon Him in any way. This is the fundamental nature of sin – self-will in contradiction to God’s will. Since we now have a bias toward deception, Satan easily locks down humanity in a web of lies, with our pride being a willing accomplice in the suppression of truth. We choose to believe that we do not need God, or, even better, that there is no God at all. The deception called evolution perfectly illustrates this. When Darwin first announced his theory, the Russian communist party embraced it as the perfect “scientific” paradigm to support its godless atheism. Evolution is built on the premise that there is no Creator. Rather, the universe simply “happened.” Order and matter proceeded from nothingness and disorder. The second law of thermodynamics guarantees that this is impossible, and even a small child knows that this sort of reasoning, if it can be called that, is ridiculous. Nevertheless, thousands of highly educated people have accepted this “theory” unquestioningly. Today many insist that it be accepted as scientific dogma. It is taught as fact by our public school system and by much of the academic community. This is a willful suppression of truth driven by a determination to be independent from God and deny him the honor he is due, thereby bringing God’s judgment upon us. (Romans 1:18-25)

Our love of the lie is so strong that unredeemed humans choose to suppress any attempt to reveal truth. This is why those who believe in creationism are ridiculed by the media and the followers of evolutionary dogma. This is why our Lord Jesus was persecuted and eventually murdered on a cross.

People do not like the truth. We run from it, hide from it, try to cover it up, and attack it.

Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. 21 But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God. John 3:19-21 (NET1)

But truth will eventually win the day. Jesus, who is the embodiment and definition of truth, will reign victoriously over every form of deception both in our own hearts and in the world. Eventually every knee and every lie will bow before the Lord of Truth!

The refusal to acknowledge and glorify God is behind our seemingly hopeless addiction to deception. Rebellion is the root of our refusal to believe the truth. This is not complicated. If God is Truth, then the desire to be independent from God is the same thing as embracing what is false. Anything that is anti-God is by nature deceptive. Satan can only deceive, because to tell the truth is godly.

The refusal to acknowledge, glorify, and worship God always results in some form of idolatry based on a lie.

Man was created to be a worshiper. If he does not worship the true God, he will worship something else that is a pretender to the throne. Just look at how people idolize movie stars and rock musicians. Evolution attempts to put man at the top of the evolutionary chain, making him a god of sorts, who is accountable to no one but himself.

But What about Me?

But what me? I am a follower of Christ, but I still battle with bondage and oppression. Am I also suffering because I believe a lie? This could well be so, and here is why. In addition to our inborn connection to sinful behavior and thinking called “the flesh” and the general power and deceptiveness of sin itself, bondage derives from four basic sources:

  1. Generational thinking, behavior, and consequences that are passed down along family lines,
  2. Unhealed traumatic pain,
  3. Deeply embedded lies, and
  4. Demonic oppression.

We will cover each of these in great detail in this series of articles.

What Jesus accomplished on the cross and through his resurrection provides deliverance in each of these four areas through the agency of the Holy Spirit.

If we are not experiencing that freedom, there are three possible reasons.

  1. First, we might be ignorant of what Christ has done. In that case, instruction from God’s Word accompanied by repentance, faith, and obedience to that truth will provide the desired liberation.
  2. In the second case, despite sufficient instruction in regarding God’s truth, a deeply embedded lie may still be present that hinders or blocks us from repentance, faith, and obedience. I call these lie-based strongholds, which Paul addressed in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. In this case, Jesus will help us to uncover and remove the lie, which is one of the main reasons for doing Personal Prayer Ministry.
  3. In a third possible scenario, in order to humble us, God may allow some form of oppression to remain in our lives so that we can learn to live by mercy and grace. To my understanding, this is what Paul experienced in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10.

I will concern myself with the first two cases, in both of which there is a lie behind the experience of bondage. The uninstructed person believes a lie simply because he or she never knew the truth that Christ’s finished work actually sets us free. The second person, who is captured by a lie-based stronghold, has chosen to believe a lie that opposes or nullifies God’s truth, quite often without realizing it.

For those of us who have embraced such a lie, it may seem more real than God’s Word, producing a type of practical idolatry in us. Jesus is the truth; so, to believe a lie is idolatry. Sobering, isn’t it?

Sin, by its very nature, is based on the deception that it provides something better than does obedience to God. When we are deceived, we choose the temporary pleasure that sin often affords, along with the death that results, rather than hold out for the eternal rewards associated with obedience to God. This is a form of temporary insanity.

It is only God’s grace ministered by the Holy Spirit that enables anyone to escape the clutches of deception and embrace the truth. In PPM, we ask the Lord to speak his truth to individuals, which breaks the power of the lie.

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth...  John 16:13a (NET1)

May the Lord help us to be lovers of truth and lovers of God!

Go back to Part 8: Inside Out Truth

Read Part 10: How God Removes Deeply Embedded Lies

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