Growth vs. Mission- Part 2

So as we began to discuss in our last post: which should be the primary focus of the church: growth or evangelism? Is discipleship at odds with outreach...or should they in fact be one and the same? As Ed Waken says, "Discipleship is the new evangelism." Is this in fact correct?

I was in a discussion with a friend of mine recently that gave me a new insight into this question. Our discussion revolved around the age-old question, "who really is a Christian?" As we sought to answer this question, we came to Matthew 7, where Jesus says some of the most sobering words in all of Scripture: "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!" (Matt. 7:21,22). In this passage, Jesus' point is evident: Jesus cares little for religious and outward acts of obedience, but will have only one interest on the day of judgment: did we truly know Him? Obviously, such knowing is not a mere intellectual understanding or belief of things about Him; as James says, "the devils also believe [in such a sense], and tremble" (Jas. 2:19). Just because I know where my wife was born, her date of birth, and so on does not mean I truly know her; to know her on a personal level is a level of intimacy that far surpasses mere intellectual understanding. Thus, it's clear that Jesus' point is that He will care little on that day about our moral achievements, but will only be interested in the depth of our relationship with Him; did we know Him, and live in intimate, loving relationship with Him? As many have rightly said, Jesus came to offer us not religion, but relationship; an intimate relationship with the King of the Universe. Just as Paul counted his previous religious accomplishments as "rubbish... compared to "the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Phil. 3:7), there is only one thing that matters to our Lord: that we learn to walk in a loving relationship with our Him our Friend and King. This love relationship is the ultimate goal and purpose of the redemption Christ purchased for us at the Cross.

After we discussed these ideas, we then asked the obvious next question: what does it look like to know and be in relationship with Jesus in this way? If those who are truly "in Christ" are only those who are truly in relationship with Him, how can we know if that is indeed us? Where is the dividing line between the "saved" and "unsaved"? Perhaps you have wrestled with this very question. If the only thing Jesus cares about is if we are in relationship with Him...then where do you draw the line between real believers and just pretenders? To religious and analytical minds like you and me, face it: we naturally want a dividing line less nebulous and ill-defined. At the end of the day, we really want to know who's in and who's out, don't we?

However, behind all these questions lies our real question: what is the bare, irreducible minimum for salvation? What is the least I must do to make it to Heaven when I die? If our only aim is to discover the minimum requirements for "knowing Jesus," then to quote Paul in a different context "we are of all men most miserable" (1 Cor. 15:19). In fact, one wonders if we can truly know Jesus personally at all while asking such questions, for pursuit of the bare minimum stands diametrically opposed to the concept of love itself. If I were to ask my wife, "what is the bare minimum I have to do to love you?", clearly that proves I do not understand love to begin with, does it not? Rather, if I truly love my wife, I will not need a checklist of requirements to relate to her properly. Similarly, instead of seeking to understand the bare minimum requirements for salvation, should we not rather be asking how a passionate, radical, and loving relationship with Jesus is truly pursued...as this is all Jesus desires for us anyway?

Sadly, the vast majority of what the church has traditionally called "evangelism" over the last few decades has revolved around this same preoccupation with these bare minimum legal requirements. Over the last few decades, we have reduced "believing in Jesus" to merely accepting doctrinal requirements rather than the passionate pursuit of a reckless Lover. In our obsession over winning "converts" to Jesus and seeing them resultingly cross over from death to life (at least in the sense of their eternal destiny, but when limited to this is a diminished understanding of eternal life!), we have come to implicitly view salvation as a end to itself, rather than the mere beginning of God's ultimate goal of a loving relationship with Him. Is it any wonder that with this "minimum requirement" view of salvation, being largely content to just get people over the "official" line of faith, that we've so longed proclaimed we find discipleship and outreach at odds?

So which should the church pursue first: outreach or growth? Evangelism or discipleship? If, as already discussed, mankind living in loving relationship with Himself is God's ultimate desire, should we not stress the call of Jesus to discipleship and loving devotion to Himself...rather than the calcified bare minimum requirements for salvation? Is getting people to confess Christ and say a prayer all it's cracked up to be? God has a far more glorious call to us than this "fire insurance" mentality! Maybe this is why Jesus said "go into all the world and make disciples" rather than "go into all the world and preach salvation," for His call to follow Himself is issued equally to both believer and unbeliever. Indeed, our salvation is found in our discipleship! When we understand salvation as this overarching call to discipleship, the supposed tension between discipleship and evangelism quickly vanish. In the light of Christ's call to relationship with Himself, we find that the pursuit of spiritual growth and missional outreach is in fact one and the same.

So with such theological conclusions in hand, how should they affect our walk with Jesus and our missional impact in the world? What implications does it have? We will discuss this further in our next post.