Growth vs. Mission, Part 3

We've been exploring the supposed tension between discipleship and evangelism in our last few posts. Which should the church pursue first: outreach or growth? Should evangelism or discipleship be the church's focus? As we discussed, once we understand the call of Jesus as a call to intimate relationship with Himself rather than a mere change in our eternal address, we quickly find that the pursuit of discipleship and missional outreach is in fact one and the same.

What would be some of the practical results in our lives if we truly believed that discipleship and evangelism are one and the same? First, our message would take on the radical, dramatic nature that our Leader always intended it to be. As Jesus said, "those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples" (Luke 14:33). Rather than softpedaling the gospel, proclaiming such a radical call to discipleship conveys a far more difficult message; it's far easier to say a prayer to obtain "fire insurance" than to leave everything to follow Jesus! Though this call to discipleship might be radical and difficult for many to accept, it is at the same time a message that the world around us longs to hear. To paraphrase Shane Claiborne, our problem is not that we challenge people too much, but that we don't challenge them enough! The world will not beat down our door for legal or doctrinal requirements, but they will beat down our door if we demonstrate an earnest, intimate, and personal relationship with our God! This is what prompted the disciples, after witnessing Jesus' deep connection to the Father, to ask "Lord, teach us to pray" (Lk. 11:1). If we as Christians were to be known as people of love, depth, and intimate connection to God, we can expect nothing less than was the case with our Leader.

Second, our definition of what constitutes “the church” would undergo a radical shift. Traditionally, evangelism has been defined as the attempt to bring people across the line of faith in Jesus, or as coarse as it may sound, to “bring people into the club” of the church. Once they cross the line of faith, the next goal in the sequence becomes spiritual growth and discipleship in the ways of Jesus. Obviously, such thinking assumes a fenced or “bounded set” view of the church, where a clear line or fence exists between those inside the church and outside the church. Though this fenced definition of the church has validity to some extent (one is not truly part of the “Body of Christ” unless they actually have crossed that line of faith, for instance), it is only of value if we are concerned with the bare minimum requirements for salvation. And as we have discussed, Jesus calls human beings to loving relationship with Himself, an offer and challenge that transcends the bare minimum requirements of law.

However, once we understand the call of Jesus as the same call to radical discipleship for both those inside and outside the church, we will naturally exchange our traditional bounded set view of the church for one of a centered set, or movement towards the “well” of Jesus. In this centered set view of the church, a church community ceases to be defined as a people who have crossed a mere doctrinal boundary, but as a radical discipleship movement towards this center “well” of Jesus Himself. Under this model, all are welcome in the church who are moving towards the well of Jesus, irrespective of their distance from Him. Conversely, those who are moving away from the well (even if right next to the well originally!) can expect to be challenged and corrected in such a community. Most importantly, the centered set model removes the too-prevalent “us vs. them” mentality and allows the church to incarnate Jesus to a watching world while losing none of the Body of Christ’s identity in the process.

Thirdly, if we really believed discipleship and outreach were one and the same, we as Christians would quickly be liberated from the "pressure to evangelize." When “sharing our faith” is reduced to a persuasive sales pitch to “make a decision” for Jesus, such efforts naturally take the form of pressure to both ourselves and our listeners. Most of us know that feeling of anxiety rising in the pit of our stomach when spiritual topics arise in conversation in the workplace, for instance; in the traditional evangelism paradigm, a clever turn of the conversation towards the person of Jesus becomes the very essence of outreach! “All of the effort I have put into this relationship now comes down to this moment!”, we reason. When “putting in a word for Jesus” in hopes of a conversion becomes our focus in this way, we naturally will feel immense pressure and anxiety in that moment.

However, when we recognize Jesus calls mankind to discipleship rather than a mere decision, outreach and mission takes an entirely different, pressure-free form. Since Jesus calls us to make disciples rather than converts, I am now free to simply share the work of God in my own life, and can do so in a free, non-anxious, non-coercive manner. I can now share this work no less freely than I do with my believing friends or family, as I recognize the call of Jesus upon our lives as the same call He extends to those far from Him! As I see the work of God in every person around me, calling them to devotion to Himself, I can now affirm that wooing of the Spirit wherever it is encountered, helping those around me recognize the call of Jesus on that level of their deepest desires. When we exchange the evangelism paradigm for one of discipleship, sharing the legal requirements of salvation in every situation is no longer mandatory, and I am now free to exhibit with my life as well what devotion to Jesus looks like. Needless to say, such a pressure free approach naturally would produce a response to the gospel that coercive sales pitches cannot.

By His grace, may His church truly understand and accept His call to discipleship in this way, and seek to make disciples of all nations as our Leader has commanded!

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.

Growth vs. Mission: Which Is It?

For years, many in the church have struggled to reconcile the apparent tension between discipleship and evangelism, or between growth and outreach. What is the primary mission of the church? Is it to reach those outside, or is it to build up those inside? Is church primarily for the unbeliever, or for the believer? Should mission flow out of community, or should community flow out of mission? Should it be growth, discipleship, or community taking center stage in our church, or should we strive first for evangelism, outreach, or mission?

The answers to such questions are not irrelevant theological points: rather, they are of critical and far-reaching importance, as the DNA and basic structure of nearly every church community flows out of their answers to these questions. In an attempt to resolve this tension, some churches make their primary aim to reach those outside the church. As those far from God are now brought into relationship with Him, they reason, community will naturally emerge in the pursuit of that common goal. Still others lean towards equipping and building up the believer in their meetings, assuming that if that goal is achieved, mission will naturally flow out of their lives during the week. Nearly all churches fall into one of these two camps to some degree, and they can often adhere to their position on this issue passionately; witness the deep objections many believers have over the "seeker service" pioneered by Willow Creek, for example. Even many church splits over seemingly trivial issues, such as updating to a "contemporary worship service" for example, are at their core splits over this same fundamental question: who is this church really for? Is it for those outside or inside? Should we alter our structure for the sake of those outside our community, or should we focus on keeping the insiders happy? Deep down, most Christians can't believe you can do both, and they tend to pick one side or the other. It is this supposed contradiction between discipleship/growth and evangelism/outreach that fuels much of the divisions in today's church.

So which should take precedence, you ask? Evangelism or discipleship? Though both approaches have their validity and solid Biblical footing, picking either side in this debate betrays a fundamentally flawed logic: that community, discipleship, and spiritual growth is naturally at odds with outreach, mission, and evangelism, and that one cannot be pursued simultaneously along with the other. But is it possible that discipleship and evangelism can not only be done together, but in fact should be and are one and the same?

We will explore this idea further in our next post.