Following the Leader

Posted on Sep 18, 2011 in The Church | 1 comment

One of the first books about “how to do church” that I ever read was Rick Warren’s book, “The Purpose Driven Church.”  I am a very analytical, efficiency minded, business trained person – a product of the modern era.  Reading this book, I thought I had discovered the Holy Grail of church growth methodology.  I believed Warren when he wrote that “healthy things grow” and it was clear to me that if you simply applied the purpose driven method, your church would grow and you would fulfill the mission of Christ.

It was so logical.  It came with charts and graphs showing how the church could efficiently produce individuals who were equipped to help grow the church.  It was an easy four step process that any church anywhere could apply.  We even had a baseball diamond as our metaphor so it was clear which direction the flow was moving and which step signaled a “Home Run.”  Each base came complete with curriculum that could be contextualized to any setting.

1^st Base:  Get people to commit to membership (aka attend church regularly)

2^nd Base:  Get people to commit to maturity (aka study the Bible regularly)

3^rd Base:  Get people to commit to ministry (aka serve others)

Home Base:  Get people to commit to mission (aka bring others faith/church regularly)

I worked in three different churches that all adopted this methodology for how to make disciples/grow the church.  Two with minimal success and one became the fasted growing church in America going from 8 people to 8,000 in 8 years simply by following these easy steps.  I was a very strong believer in this model and I thought Rick Warren was a genius.  I still think that this model brought the church into a whole new era of critical thinking about our purpose or mission and how we can best achieve that mission.

However, this linear approach to discipleship with its heavy emphasis on “teaching” and “church growth” has its limitations and has resulted in some unfortunate and damaging assumptions.

When we look at the Christian life as a series of steps, the assumption is that you have to pass through one level before you can begin the next.  It is presumed that you are not prepared or equipped for service until you believe the right things about Jesus and have learned the bible.  This model also assumes that leading people to Jesus (aka “get people to go to church”) is the ultimate goal of the whole process.  While not a bad goal it has led to some practices that are questionable like serving the poor with the hidden agenda of recruiting them as church members or getting them “saved” with little interest in actually getting to know them.

While each of these “bases” is backed by strong bible passages, my frustration is that I see very little resemblance between this model and the way Jesus prepared his disciples.

Jesus started with his first sermon clearly defining his mission through the words of the prophet Isaiah –

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them,

“Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:18-21)

He then started to invite people to join him with the simple words “come follow me.” (Luke 5:27)  Jesus did not send them to a bible study class or question them about their beliefs.   He simply invited them to go on mission with him.

Jesus immediately began doing what he said he was here to do.  He began healing the sick and bringing good news to the poor saying,

Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil,
because of the Son of Man.

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

But woe to you who are rich,
for you have already received your comfort.
Woe to you who are well fed now,
for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will mourn and weep.
Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,
for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.  (Luke 6:20-26)

The good news is that God loves the poor, oppressed and despised of this world.  God hears their cries.  God comforts them in their brokenness.  They have not been abandoned.  They not only heard the good news of God’s love but saw the power of God became manifest through miracles and wonders.  So, they too began to follow Jesus with no real understanding of who he was.

He instructed all who were following him with these words,

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. ”  (Luke 6:37-38)

It sickens me when Christians speculate about the eternal fate of other people.  It is clearly not a biblical practice yet those who do it claim to be the strongest bible believers among us.

The only measure of a person I can find that Jesus gave us is to look at a person’s fruit.  Jesus said,

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit…The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:43-45)

Jesus also put very little emphasis on words of adoration but instead focused on obedience saying,

Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.  But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete. (Luke 6:46-49)

After the disciples followed Jesus for a while, Jesus sent them out and gave them the authority to heal and proclaim the Kingdom of God. (Luke 9:1-6)  When they returned they told Jesus all that they had done.

It is only after following, watching, listening to Jesus teachings, doing what Jesus did, and sharing their acts of obedience with Jesus, that Peter declared that Jesus was the Messiah of God.(Luke 9:20)  So worship grew out of following, listening, doing and witnessing.

Yet, our modern approach to discipleship is to start with worship and belief.   Actually “doing what Jesus did” is seen as something reserved for more mature believers.  We have almost completely lost the ability to lead by example which was the primary means of teaching that Jesus used.

The most effective teaching is teaching that brings together instruction and example:

Step 1:  I do, you watch

Step 2:  I do, you help

Step 3: You do, I help

Step 4: You do, I clap

This process is much closer to Jesus discipleship methods.  The focus is on who is doing what Jesus did. It assumes that “learning” and “believing” are gained through “following” and “doing”, instead of the other way around.  While putting a bunch of people in a classroom and teaching them out of a workbook is far more efficient, the Christian faith is not a “head trip.”  It is something we have to walk out in the flesh together and experience in the spirit.  In contemporary language, Jesus used an “on-the-job training” model.  Yet we have created very “academic” institutional approaches to discipleship that assume that faith can be taught instead of caught.

While I believe faith is a gift, it is also a fruit -a fruit that grows out of obedience.  The disciples fist followed, as they followed they heard the good news and experienced miracles, then they themselves performed miracles, and then they truly believed.  They believed to the depths of their souls and were willing to die for what they believed.

Is our current discipleship method growing people who do what Jesus did?  People who bring God’s blessing and love to the poor?  People who heal the sick and broken hearted?  People who follow Jesus so fervently that they are willing to die for their beliefs?  Or, have we simply produced people who say the right things in worship, believe the right things about Jesus, study the bible, serve one another and invite people to church?

What if we loved the people the world hates instead of “serving” them?  What if we saw them as “blessed by God” instead of “needy and broken?”  What if we lived the word instead of “studying” it? What if every Christian entered into the margins of society with the goal of sharing the message of God’s blessing and love with no other agenda? What if we simply started doing what Jesus did and invited others to come along for the journey?

I believe the margins would disappear and Christ prayer of “The Kingdom come on earth” would reach its fulfillment.  I think Christians who went on mission with Christ would grow into fully devoted disciples as they left the comfort of the church walls and started following Jesus wherever it is he is leading us.

I met this week with a group of Christian educators and pastors who are asking the question, “Where does following Jesus and doing what he did fit into our current discipleship models?”, “How can we form people not only into “believers” but more importantly into “followers?”

This is one of the most exciting conversations I have been privileged to be a part of.

What advice would you give to this group of Christian educators as we embark on this journey?