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Offer it and They Will Come
Mark Wilson • October 13, 2022
The Biggest Myth in Your Church!
Jesus’ primary directive to his apostles and disciples before he ascended into heaven was to “go and make disciples of all nations.” Jesus added that they should “baptize them and teach them to obey all the commands he had given them.” Jesus’s instruction to his followers was filled with a lot of action verbs - go, make, baptize, and teach. So how did we turn that proactive disciple making decree into a reactive scheduling of worship, Bible studies and service, once a week, month or quarter?
John tells us at the end of his Gospel that “there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (John 21:25) So, I guess my question is how do we think that our disciple-making tools can be limited to the weekly sermon and pastor Bible Study?
Unfortunately, one of the great myths that the church in the USA has perpetuated since the early 1900’s is the idea that “if you build it they will come.” It was a strategy that worked wonderfully during the post World War II era until the late 1970’s; build a church in the middle of a community and open the doors. That strategy lost its effectiveness in the post Vietnam war era and unfortunately, the churches that were built on that foundation are struggling to connect with people on this side of the COVID pandemic.
In the last 100 years, we also transposed that “growth” strategy to our disciple-making process. We would simply schedule a Bible study, promote it in the bulletin and newsletter, and then set out the folding chairs hoping that “they would come.” But people in the 21st century are looking for more, to not only be taught Bible history and lessons but to engage with their purpose in life.
A good example is today’s young people, Generation Z, ages 10 - 25. They have grown up in school , even public schools, to earn service hours for recognition, requirement, and even to graduate. The 19 to 21 year old college fraternity students I work with perform more community service hours each semester than I did in my entire 4 year career in the mid-1980’s (I mean, Gordon Gecko was our hero back then). Many of these students still view service as a requirement to be satisfied, but many more have adopted over the years an altruistic motivation to give back. But very few of these students grew up in a church where serving your neighbor was affirmed as a proactive way to become disciples of Jesus and given an understanding why we serve in the first place.
Today’s culture, post-COVID Pandemic, has also been conditioned to engage with information, media, and learning in new ways, at all age groups. During the COVID Quarantines when churches, schools, government offices and many businesses were closed to the public, we had to communicate, learn, and transact in digital channels. We did our jobs, went to school, worshiped, and consumed entertainment all online in our homes. Who needs an encyclopedia (Gen Y and Z, just Google it) when you can pull out your phone and ask Siri or Alexa a question and they will find you the answer, and probably an explanatory video or two as well!
Many churches embraced (most were forced to use) Zoom and other streaming technologies to deliver worship and Christian education during the shutdowns. But they were simply packaging the same worship and the same Bible studies and broadcasting them online, as if you were sitting in the room. And as soon as the quarantines were lifted, they raced back to the sanctuaries and fellowship halls for worship and Bible study. But the culture has been transformed and people demand to control their engagement with and consumption of work, learning, shopping, and entertainment. Meaning they want to view and learn on their own time on their preferred media.
The biggest shortcoming of our ‘build it and they will come' disciple-making strategy that is glaring in this new culture is we spent decades forcing our congregations to engage with their own discipleship on our terms. Worship is Sundays at 11am, Bible Study is Tuesday mornings and Wednesday evenings, Service Saturdays are the second weekend every month! We have always asked our people to fit their round pegs (discipleship goals) into the church’s square holes (discipleship programming).
If the Church expects to continue to make an impact by making disciples, as Jesus commanded, then we have to adapt our methods to reach people in a new culture. PLEASE NOTE, I DID NOT SAY ADAPT OUR TEACHING!
The teaching is not the problem, as a matter of fact it's the solution that more people need to embrace. What we have to adapt are our attitudes about, delivery methods for, and goals regarding making more disciples in the 21st century!
Stay tuned for the next blog post if you want to dive deeper into building a 21st century discipleship church.
Pastors and church leaders are reading and talking a lot about discipleship these days. Most view it as a means to reconnect with our congregants that haven’t returned to worship, which I think is a feasible approach. But it won’t be successful if you are relying on the same old methods and programs that were mostly unsuccessful before the pandemic. (See previous Blog Post - Offer it and They Will Come) . Let’s face the truth, the reason most people are not coming back to church on this side of the COVID chaos is they were barely connected to the church in the first place! In order to reach people to reconnect or even connect for the first time using discipleship, we have to be adaptive and proactive in our disciple-making process. We have to be willing to build custom journeys and incorporate new tools to engage people where they truly are, as we have proclaimed for decades, and not asking people to come toward us on a one-way street. If you are serious about building a church culture that is focused on making disciples, then here are 4 steps and their corresponding myths to becoming proactive disciple makers. Create a culture of intentionality. The myth in this step is that most church leaders have always assumed they were doing discipleship - “it will take care of itself because we are a church.” This has been a dangerous myth for the church because it has developed a culture of complacency regarding their disciple making process. I use the word process with discipleship frequently because we have to embrace the idea that there are steps to connecting, and next steps for engaging, and that everyone has their own unique journey. Being intentional with discipleship means creating a culture where it is not only expected that people take next steps, but it is quite easy for congregants to onboard themselves into their discipleship journey. But the key to connecting more people to your discipleship process is to engage their issues and understand how to help them not only overcome their problems but find the purpose God has for them and live into it. Design a plan and a blueprint for your disciple-making process. The myth the church has to overcome in this step is that the disciple making process will happen spiritually. Don’t get me wrong, we must let the Holy Spirit be the ultimate guide in our plan. But we can’t sit back and just let nature take its course. Remember, Jesus gave us a directive to make disciples that was chock full of action verbs. Your plan has to start with not just a list of classes for people to take, but at the very beginning. And that beginning is engaging the minds and attentions of people that are seeking spiritual guidance in their life, whether they are aware of it or not. The plan begins at the points where we connect with people and progresses through next steps and ways to help them engage their purpose through growth and service. The key to a successful plan is not scripting out a step by step process for discipleship but understanding everyone has a unique journey and being adaptive and creative to guide people on their unique path. The blueprint is how you will implement disciple-making in your church. How will we identify where people are on their journey, who is not currently engaged, how do we guide them on their unique pathway, and what are the tools we need in all aspects of the plan are all questions that your blueprint needs to answer. Think of your blueprint as the nuts and bolts of how your process will work. And just like modern architecture, think of open and connected spaces for people to gather and mingle and not just about specific rooms and hallways where people are herded and cramped. Train your disciple-making team. The myth we must overcome here is that all you need for your disciple-making process are a stack of King James Bibles and folding chairs. We use phrases in the church like “iron sharpens iron” which is true. The key to successfully making more disciples in your church is through relationships. Our example is how Jesus built disciples. He hand selected 12 followers to personally lead, teach, and develop and these people changed the world! In order for your church to successfully implement your process, you are going to need to train people that will help disciples in the journey move along their path. These guides don’t have to teach, necessarily, or even be on staff. But they have to be committed to coaching folks to take their most relevant next step and find the resources they need in and outside of the church to live into their purpose. And these guides have to be willing to develop relationships with the disciples they are guiding. The training these guides need will be an intimate view of your discipleship plan and a comprehensive understanding of your blueprint. The ideal guides are gifted in relationships and are organized so they can efficiently direct folks on their journey. You must give them coaching on how to be coaches and an in-depth understanding of the tools at their disposal. Embrace flexibility and change. The myth that is dangerous in our disciple-making culture here is that we don’t need to change, “my Bible study stays pretty full.” The questions I would ask in this situation are how many new participants do you have, what is the retention rate for all and new participants, who in your congregation is not engaged in a discipleship activity, who is engaged and where are they in the journey. The answers to these questions will give you a clear understanding of how well you are making disciples, and I would venture to guess there only a couple of people reading this could accurately answer all these questions. That is why we have to embrace change, our disciple-making paths are more than just Bible studies that meet in the Fellowship Hall. Culture and technology all around us is changing rapidly, both for good and bad, so if the church is going to keep making new disciples as Jesus instructed, we have to keep up with the pace of progress. We have to be flexible to adapt to the developmental needs of our people so they can live into the disciples God is calling them to become! I hope everyone that reads this is thinking and re-thinking their approach to making disciples in our current culture. I truly believe the above 4 steps can guide you to being successful making disciples in the 21st century! Stay tuned for more tools and resources to help you complete your plan and design your disciple-making blueprint.