Friendly Fire From Not So Friendly People

Those who are up to speed with the latest books and talks on church movement, post modernity, the emerging/emergent church, being missional, etc. know that the church abroad is not fairing so well. I've read several statistics that I'm not certain I know the validity to but I can vouch for most of them saying that in my experience, the churches I've witnessed are as bad if not worse than what these statistics express.

I've read recently that only 10% of all evangelical churches are growing at ANY rate numerically and that only 1% of the 10% is growing because of new conversions. The other 9% is growing because the 90% of the original 100% is failing/dying/or becoming increasingly irrelevant therefore losing its members to the up and coming relevant church who has a sleeker service. Not seeker but sleeker. So they are growing by transfers. Christian nomads which will be another post for another day. And I'd be scared to know the statistics of how many churches are REALLY growing where it counts, Spiritually; of which we will NEVER really know. God is the only one who will be able to certainly know that.

I've also just heard that it takes 85 Christians, 1 year to evangelize 1 person to Christ. You know the joke, "how many blonds does it take to change a light bulb?" Well, there's a new running joke, "How many Christians does it take to equal one real Christian?" The answer: 85. It's no joke though. I watched this leadership seminar DVD on evangelism where I heard this statistic and the individuals who were on this panel addressed this issue. Some notable individuals were; Lee Strobel, Ewin McManus, Dan Kimball, to name a few. These are highly successful pastors and the tone I got from them was that the church was in trouble. It seemed as though they carried the attitude of Nehemiah when he saw the the wall of Israel lay in ruin and was smoldering for all to see and mock God. The panel had some different views on why the church was experiencing such a downward turn however, most of them agreed to one thing. They took the statistic of 85 Christians converting 1 person in 1 year and calculated that it would take 850 Christians to convert 10 people to Christ in one year. Which then one of them commented, "And really it doesn't take 850 people, it's really 10 people out of the 850 which means 840 of the people aren't doing anything. And all of them paused for a moment acknowledging what had just been said and wondering if it was okay to expose the truth at this time. But without a doubt, everyone on that panel agreed and had a look of disappointment and angst. And immediately when that was said I agreed too.

And breaking this down into reality, it doesn't literally take 85 people to evangelize one person. That's just a statistic. It really only takes 1 person to evangelize another. What the statistic communicates is that there is only 1 person per 85 people who is WILLING to evangelize another. Let that sink in for a second.

Now, we'll address the obvious question that comes after acknowledging such a depressing truth. WHY? And this was asked on the panel. One guy said, "Well the church needs to train their people better." And at that I got angry. I absolutely hated that response. Are you kidding me? Training?!?! You think we're at a place in life, culture, and history where we have a lack of training or access of knowledge. We live in a time that is like no other. If you want to know how to do something, basically like the Matrix when Neo wanted to know how to do Karate, all it took was for Tank to click a few buttons on the keyboard, move the mouse around and upload the program into NEO and whhhaaalaa, Neo knew Karate. We can access videos, sermons, outlines, training seminars, college level classes on every topic at the click of a button. And we aren't limited to where we can access those things. I'm typing this article up in the food court of our local mall while connected to the WIFI of Panera Bread.

SO the question then gravitates to, what keeps us from that information? Well, I believe, (along with those who quickly disagreed with that individual on that panel), that there is another issue that is standing in the way of the 84 who don't evangelize there neighbor, friend, family member. Drum Roll. It is profound. Here it is. CARING OR EMPATHY.

I've always said, I'd rather have 10 people who are jacked up for Jesus who care about others than 800 cultured Christians who have gone to Bible College and know all the answers. I know that for many, AND I WILL STRESS NOT ALL, of those who have been exposed to "Training" in the knowledge of God and His Ways, some of them have a difficult time caring about people. This is why God warns in His word in 1 Corinthians 8:1, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." They tend to approach others as if they were the enemy and the enemy has one option; be assimilated or die. And I say that somewhat sarcastically but for many of these thoroughly Bible trained assassins, converting someone is rather impersonal. And most of them wield their swords, sharpened by years of training, reading, and arguing with like minded people ready to rip up those who have a different outlook on things. They tend to get into "I'm right rally's" and they don't listen. I'd much rather take 10 humble individuals who care. People who care about Jesus, care about others, and care about growing as Christ followers and serving Him. People who have not forgotten the gravity of their sin, people who have no pride in their works for Jesus, people who are sacrificial and want for others.

John Piper says that he can quickly smell the theology of hell in a church by the immediacy in which they carry the gospel message. I love that quote. I'd also say you can smell the level at which people CARE for others in a church by the WAY & immediacy in which they carry the gospel message. You can have a greatly developed theology on hell and still not care about others. It is sad to see people who come into church for 30 years never leading another to the faith that they have proclaimed for so long. It makes you wonder if they really know the Jesus of the Bible. Because if they did, you'd know that they would have different fruit coming from their lives. The Bible does reconcile this issue of church goers who might attend every single week, may even teach bible lessons to children, yet they will go to hell.

Matthew 7:21-23 21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

And its usually these people that we build our churches around and cater to. Why? Well, I've witnessed leaderships make decisions, (based on these obese, gluttonous, couch potato Christians who over-indulge on the Bible yet do nothing to give it away), to keep their tithe checks coming in.

I do not believe the church will reverse these trends that we see until the church gets to a very deep dark place. A place that is difficult, a place where it has nothing to offer people in terms of ease and comfort to the flesh. Of course we are offering ease, comfort, peace in the spirit through Jesus Christ, but those who have followed Christ for long know that the true Christian life is not easy and is not without its burdens. I'd argue that if you become a Christ follower, your flesh life, your temporary life here on earth will be attacked more than ever. You will sacrifice much more than ever before. It is not easy. BUT in the greatest paradox ever, it is the most gratifying, fulfilling, satisfying, purposeful, exciting, life you could ever have. When you are created for something and you finally begin to do what you were created to do, your life just feels right. BUT getting back to my original point, I believe that the church will have to go through a period of persecution, hardship, therefore purging in order to weed out those who are there for selfish reasons; any other reason than to glorify the creator will not suffice.

I've been a part of a church replant over the past few months, almost a year, and I've been heartened and disheartened by several things. I would say that I've been encouraged more than discouraged. BUT the discouragement that I've had to face has come from areas I did not expect; but I guess that's the nature of discouragement anyway.

I've been surprised over and over again by the lack of faith in those who call themselves Christians. When arriving, I've had individuals come to me and talk bad about others and then smile and bless them in public. What's interesting is that all the "holy, righteous people" (I say this because that is the attitude they gave off) who were leading the church before I got there warned me about certain individuals; to stay away from them; they're trouble and a waste of time. They'd even say things like this about family members. Well, come to find out, Judas was warning me of Peter being a hot head. I was so discouraged by what I was seeing. The so-called leaders were not and those who were pushed down, out of influence were the ones that God wanted to use. I cannot imagine how many churches this is the case in. It was the case in the last church I was at before here.

The church I currently lead, All the pastors and leaders of ministry have come primarily from the previous church I was at, however, most of these individuals were kept from leading there because the physically older individuals who were in formal leadership positions felt threatened by the young informal leaders. The pain that I've experienced in my life has most often come from so-Christians. When will we get to a point where we can make that a marginal experience rather than the norm? I'm sick and tired of the Christians who lead out of an imperialistic attitude, an "I'm right, you're wrong and going to hell and I'm happy about it" attitude, an "I was here first" attitude, an "I'm saved and that's all that matters" attitude? I'm ready to find people who have the heart that CARES. I don't give a rip if they don't have scriptures memorized like some or that they haven't received a college degree in Bible seminary. I don't care if they "aren't the smoothest speakers" or haven't been in the church long enough. When will the gospel message and the indwelling of the promised Holy Spirit be enough to qualify someone to lead others to Jesus? What is sad is church leaders have read & heard things like this and they usually smile piously knowing they are the ones in control and disregard it as, "well that's not how the real world works." That is sad to me.

It is my calling for the rest of my life to make sure that those who God is calling has an opportunity to join Him in His mission. It is my mission to throw blocks for them all the way to my grave. I holistically feel that my primary roll right now is to protect those who can't protect themselves from the religious community. There are people sitting out there that have no idea that they are going to be a leader in a church in 5 years. Right now they are the furthest thing from a Christian but God has a plan for them. I want to make sure they have a place in our church.

I feel like our church mission is like John the Baptist in a way, paving the way for those who God will use. I know that there is a large group of people who will only be equipped with the love of Christ in their hearts and the Holy Spirit and it will be by His power that others will come to know Jesus through them. And it will be through their weakness God will glorify Himself and shame the wise. I pray that I will see the day that God lifts up His church through the simple gospel message and love and through those who are not "professionals." My prayer right now for my church is that God would give us CARING people.