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Part 1 of the "Reach the World" Series
Reach the World
by Aramus Crane, March 18, 2005
Part 1: Reach the WorldPart 2: The Results of Poor Discipling and Church Planting
Part 3: The Uniqueness of Our Message
Part 4: Self-Glorifying Churches Impede the Gospel Message
The war in Iraq continues and the second democracy in the Middle East is born, not due to an internal Christian influence but an external nominally Christian liberating Army. Meanwhile, Europe, mostly nominally Christian is being directed by non-elected rulers that are actively fighting Christian morality. The Pope is grieving over the secularization that led the EU to exclude any reference to God or Christian heritage in the Constitution signed this year. In 2004, Italy's representative to the EU, Rocco Buttiglione, was the only one rejected by the commission. The reason given was his belief that homosexuality and having children outside of a traditional heterosexual marriage were wrong. Furthermore, the EU is extending its reach much further than their own boundaries. Russia passed a bill saying that adultery was a criminal offense and the EU complained. (Wouldn't want any philanderers that so eagerly supported Clinton to feel guilty.) Needless to say, Russia backed down and the bill was never signed. So, it is clear that the EU is a corrupting force and Christians are suffering taxation without representation. Where has Christianity failed in its mission to reach the world when it has little affect over what happens in its own back yard?
Matthew 28:19-20 gives us a charge and a promise: "Go therefore and disciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."
Reaching the world takes more than planting churches. Effectively reaching and transforming the world will happen once God moves in us and we,
- through humility and a change in focus, make disciples and train them to make disciples who make disciples,
- through our organization, demonstrate to the world that society will not fall into disorder should Christians take charge,
- open our minds to recognize what disciple-making methods have worked in the past and use our brains to innovate new methods for new cultures, new people groups, and new generations, and
- through loving each other and the world, demonstrate that the God of Love abides in us.
Three-dimensional discipleship
First of all, we must adopt the right perspective. We must not just train disciples nor must we train disciples that train disciples, but we must train and encourage disciples how to train and motivate disciples to train disciples. Jesus' command did not end at "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 28:19) He continued, "teaching them." (v. 20) Part of that teaching is how to reproduce disciples. That is, we must not only introduce people to Christ, which is 1-dimensional evangelism. Nor should we only evangelize and teach people to evangelize (2-dimensional evangelism). But we must evangelize and train and motivate the new disciples how to disciple people to evangelize and disciple. This is the 3-dimensional evangelism that is often neglected in the church today.| In most churches, water baptisms are sensationalized. The missions bulletin boards are often covered with pictures of lakes or baptismals where new converts are being dunked or sprinkled. The missionaries who want to be glamorized, therefore, pursue these things and often leave the baby Christian there in the water as he jettisons off to some other country revival. This has to end for the world to be transformed by Christ. Perhaps I've gone too far in the other direction and you won't find me in a single picture baptizing anyone, but it makes a point. |
3-Dimensional discipleship: training and encouraging disciples how to train and motivate disciples to train disciples |
Beyond our change in focus, we must be organized. We Christians are well known for our disorganization, with the excuse that it "hinders the moving of the Spirit." We won't go into that debate here except to say that I think that the Holy Spirit is capable of guiding the church in its organization as well as in its execution. If the Holy Spirit can direct a preacher's tongue on the spur of the moment, why can't He guide his hand as he writes out his sermon ahead of time? Doesn't God know the future? The marvelous thing about my God is that before creation, he knew who is going to show up next Sunday, that he will have had an argument with his wife. He knows today what to tell me to put in my sermon to address the couple for the argument they will have tomorrow! Some people's god isn't that way. Some have to go to the pulpit with no clue what they are going to say, hem and haw a bit, before they finally hear a word from God. They SHOUT to make their poorly prepared and wandering sermon more convincing. If he happens to make sense that day, people will come to him and say that he was anointed and if he doesn't, they blame the demons for battling him. Perhaps it wasn't the demons but the lack of time and concern that the pastor had toward his audience and his message. Not all my sermons are good, but they are a whole lot better than if I didn't spend hours in prayer, listening for God's guidance. The same goes for the activities, ministries, and businesses of some Christians. Satan often becomes the scapegoat for Christian laziness and indifference. Perhaps the reason you forgot the microphone wasn't Satan's confusing you but because you should have inventoried all the items the night before!
Just as disciples can reproduce disciples, foreign missions can produce not only churches, but reproduce missions in the countries where they work.
"Protestant
missions, being modality-minded, have tended to assume that merely
modalities, e.g., churches, need to be established... In this
blindness they have merely planted churches and have not effectively
concerned themselves to make sure that the kind of mission structure
within which they operate also be set up on the field." "In this
blindness they have merely planted churches and have not effectively
concerned themselves to make sure that the kind of mission structure
within which they operate also be set up on the field."--(Winter
RD. "The Two Structures of God's Redemptive Mission" Perspectives: A Reader.
p. 220)
This is the goal of our ministry. But when we presented our vision to our "church planting" mission, they were not interested, so we had to find another mission. This is Dr. Winter's point. If a church planting mission has a structure, efficient training, and effective missionaries, they are doing just the things that should be reproduced in the field. Why don't they train churches how to be structured and organized, how to develop efficient training programs, and recruit effective missionaries? Why do some groups think that is not involved in "planting churches?" We have learned not to leave baby Christians to fend for themselves. Equally, I believe that a church can't be considered "planted" until they are producing missionaries.
Part 1: Reach the World
Part 2: The Results of Poor Discipling and Church Planting
Part 3: The Uniqueness of Our Message
Part 4: Self-Glorifying Churches Impede the Gospel Message
© 2005