The narrative in America is that Jesus and His church are an analog concept in a digital world. Maybe you’ve read somber articles that say cultural times have changed and society is moving away from the values and norms we knew just a generation ago. An analog church is outdated. This trend is being defined as the “post-Christian era in the west.” Is the answer to start a disciple making movement?
We are neck-deep in a sentiment that says the Church is just one of many outdated social institutions, just like corporations, Congress, banks, and the police—who have lost public trust. Somehow the eternal church has so enmeshed itself in western culture that it is indistinguishable from institutions that come and go.
What is really going on? We are in the preparation phase for a new season in which the Father will awaken the Church from the secular slumber that has gripped much of the West.
What’s Different Around the World
Why has the good news of Jesus gained so much more cultural traction around the world than among Westerners today? Here is one possible factor: Westerners have slowly embraced a different view of Jesus than most everyone else around the world. Somehow the pop culture trend is emerging in the West that, Jesus is associated with institutional oppression and status quo. Anyone who has read the Gospels knows that Jesus was anything but status quo and oppressive. The result is that secular culture has taken the microphone to declare that the Church’s day is done.
The good news is the Church doesn’t require a mic. The movement that Jesus launched works best whispering on the fringes rather than shouting from a mainstream stage with a mic. In fact, the church has historically tended to lose its way when It speaks from a pedestal. If you look at church history, when the Church was “mainstream,” it brought us memorable seasons like the “dark ages.”
To Start a Disciple Making Movement: We must learn how to hold different conversations
Watching the Church move from mainstream to the fringes of culture requires us to learn to share our faith differently than we have in the past. We are in a post-Christian age but most of us learned to share our faith in a culture in which our Judeo-Christian ethic was socially dominant.
The History of Processing Ideas
Over the past 20 years, everything changed. People process ideas on matters of faith differently today than they did a generation ago. Today we’re expected to engage ideas at an emotional level first. In the past, we introduced ideas through reason and logic. Persons in this culture want to identify with a new friend from the point of a common struggle. Once that commonality is established and it’s determined that you are a safe person, discussion of ideas can begin. The newly formed common bond will allow you to discuss and embrace behaviors associated with your commonly held view.
This is quickly done through the tools of social media. This finally opens the door to discuss the operational beliefs in which their actions and operating system are grounded. The assumption is that old ideas are irrelevant and can’t be trusted.
You can see how this new operating system is problematic for the advance of the gospel if we continue to think and operate as analog witnesses in a digital age.
We’re Still Hanging On
Even now, the Church continues to train its followers to relate to people as though it was 1975. But today, if we attempt to engage in a belief-based conversation, all we get is awkward silence or find ourselves canceled.
Within our lifetime evangelists would preach Jesus in stadiums, and people heard the gospel message and responded. It seemed simple because we were in a Christian culture. Efficient crusade volunteers plugged those new believers into a local church where they received biblical instruction and we reassured ourselves of “mission accomplished.”
For years winning people to faith started with a believer working to CONVINCE a skeptic to embrace and accept a set of beliefs about Jesus, which led to a steady diet of sermons in church that led to the person deciding to CONFORM their behavior to Christian morals. Much of the conversation was about converting to a new moral code. It oftentimes was not so much about embracing the person of Jesus and receiving the Holy Spirit. It was assumed that such a one-two punch would lead a new believer, naturally, to want to CONNECT to the local church.
What Modern Culture Thinks
But modern culture ignores the moralist message of the Church as dated, irrelevant, and filled with hate. Modernists think they have pulled the plug on our mic and we have no voice. They assume we are out of business. If the crux of our message is CONVINCE—CONFORM—CONNECT, they are most likely correct.
The rhythm Jesus gave us was to CONNECT—CONSIDER—CONVINCE. When the starting point is to CONNECT first, then it lays a foundation to better CONSIDER the startling truths that Jesus spoke of. The final outcome is that a person will be CONVINCED to embrace Jesus. And yield to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
People made CONNECTIONS with the early Jesus community and they were drawn by the life change they saw in the early followers. It wasn’t long before they saw value in living for Jesus because of how He was changing those who followed Him. People flocked to the early Church because they were hungry to CONNECT to this transformed group of Jesus lovers.
Acts 2:47 says, “And the Lord added to their number daily, those who were being “sozo.” This word “sozo” states they were being made whole, delivered, changing what they cared about.
Personal Transformation is the Key to Spiritual Conversation Stories
Be assured that this unmistakable life transformation led to spiritual conversations. Personal life transformation tells a story that is received as “good news.” It doesn’t take long for those who have embraced a new group to learn the language of the group. This is the first step to being CONVINCED to live as a Christ-follower. At first, there is a CONFORMATION process that happens when you CONNECT with any group. It is human nature to simply imitate the group ethos. It is easy to be deceived that this is the same thing as being CONVINCED, it is not.
It’s natural to CONFORM and adapt to fit in with a group you respect and want to join. However, before long such a person finds himself or herself in a full pursuit to understand what makes this group tick. This is where discipleship really happens. The person is CONVINCED and eventually surrenders to the work of the Holy Spirit. He embraces the very thing (person of the Holy Spirit) who will empower her to really become a CHANGED person. The final stage is a given. The person quickly finds it natural to CONVINCED. This is the power of the real “good news” incarnate.
To Start a Disciple Making Movement: We Must Learn To Make Friends
When people who are far from Jesus become friends with others who have been changed by Jesus, they often discover an attractive community where they can belong. This belonging helps them lower their guard. Soon they start imitating naturally the values that matter to us. Before long they find themselves connected. They start to lean in when we engage in substantive discussions. They soon hunger to start reading what we read (the Bible). Eventually, this leads to belief in what we believe which leads them to the person of Jesus. The Jesus sequence of CONNECT—CONSIDER—CONVINCE is the inverse of how the Western church works. Jesus started by inviting people to CONNECT at a personal level from the start. He never persuaded anyone to embrace a new set of theological tenants. Jesus was not about apologetics or doctrinal debates.
Today you still find churches who want to raise up an army trained to go to “battle with a well-armed apologetic.” Jesus never sent his disciples into “battle” to argue people into the Kingdom of God. Instead, you see him offer his hand to them with an invitation to CONNECT, and “follow.” He offers them a place to belong, not an apologetic, not a belief system, nor a sermon on proper Christian behavior.
So why are we spending all this time talking about the importance of connecting? Because typically when we get fired up sharing our Jesus story, we go out solo. “I’m going to tell my friend about Jesus!” We decide it’s time to drop our Jesus story on some unsuspecting victim. We make it clear that we are becoming their friend so we can tell them about Jesus. So, we join a club or take a cooking class or join a discussion group.
The Inherent Problem with Old Strategy
The problem with this strategy is that we’re the lone person in the group who is waiting for the perfect time to hijack it so we can awkwardly share some part of our Jesus story. When that happens, we become “that guy,” and that doesn’t attract anyone. In that situation, even our most amazing story comes across as weird, or worse, an attempt to religiously proselytize. It won’t take but a minute for the group to adopt a policy that prohibits talk about divisive topics such as religion or politics. In most work environments HR has set parameters against these two types of conversations. A generation ago no one would have thought about making such a policy.
The well-meaning lone Christian ventured out to make a difference. They soon found that there are two separate universes of friends—non-Christian and Christian. When our non-Christian friends hang out we go to their houses. When our Christian friends have a party, we go. We ping between universes. It takes work to keep our universes separate. Sam Chan suggests that in a post-Christian world we will never make any headway unless we merge our universes of friends.
What If We Consider a New Way?
What if we were able to get our Christian friends to become friends with our non-Christian friends? Imagine we had a party and we connected our non-Christian friends with some of our Christian friends. And what if we had a BBQ lunch, to keep expanding our merged universes to include our Christian and non-Christian friends? That’s how we can start a disciple making movement. Gradually, bit by bit, our universes will have both Christians and non-Christians.
In these situations, the Jesus story will naturally emerge and will become increasingly more believable to our non-Christian friends. It will be completely natural to talk about Jesus in a room of trusted friends. When half the people are Jesus followers I have found that the other half naturally have questions that arise. This becomes the most natural way to share Jesus. The gospel spread across the known world this way according to the book of Acts.
Ready to Start a Disciple Making Movement?
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