In 2001, I was editing a magazine on the future of church ministry. I approached respected author, academic and church consultant, Richard Kew to write about what he thought was a critical future trend the church needed to be aware of. This is what he wrote. Now, nearly a decade later, it’s still important, and his advice should still be heeded.

Last weekend I was invited to speak at, and participate in, a consultation on ministry among the aging. It was a fascinating weekend. I learned a lot, met some interesting people, and (I hope) was able to make a small contribution to the process. This weekend I sat down with the November 3, 2001, issue of The Economist, and found a major survey of the near future by Peter Drucker that has me questioning — as well as building upon — some of the things that I said last Saturday!

Drucker is venerable in every sense of that word. Now 92, his mind is still as clear as a bell, and for someone who is highly unlikely to live long enough to see some of the things he is talking about, he is obviously very engaged with what tomorrow might look like. At the heart of some of his projections is his recognition that the developed world’s population is aging to such an extent, that the social safety nets all western democracies have put in place are utterly inadequate.

Here’s a nugget to ponder: “By 2030, people over 65 in Germany, the world’s third-largest economy, will account for almost half the adult population, compared with one-fifth now. And unless the country’s birth rate recovers from its present low of 1.3 per woman, over the same period its population of under-35s will shrink about twice as fast as the older population will grow. The net result will be that the total population, now 82m, will decline to 70m-73m. The number of people of working age will fall by a full quarter, from 40m to 30m.”

For the same reasons, Japan’s population will peak in 2005 and will decline from 125 million to around 95 million in the following 45 years. Life expectancy has been rising at the same time that birth rates have been declining in the West, and already developing economies like China are seeing their birth rate drop below replacement levels. This means incredible changes are on their way for our economies, all of which have been geared to meet the needs of an avalanche of younger rather than older citizens. It also means that the issues of pensions and immigration are going to be THE hot domestic topics in Europe, North America, and other developed countries for the rest of our lives and well beyond.

Drucker makes it quite clear that by 2025-2030 it is highly unlikely that there will be resources available for state-sponsored retirement funds for anyone until they are into their mid seventies, and, indeed, we may be moving toward a time when fixed retirement ages for people in reasonable physical and mental health are a thing of the past. So far, only the USA, Canada, and Australia, among Western nations, have in place the national culture that can absorb immigrants at the pace necessary to fill the vacuum, and even in these countries there are tensions about what immigration does to the existing culture.

This is a raft of information that the churches ignore at their own peril, and it will profoundly influence the pattern of ministry and funding of ministry as we move into the future:

1. Patterns of employment will change. Older people will carry on working much further into their elderhood. I, personally, do not expect to properly retire until I am at least 72-75, and maybe beyond that. There are theological and discipleship reasons for my own commitment to continuing to work, but also, I recognize that older pastors are going to be necessary to work among seniors as they try to adjust to a radically changing set of affairs where their lot is far less comfortable than that of their elders.

2. Patterns of giving are going to change. I suspect that we will see seniors, who have been the moneybags for the churches in the last 40-50 years, setting aside much more of their resources to support them when they are beyond working age than is the case at the moment. This means that ministry will have to look for other ways to fund itself, and I am increasingly convinced that a mixed economy of donations, fees-for-service, and semi-commercial enterprises will be part of the way forward. Financially successful congregations are going to be those who find creative ways of pulling such a mixed economy off.

3. Christian resources will have to be focused on ministry among the elders of society. This means evangelistic ministry as well as care ministry. One of the biggest unreached people groups in the USA today is those aging Boomers whose lives are bereft of anything that has to do with a living, eternal relationship with Jesus Christ. Yes, we need to spend dollars on youth ministry, but yes, I think that tomorrow’s church budgets will have to have a major segment set aside to fund much more extensive ministry among seniors.

4. There will be human resources available of which we have made limited use to this point. One of the things about seniors is that since World War Two we have seen the so-called golden years as a time when folks are out to pasture. We are now in a position where we have tens of thousands of fit, able-bodied, men and women who should have more challenges to address that merely swanning round the country in their RVs “spending their children’s inheritance.” Men especially, particularly those who have lived stimulating lives, need to be given more than tasks of ushering, counting the money, or if they are good, sitting on the vestry — one of the reasons there are so few men in churches today is that we have not provided them with challenges, so (among other things) they perceive the Gospel to be trivial. We have folks in our congregations now who have the energy and the ability to make a significant difference for the Kingdom in their third age. For example, I have noticed that almost every church plant I know has at least one older couple part of it, and they are very often the pillars who make this new congregation happen.

5. We must be prepared to tailor parish life to suit the less predictable lifestyles of the elders. While it is likely that elders will continue to work, it is also likely that the jobs they will take on will not be life-long salaried employment for one organization. This means that the Christians a congregation has available might be going like slaves for several months working on a temporary employment assignment, and then be available for several months for something that the parish has in mind.

6. Following on from the previous point, we need to multiply the mission opportunities available to elders both at home and abroad. I am delighted that SAMS, of which I was the founding chair as quarter of a century ago, is now sending hundreds of short termers to Latin America every year. We need to find similar opportunities at home and find ways that elders can become part of them. Habitat for Humanity probably has some lessons it can teach us in this realm.

7. We will continue to have an explosive immigrant population that we will need to reach. These immigrants will come in because they will be needed to fill the gaps in the workforce left by the fact that the overall population is aging. How we reach out with the message to these folks is crucial. I noticed in something that came over my transom the other day that immigration has so changed the balance of religion in the UK that by 2015 it is likely there will be more practicing Muslims than practicing Anglicans. A similar process is underway here, and we ignore it at our peril. So, while immigrants are coming in to meet our needs, they will also be changing the face and shape of our world — as well as setting themselves up to be the next generation of elders.

8. The massive increase in the number of the elderly in need of care is going to put greater pressure on families, and especially women with careers. There are just not going to be the number of professional caregivers necessary, or the resources to pay for support for elders who need care in the years ahead. Already we are facing a nursing crisis, and this is only going to get worse by all accounts. The burden of caring for the elderly has traditionally fallen on middle-aged women, yet these are the folks who have been most liberated from yesterday’s roles and expectations by the information economy. This means that parishes are going to need to find ways of providing considerable support for tomorrow’s “sandwich generation.” The sandwich is now a club sandwich, by the way, for this is the first time in human history that five generations are likely to be alive at the same time. One component of this conundrum is that men must be conditioned to understand that caring for elders is THEIR job as well.

9. I suspect that we are going to see a return to more extended families as a way of coping with the pressures that so many aging folks are going to put on the system. The downside of this is that it is going to reduce mobility, and at the same time it is going to make life even more difficult for those who are single or who are alone in the world. Single people either need to be part of a larger, extended family, or they are going to need to save huge amounts of money to keep themselves from penury in old age. As I do not see many Boomers doing this, I suspect that we will have a major care crisis on our hands within 10-15 years — and this we are not preparing for.

10. We just do not know how this is going to reconfigure the economy. We do not know whether the world economy has the resources to deal with such a surge of elderly, coupled with such a drop the proportionate size of younger generations. We do not know what will happen to developed economies when their population begins to shrink. Could we be in for a period of economic decay that leaves us all in fiscal trouble? We do not know whether the increasingly militant (and much younger and overwhelmingly male) developing world cultures will see a vacuum that they want to fill and begin invasions of a formal or surepticious kind. This is truly a wild card, and made more wild by our realizations following September 11.

Here’s Drucker’s final warning from his Economist article: “All this suggests that the greatest changes are almost certainly still ahead of us. We can also be sure that the society of 2030 will be very different from that of today, and that it will bear little resemblance to that predicted by today’s best-selling futurists. It will not be dominated or even shaped by information technology. It will, of course, be important, but it will be only one of several important new technologies. The central feature of the next society, as of its predecessors, will be new instititions and new theories, ideologies and problems.”

I suppose the question we need to address is how the Christian church fits into that mix in a multi-ethnic, pluralistic world.

Related posts:

1. Church is not the end, it’s the means
2. Living in an age of transition

An assignment completed in 1998, as part fulfillment of the requirements of the Youth Ministry Major at Baptist Theological College, South Africa.

NOTE, July 2010: This article could probably do with updated references to popular culture. If you’re going to use it, please make the effort to replace references to TV shows, movies and music with more up to date references. For example, if Jesus were around today, I’m sure he’d have a Facebook account, and would be happy for any and everybody to be his friend.

1. Introduction

In his book, The Purpose Driven Church, Rick Warren devotes a chapter to Jesus’ model of ministry that attracted crowds. His purpose is to show that a strategy that aims at large numbers is Biblical. In doing so, however, he also makes some important general comments regarding the nature of Jesus’ ministry. Towards the end of His ministry, Jesus instructed His disciples, saying “As the Father sent me into the world, I am sending you” (John 17:18; 20:21). Jesus is our model of operating in the world. But Jesus was God – so how exactly can He be our model?

It is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss the exact nature of the incarnation (becoming man) of Christ. However, the basis of this paper is that the incarnation involved Christ, who is God, becoming fully human, yet without compromising his full divinity (John 1:14, Phil. 2:6f.). This being the case, let us examine some implications of Christ’s example for youth ministry.

2. Implications of the Incarnation

All of the implications of the incarnation are beyond enumeration or expression. The fact that God Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, the Sustainer of all life, should reduce Himself to a foetus in a virgin peasant girl is beyond understanding. That the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob should subject Himself to human care as a helpless baby, grow up in Roman-controlled Palestine, and walk from one end of Israel to another, followed by a rag-tag team of social outcasts, eventually submitting to the cruel nails of crucifixion, simply to identify with me, is too great a thought to grasp. Yet, it is possible to glean some principles from Jesus’ earthly life, that can be applied to youth ministry. Just as Jesus took on Himself the form of a human being, we must take on the “form” of a young person. The following sections work towards a theology of Incarnational Ministry, which will explain how this can be achieved.

2.1. Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You

The central fact of the incarnation is that while we were still sinners, Christ came to save us (Rom. 5:8). He did not wait for us to find Him. He did not wait for us to ask Him to save us. He took the initiative to come to us. So, too, we must make the initiative to go to where young people are, and make the effort to understand them and the world within which they function. “We cannot stand aloof from those to whom we speak the gospel, or ignore their situation, their context” (Stott 1992:349).

Notice, however, that in taking on human form, Jesus did not relinquish His divinity. Neither can we ever fully become young people again. In fact, that would not be incarnational. Our aim must be to understand, imbibe and function within the world of the young people, integrating and identifying with them, while still remaining adults, in an adult world, with age-bought wisdom. We cannot be what we are not. We must not act childishly, or try to function as a teenager – our bodies and minds will not allow this, in any event. The level to which we can identify with young people will be determined by the specific situation we find ourselves in, but the fact remains that we must identify without losing our distinctiveness as an adult.

2.2. Where You Go, I Will Go

As we have just explained, the incarnation involves God coming to man. “Hence, the underlying thrust of the biblical witness concerns a movement by God towards man. The Father sends the Son. The Word becomes flesh. God was in Christ. At root, to save us God came not in his full glory as God but rather as a man; as a baby… as a condemned criminal on a cross. He hid His glory, he limited himself” (Letham 1988:334). Being incarnational does not merely involve some intellectual identification with young people. It requires us to physically be with the young people. This will require us to go to the places they frequent, such as rollerblading rinks, movie theatres, bars, clubs, small group sessions, shopping malls. We are to go out into the “highways and byways” (Luke 14:23) and become “friends of sinners” (Luke 7:34). We cannot wait for the sinners to come to us; we must
go to them.

2.3. A Penny For Your Thoughts

John Stott refers to a book written by James Sire, The Universe Next Door (1992:359), emphasizing the fact that we must make
every effort to understand how the people we are trying to reach actually think. Due to many influences, including lateral thinking, made popular by deBono, video and computer games, and the Internet, young people these days actually process thoughts and information in a very different way to their parents. They do not process information logically and sequentially, but rather through a complex matrix. This will influence how they grasp new ideas. In order to effectively communicate with them, we must learn to think the way they do, and to structure our message in such a way that they can actually understand it.

Although He had all the vast stores of heaven’s knowledge available to him, “with many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable” (Mark 4:33-34). He did this because he was talking predominantly to illiterate peasants. So, too, we must use language and idiom that reflects a clear understanding of young people’s cognitive functioning.

2.4. In The World, But Not Of The World

Stott emphasizes the fact that although Jesus came into the world, and experienced our temptations, He did so “without sin” (Heb. 4:15). He refers to it as “holy worldliness”:

On the one hand, [Jesus] came to us in our world, and assumed the full reality of our humanness…. He fraternised with the common people and they flocked around him eagerly…. He identified himself with our sorrows, our sins and our death. On the other hand, in mixing freely with people like us, he never sacrificed, or even for one moment compromised, his own unique identity. His was the perfection of ‘holy worldliness’ And now he sends us out into the world as he was sent into the world (John 17:18; 20:21). We have to penetrate other people’s worlds, as he penetrated ours – the world of their thinking (as we struggle to understand their misunderstandings of the gospel), the world of their feeling (as we try to empathise with their pain), and the world of their living (as we sense the humiliation of their social situation…). (1992:244)

This is one of the greatest struggles we will have, stuck as we are in sinful bodies. We must constantly ensure that we keep ourselves pure, yet we must not be scared to enter the dark world as a shining light. Our only hope of power is the same source of power Christ had: the Holy Spirit, who will “protect us from evil” (John 17:15-19).

2.5. Don’t Push Me

Incarnational ministry must be voluntarily entered into. It must arise out of a deep desire to minister for the Lord in this way. If it is done any other way, or if it is forced, it will lose it’s effectiveness. If we do not willingly become like those we are trying to reach, we will be seen to be fake. This, too, will sometimes be a struggle, but the Spirit can give us the power to say with Jesus, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (John 4:34).

2.6. Mad About You

The command to love is repeated over fifty times in the New Testament. Love must be the underlying motive of all incarnational ministry. 1 Cor. 13 is a model of the ministry Jesus had on earth, and it is our model as well. Specifically, “it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails” (1 Cor 13:7-8).

This does not mean that we condone everything that a young person might do (cf. 1 Cor. 13:6). Jesus, again was our model. He practised “accepting without approving” (Warren 1995:216), in the examples of his meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-30), His acceptance of and banqueting with Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10), and his wonderful restoration of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11). Notice that he always urged them to “go and sin no more” (John 8:11), but always did so from a context of love and acceptance of the intrinsic worth of the person. We would do well to love unconditionally, as Jesus did.

2.7. Another Day In Paradise (?)

Phil Collins recorded an album entitled, Another Day in Paradise. In the title track, he chastises those who turn a blind eye to the suffering that they see around them every day. Jesus did not turn a blind eye to the poor, the sick, the social outcasts, the homeless. In fact, Luke 4:18-19 indicates that a primary purpose of His ministry was to reach out to hurting people in practical ways, and meet all their needs: emotional, physical, mental, financial, and spiritual.

“People crowded around Jesus because he met their needs – physical, emotional, spiritual, relational and financial” (Warren 1995:219). Jesus often began by meeting a felt need, even asking the question, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Matt. 20:32; Mark 10:36, 51; Luke 18:41). We cannot be content to say, “be warm and well fed” (James 2:16). We must “show our faith by what we do” (James 2:18), proactively caring for people’s real needs.

2.8. All I Need Is A Miracle

Mike and the Mechanics recorded a song entitled, All I need is a Miracle. The chorus repeats, “All I need is a miracle, all I need is you”. The song is about lost love, and reflects the pain that besets this world. “In every non-Christian (and many Christians too), even in the jolliest extroverts, there are hidden depths of pain. We can reach them only if we are willing to enter into their suffering” (Stott 1992:360). Entering into their suffering means empathising in a way that goes beyond a cursory blessing. We are the only Jesus this world will see. Jesus has elected to make Himself known through our hands and our lips. He uses us to show His compassion to a people who are crying out for love.

2.9. Tell Me The Old, Old Story

An important part of Jesus’ ministry was teaching. He followed the principles laid out in Deut. 6, by making teaching a part of His everyday life. Wherever He went, He made use of teachable moments, using a style that was practical, simple, and aimed at the listener’s level of need. “The deepest kind of teaching is that which makes a difference in people’s day-to-day lives” (Warren 1995:230).

In particular, Jesus’ example is His use of the technique of story. In fact, the whole of Scripture is dominated by the use of story – it is God’s chosen vehicle for revealing Himself and His ways. Ford has argued strongly that today’s young people need to be reached by means of narrative (cf. 1996:227ff.). A story that is both told and lived, is a powerful witness to the world. We need to work hard at making our teaching practical and relevant to the young people we want to reach. Our desire should be to be like Jesus, who “amazed” (Matt. 7:28), “astonished” (Matt. 22:33), and “delighted” (Mark 12:37) with His teaching.

2.10 Friends (are Friends Forever)

Jesus was the “friend of sinners”. As we see Him interacting with people, He didn’t use every social occasion to attempt to evangelise people. Neither did He coerce or cajole people into the Kingdom. Although the conversion of people was always at the forefront of Jesus’ mind, he did not fill every contact with people with evangelistic battering. Instead, he concentrated on building relationships.

Relating his own relationship with two non-Christian friends, Kevin Ford explains, that “friendship isn’t based on whether or not they respond to our gospel…. My Christian faith doesn’t get in the way of our friendship, and I think the reason it doesn’t is that [they] know that our friendship is real and human – not programmed or scripted to produce a certain result” (1996:256). Sometimes this will break our heart, as people refuse to accept our Lord as their Saviour. Jesus understands this. When the rich young ruler came to Him, Jesus “loved him”, yet let him go away (Mark 10:16-22).

2.11 Kodak Moments (Four Weddings and a Funeral)

Jesus made the most of significant moments in life. We have records of Him attending both weddings and funerals. The movie, Four Weddings and a Funeral, depicted a series of relationships that develop through four weddings and a funeral, and how these life changing moments are times when people are receptive to change. We, too, must make ourselves available to people during traumatic and euphoric times of their lives, sharing in joy and sadness, establishing lasting friendships that can have a positive influence.

2.12 Laugh, And the World Laughs With You

Jesus had fun. He came “that we might have life to the full” (John 10:10). Young people like fun. They like life. They need to see a Jesus who is fun. We miss a lot by reading the Bible through serious eyes. Many of Jesus’ parables include more than a hint of a smile. The dramatisation of the Gospel of Matthew on The Visual Bible video series brings this out graphically, as Jesus often laughs with his disciples. Dean Borgman, of the Center for Youth Studies, in an address to the students of the Baptist Theological College, Randburg, South Africa, highlighted the juxtaposition of John chapters 1 and 2. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God, … and the Word became flesh and lived among us, … and the Word went to a party in Cana”.

2.13 The Gravy Train

In two senses, Jesus connects with Generation X on the issue of authority and “the system”. Firstly, Jesus did not come to implement a “system”. He was not wanting to impart a written code of truth. Jesus is The Truth (John 14:6). In a political world that places much emphasis on transparency, God made Himself vulnerable and accessible, to the utmost extent possible. His incarnation is the very best possible way for God to show that He is primarily interested in relationships.

Secondly, Jesus was actually opposed to “the system”. The religious leaders of the day were the subjects of the most scathing remarks Jesus ever made (e.g. Matt. 23:33). He opposed the religious system of His day. We are not necessarily called to actively denounce our own church leaders, but we must speak out against traditions that are detrimental to young people entering, getting involved in and enjoying church life. Sometimes this will cause ructions between us and the established church. Although we should do our best to maintain peace and unity (Rom. 12:18), we cannot compromise our belief in the Biblical injunction of Jesus’ model of incarnational ministry (2 Tim. 2:2).

2.14 Just Do It

Jesus took risks. He consistently broke the rules of propriety in his culture. The modern generations of young people are risk takers. Nike’s slogan, “Just Do It” sums up the attitude of many Generation Xers. The proliferation of extreme sports, like paragliding, bungee jumping, mountain climbing, and the like, is an indication of this generation’s need to be “on the edge”. The young people of today also respond to extreme attitudes and thinking. They must be shown that the Christian lifestyle is radical, in every sense of the word. Matthew 5-7, the sermon on the mount, and “Christian manifesto” is a radical way of life, that challenges society’s norms and goes against the grain of modern lifestyle. It is an attractive Gospel for those who want to “Just Do It!”. As Jesus did, we must be teaching and living out this manifesto.

2.15 I Have A Dream

Martin Luther King’s dream of national racial unity is still this generation’s ideal, but the frustration of seeing the dream remaining unfulfilled has forced a pragmatic response. Generation X is more likely to concentrate on breaking down racial, gender and economic barriers within their own community, rather than concentrating on the macro environment.

Jesus demonstrated the same approach. In fact, He is remarkably similar. Although desiring complete racial unity (Gal. 3:28), He realised the limitations of His own situation, and thus concentrated on the “lost sheep of Israel” (Matt. 15:24) – His own immediate community. “For a generation seeking authenticity in a society and church notorious for its racial divisions, a racially diverse body of believers goes a long way toward authenticating the gospel.” (Tapia, Andres – Cover Story, Christianity Today, 9/12/94, quoted at http://users.vnet.net/rdavis/CTXer.html).

2.16 No More Secrets

Scripture shows us that Jesus was the same in private and public. This goes to the heart of integrity; and integrity is the heart of our ministry. The measure of ourselves is not what we do while people are watching us, but what we do when no-one is looking. Jesus’ example is one to follow, especially in His relationship with the Father. When we make the effort to cultivate a deep and meaningful relationship with God in private, this will naturally shine out of us in all we do.

2.17 We’ve Never Done It That Way Before

“Fulfilling God’s purpose must always take priority over preserving tradition. If you are serious about ministering to people the way Jesus did, don’t be surprised if some of today’s religious establishment accuse you of selling out to culture and breaking traditions” (Warren 1995:238). Jesus’ example calls us to break the “rules” and minister to people where they are.

3. Conclusion

Jesus gave up all that He was entitled to, as Creator of this universe, and humbled Himself, taking on the very nature of a servant (Phil. 2:6-8). If that is what He did for us, how much more should we be prepared to sacrifice for Him? We must be ready to sacrifice our dignity, our pride, our status, our lives, for Him and His work, so that we may bring the good news to a dying world, who will not listen.

After all that we have said about imitating Christ’s incarnational ministry, the ministry of John the Baptist should also be an example to us: “Christ must increase, and I must decrease” (John 3:30). As much as Christ is our model, we are not Christ to our young people. Only Christ can truly be Christ to them. Our role is to be prophets who point the young people to Jesus by the very nature of our existence and ministry (cf. Maas 1996:46). We are but pointers along the way. We are called to set our lives in a place where they can be seen by those who need it most.

Bibliography

Erickson, . Christian Theology. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985.

Ford, Kevin. Jesus For A New Generation. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1996.

Fowler, James W., Robin Maas, and Robert Wuthnow. Christ and the Adolescent. The 1996 Princeton Lectures on Youth, Church and Culture. Princetown: Princetown Theological Seminary, 1996.

Letham, R. W. A. “Incarnation” In New Dictionary of Theology. Eds. Sinclair B. Ferguson, and David F. Wright. Leicester:
Inter-Varsity Press, 1988 (pp. 333-5).

Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene A. Nida, (Eds.). Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Two Volumes. South African Edition. Cape Town: Bible Society of South Africa, 1989.

Reymond, R. L. “Incarnation” In Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Ed., Elwell, Walter A. Grand Rapids: Baker
Books, 1984 (pp 555-7).

Robbins, Duffy. Ministry of Nurture. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990.

Sproul, R. C. Essential Truths of the Christian Faith. Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1992.

Stott, John. The Contemporary Christian. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1992.

Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Church. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996.

Related posts:

1. Towards A Theology of YOUTH Ministry
2. Five Things Every Adult Christian Should Know About Youth Ministry
3. Challenges Facing Youth Ministry in the 21st Century

This article was first written in 1997 as part of my academic studies in Youth Ministry

Possible models of evangelism, to be implemented for children, teenage and young adult ministries, including a discussion of the similarities and unique features of each age level ministry with specific evangelism guidelines for each age level.

1. Introduction

1.1. Assumptions

The scope of the issue of the evangelism of young people through the local church is enormous. This paper assumes that the reader: (i) is convinced of the absolute importance of evangelism; (ii) is aware that evangelism as it has been (and is being) done is not as effective as we would like it to be; (iii) understands some of the dynamics involved in “Generation X” (also known as “slackers”, “busters” or the 13^th generation) and “Generation Y” (also known as the “Millennial generation”); (iv) accepts that, although God can change someone’s life instantaneously (e.g. the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus), he most often chooses to work over a longer period of time in someone’s life (e.g. Jesus and his disciples over a three year period) – there is “a process of evangelising, not just an evangelistic event” (Ford 1996:196); (v) accepts that although all evangelism is linked to a local church in some way, not all evangelism must be centred on the local church. There is a combination of “Go and tell” and “Come and see” approaches (cf. Warren 1995:234f.); and (vi) accepts that no single programme or method can effectively reach out to every type of person. In order to evangelise our modern communities, a multiplicity of methods is needed. The key to utilising multiple methods is to be aware of how these methods interact with each other, and an integrated and co-ordination of an overall evangelism strategy for a local church or group of churches.

1.2. Method

Petersen contends that all evangelistic methods have essentially two steps: Proclamation – “an action through which the nonChristian receives a clear statement of the essential message”, and Affirmation – “a process of modeling and explaining the Christian message” (1989:14, emphasis in the original). These two occur in different orders in different situations, but both must be present for true evangelism to occur. Traditional methods rely almost totally on proclamation, virtually ignoring the affirmation content of evangelism. Generation X rebels against proclamation, but warms to affirmation.

This assignment aims to introduce the reader to some possible approaches to evangelism that include both of these elements. Under each section, there is a discussion of how this would impact children, teenagers and young adults. Where appropriate, comparisons and contrasts are highlighted. In addition, some practical pointers are given as to how some of these methods may be implemented, and what sort of framework would be required within the local church.

It is essential that everything we do be filtered through Scripture. A complete Biblical basis for each method described below is beyond the scope of this assignment. However, at the risk of being labelled for proof-texts, I have included a verse of Scripture below each heading. I am personally convinced as to the Biblical legitimacy of each of the approaches outlined in this assignment. It should be noted that the methods are somewhat artificially categorised, as many of them overlap in their application.

2. Different Approaches to Evangelism

2.1. Lifestyle/Relationship/Friendship Evangelism

Friendship evangelism has received a lot of press in recent years. This approach stresses the need to form a basis of friendship on which evangelism can take place. Caution must be exercised, however, not to make the friendship a smoke screen for the “real thing”, i.e. evangelism. If we are insincere in our relationships, this will be picked up, and our message will have no impact. We must genuinely be interested in relationships. Petersen says, “We should be prepared to keep social occasions strictly social and not to think in terms of using them as bait for a session in the Bible” (1989:212).

Kevin Ford has expressed it best, in talking of a friendship he has built up:

“To this day neither Scott nor Susie has made a decision for Christ. One day maybe they will. That’s not up to me. That’s between them and God. If they never become Christians that will not affect our friendship, because our friendship isn’t based on whether or not they respond to our gospel. I love them as friends, and that’s why I want them to know about Jesus Christ. They know what I believe and how much I care for them, but I won’t ram my gospel down their throats. My Christian faith doesn’t get in the way of our friendship, and I think the reason it doesn’t is that both Scott and Susie know that our friendship is real and human – not programmed or scripted to produce a certain result.” (1996:256)

Friendship evangelism is a lifestyle. It is evangelism by showing others what it really means to live with Christ as our Lord and Saviour. People will be drawn to that. It will often take a crisis in either our own or our friends’ lives to get them to see their need for what we have, and thus it is essential that our entire lives are open to the unbeliever, in genuine relationship.

“[E]vangelism must be relational. Newcomers must connect with other people and form friendships. Effective evangelism can take place within a community created by the Busters. Love, warmth and friends are all assets in this process of evangelism” (Richard Burton, http://www.epbc.edu/burtf94.html).

Relationships can be built in many ways, at many different levels. The key factors, however, are that relationships must be built on time spent listening to each other, and must be ongoing. Relationships cannot be built at once-off programmes. Our whole evangelism strategy must be built around allowing time for friendships to grow. Thus, although it appears under a separate heading in this paper, all of our approaches to evangelism must contain elements of relationship evangelism.

2.1.1. Children

Children are especially open to relationships. Those who are willing to take the time to build friendships with children will find that they can have significant impact on their lives. The church must ensure that the children’s programmes are not so packed with activity that there is no time for developing of relationships. Children are also very open to role models and look for heroes. If we can be their “heroes of the faith”, they will grow up wanting to be like us, and hopefully, therefore, becoming like Jesus.

Two specific activities can be introduced to assist children. Firstly, children should be encouraged to bring their friends to church-sponsored activities. This way, they and the leaders can build relationships with unchurched children. Most parents do not mind their children going to church at a young age, as they realise the positive moral value of this (this is especially true of the Boomer generation parents). Secondly, people within the church should be encouraged to have their children invite their friends to their homes. The relationships and example that this can be can have a great effect on children. The same applies for teenagers.

2.1.2. Teenagers

Peer pressure is one of the greatest influences in a teenager’s life. This can be both a positive and negative influence. Similar to children, the church should provide places where positive influences can be shown to teenagers. The Christian young people within the group should be helped to be positive role models to their friends.

2.1.3. Young Adults

Young adults are very receptive to friendship evangelism. As stated above, this will only be effective if there is a genuine friendship. This may sound like a watered-down approach to those who have grown up with more confrontational techniques. However, friendship evangelism is actually theologically correct. Evangelicals affirm that God is the author of salvation. We cannot save anyone, only God can. Thus, our technique should honestly present the gospel, and leave the work of convicting and saving to the Holy Spirit. This is what relationship evangelism does. It presents the Gospel by way of a lifestyle, and in the context of a friendship. It seeks opportunities to talk about the Gospel, that arise naturally out of a relationship.

For some practical ideas, Hershey has an entire chapter on young adult activities (1986:173-196). Although Hershey concentrates almost exclusively on Christian fellowship, his ideas, such as hiring out a beach house, marriage encounters, bake offs, community renovation teams, lunch clubs, job clubs, New Year’s eve parties, and dinner’s for eight, can all be very easily adapted to be used as exciting outreach events. They are all designed to attract and develop friendships. Christians must begin to draw the unchurched into their friendship circles, in order to be truly effective at reaching
them.

2.2. Small Group Evangelism

Modern educational experts tell us that the best way to teach is to teach to a small group of people. In society as a whole, Wuthnow reports that research has shown that “about 40 percent of the public are currently involved in some kind of small group that meets on a regular basis and that provides caring and support for its members” (1996:75). In line with this, the “home church” concept has been implemented in many churches. Not many of these groups, however, are used as evangelistic tools. This is unfortunate since “whereas people might be inclined to refuse an invitation to a church-based event, they are more likely to say ‘yes’ if the occasion is hosted in a home or arranged in a restaurant or club which they are accustomed to frequent” (Gibbs 1990:168).

2.2.1. Children

Children, in particular, need to taught in smaller groups. The AWANA programme, for instance, recommends a ratio of five children per teacher. Sunday School groups and other teaching groups needs to be structured along these lines in order to be effective. Outside these church activities, however, there exist many opportunities to get small groups of children together, where relationships can be formed, Christian morals exhibited and the gospel explained. For example, churches can host day care centres, or after school centres; Christians can run crèche services at shopping centres, movies or at homes. Evangelism is not restricted to formal church occasions, but should rather become a way of life for Christians, in whatever function they may have in life.

2.2.2. Teenagers

Teenagers will not easily be drawn to a small group outside of their chosen group of friends. However, if this group is based on a common activity, small group interaction can occur. Sport is the most common of these attractions. Churches could offer sport facilities and should also go to sports centres, where they can interact with other young people. This may include local sports clubs, tennis, rollerblading, skateboards, beach volleyball, surfing, and the like. Other groups could include board games, video games, computers, chess, art and writing groups.

A common characteristic of all teenagers is their need for someone else to transport them, as they cannot yet drive themselves. This provides fantastic opportunities for interaction, when a small group of young people are confined together in a motor vehicle. This can include providing lifts to and from youth group or church activities. But it can also extend to unchurched young people, by offering a lift service from the local movie theatres and shopping malls to young people’s homes, late on Friday and Saturday evenings.

2.2.3. Young Adults

Young adults are very open to small groups that are based on friendships and socialising. They love to spend time in homes and in discussion. One of the most successful strategies to employ small groups, in recent times, is the Alpha concept. This involves a weekly meal, shared by Christians and non-Christians. Over a period of twelve weeks, the gospel is slowly introduced within a framework of openness. All questions are welcomed and answered.

Outside of a structured programme, like Alpha, young adults can also start their own discussion groups in their own homes. These can be either informal or formal occasions. For instance, the express purpose of the evening could be to discuss some spiritual issue over a meal together. All questions are welcomed and answered as honestly as possible. Hershey’s book has some excellent resource material for discussion groups (1986:197-246). Although he was specifically aiming at Christian study groups, Hershey’s topics would be of interest to any young adult. They include: Intimacy: where do I go to find love?; Relationships: working with people, handle with care; Loneliness; and, Forgiveness: is it possible? Whatever format and content are used, the following principles should guide all such groups:

Xers are looking for five main characteristics in faith groups: (1) authenticity – since they have been burned by so many broken promises, they want to know the bottom line and they prefer honesty over politeness; (2) community – they are looking for the family unlike the broken, dysfunctional ones in which they were raised; (3) a lack of dogmatism – experience is more important than dogma; (4) a focus on the arts – where faith can be shared and expressed through various art forms; and (5) diversity – racial, economic and ethnic diversity authenticates Christianity’s claim of loving ones neighbour.

(Reaching the First Post-Christian Generation, Christianity Today, September 12, 1994).

In the Fair Lady magazine, Jane-Anne Hobbs writes an article on “Book Clubs – power network or mommy mafia?” (30 April 1997, pp. 34-38; http://www.fairlady.com). She explains that, especially in South Africa, women are meeting in their thousands on a monthly basis. “Ostensibly, the raison d’être of the clubs is books, but any hardened initiate will tell you that these gatherings serve a far more useful purpose… They have exchanged advice, ideas, recipes and even insults; they have wept on each other’s shoulders, and cheered and consoled one another through marriage, childbirth, infidelity, divorce, illness and death; they’ve hatched business schemes, formed partnerships, closed deals and forged enduring friendships” (pg. 33). Oprah Winfrey, the American talk show host, has begun to popularise book clubs in many other countries around the world. This is an opportunity that Christians can’t afford to miss. Input into book selection, as well as being able to have input into discussions about deep spiritual matters that arise out of books, can be an invaluable evangelistic tool.

2.3. Social Welfare/Ministry/Service Evangelism

There has been much debate in missionary circles about the legitimacy of a “social gospel”. It is true that if all the Gospel is, is a message of social reform, then it has no eternal value. But equally, a Gospel that has no power to influence the way we live or the world we live in, is a Gospel not worth committing to. Young people are looking not just for a life-changing message, but a world-shaping one, too. We cannot neglect our social responsibility.

One of the key aspects of social welfare in South Africa must be the reconciliation of apartheid schisms. This is not only true of South Africa, but all around the world, where a new drive for racial and economic harmony is underway. “For a generation seeking authenticity in a society and church notorious for its racial divisions, a racially diverse body of believers goes a long way toward authenticating the gospel. In recognition of this… outreach ministries will need to get serious about reconciliation within the body of Christ” (Tapia, Andres – Cover Story, Christianity Today, 9/12/94, quoted at http://users.vnet.net/rdavis/CTXer.html).

The advantage of getting young people involved in service outreach is twofold. It firstly demonstrates to the community a faith that affects the world, and secondly, can be habit-forming in the young people, especially children. They will grow up expecting to be involved in Christian service.

2.3.1. Children

Children are able to demonstrate love to those less privileged than themselves, simply because they don’t usually harbour prejudice. Prejudice must be learnt. Similarly, if we involve children in practical outreach events, such as feeding schemes, community clean ups, hospital visitation, visitation of the elderly, and many such activities, they can be a very valuable witness of Christ’s love for the world. If children are involved in visitation it would be a good idea to give them calling cards, with the church’s details, so that they can leave these with the people they visit.

2.3.2. Teenagers

Teenagers are made for heroism. They rise to the challenge of projects, and have the eagerness to change the world. Service outreach is one way that teenagers can find an outlet for these desires. Feeding the homeless, building houses, visitation, and many such schemes will be effective. Teenagers will naturally be drawn to more physical work that does not require interaction with strangers. However, if they are forced into situations like hospital visitation, and given clear guidelines and a good example from a leader, they will find it easy to interact with people.

2.3.3. Young Adults

Like children and teenagers, young adults are eager to feel that they can make a difference in the world. Generation Xers are not so concerned about changing the whole world, like their parents were, but rather feel a closer affinity to the community within which they live and work. These feelings can be channelled to result in significant community projects, similar to those described above. These projects should be broad enough in scope so as to attract the involvement of the unchurched in the community. In this way, relationships can be formed, in addition to the message the church will send by being concerned about the complete community environment.

2.4. Corporate Evangelism

There are two aspects to this type of evangelism. The first is that as a family of God, we offer to young people something that most of them have never had: a safe and secure family. This is an attractive offer to the young people of this generation. The second, related aspect is that “not all evangelism is conducted on a one-to-one basis” (Barna 1995:81). Churches and para-church ministries regularly organise corporate evangelistic activities, ranging from media evangelism (TV, radio, press), to mass rallies and Christian musician concerts, to sports outreaches (e.g. Athletes in
Action).

The second aspect of corporate evangelism will be much less effective if it is not integrated with the first aspect. This generation is crying out for a family, not an organisation. They want to be treated as individuals, not products in an evangelistic assembly line:

“I am homesick for the home I’ve never had” screams out the lead singer for the rock group Soul Asylum on their hit song Homesick? Those lyrics reflect Xer angst over the broken, dysfunctional families that many busters hail from. As a result of such dynamics, much of the ministry to Xers will be centered on emotional healing, and it is genuine relationships that create an atmosphere conducive to this. “Busters need to see the gospel lived out in community,” says Leighton Ford.

(Tapia, Andres – Cover Story, Christianity Today, 9/12/94, at http://users.vnet.net/rdavis/CTXer.html).

2.4.1. Children

Many children are growing up in dysfunctional homes. The church can offer surrogate parents, in the form of the example of loving Christian men and women involved in children’s work. Christian marriages can be models to children, especially when our own children’s friends come to visit. In presenting concepts of God to children, we must be especially careful of how they will respond to the image of a father. God, the Father, can be presented not only as “better than an earthly father”, but also as “the loving Father you never had”. “For these individuals the friendship of Jesus may be a more appealing concept than the fatherhood of God” (Ford 1996:167).

With respect to continuing relationships with children, Richards says
“When all is said, it’s not only difficult to point to a moment of conversion with children, it may well be unhelpful…. It would be wrong to deny the possibility of childhood conversion. But it would also be wrong to treat response by a child to an evangelistic appeal as an end in itself. Instead we need to focus our attention on providing children with a place within a vital faith community in which they can come to know Jesus and be brought naturally to readiness to respond when God the Spirit does His work in their loves” (1983:375).

2.4.2. Teenagers

Traditionally, teenagers and young adults have been the target of youth rallies and mass evangelistic campaigns, that follow a formulaic
structure. The same comment Richards made about children and evangelistic appeals as an end in itself, can also be made of teenagers and young adults. There is no doubt that mass evangelistic campaigns can still be effective, but the form of the event is misleading. Mass evangelism is successful because Christians are encouraged to bring someone who has already been exposed to a relationship with that Christian, and has probably had some seeds sown over a longer period of time. Additionally, intensive follow up is required – not just immediately after the preaching, but for many months following the campaign.

Evangelistic rallies must always work in conjunction with relationship evangelism, small groups and discipleship. Additionally, mass evangelistic crusades must always be linked to local churches, and must have the aim of connecting those who respond with a loving and caring Christian community. Ford puts it this way:

Conversion among Xers needs to be seen not as a single event but as a stage in a protracted process – a process whereby individuals learn who they are and what God has made them to be , a process in which they learn to permit the Holy Spirit to penetrate their being. We should be careful with mass evangelism, and we need to follow up any mass-evangelism campaigns with efforts that emphasize relationships and close-knit Christian community. (1996:169)

2.4.3. Young Adults

Similarly to both children and teenagers, young adults need to have significant relationships with Christians who are modelling true community, and living out what it really means to be part of a family. Young adults will be attracted to groups that the church can run that emphasize community and family values. These support groups can cover everything from addictive behaviour (e.g. alcohol, eating disorders, gambling) to parent support groups (e.g. potty training, home schooling, discipline, handicapped children) to counselling (e.g. depression, divorce) and many other issues. Through the process of dealing with these issues, Christians are be given an opportunity to demonstrate the reality of their faith, at the level of the communal needs of both Christians and non-Christians in the group. Thus, for young adults in particular, communal evangelism must work itself out in actual demonstrated faith.

2.5. Socratic Evangelism

The Socratic method is named after the Socrates, the great Greek philosopher, who taught his students by using a method of inductive question and answer. Socrates would guide the student to discover the truth for himself by asking leading questions, and questioning inconsistencies within the student’s comments. This method requires discussion and openness, and does not arrogantly tear down other belief-systems, but rather points someone towards the truth. If we believe that the Bible is Truth, then we should have nothing to fear from a proper investigation of the truth – we should believe that it will ultimately lead to the God of the Bible.

Socratic evangelism starts where the person is at, and works from there, in a steady, and often slow, progressive discovery of the truth. Barna lists many reasons why this generation is open to the Socratic method, including their love of talking and discussing ultimate realities, their dislike of rote learning methods and imposed principles, their need to have their feelings separated from the facts, the relational basis of the method, and the true ownership it gives to someone who discovers truth in this way (1995:115).

2.5.1. Children

Children are less open to this kind of approach, as their cognitive abilities have not yet begun to function at the abstract level. Children are concrete thinkers, and will invariably not be able to discuss abstract concepts at any deep level, and will certainly not be able to analyse inconsistencies within their own belief systems.

2.5.2. Teenagers

Teenagers question everything. They do not, however, simply follow the childhood pattern of the never-ending “why?”. Rather, they question the very nature of reality, and try to understand reasons behind physical realities. Their questions need honest answers. However, as Schultz points out, it is better to let the students discover the truth for themselves, using whatever forms of active and interactive learning may be appropriate (cf. 1996:40; 133ff.; 179ff.). Pure Socratic methodology may not be most effective with younger teenagers, who are still developing their abstract thinking abilities; therefore other methods of active learning should be employed.

Even if the Gospel is plainly and simply presented, and even if a teenager outwardly declares consent to the contents of the Gospel presentation, the nature of teenage thought is such that this will be continually questioned and discussed. Our programmes must allow teenagers to process the information they discover, to question it, to try out hypotheses and follow trains of thought, rather than attempting to force them to profess a dogma before they have internalised it.

2.5.3. Young Adults

Generation X young adults love to discuss issues, especially ultimate realities. Discussion groups, as discussed in 2.2.3., above, as well as one-on-one discussions can be very effective if they employ the self-discovery techniques of the Socratic method. The keys to the success of this method are to ensure that you know your subject matter, that you have internalised your faith, and that you are able to discuss it without resorting to irrational arguments or getting defensive. Most important, in presenting the Truth in this way, is to walk the fine line between not being dogmatic and yet not compromising the truth of the Gospel. This generation is extremely intolerant of any methods that begin by putting one ideology above another. Jim Leffel puts it this way:

Rule number one: it’s arrogant to suggest that someone’s religious beliefs might be wrong. By arrogant, most people mean intolerant–a term that has come to have a whole new meaning in recent years. Intolerance used to refer to bigotry or prejudice. That is, judging someone or excluding them because of who they are. In this sense, intolerance is offensive. But now, intolerance means that simply disagreeing about beliefs is wrong.

(Leffel, Jim. Postmodernism: The ‘Spirit of the Age’, http://www.crossrds.org/relrev2.htm)

The Socratic method starts where the other person starts, and slowly nudges and guides that person towards truth. It never goes faster than that person wishes to go. It is inductive and learner-based. Barna is convinced that this approach is destined to become the key method of presenting the Gospel to modern young people (cf. 1995:107-125).

2.6. Narrative Evangelism

God has chosen to reveal much of His Word packaged as a story. Narrative evangelism seeks to tap into this generation’s love of stories, to explain God’s story. The concept of “story” as used in modern phraseology encompasses more than just words on a page. A person’s story is their Sitz Im Lebem, a German term, referring to the entire life-situation in which a person has arisen. Evangelism occurs as a Christian tells and lives their own life-story in such a way that it is clear that their life-story intersects God’s story. Thus, by telling the story of our life and development, we naturally tell a part of God’s story, of how He wants to work in the world.

This is not simply a new title for the old concept of a “testimony”. “Narrative evangelism calls us not only to tell our story but to live it as well, with integrity and humility” (Ford 1996:230).

Burton says: “Today’s junior highs, teens and young adults are very discerning. A fake is spotted a mile away. For effective ministry to Busters to occur, leaders must be real. Transparency in personality is essential; as well, leaders must be vulnerable before Busters. A clear, realistic picture of the Christian walk must be painted before them. They want to see and know the reality of the lifestyle to which they are committing themselves.” (Richard Burton, http://www.epbc.edu/burtf94.html)

Children, teenagers and young adults can all be impacted significantly by narrative evangelism. The depth of the stories and profundity of application will be the only discernible difference. Thus, they will not be dealt with separately in this section.

Statistics tell us that modern young people do not know even the basics of the Christian story. They are so unfamiliar with Christian concepts, that an increasing number of people can no longer be classified as non Christian, but should rather be thought of as pre Christian. The key to reaching this person, is to tell them the story of the Gospel, without application or explanation. Let them work begin to out the implications for themselves. Tell them the simple story of Christ and then ask them what they think, and listen to what they have to say. In doing this, you can guide them to a better understanding of the truth. Becoming a Christian in the modern world is a more gradual process than most people would think. There is an example of this in Acts 19:1-7. Although it would not be a good idea to base an entire theology on this passage, it is clear from other passages of the New Testament, as well as the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, that salvation is a process.

The key to reaching pre Christian young people by means of story is to create opportunities to find a common language. The concepts of Christianity, such as grace, redemption, unconditional love, freedom, justice, forgiveness, etc., find many analogies in everyday life, and these can be used to illustrate God’s story. We must be careful not to explain everything we tell. Part of the elements of the narrative is to leave sections untold, gaps and spaces that must be filled in. Jesus often left his parables unapplied to the multitudes (e.g. Mark 4:33-34, quoted above). We must ensure that we create an element of mystery, that feeds the imagination and piques curiosity in the listener.

At later stages, as the pre Christian comes to understands essential Christian concepts, and moves to being a non Christian and then a seeker, some of the doctrines that have been left as mysteries can begin to be unfolded. This should be done using active learning and a Socratic technique, as described above. The power of story is an untapped reservoir of spiritual power that must be unleashed on this postmodern generation. We must learn to tell God’s story. We must learn to tell His-story.

2.7. Seeker Sensitive Evangelism

Willowcreek Community Church began, a number of years ago, to specifically target the unchurched person in their church services. This involves a radically different approach to “doing church”. The concept is to invite and attract unchurched people to attend a church service, in the church building, at some time during the week. When they are there, the entire service is focused on the perceived and real needs. The services tend to be more performance oriented, not expecting much congregational involvement. They usually involve the use of modern multimedia equipment, with very slick and professional activities. Some churches have taken this concept too far, and have compromised the message of the Gospel. It is a fine line to walk, but the rewards are worth it.

Rick Warren explains that the key is to make a distinction between the crowd (uncommitted attenders) and congregation (the members). “We cannot expect unbelievers to behave like believers until they are believers…. The congregation, not the crowd, is the church. The crowd service is just a place where members can bring unbelieving friends to whom they have been witnessing” (1995:216-7).

2.7.1. Children

It would be unusual to think of a child as a “seeker” as Willowcreek define the concept. Nevertheless, if we believe that children are receptive to the Gospel, all of the activities for children should be “seeker-sensitive”, in that they are attractive to unchurched kids, and provide a caring and accepting environment.

2.7.2. Teenagers

Teenagers are testing the limits. They deliberately attempt to shock, in an attempt to find what is and what is not socially acceptable. While maintaining a certain level of decorum at gatherings of teenagers, we should remember that “the book of Romans teaches that it is impossible for unbelievers to act like believers because they don’t have the power of the Holy Spirit within them” (Warren 1995:216). Our meetings should be designed in such a way that teenagers can feel free to be themselves. We must meet them where they actually are, not we would like them to be.

2.7.3. Young Adults

The best way to evangelise a genuine seeker is to love them. In an interview on Larry King Live, aired CNN on 14 April 1997, Rio DiAngelo, a member of the Heaven’s Gate Cult who left the group a month before they committed suicide, spoke of the love and acceptance that was shown when he first arrived at one the cult’s classes. He was seeking truth, and found love. It literally changed his life.

The Christian message is one of love and truth. We should be genuinely geared towards seekers. Rick Warren’s book outlines, in great detail, what must be done in order to make a church attractive to the seeker. Willowcreek also have extensive programmes geared to the seeker. Their Sunday morning services are “seeker sensitive services”, where, amongst other innovations, the worship requires less congregational involvement, and is more geared towards performance (not entertainment), and fellowship and discussion are emphasized. The key to being “seeker sensitive” is to have a genuine love for the non believer.

3. The Role of Prayer

There are many aspects of evangelism that have not been mentioned in this paper. The intention of this paper was to highlight specific methods to reach modern young people. However, the role of prayer must be emphasized. Salvation is a work of God’s Spirit in the heart’s of people. It is God’s work, done in God’s way. We have a responsibility to pray that God would complete His work of salvation in the lives of the people we are evangelising. Scripture makes it clear that God has made many of His activities in the world contingent upon our prayers. Prayer should be the start, ongoing support and conclusion of all evangelistic efforts.

4. Implementing the Model

At each stage of the discussion, above, examples of specific implementations have been discussed. It remains, therefore, only to emphasize that no single model can suffice to reach everyone in the church’s community. Similarly, no single group can achieve all of these aims. Thus, the concept of a Youth Council is an essential element in the youth ministry of any church. A Youth Council consists of representatives from every ministry to youth in the church. It can also include specialists, such as a parental advisor, pastoral supervisor, training specialist, camp organiser, etc. Together, this body co-ordinates the functioning of the youth ministry of the local church.

In order to implement any of the above strategies for evangelism, the first step would be to translate this theoretical document into a strategy plan, unique to your church’s particular socio-economic situation, and tailored to fit your current leadership strategy. After discussion with each group, an integrated strategy should be put in place. Similar strategies should be in place across different age specific ministries, so that young people growing up in the church can have a consistent approach modelled and taught, irrespective of which group they are in.

The strategy plan must be publicised, and then the Youth Council must wait, praying all the time for the Lord to raise up leaders for new evangelistic structures. It is essential to have someone with a vision for the strategy – someone who will champion the ministry. Thereafter, training and education of the people is needed, followed by ongoing support and evaluation.

5. Conclusion

Traditionally, we have been told that we need to “win the right” to speak. This places proclamation in a far superior position to affirmation. “Winning the right to speak” is not a means to an end, it is an integral part of the process of evangelisation of a person. Yet, as Rick Warren says, “I always refuse to debate which method of evangelism works best. It depends on who you are trying to reach! Different bait catch different kinds of fish. I’m in favour of any method that reaches at least one person for Christ – as long as it is ethical” (1995:156). Scripture advocates and condones a multiplicity of approaches to evangelism, as we “become all things to all men so that by all possible means [we] might save some” (1 Cor 9:22 NIV).

Bibliography

Barna, George. Evangelism That Works. Ventura: Regal Books, 1995.

Borthwick, Paul. Youth & Missions. USA: Victor Books, 1988.

Brierly, Peter. Reaching and Keeping Teenagers. Tunbridge Wells: MARC, 1993.

Farley, Ross. Strategy for Youth Leaders. Homebush West: Scripture Union, 1991.

Ford, Kevin. Jesus For A New Generation. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1996.

Fowler, James W., Robin Maas, and Robert Wuthnow. Christ and the Adolescent: A Theological Approach to Youth Ministry. The 1996 Princeton Lectures on Youth, Church and Culture. Princeton: Princeton Theological Seminary, 1996.

Gibbs, Eddie. I Believe in Church Growth. Series Editor: Michael Green. Revised and Updated Edition. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990.

Hershey, Terry. Young Adult Ministry. Loveland: Group, 1986.

Mueller, Walt. Understanding Today’s Youth Culture. Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1994.

Nappa, Mike, Amy Nappa, and Michael D. Warden. Get Real: Making Core Christian Beliefs Relevant to Teenagers. Loveland: Group, 1996.

Petersen, Jim. Living Proof: Sharing the Gospel Naturally. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1989.

Richards, Lawrence O. Youth Ministry. Revised Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1985.

______. Children’s Ministry. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983.

______. Sixty-Nine Ways to Start a Study Group and Keep It Growing. Revised Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1980.

Robbins, Duffy. Have I Got News For You. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993.

______. Ministry of Nurture. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990.

Schultz, Thom, and Joani Schultz. Why Nobody Learns Much Of Anything at Church: And How to Fix It. Revised Edition. Loveland: Group, 1996.

Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Church. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995.

Related posts:

1. Evangelising the generations
2. Church is not the end, it’s the means
3. What the Incarnation Means for the Church

First posted in 1999, and updated in 2005

Sometime between 1960 and 1980, an old, inadequately conceived world ended, and a fresh, new world began.
Hauerwas and Willimon 1989:15 (see bibliography at end for details)

The world of today is caught in the crack between what was and what is emerging. This crack began opening in the 1960s and will close sometime around the year [2020]. Trusted values held for centuries are falling into this crack, never to be seen again. Ideas and methodologies that once worked no longer achieve the desired results. This crack in our history is so enormous that it is causing a metamorphosis in every area of life. Today, the fastest way to fail is to improve on yesterday’s successes.
For many churches, the most disruptive discovery of recent years has been that few of today’s teenagers were born back in the 1950s or 1960s. A new generation of teenagers arrived with the babies born in the post-1969 era. What worked well in youth ministries in the 1960s or 1970s or early 1980s no longer works. Why? One reason is those approaches to youth ministries were designed by adults for an adult dominated world in which most teenagers looked to adults for wisdom, knowledge, leadership, affirmation, expertise, authority, and guidance. That world has almost disappeared and today largely in the heads of people age twenty-eight and over.
Schowalter 1995:8

An age of transition

My grandmother was born in 1916, in East London, South Africa. When she was born she had a reasonable expectation of growing up, getting married, working, living and dieing in a world that remained largely unchanged. After all, although there had been changes in the decades before her birth, most of these took more than one person’s lifetime to work their way into society. But not now! Since about 1950, the pace of change has exponentially increased. So, to help us understand the rate of change,consider that my grandmother was born before inter-continental air flights, jet-aircraft, space travel and moon walking, before individual telephone lines, before computers, before the first commercial motor vehicle in South Africa and tarred roads, before Johannesburg got electricity, before calculators, before “the pill”, before radar, before Elvis, before calculators and ballpoint pens, before faxes, PC’s and cell phones, before photocopiers, before miniskirts and bikinis, before television, before video machines, CDs and DVDs, before satellites and before the Internet. (Yet, every Monday morning, she sends an email to her children and grandchildren, spread around the world).

Yet, it is not just these things, and the speed at which they have arrived, that separates the young from the old in the world at the beginning of the third millennium – today’s young people are separated from their elders by incredible, fundamental shifts in thinking. There is a yawning chasm between todays adults (over 30) and youth (under 30) – in virtually every country in the world. In the last 10 to 30 years major shifts in every sphere of life have fundamentally changed the world: in South Africa it is largely defined by before and after apartheid (and earlier, before and after June 16, 1976), in Germany by the fall of the wall (9 Nov 1989), in America by Vietnam and Watergate, in Britain by trade unions and the Iron Lady, in Iran by the Islamic Revolution (1979), in Portugal by the Carnation Revolution (April 1974), in Estonia by the Singing Revolution (June 1988), in Czechoslovakia the Velvet Revolution (November 1989), in New Zealand by the end of socialism (and by the Eden Park Springbok test match that sparked Maori resurgence), in China by Tianamen Square (June 1989), and everywhere by PCs and the Internet.

We are living in an age of transition, between what was (the Industrial Age) and what will be (as we work through the Information Age into the Biotechnology era we are only beginning to discover the new socio-polital-economic geography of the world). The older generations are frustrated because the young don’t seem to listen to their advice or follow their footsteps. The young are frustrated because they see no guiding light or words of wisdom applicable to the path they’re on. We are in a dangerous place at this moment of history. So, does the Bible have any assistance to give us in such an age?

Joshua in an age of transition

In fact, the age of transition and immense change in which we live is not the first such age recorded in history. Every few hundred years, similar major course corrections take place, as one era gives way to another. One such moment occurred as the era starting with Abraham and ending with Moses was completed, and a new era in the land of Canaan was begun. Joshua was a key figure in the transition period. He was with Moses as a young leader as the nation escaped Egypt and fled into the desert. He was sent as a spy into the land and returned with a favourable report which was rejected by the people. He then spent 40 years in the desert as a nomad. Imagine the enormity of this change: from peasant slave to desert nomad. Then, after Moses sinned by angrily consenting to give the people a taste of their past (water), Joshua became the warrior general, leading his army across the Jordan to Jericho and beyond in the conquest of the land. Again, another major shift from desert nomad to soldier. Then, after a few decades of war the land was conquered, and Caleb and Joshua looked to take their reward and become settlers in the land flowing with milk and honey. From slave to nomad to soldier to settler to farmer – quite a lifetime of transition.

There is much to learn from this era as recorded in Scripture. Most of the lessons come from reflecting on how the older generations were exhorted to act. At the end of his campaign, Caleb was offered any part of the land – yet he chose the rugged hills. He never felt it was time to settle down and enjoy his retirement by doing nothing and longing for the good old days. Always looking for a fresh challenge – always looking ahead to the future. That’s the key.

At the end of his life, Joshua called the people together and read the Book of the Law to them and asked them to choose to obey it (Joshua 24). The Book that was read was most likely Deuteronomy. This is not the book of daily devotions in favour these days, and we often overlook it. However, in context there is a huge lesson for us. Many of the laws in Deuteronomy were written down but not immediately applicable. For example, there are laws relating to the temple – most of which talk about the fact that the Law is only going to be applicable when the Lord had chosen the place in which I will put My Name. There are laws related to the King (the first of which was only installed about 300 years later), to priests and prophets (who only came later in the forms related in Deuteronomy) and to all manner of activities related to when you are in the land. In other words, most of the laws were not applicable to the people who first received them. The Laws were for the future, not for the present. The current leaders were simply custodians of the future, always learning, always changing, yet ever reliant on God.

In fact, in Deuteronomy 6, the Shama Israel, the daily prayer prayed even to this day by devout Jews begins with a statement of Gods eternal nature: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. It goes on to emphasize that this should be imprinted on the hearts of those who hear it. But the very next command is to pass the laws on to the children, in every possible way, in every circumstance. Deuteronomy is by no means a boring book of rules – it was the key to the future entrusted to the desert nomads, reiterated to the settlers and held in trust for the children who would become the first real citizens of the new land, and later even the subjects of the king. Deuteronomy anticipates new styles of worship (the temple), new authority structures (the king), new methods of connecting with God (priests and prophets) and new connections with God unheard of by the existing generations. It is a book for the future. God wanted to ensure that when His people entered the new land they would not continue outdated practices, structures and expressions that would make no sense when everything had changed. The role of the adults was not to preserve the past, but to ensure the future by providing laws that would only make sense in the new land.

At the end of the book of Joshua, we read about the generation of leaders who were contemporaries of Joshua – those to whom Joshua read the Law. Israel served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the LORD had done for Israel (Josh 24:31 NIV). Notice that these people had personally experienced God and served him faithfully throughout their lives – they had gone from desert nomads to soldiers to settlers to farmers in their lifetimes.

In the next book, we read about their children, the generation that followed: The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel (Judg 2:7 NIV).

This generation served the Lord, too, but notice the subtle shift in wording – they had not personally experienced God, they had seen God at work. These were the children standing on the hill overlooking the destruction of Jericho, the children who had inherited a land they had not had to fight for. And then, we read this sad description of the next generation: After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the
LORD nor what he had done for Israel (Judg 2:10 NIV).

Figurative lessons

Margaret Mead was an anthropologist, explorer and teacher, who spent most of her life studying and documenting the tribes of New Guinea. She was fascinated to see these tribes in their ancient forms, and equally intrigued to see the transformation of these tribes as they came into contact with civilisation for the first time. She was able to watch, over the course of nearly 5 decades of direct involvement, as these tribes changed rapidly through the many stages of development (not necessarily implying progress) that other nations had taken a few centuries to do. Even though some of her methods have recently been questioned, her results have proven invaluable in many generational studies in different parts of the world. In particular, her division of different cultures into three main types is helpful. She used the concept of a figurative ability (to imagine and extrapolate) to demonstrate this development. There are three stages: (1) postfigurative, (2) cofigurative, and (3) prefigurative.

A postfigurative culture is one in which change is so slow and imperceptible that grandparents, holding newborn grandchildren in their arms, cannot conceive of any other future for the children than their own past lives. The past of the adults is the future of each new generation (Mead 1970:1). Many older members of churches, although not living in postfigurative cultures, impose postfigurative methods of spiritual training. They expect their children to blindly, and unquestioningly, put on the mantle of spiritual expression that they themselves put on. This phenomenon, also observed by Mead in Polynesian and New Guinea cultures may help us to understand the rejection of the church by young people who have had a postfigurative spiritual experience that is very far removed from the world in which they live. Churches that have failed to see the contextualisation process as important will battle most with this.

A cofigurative culture is one in which the prevailing model for members of the society is the behavior of their contemporaries. In a society in which the only model was a cofigurative one, old and young alike would assume that it was natural for the behaviour of each new generation to differ from that of the preceding generation. In all cofigurative cultures the elders are still dominant in the sense that they set the style and define the limits within which cofiguration is expressed in the behaviour of the young (Mead 1970:25). Mead goes on to identify times when cofiguration will be dominant. The main cause is a substantial and sudden change in culture, such as with immigration, causing the experiences of the young to be very different from those of the old (cf. 1970:29).

As we have already seen, such changes have occurred within culture during recent decades. The fact that no major geographical migration has taken place has served only to exacerbate the problem, since people have had no reason to anticipate this cultural shift. Because no geographical migration has taken place, many older people refuse to see that a cultural migration has taken place anyway. Conflict between generations in such situations is not initiated by the adults. It does arise when the new methods of rearing children are found to be insufficient or inappropriate for the formation of a style of adulthood to which the first generation, the pioneers, had hoped their children would follow (Mead 1970:29). As Mead looked at 1960s society in America, she saw the worst of cofigurative generational tensions. Her concern was with the attitude of parents to these expectations. Simply expecting a child to behave with more of the same values that they had been raised with was not necessarily a good response to the change:

[This attitude] does not extend to a recognition that the change between generations may be of a new order. In much the same way, children in our own and many other cultures are being reared to an expectation of change within changelessness. The mere admission that the values of the young generation,
or of some group within it, may be different in kind from those of their elders is treated as a threat to whatever moral, patriotic, and religious values their parents uphold with postfigurative, unquestioning zeal or with recent, postfiguratively established, defensive loyalty. It is assumed by the adult generation that there still is general agreement about the good, the true, and the beautiful and that human nature, complete with built-in ways of perceiving, thinking, feeling, and acting, is essentially constant. Mead 1970:47f. (emphasis in original)

Prefigurative culture is the current dominant paradigm in the world: “We are now entering a period, new in history, in which the young are taking on new authority in their prefigurative apprehension of the still unknown future” (Mead 1970:1). Mead anticipated the prefigurative culture, identifying much of the globalised world as being cofigurative at her time of writing. Yet, she was never able to truly define what a prefigurative culture would look like possibly this is the whole point. From a cofigurative viewpoint, a prefigurative culture is incomprehensible. She did, however, accurately describe the conditions under which a prefigurative culture would arise: Today, nowhere in the world are there elders who know what the children know, no matter how remote and simple the societies are in which the children live. In the past there were always some elders who knew more than any children in terms of their experience of having grown up within a cultural system. Today there are none (1970:60f.).

In case you haven’t seen where this is going, let me be explicit. The pre-1940s generations can be equated with the postfigurative (Mead) nomads, who were forced out of the land they were born in to venture into the vast unknown, and a nomadic life of change. However, many of the better thinkers of this generation, such as CS Lewis and Francis Schaeffer, and obviously a whole host of secular philosophers, foresaw the vast changes coming with the demise of the Enlightenment Project (modernism). They began the process of pioneering a new land of thought. The leaders were Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Hegel, Kant, Sartre and others who explored postmodernism well ahead of their time intellectually. It was on the basis of the exploration done by these explorers that the pioneers were able to begin to move into this land, albeit with tentative steps. And the pioneers were able to make the land their own, as postmodernism began in various forms in the 1950s.

Yet, as good and important as their efforts were, the first generation settlers, the Boomers born in the 1950s and 60s, rejected much of what they had achieved by moving to this new land. Pioneers are on a journey, knowing that they have never arrived, yet as old age sets in, knowing too that they must now set up camp and live it out in the rough new land. They often do so by trying to create fortresses for themselves. Their children, those born in the old land but with few memories of it, learn very quickly to live in the land and accept it as normal territory. However, having grown up in the fort, the children are wary of the land, and attempt to dominate it, rather than live in it and integrate with it. History shows that first generation settlers are often the most savage and driven of the generations of settlers fighting fierce and demanding battles. This is like the Boomers, who see themselves as warriors in a war, battling to survive the onslaught of this hostile new land called postmodernism.

The next generation are neither pioneers nor settlers. They are inhabitants they begin to come to peace with the new land, accepting its rugged beauty for what it is, and not feeling the need to dominate and attack it. Possibly this is because they have accepted it as their own in a way their parents and grandparents were never able to do. Speaking of the youth of her day, Mead (1970:59f.) says, in words that chillingly foresaw the struggle Xers (born in the late 1960s through 1980s) have had to deal with thus far in their lives:

The young generation, however, the articulate young rebels all around the world who are lashing out against the controls to which they are subjected, are like the first generation born into a new country. They are at home in this time. They live in a world in which events are presented to them in all their complex immediacy; they are no longer bound by the simplified linear sequences dictated by the printed word.

Although I have said they know these things, perhaps I should say that this is how they feel. Like the first generation born in a new country, they listen half-comprehendingly to their parents talk about the past. For as the children of pioneers had no access to the memories which could still move their parents
to tears, the young today cannot share their parents responses to events that deeply moved them in the past. Watching, they can see their elders are groping, that they are managing clumsily and often unsuccessfully the tasks imposed on them by the new conditions. They see that their elders are using means that are inappropriate, that their performance is poor, and the outcome very uncertain. The young do not know what must be done, but they feel that there must be a better way.

The final stage of moving from an old culture to a new one is to become a citizen of the new land. This will be left to the Millennial generation (born 1990 and later, in South Africa), followed of course by their children and grandchildren after them. They will be the first full citizens of this new land of thought. The transition we now call postmodernism will be over, and just like the wild west was tamed, so too, the Millennials will live in an ever-tamer world.

The key to understanding this is to remember that we are in an age of transition. We must understand that the rules may be different in this wild west, and the rules may only be temporary as well. We need to focus our attentions on surviving the transition and preparing the best possible future for the future citizens. This may involve, as it involved in America’s history, the setting up of a framework that future generations can hold as self-evident even if we, the people of the transition, do not do so with much confidence ourselves. This is our challenge but it cannot be achieved by a generation that is fixated with itself or with the past.

“Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
(Josh 1:6-9, NIV)

Bibliography

Anderson, Leith. A Church for the 21st Century. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1992.
Clapp, Rodney. A Peculiar People: The Church as Culture in a Post-Christian Society. Downers Grove: IVP, 1996.
Codrington, Graeme. A Model and Methods for Reaching Generation X from the Context of a Local Church. Honours thesis, BTC Southern Africa, 1998.
______. Multi-generational Ministry in the Context of a Local Church. Masters thesis, University of South Africa, 1999.
Easum, William M. Sacred Cows Make Gourmet Burgers. Nashville: Abingdon, 1995.
Hauerwas, Stanley, and William H. Willimon. Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989.
Hutchcraft, Ron, and Lisa Hutchcraft Whitmer. The Battle for a Generation. Chicago:Moody Press, 1996.
McLaren, Brian D. Reinventing Your Church. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998.
Mead, Loren B. The Once and Future Church. New York City: The Alban Institute, 1991.
______. Five Challenges for the Once and Future Church. New York: Alban Institute, 1996.
Ogden, Greg. The New Reformation. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990.
Regele, Mike, and Mark Schulz. Death of the Church. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995.
Schowalter, Richard P. Igniting a New Generation of Believers. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995.
Sweet, Leonard. soulTsunami. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999.
White, James Emery. Rethinking the Church. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1997.

Related posts:

1. Five Things Every Adult Christian Should Know About Youth Ministry
2. The Challenge of An Aging Population
3. The Transformational Gospel vs the Evacuation Gospel

This was originally posted on 29 March 2005

Following on from my previous post, I wanted to add that this concept of “cheap grace” is one of the biggest problems facing the “established” church (by this I mean orthodox, traditional, and/or evangelical churches/denominations) is that many of them have a rotten image amongst non-Christians. I do not simply mean that they are not attractive to non-Christians (at one level, of course, the cross is an affront to non-Christians, and cannot be “attractive” in a simple sense). The problem goes a lot deeper.

In his excellent book, A Generous Orthodoxy, Brian McLaren writes a great introduction in which he addresses a number of different types of people who might be reading his book. Here is a short excerpt:

“You may not be a Christian and wondering why anyone would want to be. The religion that inspired the Crusades, launched witch trials, perpetuates religious broadcasting, present too-often boring and irrelevant church services with schmaltzy music – or else presents manic and overly aggressive church services with a different kind of schmaltzy music – baptises wars and other questionable political programs, promotes judgementalism, and ordains preachers was puffy haircuts… doesn’t make sense to you why anyone would want ‘in’ on that.

You may not yet be a Christian, and you’re thinking of becoming one, but you’re worried that if you do you’re become a worse person – judgemental, arrogant, narrowminded, bigoted, and brainwashed… Do I have to like organ music? Do I have to say ‘Praise the Lord!’ all the time? Do I have to vote Republican? Do I have to oppose civil rights for homosexuals?… you wonder if there is any way to follow Jesus without becoming a Christian.

You may already be a Christian, struggling, questioning, and looking for reasons to stay in. Or you may have officially left the Christian community, but part of your heart is still there, and you wonder if you might some day return. So many of us have come close to withdrawing from the Christian community. It’s not because of Jesus or his Good News, but because of frustrations with religious politics, dubious theological propositions, difficulties in interpreting passages of the Bible that are barbaric (especially to people sensitised by Jesus to the importance of compassion), and/or embarrassments from recent and not-so-recent church history. Or perhaps it’s simply boredom – dreary music, blase sermons, simple answers to tough questions, and other adventures in missing the point. Or perhaps it’s fatigue – a treadmill of meetings in books and programmes and squabbles that yield more duties, obligations, guilt trips, and stress.”

And that’s just the introductory page…

The point I want to make is quite simple: I believe that in an attempt to deal with the declining image and acceptance of the church in general society, and, paradoxically, in moves by the existing leadership of churches to entrench their positions of power over laypeople, we have created churches that firstly make it too easy to become Christians, and secondly give too easy answers to the tough questions that fill the lives of people inside and outside their congregations.

We are currently living with the awful consequences of decades of cheap grace. There are many churches beginning to attempt to deal with some of the problems this has caused. There are many ways of approaching this problem and looking for solutions. There are many practitioners experimenting with new practice, many authors are beginning to write about it, a few theologians are attempting to systematise it, and some philosophers are trying to fathom it.

I find myself wondering between these different categories, continuing to look for questions, answers and markers for the journey. This issue of cheap grace seems to me to be an important marker.

Related posts:

1. Cheap Grace
2. The marks of a genuine Christian – reflections on a sermon
3. What the Incarnation Means for the Church

A sermon outline originally posted on 13 March 2005

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his 1937 book, The Cost of Discipleship (buy it at Amazon.co.uk or Kalahari.net), wrote: “Costly grace is the hidden treasure in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has…. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because if calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of His Son: ‘ye were bought with a price’, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.”

In the lead up to Easter this year, let us remember that “salvation” is about “justification” AND “sanctification”. To emphasize one over the other is unbiblical. To my mind, this is the single biggest failing of the church at the moment – to be so heavenly minded that it is no earthly good. To emphasize what Jesus came to die for, and to neglect all he came to LIVE for – the establishment of His Kingdom ON EARTH as it is in Heaven!

If we lived more like Christ’s intent, we wouldn’t have many of the issues I talk about elsewhere on this blogsite.

Here is a sermon I preached just before Easter a few years ago:

On February 4, in 1906, a baby boy was born in Breslau, in eastern Germany. His name was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. At about the age of fourteen, he began to study theology, graduating with a doctorate by the age of 21. He then was the pastor of churches in Barcelona, Spain, and London, England.

After Adolf Hitler took charge as chancellor of Germany in January of 1933, Bonhoeffer watched as many of his friends began to support Hitler’s anti-Semitism. Very few, if any, churches stood against Hitler and his policies. The oppression of the Jews increased, and Bonhoeffer wished to help them. In the spring of 1933, he helped to found a Confessing Church which had already begun to aid the Jews. Many other German parishes in England joined with Bonhoeffer’s new church. But this church closed in 1935, due to pressure from the Gestapo and other Germans.

So Dietrich Bonhoeffer returned to Germany. He started up a seminary course that was a direct attack against the Nazi ideology, but his teaching and ministry was declared illegal in August 1937, and his seminary was shut down and many of his former students arrested. In January 1938, he was officially banned from Berlin. In 1939 Bonhoeffer joined a secret group of high-ranking military officers based in the Abwehr, or Military Intelligence Office, who wanted to overthrow the government by killing Hitler. In September 1940, the Gestapo forbade Bonhoeffer from public speaking and publishing. In 1943, Bonhoeffer was arrested and remained in several different prisons for nearly two years. In February, 1945, he was moved to a concentration camp in Buchenwald. He was hanged at Flossenburg on April 9, 1945, just days before Allied forces liberated the camp. He was 39 years old.

With a story like that, his life really qualifies Dietrich Bonhoeffer to have something to say on ‘The Cost of Discipleship’. In fact, that is the title of his most famous book, written in 1937. The theme of the book is about the difference between cheap and costly grace.

He wrote this (pg 43ff): “Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything, they say, and so everything can remain as it was before…. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

“Costly grace is the hidden treasure in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has…. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of His Son: ‘ye were bought with a price’, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered Him up for us, Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”

It’s Easter in just two weeks time, and as we focus on what Jesus did on the cross it’s a good time again to remind ourselves of what it is exactly he achieved. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus became the Saviour of the world. Because he died, we don’t have to. He died in our place, and his death satisfies God’s anger against sinners.

This evening, I want to focus on our salvation. We know it is a free gift. But just because it’s free doesn’t mean it costs nothing. Let me explain what I mean, and I hope you don’t mind a quick theology lesson.

When we talk of salvation, there are many small steps that we actually are referring to. To go back to the beginning, we believe that everyone has sinned and falls short of the glory of God. We believe that God is so holy, that he cannot even look at sin. We believe that the penalty for even one sin is death. Jesus’ death was the propitiation for our sins. (Note: Propitiation is the turning aside of wrath.)

We refer to this fact that God can now accept us, as our being “justified”. (Just as if I’d never sinned). For many people, that is all they think of when they think of salvation. But the Bible is very clear that this is only the starting point. Salvation also includes “sanctification”.

John 12:23-26
Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

The Christian life is a costly one. It often requires us to step out of our comfort zones. It requires discipline, self control, and expects more than you can give. It is in stretching ourselves beyond ourselves that we truly find ourselves, in Christ.

There’s a guy named John Wimber, who founded the Vineyard Churches. John lived a rather wild life: he had been a rock musician, dabbled in drugs, and gone down a rotten path. One day, he picked up a Gideons Bible, and started to read it. He couldn’t put it down. The message so moved him, that he began a search for Jesus. Very soon after that he had a dramatic conversion to Christ. The next Sunday he went to a local church for a service, and in his leathers and wild look, sat right in the front of the church – really freaked the pastor out. He took everything in, but was more and more concerned. As a professional rock musician, he really didn’t like the music, and the preacher’s words left him cold.

On the way out after the service, John asked the preacher: “So, when do you do the stuff?” And the preacher replied somewhat bemused: “what stuff?”
And John replied, “You know, the healings and the exorcisms and feeding the hungry, and clothing the naked. You know – the stuff? “
He had been reading about these things in the Bible and was eager to see them done for himself.
And the pastor replied, “Oh we believe in those things, but we don’t do them here.”
To which John replied: “Oh man, I gave up drugs for THIS?!”

The church has often offered cheap grace. By making it too easy to become a Christian, we have made it very difficult to live like a Christian.

To be honest, the way that the offer of salvation is often made to people, you’d have to be an idiot not to accept it. If you study the offer as it is often made, you will realise it is a no lose proposition. You get eternal security, with nothing in return, no future payments, just a simple verbal assent. It is a no cost fire insurance policy. This is cheap grace. It is only half the story.

Like a marathon or endurance race, the impressive statistic is not how many people start the race, but how many people finish it. Its interesting that the Gospels refer to Jesus as Saviour only 16 times. This is the get out of hell free part of salvation – justification. But, they refer to Jesus as Lord 420 times. The life of discipleship part of salvation – sanctification. We cannot accept Christ as Saviour without embracing him as Lord.

Let me be really very clear about what I’m saying. Salvation is by grace alone, and a free gift of God. But there is simply no biblical reason for saying that the glorious truth of justification by faith alone is more important than the astonishing reality that the risen Lord now lives in his disciples, transforming them day by day into his very likeness. Justification and sanctification are both central parts of the biblical teaching on the Gospel and salvation. To overstate the importance of the one is to run the danger of neglecting the other. I think churches today are in danger of doing this. (Refer Ron Sider, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience – but it at Amazon.co.uk).

If being a Christian does not make a difference in our lives, then maybe we’re not really Christians. Salvation is not something you did, and now it’s over, and you’ve got your ticket to heaven. No, salvation is something that must be worked out on a daily basis, and through the power of the Holy Spirit is something we become.

The Bible is very clear about this:

Hebrews 12:2
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. EMPHASIZE PERFECTOR

Philippians 1:6
being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 2:12
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed– not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence– continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling

Colossians 2:6
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him

and so on…

Every year, I buy one of those desk calendars with a tear off for each day. Unlike some more spiritual people, who buy the ones with daily Bible readings, I tend to buy the ones with cartoons, jokes or last year’s one: World’s Dumbest People. The entry for June 6 told this story: On this day in 1981, Doug Whitt and his bride, Sylvia, were escorted to their hotel’s fancy bridal suite in the wee hours of the morning. In the suite they saw a sofa, chairs, and table, but where was the bed? Then they discovered the sofa was a hide-a-bed, with a lumpy mattress and sagging springs. They spent a fitful night and woke up in the morning with sore backs. The new husband went to the hotel desk and gave the management a tongue-lashing. “Did you open the door in the room?” asked the clerk. Doug went back to the room. He opened the door they had thought was a closet. There, complete with fruit baskets and chocolates, was a beautiful bedroom!

That’s kind of like many Christians. They’ve got into the entrance room of Christianity, but haven’t investigated any further.

In Revelation 3:20, Jesus says: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” We often use this as an evangelistic verse, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But, it’s actually directed at the church. It’s said to Christians. Jesus is in the entrance hall, and all he sees around him are locked doors. The door to your wallet is locked tight. The door to your thought life locked tight. The door to your attitudes towards others, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, gender bias – all locked up tight.

So, let me ask you very simply: What difference does being a Christian make in your life?

As I prepared this sermon, I had a list of things you should do to respond to this. As I looked at it, though I realised it was just MY list. I then tried to put myself in other people’s shoes, trying to think what the most common issues were.
Tithing, racism, materialism, greed, gossiping, giving to the poor, lack of self control, lust, sexual issues, and my list just went on and on. But then I realised that this list wasn’t for me to create, that I could trust the Holy Spirit to do that work in each person here tonight. He has done that work in me already as I prepared this sermon.

So, what is the issue in your life that God has been putting his finger on tonight, and maybe over the past few weeks?
You need to respond.
He will not keep asking you forever.
It is his invitation to you, to go to the next level with him.

Unless you take it, you will never be truly happy.

Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn’t really matter.

Crucified with Christ
By Phillips, Craig and Dean

When I look back at what I thought was living

I’m amazing at the price I chose to pay
And to think I ignored what really mattered
‘Cause I thought the sacrifice would be too great
But when I finally reached the point of giving in
I found the cross was calling even then
And even though it took dying to survive
I’ve never felt so much alive

For I am crucified with Christ and yet I live

Not I but Christ that lives within me
His cross will never ask for more than I can give
For it’s not my strength but His
There’s no greater sacrifice
For I am crucified with Christ and yet I live

As I hear the Savior call for daily dying
I will bow beneath the weight of Calvary
Let my hands surrender to His piercing purpose

That holds me to the cross yet sets me free
I will glory in the power of the cross
The things I thought were gain I count as loss

And with His suffering I identify
And by His resurrection power I am alive
And I will offer all I have
So that His cross is not in vain
For I’ve found to live is Christ

And to die is truly gain

1992 Dawn Treader Music/SESAC

Related posts:

1. More on “cheap grace”
2. What the Incarnation Means for the Church
3. The marks of a genuine Christian – reflections on a sermon

Originally posted on 19 September 2005

In a lecture presented to the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa a few months ago, Eddy Gibbs, a long-term voice for change in the church, talked about his view of “emerging church”. What found really interesting in the report I received, was his list of emerging church characteristics. He since wrote a book on the topic. While it is now slightly outdated, I do think that the picture he presents of the “ideal” emerging church should be aspirational for all church leaders.

“For the past three years I have been working with a younger colleague at Fuller Seminary, interviewing around 100 emerging church leaders in the UK, the US, and other areas of the English-speaking world in an attempt to answer those questions. Here is our tentative list:

• Their churches are worship-inspired with everyone playing an active role in creating the worship experience.
• They are mission focused, committed to responding to the needs of their community and especially in serving the poor.
• They are shaped by context, i.e. seeking an indigenous expression of church that is culturally appropriate.
• They seek to contextualize discerningly, ensuring the integrity of the message and refusing to soften its radical impact.
• They disciple intentionally, which means that they are more concerned to challenge people to live as Christ-followers rather than gathering a crowd.
• Their churches are structured relationally rather than hierarchically. This means that everyone has their place to belong and ministry to which they can contribute.
• Their churches grow organically, which means that they are reproducible, much like a strawberry plant sending out runners that set down new roots and produce more strawberries.
• They network extensively, usually by means of regular contact with the internet, with chatrooms and blogs.
• They gather together periodically the smaller cell churches for times of celebration and re-tooling for mission.
• Lastly, they serve compassionately, in that they are committed to holistic spirituality, rejecting any separation of the spiritual from the secular, which occurred under modernity.

I like it a lot.

Related posts:

1. What the Incarnation Means for the Church
2. Church is not the end, it’s the means
3. Generations @ Church

Originally posted on 1 May 2006

These are notes I used for a study on the issue of the Incarnation.

One of the greatest mysteries of the Christian faith is the Incarnation. This is a technical theological word that describes the fact that God became a human. Jesus Christ was both 100% a man and 100% God. The implications of this has kept theologians both thinking and fighting with each other for the past 2000 years. I am not sure that we will ever fully understand the Incarnation, but I want to share with you tonight what I believe the Incarnation means for the church – for us, today.

When Jesus was on earth, he taught us how to live lives pleasing to God. It is not just His words and his preaching that are important. Its His example and what He actually did that are important, too.

When we think of the Incarnation as a model for us, we probably immediately think of missionaries who leave the land of their birth and go to a far off country where they have to learn a new language, wear strange clothes and participate in weird customs. But that isn’t the only application of Jesus’s example. The Incarnation is a model of ministry for us here in our church.

Right at the start of His ministry, Jesus called a select group of 12 disciples to be with him, and live with him in community for 3 years. In addition to this group, there were at least 72 others who regularly lived with the disciples and travelled with them. There were many hundreds who offered them hospitality and, of course, many thousands who would come every now and again to hear Jesus preach.

In calling the first of the 12, Jesus used a particular invitation, that was culturally appropriate for these fishermen.

Mark 1:16-18 (NLT)

One day as Jesus was walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother, Andrew, fishing with a net, for they were commercial fishermen.  Jesus called out to them, “Come, be my disciples, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and went with him.

Our view = lone man on the rocks, throwing line into heaving ocean. Or lone man, half asleep on the banks of river. Waiting. Hoping.

Their view – correct interpretation = collaborative event. Nets, dragging, active, going out onto the water. Dredging. Then, they’d come back to shore to do two things: (1) sift through what they’d dragged up in their nets to see what was valuable and what was not, and (2) mend their nets, and get ready for the next expedition out to sea.

These two views of fishing explain a radical shift taking place in the world right now. Some people refer to it as the emerging church. Others prefer to call it the missional church. Whatever its called, there is a growing movement around the world that is questioning the way we’ve done church our whole lives. One of the key shifts these people are seeing is the move from an attractional model of Church to a missional model.

EXPLAIN: Attractional

Focus is on church activities; inviting non-churched to come to us; being “seeker sensitive”; creating programmes, groups, activities and events that church members can invite their non-Christian friends to, where their friends will hear the Gospel. This is includes everything from Billy Graham type “crusades”, to youth groups, outreach services and Alpha courses.

It is these types of ministries that the church usually supports with money and publicity.

EXPLAIN: Missional

I believe we need to move to model that is much more relational – that focuses more on friendships than programmes. The emphasis must be on us going out there, rather than getting them to come here.

The problem is that we have successfully separated our “spiritual” lives from our “secular” lives. We have church in a box, and don’t see ourselves as being incarnated in the world, to be salt and light wherever we are.

So, for example, when we think of the ministries of the church, do we think of asking each church member what they are already doing in their neighbourhood and places of work? Do we make an attempt to identify the medical practitioner who has changed their approach to patients by providing counselling and practical support rather than just the diagnosis and prescription of medications. Do we support people who have joined the community police Forum so that they can assist in containing crime and supporting the beleaguered police force?  Do we pray for the support the teacher who has started working in a township school with all the issues of poverty affecting her pupils?

Our church rightly supports a number of orphanages and homes for children affected by HIV/AIDS. But, when a family who is living in one of the richest suburbs in the richest city on the poorest continent decides to pay their domestic worker more than triple the minimum wage, so that she can support her family and help her own children to have an education and escape the cycle of poverty, should we not see this as an important ministry of the Kingdom of God?

We need to see that business man, students, lecturers, electricians, homemakers, plumbers, accountants and everyone else has potential missional roles to play in their worlds.

If a business person started a prayer breakfast in a local restaurant, churches are likely to notify their members and support the event. But if that same business person attempts to use her influence to develop ethical schemes through her business to invest in social causes that will create jobs for the unemployed, we traditionally don’t see this as mission. We don’t see the strong creation of friendships that parents make through the local school as being anything to do with mission – unless they’re inviting them to church. We don’t see the regular gathering of skateboarders at the local shopping centre as part of the net that catches people into the kingdom of God.

But we should!

We need to move to a missional model of thinking about church.

Jesus calls every single one of us to be fishers of men. How can we do that? Who are the “fish”? What are our nets?

Well – fairly obvious who the fish are – the people that God wants to bring into His Kingdom.

The Nets? The connection between fisherman and fish = the web of relationships you have with these people.

I believe that we need to understand the sacred nature of our relationships with our non-Christian friends. In fact, let’s start by not calling them non-Christian friends. I’d prefer to think of them as “not-yet-Christian” friends. (I don’t think of my wife as “not a man”). Changing our language will display the hope we have in the process.

Everything that we do to interact with them, and to impact them, and to demonstrate Christ and His Kingdom to them, should be seen as ministry. And it should be sacred and recognised as such by the church. It is a sacred and revolutionary infiltration into the world.

We realise it may take some time. It took Jesus 33 years to infiltrate the community he incarnated into. It took him 30 years of socialising before he even started preaching! And, in his whole lifetime, he only specifically targeted 12 people. But, if every Christian spent their whole lives just evangelising one other person, the 1.5 billion Christians in the world would double every 20 years or so, and the whole world would be Christian within 50 years.

Jesus says, “Come follow me, and I will teach you how to fish for people”.

This has been called Friendship Evangelism. (For and Against)

How do we do this Missionally, not just socially?

1. A Commitment to Holiness

Matthew 5:16 – In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

Built into the heart of NT teaching on the church is the idea that when Christians live Christ-like lives, their example will be so tantalising and intriguing that it will attract people to ask questions and to want to live in the same way.

Unfortunately, especially in business, this is not always the case.

What different does Jesus make in your life?

We must make the Gospel of the Kingdom of God attractive by living it right under the noses of the people who have not yet embraced it. A consistent Biblical theme.

Micah 6:8 – O people, the Lord has already told you what is good, and this is what he requires: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Holiness as a well, not a fence.

Holiness is a goal not a pre-requisite.

Holiness is not meant to be a big stick to hit people with. Its meant to be an attractive lifestyle, drawing people to Christ.

It should not be an entry criteria (for joining a church). It should be a leadership criteria for those responsible for the spiritual health of the community.

Titus 2:7-10

And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good deeds of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching.  Let your teaching be so correct that it can’t be criticized.  Then those who want to argue will be ashamed because they won’t have anything bad to say about us.

Slaves must obey their masters and do their best to please them. They must not talk back or steal, but they must show themselves to be entirely trustworthy and good. Then they will make the teaching about God our Saviour attractive in every way.

2. A Commitment to Supporting Evangelists

Although we’re each called to be evangelists in every way we can, there are those that are especially gifted in explaining the Gospel to people, and answering their questions in such a way that they get it. Evangelists are listed together with teachers, pastors and apostles in the Bible.

Every week we make sure that we put ourselves in a place where we connect with teachers. To feed our souls and grow our understanding.

We need to see our role too in connecting our friends with evangelists. If we truly understood the role of the evangelist, they’d be in hot demand for dinner parties, weekends away with mates and informal chat sessions. EXPAND.

It could become such a task that the church needs to subsidise their income, to give them more time to do the work of an evangelist. Part of what our pastors should be involved in. Yet, in most churches, pastors spend all their time looking after the Christians. And if a pastor gets involved in a local jogging club, or bridge group or women’s group, they’re often accused of NOT doing their job.

1 Cor. 9:13-14 — Don’t you know that those who work in the Temple get their meals from the food brought to the Temple as offerings? And those who serve at the altar get a share of the sacrificial offerings.  In the same way, the Lord gave orders that those who preach the Good News should be supported by those who benefit from it.

(CONTEXT (ch 9) = evangelist and being in not-yet-Christian homes)

3. A Commitment to Prayer

What we are doing is a spiritual mission.

Pray for evangelists.

Matthew 9:36-38 — He felt great pity for the crowds that came, because their problems were so great and they didn’t know where to go for help. They were like sheep without a shepherd.  He said to his disciples, “The harvest is so great, but the workers are so few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send out more workers for his fields.”

Not just foreign missions. This is wherever there are people who are not-yet-Christian.

Pray that the evangelists will be effective.

Ephes. 6:19  -    And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words as I boldly explain God’s secret plan that the Good News is for the Gentiles, too.

Pray for your friends.

4. A Commitment to Socialising

We need to stay close to those who are not-yet-Christian. We must engage fully with them, not treating them as a project with a deadline, but actively being “friends of sinners”. This was an insult label the religious leaders slapped onto Jesus – but one that He gratefully accepted and made His own.

Friend of sinners –the Incarnation of the very Son of God. A model for us.

We need to live, eat, work and play with not-yet-Christians. We must go to THEIR world, not waiting for them to come to ours. This must be done in their homes, and in ours.

EXAMPLES:

• What about the remote controlled racing club at the shopping centre near our house? They meet only on a Sunday morning.
• Student friends at varsity – won’t come to church, but want to chat about spiritual things with you.
• Your next door neighbours who are living together and often invite you around for an evening of board games with their group of friends.
• All the people in your office.

But our commitment to socialising also means a commitment to going outside our comfort zones, to risk being rejected and even persecuted, and to ensure that our group of friends includes the excluded, the marginalised, the weak and the poor.

Col. 4:3-6

Don’t forget to pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to preach about his secret plan—that Christ is also for you Gentiles. That is why I am here in chains.  Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.

Live wisely among those who are not Christians, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and effective so that you will have the right answer for everyone.

5. A Commitment to Spiritual Community

Stay connected to a church. Some of the examples above might mean you need to spend Sunday morning with your friends, and not at church. That’s OK, as long as you stay connected to a spiritual community.

Feed your soul. Put stuff in, so that there is stuff to come out when the opportunity arises.

6. A Commitment to the Kingdom (to be Jesus MAD – make a difference)

1 Peter 3:15 – Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if you are asked about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.

If we do our work: living holy lives, praying for our not-yet-Christian friends, socialising regularly and building genuine friendships with them, demonstrating the Kingdom in how we live, introducing them to our evangelist friends, then God can do His work: giving them the gift of faith and saving them by the work of His Holy Spirit in them.

This is what the church needs to be doing.

I acknowledge inspiration for this article/sermon from the fanstatic book, “The Shaping of Things to Come” by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch (Hendrickson, 2003).

Related posts:

1. Church is not the end, it’s the means
2. Cheap Grace
3. The marks of a genuine Christian – reflections on a sermon

This was originally posted on 6 August 2006

The situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border over the past fortnight is horrific. It is not my intention to discuss the various merits of each side’s (by this I refer to Israel and Hizbullah) claims, although I believe both sides have a point and both have over reacted and need to be held to account for their actions.

The point of this post, however, is to ask for your input on a question this conflict has raised for me.

There is an organisation in South Africa called ‘The Gift of the Givers’. They collect essential supplies and provide services and medicines to people impacted by natural disasters and warfare. They have an impeccable reputation and are wonderfully transparent, highly accountable in their reporting and super media savvy. And they collect literally millions and millions of rands of supplies, and get it to disaster zones faster than anyone else seems able to.

And they are Muslim.

As I have considered how to contribute to some relief for those caught up in the current crisis in the Middle East, it struck me that the most appropriate and effective use of my donation would be to give it via The Gift of the Givers.

But should I? They seem to have no proseletising motive – yet, I know how “devious” some Christian agencies are in this regard. As a Muslim organisation, there is no doubt an attempt to do what they do, “in the name of Allah”, even though this is never stated.

But why are there no Christian agencies doing work in the Middle East right now? Oh, I am sure that there ARE some, but where is their profile? Or, to put it another way, where is the voice, and hands and feet of Jesus in this mess?

Should I scrounge around some more to find the Christian witness, or should I see the most obvious and visible and active channel as a means to touch the people in Lebanon. Does it matter that I do it in the name of Jesus, but do it through an organisation that does not? (If so, where does that leave all the non-aligned NGO’s, like Red Cross and UN?).

I’d appreciate your comments.

Related posts:

1. Bible verses on gun sights
2. How to talk when we don’t agree – an object lesson from President Obama

This was originally posted on 19 April 2006

I have enjoyed interacting with my father over the past few years.  For most of my life, he has been many miles ahead of me on the spiritual journey we’re all on.  But, in the past few years, we’ve found ourselves journeying together on a new path. 

He recently sent me some thoughts he had put together after reading a book I think I have him for Christmas last year.  He calls these writings his “Wooden Spoons” (for stirring).

Here is what he sent me.

Developing Kingdom Vision

The Wooden Spoon, No. 10: Feb 2006
by Dr Reg Codrington

In a recent study, I found it fascinating to note that, although the term “kingdom” can be found in the teachings of Jesus over a hundred times in the four Gospels (as “kingdom”, “kingdom of heaven” or “kingdom of God”), He only mentioned “church” a mere three times. Yet today if you were to ask the average Christian for a definition of “the kingdom”, he or she may be hard put to describe it accurately. As Reggie McNeal notes in his book, “The Present Future”, the “church culture has become confused with biblical Christianity, both inside the church and out.” (page 1)

In fact, McNeal goes on to bemoan the fact that all too many Christians have begun to confuse Christianity with Churchianity. In all denominations we have allowed the customs and traditions of the church to become prescriptive and, in many instances, to blind us to what the Scriptures actually say on various issues.

Now if this sounds fairly critical of today’s church, it is only because I am convinced that the Emerging Church Movement is asking some very serious and significant questions about what the church SHOULD look like. Let me start by outlining some of the developments over a considerable period of time which have led, so I believe, to a diminution of the church’s effectiveness, both for Christians and for the society in which it finds itself:

1. Rampant denominationalism

There are many today who would argue that denominational barriers are crumbling, assisted greatly by the cross-denominational charismatic movement of the latter part of the 20th century. Why is it, then, that there is still such competition between churches? Why is so much so-called ecumenicism a “surface-only” claim, as long as there is no “sheep-stealing” of “our” members? Why is church membership still so critical to being either “in” or “out” when it is not mentioned anywhere in Scripture?

2. Lack of servant leadership

Can the church be healthy when a local minister urges his congregation not to attend a Christian event in another church, and not even to give information about it in the cell groups, for fear that he may lose control of what they hear? Is it wise that the peculiar doctrinal stance of a pastor should be allowed to dictate what does, or does not happen in his local church, regardless of whether or not there is a sound Biblical basis for his position? Did the Lord really intend church to become a group of sheep, highly controlled by one under-shepherd?

3. Lack of missionary zeal

The days of the missionary in a pith helmet hacking his way through the jungle may be far gone, but what has happened to the Great Commission in most of our churches. Sadly, it has become the Great Omission. Looking after the home base (and especially the church buildings) has carried much more weight in budget discussions than pouring funds into missionary or evangelistic efforts. Is that what our Master would call Kingdom Vision? “An honest search for God today would lead the church back into the world.” (Reggie McNeal, page 56)

4. Lack of compassion

Why is it that the upliftment of the poor, the hurting, the AIDS victims and orphans, and the societal misfits is so often the work of NGOs and secular Good Samaritans rather than the church? Our young people are encouraged to wear the WWJD armband, but do we as the people of God ask the question often enough, “What would Jesus do?”

5. Lack of forgiveness

When I read the God who forgave High Priest Joshua in Zechariah 3, although his sins were described as “filthy”; when I re-read the passage of Jesus’ response to the woman caught in adultery; when I hear him say to failed Peter, “Feed my sheep”, I weep at the unforgiveness of the modern church, always quicker to condemn than to restore. Sure, there must be true repentance, but after that? Exclusion? Penance? Excommunication? Discipline? How would Jesus handle it?

6. Lack of Biblical knowledge

The plethora of good-feeling Christian books flooding the market has given rise to “Bible” studies which are nothing of the kind. The average Christian just does not know the Book anymore, although he or she may well be able to quote Rick Warren, Bruce Wilkinson or Nicky Gumbel. How will we ever be able to ascertain what is truth and what is error if we are not steeped in the Word?

If we are to confront these lacks, and ensure that the church is truly equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century, many things have to change. Through the centuries, as society has changed, believers have gone back to the Word and found it more relevant than ever, although sometimes requiring a new hermeneutic. We are abroad in the postmodern society and to hear many Christians speak about this, one would think that it’s a terminal disease we must avoid at all costs! Like it or not, that’s our society, and we need to ensure that the unchanging Word and the unchanging Gospel are made relevant to challenge the issues of the day. This means re-evaluating EVERY practice in thelight of carefully-exegeted Scripture.

My strong feeling, to address the issues outlined above, is that the Emerging Church of the 21st century will be non-denominational (emphasising function not form), characterised by a servant leadership in churches with every-person ministry, focusing funds and manpower on reaching the lost (“here” and “there”), genuinely getting our hands dirty in the community, cherishing restoration of sinners above rebuke, and returning to REALLY study what the Word says on every issue.

As I pondered these matters, I was forcibly struck by the fact that NONE of these issues raises its head in the Grace College environment. Think about it for a moment:

• Denominationalism is a non-issue; we are Christians working together with a common goal, outlined in the school’s vision statement and in our Statement of Principles.
  
• Leadership is (hopefully) not autocratic, but taking consideration of all views through regular consultation.
  
• Missionary zeal is at the heart of our longing that every pupil should come to faith in Christ. In fact, it is my strong feeling that local churches should free Christian teachers from all other responsibilities and support us as missionaries as we enter the classroom to share Christ every day. Few other places of work have as their main aim the salvation of the people with whom there will be interaction on a daily basis!
  
• Compassion for the needy undergirds our whole Community Development programme and achieves a high “buy-in” by staff and pupils at Grace College.
  
• Forgiveness and the expression of Grace has become a by-word in our school, as we endeavour to help youngsters work through their moral and other failures to a position of strength and victory. The expressed desire of staff members again and again is to “give him another chance”. The Lord’s heart must be warmed!
  
• While there is always room for greater exposure to the Word, the involvement of so many staff members in Bible Studies, Evening School and similar opportunities for studying the Scriptures is a great encouragement.

The kingdom is people. To develop a Kingdom Vision is to see what God wants to do NOW in the world which will have eternal consequences THEN in heaven. Our question should not be “how is your church doing?”, for that is inward-looking and as helpful as ingrowing toenails! We should rather be asking, “How is the Kingdom doing?” The kingdom is “out there” and that is where Christians have to be, helping people develop, as Jesus did as a young man, physically, intellectually, spiritually and socially (Luke 2:52).

Allow me to finish this thought-stirrer by quoting yet again from McNeal’s book:

“It is absurd that schoolteachers who have contact with dozens of students every day be underdeveloped as to their missionary potential. They usually have more face time with students than anyone else (even parents). Why in the world would we do anything that would make them feel or believe they have to pursue their personal spiritual development down at the church and away from the classroom? … Imagine helping people see how God can get into the life they already have instead of asking them to give up their life for the church.” (p 79)

Reg Codrington

Related posts:

1. Jesus and the “Social Gospel” – by Dr Reg Codrington
2. More on “cheap grace”
3. Church is not the end, it’s the means