Holy Warps

Okay, I understand disagreements over theology. I understand disagreements over fundamental beliefs — between different religions. I think most of the divisions and debates are pointless, but I understand them. What I don’t understand is the virulent and vehement disagreement over discipleship and church membership. What are our defining features? Jesus didn’t make discipleship easy. As described in the Christian scriptures, Jesus taught that the Christian life is one fraught with sacrifice, peril, discomfort, and the risk of death. He also indicated deep satisfaction, fulfillment, and a killer retirement plan, but there was nothing simple or easy about being Christian. Paul endorses these themes. Christianity as defined in scripture is a reorientation of one’s whole being. It impacts lifestyle, values, practices, and vocation. In short, Christians must work at being Christian, devoting some significant time to learning, practicing, serving, and sweating.

So why is there so much push back from pastors about holding people accountable to their vows? The vast majority of pastors I work with think it is grossly unfair, impractical, and unreasonable to expect people in this day and age to pray, to read and study the Bible, to attend worship regularly, to work for and through the ministries of the local church, etc. Oh, sure, it would be nice if people wanted to do these things, but really, we can’t expect them to. These same pastors lament the state of the church, but see no correlation to our constant low expectations and lack of accountability. They argue that if we make Christianity anything other than easy, people won’t want it and they’ll take their money and go home… or to a church that asks virtually nothing of them.

I find it troubling that making Christianity mean something is a debatable point. A number of my friends and colleagues remind me that the majority of United Methodists have no interest in “being disciples,” let alone “making disciples.” But I still maintain, what’s the point of creating a society of passive Christian-believer spectators? What do we gain by pandering to the complacent end of the church? Why don’t we see value in downsizing the non-engaged to free up valuable resources to equip the highly engaged? Yes, I know I am speaking heresy, being mean, being insulting, being offensive — but I work with churches all the time that are dying under the weight of complacency at a time when we desperately need the body of Christ to be active, fit, and healthy. It will not happen by accident, and it will not get better if we choose to merely ignore its current sorry state.

Disciples unite! We need to rally the highly motivated and the deeply passionate and the fully engaged to lead the church into the heart of the 21st century. We need to acknowledge that the 7 million United Methodist member church is really about 700,000 disciples rubbing elbows with 6.3 million believers not that interested in doing more than attending worship occasionally and tossing in a couple bucks now and then. AND THIS ISN’T A BAD THING! What I am advocating is not lamenting that more people aren’t highly motivated to grow in their discipleship, but to focus more on those who are. We will still serve the passive side of the church, but not as our primary audience. 700,000 highly motivated disciples can move incredible mountains. Nothing breeds success like success. As the church recaptures its relevancy and purpose, it will become more attractive to others who seek something more for their lives. Will everyone want it? Of course not — never have, never will. But at least we will have reclaimed our witness — to be the body of Christ for the world.

Complacency, boredom, inactivity, irrelevancy, lack of vision, lack of motivation, lack of purpose — these things are not what we truly believe are an appropriate witness, are they? Yet, these are the very things we allow when we lack accountability and challenge in our churches. It is time to step up, time to get real and get dirty, time to remember that taking up one’s cross isn’t about going on a picnic. The gospels remind us that there can be a lot of fun and fellowship along the way, but that the real point is to teach and serve and heal a broken world — and if we don’t get busy soon it could be too late.

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25 responses to “Holy Warps”

Dana Jacobson

August 27, 2010

Excellent points, all. My experience over the last 35 years of being a Methodist is that Nashville and New York have one view of “activism” (not mine), and most of the new young crop of fiery Methodist preachers has quite another. The 90% of clergy and laity in the middle don’t quite know what to think and don’t like conflict.

Give me passion – if that means conflict, then so be it, but let my leaders be LEADERS, not the pasty vicar with tea and crumpets that Lewis so aptly criticized.

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1. Josh Tinley
  
  August 27, 2010
  
  Dana,
  
  Say more about the way these two groups view activism and the resulting conflicts. I understand that young clergy can get frustrated with the denominational agencies, but I hadn’t thought of the agencies’ notion of activism as the problem.
  
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Jeff Uhler

August 27, 2010

Dan, my past experience has been to be criticized for a “lack of visitation” when I’ve focused on discipling those who are ready. I wasn’t making certain folks with money comfortable calling them to discipleship and holding them accountable to their vows beyond the finances. I’ve had at least one D.S. who told me to “knock it off” and “make them happy.” I believe the climate of our cabinet is different than my past experience.

I wonder, however, how many pastors see it only as their calling to “take care of the saints” rather than make disciples. When we first began the Circuit ministry, some of the “circuit leaders” were not interested in developing new faith communities nor revitalizing existing ones. They merely wanted to take care of those they were appointed to serve. Could some of the pushback be from folks with such a mindset?

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1. doroteos2
  
  August 27, 2010
  
  Our current reality is this: as pastoral leaders, both laity and especially clergy, we serve a system rather than a call. Hearkening back to Jesus statement about the Sabbath being created for humankind, rather than humankind to obey the Sabbath, we allow our system to define us — because we have to make a living, and because the system is so enamored with size, numbers, and money. The system punishes prophets and disciple-makers — unless they can become high-profile. My research revealed almost exactly the opposite of the pop marketing research on mega-churches: 10 healthy 300 member churches do a whole lot more ministry than one healthy 3,000 member church — and some of the most transformative and disciple-defined congregations are no more than 30 or 40 fully engaged, fully active members. Unfortunately, the small life-changing, disciple-making congregations get virtually no attention, because they are not “successful” — i.e., growing numerically, in large buildings, with high-profile pastors, raking in large sums of money.
  
  For me there is an important distinction between “teacher/disciple” model churches and “shepherd/flock” models. In teacher/disciple models, the entire purpose is for the teacher to equip the disciple to become a teacher of other disciples. Being a part of such a faith community means that the whole reason you are there is to grow in your own faith so that you might help others grow in theirs — an elegant self-replicating system. The shepherd/flock model is designed for disempowerment. No matter how long one shepherds a sheep, the sheep will never become a shepherd to other sheep. Shepherds tend flocks; teachers cultivate teachers. Huge difference. Our system is built on the shepherd/flock model, not the teacher disciple model. The system is designed for the results it is getting. If we want different results, we need to redesign/change the system.
  
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  1. DRW
    
    August 28, 2010
    
    “Our current reality is this: as pastoral leaders, both laity and especially clergy, we serve a system rather than a call.Unfortunately, the small life-changing, disciple-making congregations get virtually no attention, because they are not “successful” — i.e., growing numerically, in large buildings, with high-profile pastors, raking in large sums of money.”
    
    That’s all the more motivation for me to continue serving small, neglected churches that others have written off. Rose Sims wrote a great autobiography on her experience serving these churches. She’s received countless evangelism awards for professions of faith. Food for thought…
Jeff Uhler

August 27, 2010

DRW, I certainly am not suggesting that all folks should not be introduced to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit… but if we are going to grow the church, spending more time with those who are ready, those with passion for Christ, those with a heart for the “lost”, those… will always be more fruitful than spending time with those who really have no desire for Christ save to have their names on the membership roll of a church so they think they’ll be in heaven.

As Dan suggested, it’s not a bad thing to merely worship on Sunday and put a couple of dollars in the plate – and for some, this is as far as their discipleship will go. But is my job as pastor to make sure everyone is “on board” and a disciple?

I suppose the case could be argued since Jesus told the story of the one who left the ninety and nine to find the one lost sheep… but, really, is that the best use of our time.

If I have 10 passionate disciples, not only will the church be transformed, but so will the community. Some of those who are complacent will take note and decide they want something more as well.

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1. DRW
  
  August 28, 2010
  
  Jeff, I think we’re pretty close to saying the same thing. I should say also that I’m newly appointed to the congregation that I reference. I won’t be in a position…at least for a while…to discern who the participants are and who the pew potatoes are. What I’m doing in the meantime is a “back to basics” approach–teaching the core essentials of discipleship and then eventually challenging the folks to take a fresh look at where God is at work in their personal lives, in the church, and in the community. So yes, I hope to have at least 10 passionate disciples for the sake of transforming the church and community. But I’ll be taking my time to figure out who God is raising up…and investing a lot of time in making sure the message has been delivered to all who have ears to listen and eyes to see.
  
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DRW

August 27, 2010

“Send me 10 motivated, passionate new believers rather than 1000 complacent pew potatoes – please!”

Yes…but…at least for me, I believe I have a responsibility to reach out to these potatoes and see if they’re in fact “done” or need more attention to “cook” properly. I can’t expect a potato to grow if they’ve never been given the introduction to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit necessary to convict them.

One colleague had a really good idea. He’s using a one-on-one (or in some cases a one to two or three) approach to discipleship. He meets with people for about 2 months or so and they read key passages of Scripture. At the meetings, he asks a lot of open ended questions, all designed to help the person to understand discipleship more clearly–the demands, the responsibilities, the accountability, the life, the joy, and so on.

At least for me, I would much rather say that I tried my very best with every person. There are lots of people out there sitting in the margins of church…on the back row of the pews…and I think God is just as concerned with them as those “on fire” to serve God. Shouldn’t we be as well?

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1. DRW
  
  August 27, 2010
  
  And I forgot to say, please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not suggesting watering down the message. I’m suggesting that we present the message clearly and thoroughly so that we can say that there’s been every opportunity for every person to hear the message of discipleship and to understand it…
  
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Jeff Uhler

August 27, 2010

Making Christianity easy certainly isn’t Jesus’ call. And it doesn’t play out when one looks at churches that are growing. Most often, there is a higher level of expectation expressed with clarity and conviction. “This is who we are…”

The fastest growing church in my local area is non-denominational, evangelical and has a very high level of expectation of those who join as members. They actually expect their members to tithe. They expect their members to be highly involved in ministry, especially evangelism. They have small groups that provide the initial level of pastoral care for members. The pastors are expected to teach and preach, to equip the “saints” for the work of ministry.

And we often remain content to pander to the lowest common denominator. Send me 10 motivated, passionate new believers rather than 1000 complacent pew potatoes – please!

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DRW

August 26, 2010

I’ve stumbled into rural ministry. I’ve served rural churches for the past 3 years as an Elder. I’ve elected to serve them part time to make it possible to be there. There are a few patterns I’ve seen. All these congregations report feeling neglected by their conference. They report little to no connection with other conference leadership, support, or guidance. In the process, they’ve had little direction, choosing to drift along based on the commitment level of their former pastors. They also report a general perception that they’re being condescended to by their former DS leadership.

Now, maybe these congregations should be left to their own devices. Maybe conferences exercise sound judgment when they choose to leave these churches to their own devices due to a history of being maintenance oriented.

But…what if? What if a pastor showed up and showed a commitment to be with the congregation for the long term? What if we taught the congregation what it means to be a disciple? What if quality worship was offered? What if quality pastoral care was offered? In short, what if the pastor showed a commitment to the best of his/her ability…then began initiating challenge toward discipleship/kingdom building at an appropriate time?

There are plenty of examples of turnaround churches…many of them in out of the way places, that show little “potential” from a demographic perspective or any other perspective.

So I guess that makes me fond of jousting windmills. Call me a pie in the sky idealist. But I believe that if I demonstrate a full commitment to the people, coupled with a concerted faith that God will provide for the reform/repentance/turnaround, that an “awakening” will occur. Isn’t that part of the gospel message?

I would much rather hang out with people who feel discouraged, marginalized, neglected and have poor spiritual habits. It seems to me that Jesus spent a lot of time with people that others had written off. Yes, I know…at some point progress must be measured. But if we show the people the standards…teach them, spend time with them, make inroads in the community…I think the issues you raise will be resolved.

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John Meunier

August 26, 2010

I’m back on the question of why pastors push back.

I imagine for at least some of them any whiff of conflict or confrontation is deeply unsettling.

“Fear” would be my first guess.

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