The measure of how ministry is progressing in your church or fellowship, and the way to evaluate whether you are making progress, is not attendance on Sunday, signed up members, people in small groups, or the size of our budget (as important and valuable as all these things are!). The real test is how successfully you are making disciples who make other disciples. Are we seeing people converted from being dead in their transgressions to being alive in Christ? And once converted, are we seeing them followed-up and established as mature disciples of Jesus? And as they become established, are we training them in knowledge, godliness and skills so that they will in turn make disciples of others?

This is the Great Commission—the making of disciples who obey all that Christ has taught, including the command to make disciples. And this is the touchstone of our faithfulness to Christ’s mission in the world, and the sign of a healthy church: whether or not it is making genuine disciple-making disciples of Jesus Christ.

How is your ministry measuring up? Is it making biblical progress? Is it adding participants or more benchwarmers?

What did early disciples devote themselves to? The answer:

1. The apostles’ teaching
2. The fellowship (other believers, koinonia does NOT mean attending church services!
3. The breaking of bread (the Lord’s Supper)
4. Prayer

True fellowship (koinonia) involves authentic relationships, which result best outside of institutions. The apostles spent a lot of intimate time with disciples, not just once or twice a week preaching at them from a pulpit. That’s why they usually only had a handful of dedicated disciples. Too many pastors try to take on the responsibility of discipling an entire congregation, and then they end up not having any time to disciple even one person effectively. Case in point, call your pastor and find out if you can hang out regularly, see what kind of time he has for you. Chances are, not very much. Jesus WALKED with His disciples, you’d be hard pressed to find a pastor with time to do this. Obviously, modern pastors are not the solution.

The solution is one person starting with a small group of people and spending intimate time with them, ideally coworkers (hence Paul’s tentmaking). Discipleship is a lengthy process, and it takes an enormous amount of time and energy. Jesus’ disciples continually screwed up and even denied Him when the crap hit the fan! People are messy, we tend to give up on them if they don’t fall in line after a three-point sermon or pep-talk. Is anyone willing to invest time into someone else these days? Is it even a priority for the church? Maybe that’s why there are few mature disciples out there.

And don’t even get me started on prayer. Do most churches and pastors even do that regularly any more?

Am I just being a whiner? Or is my frustration justified? What do you think?

Related posts:

1. Should churches compete with each other?
2. Church Planting: Institutional vs. Organic
3. Numerical growth as a double standard

I saw a great article over at Church Marketing Sucks entitled Tony Morgan Thinks Churches Should Stop Marketing.

Tony Morgan, chief strategic officer at NewSpring Church in Anderson, S.C., co-author of the Simply Strategic Series, former pastor at Granger Community Church and author of the soon-to-be-released Killing Cockroaches (and we’ve interviewed Tony and linked to him on dozens of occasions), says that marketing is evil and your church should stop.

So what is Tony talking about? Essentially, he says ministry trumps marketing. If we try to fix the church’s problems with marketing, we’re going to fail. The article says:

“Direct mail won’t fix your problem. Billboards won’t fix your problem. Neither will platform announcements or bulletin ads or bumper stickers. At some point marketing may be a good option, but until you answer the right questions, marketing could be what’s preventing your success.

If your church has stopped growing, marketing is not your solution. If you have stopped seeing life change, marketing is not the answer.”

And to that, we say amen.

But as much as we love Tony, he’s a little off base.

The articles goes on to disagree with Morgan and explains why churches should continue marketing. However, I think Morgan is correct. Tony Morgan also recommends that people stop reading the Church Marketing Sucks blog. I’m going to take his advice. Morgan goes on to say:

Marketing is becoming a barrier to the advancement of the Gospel message. It’s becoming a hindrance for the church. Ministry is being negatively impacted because churches are attempting to use marketing tactics to reach people for Jesus and help them take steps in their faith. [emphasis added]

AMEN! Why does the church continue to use the methods of the world to reach people for Christ? Jesus very simply (and literally) said,

“Then having gone, disciple all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you. And, behold, I am with you all the days until the completion of the age. Amen” (Matthew 29:19-20, LITV).

Note that “Go” is not a command in the Great Commission in the original Greek, it is best translated “having gone” or “while [you are] going”. The only command here is to disciple, and then the methods of doing so are given: baptizing and teaching. So while you are going, disciple everyone in the world by baptizing and teaching them. Then Jesus gives us a great promise: I’m not leaving you alone to do this, I am with you. That’s awesome!

You see, it is assumed that we will go about our business — life happens. But as we go, we are to disciple people along the way.

Understanding discipleship is helpful. Discipleship is not a church program or agenda, nor is it a curriculum that can be completed and finished with a spiritual gifts inventory and placement into a church program or activity. Discipling goes beyond witnessing, it’s the nurturing of a new Christian’s faith and the parenting of the new Christian into maturity. This cannot be effectively accomplished by investing one hour per week into someone or by having them complete a workbook. Jesus traveled, ate, slept, and hung out with his twelve disciples for three years prior to sending them His Spirit and cutting them loose. Paul spent three years in Arabia prior to preaching the Gospel in Damascus (Galatians 1:17). Many others are prepared by intense mentoring prior to being sent into leadership roles in various churches.

The pattern and example is clear: discipleship only occurs by investing time into people’s lives and walking with them through the daily grind of life — the good and bad times. This can’t be taught in a program or agenda, this can only be lived. The institutional church has done a great job at filling the minds of young men with vast amounts of knowledge yet leaving them with only infant-level emotional maturity (these men lead many institutional churches today). It has done a great job at allowing complacent Americans to remain willfully ignorant of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. You cannot possibly disciple people adequately without forming deep relationships with them.

But this cannot be done with our culture’s capitalist focus on church growth. Rapid growth is expected, and it is measured by weekly attendance and giving totals. People are viewed as being either assets or liabilities, and the board of Elders spends more time examining budget proposals and accounting worksheets than it does praying that the church’s “love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that [it] may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11). This blame is put on all who view the church as an organization rather than as an organism, not just pastors and leaders. Many times pastors understand that this is wrong but must comply with his or her congregation’s wishes to grow, Grow, GROW!

So how should we “make disciples” if we don’t use marketing tactics? How will we get people to come to church? The same way Jesus drew crowds of thousands who were willing to listen to Him speak without food for three days: word-of-mouth. Of course this involves telling people about Jesus as you are going (not about your church), and does not take kindly to a “Come and See” approach which most churches advocate.

Instead of sending a direct mailer to the community, why not focus on discipling a small group of core people and watching their lives be transformed. When this happens, they won’t be able to help but tell people about Jesus and what He has done in their lives. Instead of support-raising money to purchase a building and “praying in faith” for God to pay the bills, take your small group of people and meet in the intimacy of your home regularly until your living room can no longer accommodate the guests. This may take three years or more, but exercising patience and doing things in God’s timing is better than using worldly marketing tactics to plant churches in some man-made “cookie-cutter” pattern. Instead of finding musicians to lead worship without really getting to know and disciple them, first spend time with them to determine if they have a heart of worship or simply a passion for music. It is better to have a mediocre musician with a heart for worship on an acoustic guitar with no sound system than to have a full praise band of talented musicians and great sound but no depth or revelation of Jesus Christ behind it. Granted, talented musicians can create an “atmosphere” or “mood” that misguided Christians call “worship”, but true worship has far more to do with how we live on Monday than how we sing on Sunday. You need to be sure that your worship leader spends more time talking to God than he or she does talking about God, and this will be evident in the way they live.

Finally, churches need to cultivate a passion for God in their fellow Christ-followers. Many pastors and churches have a passion for evangelism, or for missions, or for preaching, or for whatever. . . . but few simply have a passion for God. Without that, all other passions are useless preoccupations with man-made strategies. Paul Washer says this well in his message entitled “Jesus Christ is Not a Yuppie’s Accessory”, which I recommend you all watch (click the title to see the video).

What we need is for all true Christians to realize that they are ministers, literally “servants.” We are not here to lead others, Christ can handle that Himself. We are here to point others to the only Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ Himself. We do this by a life of service and sacrifice, not by a life marked by pride and organizational development. There is no such thing as a “part-time Christian.” Christianity makes you a new creation, it is not just a mere belief shift — it changes who you are. When you become a Christian, you become a full-time minister, your job is your mission field. Your life is now all about Christ. As Paul Washer says in his above-mentioned message, Jesus Christ is not an accessory to your life — He IS your life!

There are too many Christians who claim Christ as their Master but deny this by how they live — myself included. But I am dedicated to becoming the man Christ has created me to be, and I must die to my flesh daily in order to accomplish that (more on this in a future post). Christianity 2.0 is the awakening of the true followers of Jesus. People are beginning to realize that the way we “do church” doesn’t work — the whole system is flawed. Christianity 2.0 is about returning the focus of Christianity to the people, not to organizational needs and challenges. Christ came to seek and save lost people, not to set up divisive administrations with complex bylaws and governmental legislation. We must stop focusing on man-made strategy (marketing) and start seeking how we can serve others (ministry).

I’m going to close with the lyrics to a song entitled “Expectations” by Caedmon’s Call / Andrew Osenga. It’s on Caedmon’s Overdressed album to which you should definitely listen. My wife wept when she first heard this song, it touched my heart when I first heard it as well, because we both identify with this completely:

that boy had the highest of expectations
and he heard that Jesus would fill him up
maybe something got lost in the language
if this was full, then why bother?

this was not the way it looked on the billboard
smiling family beaming down on the interstate

and you know that we all try to blame someone
when our dreams won’t rise up from their sleep
and the reaching of the steeple felt like one more
expensive ad for something cheap

this was not the way it looked on the billboard
smiling family beaming down on the interstate

he dressed up nice for the congregation
scared somebody’s gonna find him out
through the din and the clatter of the hallelujahs
a stained-glass Jesus sings.

this was not the way it looked on the billboard
smiling family beaming down on the interstate

Related posts:

1. How to Measure Ministry Progress
2. Gifts for visitors: what are you conveying?
3. Marketing Bibles to a Post-Literate Generation

When it comes to growing a healthy church, Pastor Larry Osborne doesn’t survey the front door to see how he can attract large crowds and wow them with a special program. For the most part, his eyes are glued to the back door.

That’s because so many churches have been losing people, and some, without even noticing.

“As long as the front door is larger than our back door or even equal, we often think things are okay. And if the front door is larger, we’re excited that we’re growing,” Osborne said as he explained how many churches lose almost as many people as they reach.

“Rather than reaching 100 people, 20 of which we keep, I’d rather reach 50 people, 40 of which we keep,” he told The Christian Post.

He goes on to talk about how to develop a “sticky church,” that is, a church that bonds and connects, a church that focuses more on keeping people than on reaching people.

While the familiar first half calls Christians to go into all the world and make disciples, the second half goes further in urging believers to teach others to observe all things Jesus taught them. . . .

The sticky church concept is about discipleship, Osborne stressed, not church growth.

At North Coast, discipleship is best played out through sermon-based small groups. Osborne has found small groups to currently be the most effective way of being a sticky church and helping people to grow spiritually.

George Barna has been saying this for awhile. The current president of the Barna Research Group, David Kinnaman, even wrote a book entitled unChristian, which deals with the church’s failure to monitor the back door and maintain a positive public image in the world. I wrote a three part series on this book at prayeramedic.com a couple months ago that you should check out for more information.

The church has been missing the boat! The church has been so busy focusing on programs and agendas to grow the church that it has entirely missed the bottom line: an authentic and intentional Christ-focused community. Campaigns and flashy gimmicks might get people in the door, but if we don’t deliver the true gospel and facilitate the necessary resulting fellowship, we might as well stop claiming that it’s all about Jesus. In that case, it’s just about man and bigger numbers. I grow weary of pastors boasting about how many people “got saved” or “got baptized” last year, but maybe 25% of them are sitting in the pews! Osborne suggests that this does even more harm than good:

“When we keep people for only a short time, what we’ve done is more likely inoculate them to Christianity rather than help them get the real disease,” Osborne noted. “Once someone’s been to church for a while, kind of connected and then fades out, it is really hard, outside of a major crisis in their life, to reach them again.”

After all, Osborne writes in his book, Jesus didn’t call churches to draw big crowds or just sign people up. “He told us to make disciples,” he says.

For Osborne, it’s about fulfilling the second half of the Great Commission, instead of just the first half.

I hope there are more pastors like Osborne who bring us back to the central focus and correct execution of the Great Commission.

Developing a Sticky Church… 2.0
When reading this article, I couldn’t help but wonder if there are any Christianity 2.0 principles to be gleaned here?

In many ways, Web 2.0 allows for a community to be “sticky” much easier than face-to-face group interactions. For example, prior to my generation, you basically fell out of touch with most middle and high school friends after graduation and moved on in life. Because of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, staying in touch with folks from the past has gotten much simpler — almost too simple! Some things are best left forgotten as we mature, but social networking can awaken old wounds and drama if we aren’t careful. At the same time, I have several friends from the past who I still don’t interact with, I simply visit their profile on occasion to see how they’ve been doing. Have you ever thought, “I wonder what John is doing these days”? Now you can find out (unless John’s profile has been set to private and he won’t add you as a friend), without having to have cordial chit-chat with the individual.

But despite the drawbacks of social networking, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Last week I was invited to a small get-together via Facebook. I was able to chat with the host of the event briefly in an instant messaging window to find out more details, and then submitted my RSVP as “Maybe” through an electronic form moments later. I didn’t have to mail anything back to someone, nor did I need to pick up a phone. Within five minutes of receiving the invite, the host knew my inclination to possibly attend. Can you imagine the implications for events at your church?

Wrapping It Up
Ok, I know I spent a lot of time focusing on the ‘event’ capability of Facebook, but I want to be sure to give specific examples of using social networking in Christianity 2.0. Many complain that people talk about Web 2.0 but never explain how to actually break into this new and exciting world. Hence my examples in this post and starting points in my explanation of Christianity 2.0. I hope this post has helped you understand that building a “Sticky Church” is necessary, and Christianity 2.0 can help make this a reality with its unique platform.

• I mentioned digging up old drama and past wounds, what are some other dangers of Web 2.0 connectivity?
• Do you feel the advantages of Web 2.0 outweigh the disadvantages?
• How can we be more “sticky” in real life and in web interactions?

Related posts:

1. What is Christianity 2.0?
2. Social Networking "Friendonomics"
3. It's All About… Me!