The
Church
of Irresistible Influence
i
[2]
“You
are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be
made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and
trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be
hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put
it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way,
let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise
your Father in heaven.”
Matthew 5:13-16, NIV
For
the job of bridging the Mississippi River at St. Louis, the resume of James
Buchanan Eads did not look very impressive:
§
Engineering degree:
none
§
Bridges Built: none
§
Work experience:
underwater salvage, gadabout, gun-boat builder, river boatman
It
was shortly after the Civil War and the city council declared it
“indispensably necessary to erect a bridge across the Mississippi River.”
Amazingly, Eads was chosen for the job. There were many more qualified people,
such as the renowned Charles Ellet and James Roebling who had both constructed
suspension bridges across the Niagara River Gorge. Yet, both of these men were
turned down.
The
self-confident and sometimes conceited Eads had one thing going for him. He had
an unmatched knowledge of the river itself. So the city gambled its future on a
novice. They asked him to build a bridge across the mighty Mississippi making
St. Louis a national artery linking five railroads from the east and three from
the west.
The
bridge proposal of Eads, like the man, was indeed radical, unorthodox and
untested. Instead of a suspension or iron truss design, which was customary for
railroad bridges at that time, Eads proposed an arched bridge that would rest on
massive piers. His critics were numerous and claimed that the bridge was
“entirely unsafe and impracticable.”
Nevertheless,
Eads prevailed and there is only one reason why his bridge was a success. He
possessed a far greater power: knowledge of the great river itself, which since
his birth he had been around, under and over. At deep and shallow levels he
understood the river. And, it was his knowledge of the river that made the
difference and because he understood the river, he knew what it would take to
build a bridge across it.
We
live in a critical juncture in the history of Christendom and I sincerely
believe that the desperate need of the hour is for the church to accept the high
calling of building bridges to the communities that surround them. The problem
is that there is a big gap between the church and the culture. In fact, the
problem is much larger than you might realize. I believe that the church in
America is dangerously close to disconnecting itself out of existence much like
the churches in England and Wales. If you visit England or the surrounding areas
you will behold beautiful cathedrals that
display architecture and beauty of
great wonder. Unfortunately, they are massive monuments of misunderstanding
because they disconnected themselves from the people they were created to help.
The Day of the Perfect Storm
Futurist
Leonard Sweet, borrowing an idea from the book and movie of the same title,
contends that the church in America now faces “the perfect storm” in which
three massive elements threaten to be the greatest challenge in the history of
Christendom. The first element is the fact that we live in a post-Christian
era. Since the day of Constantine Christianity exerted considerable power,
commanded respect and required an audience in the Western world. That day is
over! The North American church is living in an alien context. Once the church
was the center of community life, but now the church has been relegated to the
margins of a society that is becoming
increasingly hostile toward historical Christianity. This hostility emanates from
a public mindset that is pluralistic and post-Christian, even pagan. Currently the world
either despises, or even worse, ignores the presence and influence of the
church.
The
second element of this storm is the emergency of a post-modern
mindset. The world around us has changed from books, logical propositions
and individualism to a world of computers, experience and global identity. E-bay
is the new global flea-market. Postmodernism,
for the uninitiated, is a broad cultural movement that signals the waning and
ending of “modern” values that have been embraced for the last 400 years or
so of thinking. Postmodernism
affirms many of the opposites — community, truth derived from science and
other sources (intuition, community, spirituality, etc.), the subjectivity of
perceived truth, progress no more inevitable than decline, and the validity of
spirituality. Postmodernism is a phenomenon that is affecting, shaping, and some
cases driving philosophy, art, literature, hard sciences, social sciences, and
religion.
The
final element that composes this storm, according to Sweet, is the post-human
element (This is also referred to as transhumanism).
Advancements in biotechnology have blurred long accepted lines and opened the
door for “virtual humanity”. Post-human, in a simple understanding, is
humanity blended, grafted, and symbiotically linked with technology. It is a
world full of Six Million Dollar Men
and Bionic Women in reality, not
simply something of movie make-belief. It is the world of the Terminator or The
Matrix where living machines are the dominant species on the planet. Bruce
Sterling in Schismatrix says, “Maybe technology eventually turns
them [people] into something that [we] wouldn't call human. But that's a choice
they make -- a rational choice.”
Clearly
we have already taken our first steps along the road to post-humanity. We may
not be living in the post-human era yet but the merging of human and machine is
closer than you might think. We have already taken many steps down
the data-brick road to becoming the post-human
generation. Scientists have made great
advancements to directly alter our genetic structure in an effort to
remedy nature's failures. The door is open and only the future knows what will
come from Pandora’s Box.
The
arrival of these three elements creates a huge chasm between the church, the
mission force, and the culture, the mission field. So where does the church find
herself in the midst of this terrific storm?
Unfortunately, she is absorbed with herself and disconnected from the
mission field she is commanded to impact. Bill Hull, in his book, Can
We Survive the Evangelical Church? writes “The average church in North
America exists for itself. Churches are preoccupied with themselves, their
routines, facilities and fulfilling their buildings for performances.”
Contrary
to popular opinion, the church does not exist for itself! She is light that
exists for the sake of the darkness. Jesus clearly envisioned that His followers
would exert irresistible influence in their world. His life was one of appealing
influence and He commanded His disciples to follow His example and make an
impact. His images of “salt” and “light” clearly communicates that the
life of His followers is to be one of influence and impact in their
surroundings. These familiar words could be succinctly summarized to say, “You
are to be an infectious influence in your culture. Go forth and impact your
world!”
Just
as Eads succeeded in spanning the Mississippi River because he knew the river,
it is the responsibility of the church to understand the spirit and forces of
the age as she endeavors to clearly
communicate the transforming light of the
Gospel message. Brian
McLaren in A New Kind of Christian
quotes the late British missionary Leslie Newbiggin in stating, “…the
greatest heresy [in the church] is a misunderstanding of the doctrine of
election. Election is not about who gets into heaven; election is about who God
chooses to be a part of a crises-response team to bring healing to the world.”
Imagine the difference it would make if First Baptist Church caught a vision of
herself as a CRT
(Crises Response Team) with an MRI attitude!
MRI
I
believe that the answer to the perfect storm we face is found in our
understanding of the words of Jesus located in the famous Sermon on the Mount.
To successfully bridge the gap, we must become MRI:
missional
relational &
incarnational.
Missional is
a mindset that views missions as who
we are, not what we do. It means converting
missions from the status of being a noun to that of a verb. It means that we go
into the world instead of asking the world to come to us. In
order to have influence on our culture we must STOP being preoccupied with
ourselves and creatively build bridges to the real mission field outside our
four walls.
Paul W. Powell described this condition: "Many churches today
remind me of a laboring crew trying to gather in
a harvest while they sit in the
tool shed. They go to the tool shed every Sunday and they study bigger and
better methods of agriculture, sharpen their hoes, grease their tractors, and
then get up and go home. Then they come back that night, study bigger and better
methods of agriculture, sharpen their hoes, grease their tractors, and go home
again. They comeback Wednesday night, and again study bigger and better methods
of agriculture, sharpen their hoes, grease their tractors, and get up and go
home. They do this week in and week out, year in and year out, and nobody ever
goes out into the fields to gather in the harvest."
Dr.
Clark Cowden writes, "The missional church movement realizes that we
are no longer chaplains to a Christian culture. We must be a missionary people
in our own land. Every congregation needs to be cross-cultural
missionaries to its community. We must move from the mindset that the church is
a provider of religious services to Christian consumers to the shaper of an
apostolic people on a mission to a fallen world."
Being
a missional church is our response to the post-Christian world.
Relational means
we influence people by getting to know them, loving them and caring about them
instead of merely shouting truth statements at them or expecting them to make
our programs successful. The world
is tired of our empty words…they want real! George Barna observes,
“Americans are not going to patronize an institution which appears incapable
of living what it preaches.”
Being
real and relational is our response to the longing of this post-modern culture.
Our city is filled with disappointed and disillusioned people who are longing to
see whether what we have can fill the emptiness that plagues their lives.
Incarnational means
that our real impact and influence comes from a power exercised in service
rather than dominion. The paradox of the life of Christ is that He taught and
lived by the following creed, “Instead, whoever
wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be
first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but
to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:26-28)
Robert
Lewis says, “Our world must experience the same incarnational influence as the
first century experienced when Grace and Truth himself suddenly bridged that
Great Chasm and became flesh.”
Incarnational
is our answer to the post-human direction of our modern times.
Where Are We? What can we do?
All
of us have seen those maps placed in strategic locations that have a bold arrow
marking a spot with the instructions, “You Are Here.” In order to identify
our spiritual location and know where we are, we must ask some haunting
questions. I offer two:
·
What
can I do to raise the spiritual temperature of First Baptist Church?
I
first raised this question to the Leadership Team and it sparked some healthy
discussions. I offer that question for your consideration this morning. Take
that question seriously because how you answer that question determines a lot
about the future impact of First Baptist Church.
·
What
can we do to impact and influence our community?
Our
mission is to advance the kingdom of God around the world. In order to
accomplish this goal, we must first make an impact where we are located. That
means that every member of this Body must be a growing Christian and accept
their responsibility as a faithful T.E.A.M (Together Everyone Accomplishes Ministry) member. To
influence and impact a community requires every member working together. There
can be no substitute for the spiritual synergy that comes when the Holy Spirit
makes us one.
I am extremely pleased to say that the state of
First Baptist Church is extremely good. We
are spiritually healthy and in the best position possible to make an impact in
our city but there are some things we must do better and even differently.
Discipleship
is still the Path to Follow
The
words of Jesus are still our marching orders: “Jesus,
undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: ‘God authorized and
commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and
near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have
commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right
up to the end of the age.’" (Matthew 28:18-20, The
Message)
We
must continue our endeavor to become fully devoted followers of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Last year at this time I declared that 2005 would be the year of
discipleship and as a result I feel that we have made some wonderful progress.
We have completed two sessions of Encounter classes designed to help each of us encounter God in a new
and refreshing way. And, I am very excited about this spring 2006 line-up of
classes. We must continue our pursuit of deeper devotion to the Master. The
promotion of our Encounter classes says, “Come as you are for a fresh
encounter with God.”
Growing Pains Are Inevitable
We
are healthy and we are experiencing growth, especially
among the young adult population. However, growth also means growing pains and
this may come as a surprise to some of you but we current need some new
and different space for classes. We also desperately need volunteer help in the
Preschool department so our young mothers and fathers can take full advantage of
opportunities of worship and spiritual growth. That is a simple but
powerful way you can be of significant help.
Our
financial debt is significant but manageable. In fact this past year we have met
our obligations and applied extra payments to the principle. During 2006 we plan
to take steps that will seriously reduce our original TWB debt and you will be a
momentous part of that plan.
The
CityChurch
is Still Important
I
still believe that it requires the whole church to make an impact on the whole
city and exert the type if influence that Jesus spoke about in His famous
sermon. Therefore, I still pray and work with other Christian leaders in this
city longing to see the day when the church can experience “the unity of the
Spirit” that Paul spoke about in Ephesians 4:3-6. In the paradigm of
yesterday, men built religious franchises and selfishly protected their special
interests. As a result, the city suffered. We must avoid the temptation of
promoting “churchanity” instead of “Christianity” and we need the
CityChurch to help us avoid this dangerous pitfall.
And, I am encouraged in what I see happening as denominational walls
crumble and Christian leaders join hands for the higher purpose of the kingdom
of God.
Challenging Opportunities Ahead
Obviously,
we have some challenging opportunities before us. Spiritual bridges always
involve physical realities. One of those
realities for us is also a magnificent
opportunity. How will we utilize and engage the old library building as a part
of our purpose and mission? The old paradigm of
doing church would seize the
opportunity to convert that building into educational space. The new paradigm
sees an opportunity to build a bridge; the prospect of acting in a missional way
to reach the community.
I
have some “edgy” ideas in how I feel the building can be used so as to
utilize the space for educational purposes as well as make it a mission point; a
Bridge where unreached people can walk across and experience a grace encounter.
Time for an Evaluation…
So,
how is First Baptist doing? I will answer that question by using three standards
proposed by Robert Lewis in The Church if
Irresistible Influence.
1.
How do we measure success?
Old
guard churches measure success in how well it is doing in meeting the needs of
its members and/or the size of its programs. Tremendous emphasis is placed on
“growing a big church.”
MRI
churches cannot ignore the issue of size because the book of Acts mentions the
number of believers on several occasions; however, the gist of the New Testament
witness is never “how many” but “how well”. In the evangelical church of
the New Testament success was determined by influence and impact.
On
a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being perfect, I give us a grade of 6 on the issue
of how we measure success.
2.
How is our structure?
Most
modern day churches, including First Baptist, have many sheep-folds that serve
as “holding tanks” (classes, small groups, etc). We spend a tremendous
amount of energy trying to get people into these tanks and preventing them from
drifting or falling away from once inside.
Lewis
points out that, “What we need in the twenty-first century are church
structures that ere redesigned to serve as “launching pads” rather than
“holding tanks” (p.215).
On
a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being perfect, I give us the grade of 2 when it
comes to structure. Our structure is burdensome and heavy and I am in favor of
streamlining our structure beginning with the committee configuration. I have
desired to do this for some time but the task is laborious but I really feel it
is time for some structural reorganization.
3.
Are the people being empowered and
released to do ministry within and without the church?
I
feel we have made great strides in this area but we can always do more.
On
a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being perfect, I give us a grade of 7+ on this
issue.
A Word
to the Generations…
I
want to speak a personal word to two diverse generations that are both so
important to the mission of First Baptist Church: the WW II generation and the
younger Gen X’ers. I am qualified to
address both generations because we Boomers are caught right in the middle of
the changing times. First, my word of encouragement
to diverse generations is that you are both a vital part of the DNA of First
Baptist Church. Without the diverse contributions of each generation we would be
an insipid brew that no one would desire to taste. My word of exhortation
is to remember the lessons of David and Jonathan.
To
the younger generation I say: David
was anointed to be the new king of Israel and once he assumed the throne a lot
of things would change. However, the old guard, represented by Saul, was still
enthroned. Respectfully, David refused to raise his hand against the generation
of Saul even though advisors encouraged him to seize the opportunity and force
the issue. He waited patiently for God’s timing and eventually reaped the
benefits. We will all be blessed to remember that God’s will accomplished in
His timing always brings the sweetest results.
Also,
Jonathan, who even though he knew and loved the new king, and was called to be a
part of something new and different, died fighting for the throne of Saul.
To
the older generation I
say: embrace the truth of Matthew 13:52. Jesus “said
to them, Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the
kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new
treasures as well as old." We must develop a taste for both the old and
the new if we are going to be the church God expects us to be in our times. The
absolute worse mistake we could ever make would be to stop moving forward and
refuse to embrace change! Likewise, the whole Body of Christ continually needs
new movements and waves of enthusiasm to keep it fresh and to prevent
stagnation. New and different things are frightening but they need not be feared
or fought. If you are from the older generation and you still are hesitant to
believe me then have a conversation with your grandkids. You will learn from
them a new perspective. It doesn’t mean your perspective is wrong but
understanding their point of view will help you embrace things that are
different.
Personally,
I do not see the next major movement of God (some people would call this revival
or renewal) as being centered on doctrine. I believe that the next move of God
in history will be God moving and we must position ourselves to join Him!
Or, in the words of Henry Blackaby, “Find out where God is going and
join him.”
In
order to do that, we must embrace the new while maintaining a taste for the old.
Therefore, I say to the older generation, be extremely cautious in dismissing or
disrespecting the enthusiasm and expressions of David’s generation because
they are different than you. They may witness, worship and work in a different
way but we need their energy and diversity.
It
is our goal to be inclusive, not exclusive, in our worship, witness and works
(ministry). That allows us the privilege of uniting diverse backgrounds under
the banner that Jesus is Lord and ministry is more important than methods.
Conclusion
Remember,
James Buchanan Eads? In case you haven’t heard, there is a bridge across the
Mississippi River at St. Louis. It was completed in 1874 and formally opened in
July 4th. In fact, the city became famous and known as “the gateway
to the west” the gap created by the river was bridged. I am absolutely
convinced that we can be an irresistible church, a “gateway to the kingdom”
but it will require that we know the river, build on the solid rock Foundation
of Jesus Christ and create some bridges for future generations to experience a
grace encounter.
Salt
removes the blandness from life so as a The
Church of Irresistible Influence we must extend the invitation, “Taste and
see that the LORD is good;” (Psalm 34:8). Light expels darkness and so we must
declare, “…in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5) for “In Him
was life and that life was the light of men. To all who receive Him, to those
who believe in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John
1:4, 12).
When
we understand who we are, salt and light, then we will build bridges to those
who are stranded in a sea of isolation, loneliness and emptiness. Then and only
then can we be as Jesus expected: real and reachable, The
Church of Irresistible Influence!
