Friday, November 19, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
The Seed of a Movement
By Jonathan Kindberg
I have been reading Neil Cole’s “Church 3.0.” While I find the title a turn-off, the book itself has been inmensely challenging and thought provoking. Each time I put it down, I find myself with this great desire to go out and change the world. The quote that has had me thinking and rolling over in bed at night: “The kingdom of God expands on the shoulders of a changed life.” Neil Cole basically is saying that all you need in order to start a movement is a changed life. But if you don’t start at this basic level, you can’t go back.
In reflecting on my own ministry in light of this I have begun to see how easy it is (and how I have in actuality) put the cart before the horse. Churchplanting should begin with simple evangelism and simple evangelism only. Instead, we start a church (gather a lot of Christians from other churches) so that we can invite non-Christians to it and evangelize them. This is just reshuffling the deck. It is event organizing. Being a decent gatherer I can get usually get people in a room, but then I have somehow expected a “service” (which from to an outsider can easily look like a performance) to change someone. Of course, God can use anything and he often has used a church service to change someone’s life, but this was not Jesus’ method or Paul’s. The Bible doesn’t command us to start churches so that we can invite people, it commands us to evangelize, to “goodnewsize” people so that new churches can start.
I have realized that in all honesty I haven’t done much of this recently. Over the last two years, I have built relationships with probably a hundred different unchurched hispanics in the Chicagoland area and I have shown love and compassion through hours of service and practical help. I have probably even invited (at least twice) each of these one hundred people to my church. These are all good things. These are all gospel acts. But they aren’t evangelism!
So this week I have gone all out. I am working on verbally sharing the gospel every opportunity I get. This week I have done so in some way or another 4 times in 3 days: With a janitor in the building where I work, with one of my soccer team fellow players, over dinner with one of the husbands of one of my congregants and with a family I recently met. All friends of mine who I have known, but have not overtly talked about Jesus with, though I have invited them all to church.
In all this I am praying for just one. For just one radical commitment to faith. Just one person to rekindly my own passion and belief in the transformative power of Christ. For just one person to believe in Christ in the old fashioned and good old evangelical way of confession and commitment. I am praying for just one person to say their “yes” to Jesus outside of a church building and service, thanks in minimal part, to my bold sharing of Jesus with them. Just one changed life… the seed of a movement.
I have been reading Neil Cole’s “Church 3.0.” While I find the title a turn-off, the book itself has been inmensely challenging and thought provoking. Each time I put it down, I find myself with this great desire to go out and change the world. The quote that has had me thinking and rolling over in bed at night: “The kingdom of God expands on the shoulders of a changed life.” Neil Cole basically is saying that all you need in order to start a movement is a changed life. But if you don’t start at this basic level, you can’t go back.
In reflecting on my own ministry in light of this I have begun to see how easy it is (and how I have in actuality) put the cart before the horse. Churchplanting should begin with simple evangelism and simple evangelism only. Instead, we start a church (gather a lot of Christians from other churches) so that we can invite non-Christians to it and evangelize them. This is just reshuffling the deck. It is event organizing. Being a decent gatherer I can get usually get people in a room, but then I have somehow expected a “service” (which from to an outsider can easily look like a performance) to change someone. Of course, God can use anything and he often has used a church service to change someone’s life, but this was not Jesus’ method or Paul’s. The Bible doesn’t command us to start churches so that we can invite people, it commands us to evangelize, to “goodnewsize” people so that new churches can start.
I have realized that in all honesty I haven’t done much of this recently. Over the last two years, I have built relationships with probably a hundred different unchurched hispanics in the Chicagoland area and I have shown love and compassion through hours of service and practical help. I have probably even invited (at least twice) each of these one hundred people to my church. These are all good things. These are all gospel acts. But they aren’t evangelism!
So this week I have gone all out. I am working on verbally sharing the gospel every opportunity I get. This week I have done so in some way or another 4 times in 3 days: With a janitor in the building where I work, with one of my soccer team fellow players, over dinner with one of the husbands of one of my congregants and with a family I recently met. All friends of mine who I have known, but have not overtly talked about Jesus with, though I have invited them all to church.
In all this I am praying for just one. For just one radical commitment to faith. Just one person to rekindly my own passion and belief in the transformative power of Christ. For just one person to believe in Christ in the old fashioned and good old evangelical way of confession and commitment. I am praying for just one person to say their “yes” to Jesus outside of a church building and service, thanks in minimal part, to my bold sharing of Jesus with them. Just one changed life… the seed of a movement.
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