"As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea - for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, 'Follow me and I will make you fish for people.' And immediately they left their nets and followed him." Mark 1:16-18.
There is a right way to do things. The manner and method matters. Christians have been getting the recruitment thing wrong for a long time. Find ways to get people to come to church who haven't been, give them a positive experience during the service, follow up with a nice letter, hope they come back, maybe make a phone call, and give them a chance to walk to the front when they are ready to make a public commitment. God has done amazing work with these efforts for many years despite the fact that they're completely unbiblical. When it came to making disciples we have no record of Jesus ever inviting anyone to church. He never closed his sermons with an alter call. He didn't wait until after the synagogue gathering and bait the hook over coffee. The fact that he didn't do these things matters. It means that those who call themselves followers of Jesus probably shouldn't be too concerned with doing them either. Jesus was out for a walk among real people, took the initiative to go to Simon and Andrew's place of work and there on their turf came clean with his intentions. Simon and Andrew then left their vocation and heeded his offer. There are some major lessons here about how to do ministry the Jesus way. First, doing ministry the Jesus way means being out in the world (not in the church) and going to where people are (not expecting them to come to you). Second, doing ministry the Jesus way means being upfront about what your intentions are. No gimmicks, no persuasion, just an honest offering of a serious proposal. Third, doing ministry the Jesus way means accepting people's "yes" and their "no". Andrew and Simon said yes. Many, who had other things on their minds and hearts besides following Jesus, said "no" (e.g. Matthew 8:21-22). Their "no" wasn't a rejection of Jesus but a statement that they weren't ready to accept the proposal in the full. Doing ministry the Jesus way is about authenticity, personal relationships, and mutual commitment. In my experience doing ministry in the way of the institutional church can be just the opposite. Not always transparent, somewhat pressured, and often impersonal. Two thousand years later, this is not a better way. The church has not evolved. For all those seeking to live the Christian life, it is crucial that we do ministry in the way of Jesus.
"Oh Lord, you came to earth to seek and save that which was lost. Thank you for not waiting for us to do the impossible and come to you. Teach me what it means to live and love in the Spirit of your son Jesus. Give me the courage and commitment to take the risks that are necessary to do ministry the way he has taught me to. I pray trusting in the power of His name. Amen."
I'm taking a short term right now on evangelism, and this is right down the alley of what we've been talking about.
ReplyDeleteWhat are some practical ways you see this playing out--or wish it was--in the ministry of FUMC Kerrville?
Yeah, this is definitely more of a confession of how I should be doing ministry rather than a chronicle of how I have. The way I see ministry changing for me in response to these convictions is by an intentional shift from focusing on process and procedure to focusing on people. In a large church, the right institutional decision is to form programs and strategies and to equip a few people to carry them out. These programs and strategies tend to go back into feeding the institution rather than making disciples exclusively. Jesus would be going to people's work places, having coffee, and inviting himself over to people's homes for dinner. His aim would not be to have people join the church or get involved but to form real networks where relationships transform lives. The pastor should be the one to model and nurture these organic networks of discipleship - small groups where people really share life and commit to face the depth of what it means to love God with all of who they are.
ReplyDelete"The pastor should be the one to model and nurture these organic networks of discipleship - small groups where people really share life and commit to face the depth of what it means to love God with all of who they are. "
ReplyDeleteI think most would agree with that statement. How "will" it look at KFUMC?
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI think the way this looks is by presenting a model. I don't think the intent is ever to have the responsibility of growing the church through small groups fall on the shoulders of the clergy. Modeling how that is done and how others are brought into leadership is the responsibility of the clergy. As a pastor, I have been appointed to show the sheep where to go and to go with them. I am not the land owner or the master of the sheep, only the shepherd (or even a obedient sheep myself). Right now it means personally drawing people into small groups that I am a part of, modeling a culture of growth, identifying and nurturing new leadership, and sending that leadership out to draw more persons into fellowship and discipleship. I don't know how to do it without it being personal and organic. Systematic process may work somewhere down the road, but not at this stage in the life of our community.