Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office,
and He said to him, “Follow Me!” So, leaving everything behind,
he got up and began to follow Him.
Luke 5:27–28, HCSB
Have you ever heard of the Bible-Storying Method of Discipleship?It’s an ancient-future approach to teaching the Bible and growing disciple-makers and it is sweeping the world in many different forms. The goal is to grow spiritual dynamos who are fully invested in going full circle with God. One of the forms this movement is taking is the Real Life Ministries approach.
Real Life Ministries (RLM) is a non-denominational Evangelical Christian church in Post Falls, Idaho. Planted in 1998, the church has grown to an average weekend attendance of more than 7,000. The unique characteristic of Real Life is a Bible study methodology called storying that grew out of a partnership with Avery Willis. Willis who served as president of an Indonesian seminary, wrote MasterLife discipleship plan, served as executive strategist for 5,500 missionaries with the International Mission Board, and ended his career with the International Orality Network.
After several years of discussion with Willis, Real Life decided to introduce Bible-storying into their small groups. The experiment was so successful that they trained all their pastors, community pastors, and small group leaders in the method. They found that the storying method:
Helps people learn the Bible,
Makes it easier to recruit small group leaders,
Facilitates real learning,
Equips members for ministry,
Empowers parents to disciple their kids,
Helps small group leaders understand the spiritual needs of those they are discipling,
Keeps small groups from becoming boring, and
Encourages transparency and real relationships.
Real Life identifies three major keys to making disciples according to God’s plan:
1. An intentional leader,
2. A relational environment,
3. A reproducible process.
The Real Life Discipleship Training Manual presents the mathematical process of kingdom multiplication:
One disciple makes three disciple-makers every five years.
If those three disciple-makers do the same every five years, in ten years there will be almost 180,000 disciple-makers.
If they continue… in seventy years (less than the average life span), there are potentially fourteen billion disciple-makers. That is twice the number of people currently occupying our planet.
SO WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR? LET’S DO THIS! Email me at markpowers@scbaptist.org and I’ll send you a Bible Storying method called “Discipleship TRIOS” that can help you make this happen. And next week in our next blog, I’ll share more details of what Bible-Storying is and how it can work for you. See you then. — Mark Powers
*Putnam, Willis, Guindon, Krause. Real-Life Discipleship Training Manual: Equipping Disciples Who Make Disciples.
But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem,
for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done . . . I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this wicked thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day? Didn’t your forefathers do the same things, so that our God brought this calamity upon us and upon this city?
So I purified the priests and the Levites of everything foreign, and assigned them duties, each to his own task. Nehemiah 13:6–7,17–18,30, NIV
Nehemiah’s first vision was to re-build the city of Jerusalem. His next vision was to purify the people. While in captivity and immersed in another culture, they had compromised the purity of their Jewish faith. Nehemiah’s intent was to restore their allegiance to the one true God—the God of their forefathers who would use them to bring forth the Savior. In some ways, rebuilding the city must have seemed easy compared to changing the attitudes, habits, and daily practices of the people.
As you celebrate the victory of achieving your first vision, remember that the process of transformation is ongoing. The mission effort you have begun is very fragile. It must be nourished and protected in order to take root. Regression can happen before you know it. A single accomplishment will be an empty victory if we return to old patterns of hoarding our giftedness inside the “Church Club”. Being missional requires an ongoing intent, focus, and plan to get outside into our community. It will take years for missional thinking to be fully ingrained in an organization that has been self-centered.
Your ability to manage change is always dependent on the quality of your relationships. I am amused to read in Nehemiah how he resorted to strong-arm tactics of pulling hair out and beating up those who disobeyed the laws of Jewish purification (Nehemiah 13:25). A leader must certainly be willing to discipline those who disobey God’s laws. But a leader can never withdraw from the bank account more than he has invested in his people relationally. Nehemiah had said previously: “The earlier governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people . . . Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that” (Neh. 5:15, NIV). We must constantly check our “relational balance statement” to ensure that we are depositing more care, attention, encouragement, and love in our follower’s lives than we ask for in return. That is servant-leadership by Christ’s example.
Once you have successfully accomplished your first ongoing mission project in your community, begin to envision your next work. Go to God and ask him to breathe another vision into your brokenness. Go back to your pastor and begin the circle all over again. Keep on dreaming and leading full circle. Never stop as long as God’s mission of redemption is yet to be fulfilled! — Mark Powers
P.S. Enrollment in WorshipWise October Session OPENS OCTOBER 1 but CLOSES AT MIDNIGHT, OCTOBER 14. Check out our 4-week courses for $99 each at http://www.worshipwise.com.
(As of last Wednesday 9/7, this SC Baptist Convention website article I wrote had 8,487 page views including 6,802 visitors. Wow. I’m amazed! Here is the article…)
Yes, I admit that many of our worship leaders and pastors hold divided opinions on the issue of choirs in modern worship. Yet in our culture we have seen a real resurgence of TV shows like “The Voice”, “Glee,” “The Sing Off,” and others that feature singers and choirs. Choirs are popping up in secular concerts, award shows, variety acts, and more. Some of the most cutting edge schools of modern worship continue to weave the choir into the fabric of their worship training.
I want to challenge you to rethink how a modern worship choir can be a viable way to revitalize your worship and involve more potential disciples in the worship life of your church! Here’s why:
The Bible tells me so
You may not be aware of it, but 54 of the Psalms are addressed to the choir director. Also, when the temple in Jerusalem was first dedicated and then again dedicated when Nehemiah rebuilt the temple, choirs were prominent in the dedication service. In fact, 2 Chronicles 5:13-14 tells us that it was the choir and orchestra that delivered the worship so powerfully that the glory of God fell on all those assembled in the temple.
But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?” I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.”
Nehemiah 2:19–20, NIV
Every vision will encounter opposition. God’s chosen nation spent time in the wilderness between slavery and the Promised Land, and you will, too. The DISC personality inventory mentioned earlier tells us that 40 percent of us are “S” personalities. “S” personalities value steadiness, staying the course, and maintaining the status quo. Charles Arn, in his book, How to Start a New Service, identifies five levels of receptivity to change:
Innovators—Dreamers/Visionaries who embrace the future and are eager to embrace change but may not be accepted as leaders.
Early Adopters—Those who embrace a good idea on its own merit and are influential in moving it forward.
Middle Adopters—The majority. They tend to want to maintain the status quo and are influenced most by those opposing change rather than those supporting it.
Late Adopters—The last to endorse a new idea. Often they will not support any change regardless of merit until after it is adopted by the majority.
Never Adopters—Tend to be anti-change and will sow discord before, during, and after change is adopted.
Nehemiah experienced confrontation with detractors also. Nehemiah’s enemies circulated a rumor that his ambition was to become king. They planted the rumor to discredit him and undermine the mission. His three critics lived in his homeland but were not kindred. Expect there to be some who are not kindred spirits to your mission. Resistance will come; plan for it. I call this “anticipating some failure to reach more success.”
Casey Stengel, New York Yankee baseball manager in the 1950s, once said the key to leadership is to keep the five people who hate you away from the four who are undecided. In most organizations facing change, the middle adopters tend to listen to late adopters and never adopters. Your task as a leader is to empower the early adopters to inspire and lead the middle adopters to new ground.
An unknown source, tongue-in-cheek, has delineated five stages of innovation:
Step One—People deny the innovation is required;
Step Two—People deny the innovation will justify the effort;
Step Three—People deny the innovation is important;
Step Four—People deny the innovation is effective;
Step Five—People accept the innovation, enjoy its benefits, attribute it to someone other than the innovator, and deny the existence of steps one through four.
When experiencing persecution, follow the example of Jesus. Jesus laid down his life for us. Don’t allow yourself to be a doormat to your critics, but do lay yourself down as a bridge to grace. We are most like Jesus when we share grace with someone who doesn’t deserve it. A servant leader imitating Jesus will absorb pain in his body to the point of brokenness. But our Lord has been there for us. On the other hand, Jesus also reserved some of his most confrontational words for religious critics. The ability to balance both godly grace and careful confrontation grows from brokenness before God. Remain a servant-leader, just as Jesus served us and died for us.
— Mark Powers
Readers: Please check out my WorshipWise ministry at http://www.WorshipWise.com. Four-week classes online available 24/7 for only $99 each will launch in mid-September. Excellent training at a GREAT price!
Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me,
“How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?”
It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time.
Nehemiah 2:6
Nehemiah sought support from his king to pursue the vision of rebuilding Jerusalem. A worship minister must receive the support of his senior pastor to pursue the missional vision. First, find ways to mention your vision in casual conversation, written memos, staff meetings, and face-to-face appointments. Charles Billingsley, worship leader with Jerry Falwell and David Jeremiah, refers to what he calls “the law of the seventh mentioning.” He believes we can plan on having to mention an idea at least seven times before it will appear on the radar of our pastor.
Attitude is crucial in the process of asking for endorsement and support from your pastor. This requires much prayer. Don’t rush into this meeting. Don’t let your excitement make you hurry. Set aside a week or two to pray. Ask God to shape your vision to match the vision of your pastor and vice versa. Your vision must be fused into your pastor’s vision for the church. Like a gardener who grafts a branch onto the main vine, you want your vision to enhance the pastor’s greater vision for the church.
When you have a sense of peace and confidence in the Lord, schedule a meeting with your pastor. Trust God to do his work between you. Begin by asking your pastor to share his overarching vision with you. We trust that the heart of every Christian executive is to fulfill Christ’s Great Commission. But he can express that in many different ways depending on his giftedness, personality, calling, and situation. He may say his vision is organizational unity, or financial security, or numerical growth. Continue to trust God’s Spirit no matter what your pastor expresses as a vision.
Your next question is crucial, asked in all sincerity: “How can I help you achieve this vision?” This discussion must be a sharing of hearts and not a sales presentation. Once you have heard their heart on this matter, then share the vision God has placed in your heart. If you are open and adaptable, God will shape your vision through the discussion with your pastor. You may leave the meeting with a different perspective on your vision and how to bring it to reality. But if you have soaked the meeting in prayer, you can trust that God had a hand in forging your vision through this meeting.
If the initial answer is “No,” don’t despair or give up. Ask permission to re-design and re-define your vision, then ask permission to come back and talk some more. If your pastor accepts your vision and pledges his support, schedule a follow-up appointment to present your written vision statement, smart goals, and action plans.
A prominent worship leader* who has successfully served his church for more than 20 years told me, “In pastoral relationships, there are no win-lose situations.” I asked him what he meant. “Any staff member is wrong to ever think he or she will win by making the pastor lose. If your pastor loses, you will lose. If you make sure the pastor wins, you will win, too,” he explained.
Here are three actions to make sure your pastor wins as you pursue your vision:
Pastors need to trust you. They want to know who, what, when, where and why before trusting you. Using smart goals and action plans will help you earn trust.
Pastors value unity. Your ability to keep people unified while successfully fulfilling the mission is a valuable trait. Your pastor and your church will value you for it.
Pastors don’t like surprises. Make every attempt to keep your pastor informed by copying important documents and correspondence to him. Schedule regular updates in person. Share and celebrate victories and always communicate immediately if problems arise.
Worship Leaders – Is change bearing down on you? Don’t let it make you run and hide! Lead your worship ministry through it and you will be leading your church… and maybe even your Pastor as well. — Mark Powers
* Steve Phillips, Worship Pastor, First Baptist Columbia SC
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present. And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him.
Acts 17:16–18, NASB
Ethnomusicology is the comparative study of music from different cultures. Ethnomusicologists combine the study of musicology with anthropology to analyze music as a reflection of society and culture. Missional ethnomusicologists encourage the development of indigenous Christian songs produced by the local believers in their own language and music system. Music workshops are presented to native peoples illustrating the value of using local music systems rather than foreign systems, thinking through Scripture passages that might be put to music, composing new Christian songs in their own native style, and recording the new songs. In this way, the gospel becomes incarnate in the musical language of the native people.
A Brazilian missionary reported that a Palikur woman was asked, “Which do you like better, the hymns with non-Indian music, or the ones with the Palikur tunes.”
She replied, “We like them both, but the ones with our music can make us cry.”
Using the heart music of a people connects the gospel with their own legacy. Missionaries have reported that native people, normally apathetic about Christianity, listened with great attention to the words of new Christian songs written by their own musicians in their own style. Putting the biblical message in an indigenous style gives it an authority it would not otherwise have. We, too, must be ethnomusicologists. Worship leaders need to analyze their communities to effectively connect them with God in their indigenous cultures.
Paul was very careful to analyze the surrounding cultural context wherever he went. In the above Scripture, we see him relating to Jews in the synagogue, to Athenian citizens in the marketplace, and to Greek philosophers. In every one of those contexts, Paul saw idolatry alive and well. As a missionary, each of us must analyze our context as well. Who are the people groups in your community/town/city? And what are the idols they have substituted for relationship with almighty God?
The Intercultural Institute for Contextual Ministry offers many resources on its website, http://www.iicm.net, for analyzing the ethno-musical context of our communities. First, we must know the classifications and characteristics of people groups in general before we can analyze who is in our community. IICM identifies these American communities listed below. Plus, according to Arbitron radio ratings, I have listed the most popular style of music each of these communities were listening to by percentage of radio market. These style preferences are the second thing we must know:
Upscale Communities – Affluent families living primarily in suburbia but also in posh neighborhoods in urban settings = ADULT CONTEMPORARY MUSIC.
Mainstay Communities – A diverse mix of ethnically mixed singles, couples, and families in established, diverse neighborhoods within small towns and second cities = COUNTRY MUSIC.
Working Communities – Racially-mixed, lower middle-class blue-collar households living in older towns = COUNTRY MUSIC.
Country Communities – Rural families with outdoor-oriented lifestyles working in agricultural and mining communities = COUNTRY MUSIC.
Aspiring Communities – An eclectic group of young, mostly single, ethnically-diverse households living in homes, apartments, and group quarters = URBAN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC.
Urban Communities – Ethnically-diverse singles and single-parent renters living in struggling-diverse, inner-city neighborhoods = URBAN CONTEMPORARY.
Obviously, this data is limited because it only includes radio listening habits and does not include data from personal listening devices. But despite those limitations it remains useful for analysis of general music trends in our American communities.
Here’s the kicker… Churches far and wide have started contemporary services using popular musical styles that they suppose will connect their members with God and be attractive to the world. Such Christian writers as Chris Tomlin, Tommy Walker, Laura Storey, and Paul Baloche, as well as a multitude of others, have given us wonderful songs of worship. Their songs are in a pop style that relates to those who listen to Adult Contemporary radio. But that’s where this strategy breaks down, and here’s why. The Arbitron ratings show clearly that the leading radio style is Country music in Mainstay, Working, and Country communities. Urban Contemporary music, which includes rap and hip-hop, is the leading style in two communities —Aspiring and Urban—while Contemporary Hit radio leads only in Upscale communities.
The style of music being used in most contemporary worship services best compares with Adult Contemporary secular radio.If we are going to effectively connect all people with God, we must offer worship in other musical heart languages as well. Yet how many churches do you know that are offering a worship service featuring country, rap and hip-hop, top forty, or the myriad of other styles available?Can we truly think we are connecting all worshippers with God when only contemporary and traditional styles are being offered on any given Sunday? — Mark Powers
Twenty eight members of the 60 voice SC Baptist Singing Churchmen were on mission in Cleveland Ohio from last Saturday, April 30 through today Saturday, May 7. God used us in amazing ways to share the good news of Christ!
Every time we sang we included a simple straightforward presentation of the gospel. But even better… from Sunday through Friday, we recorded 219 one-on-one conversations in which we presented the gospel in a personal and non-threatening way.Something like this: “Hi, did you enjoy our singing? We’re here telling people how much God loves them and wants to have a relationship with them through Jesus. Are you a Jesus-follower or have you experienced that relationship with God?”
From these conversations we gleaned 22 contacts which were turned over to Jay Schroder to give to Cleveland Church Planters for follow up.
DURING THE FIVE DAYS IN CLEVELAND we sang TWENTY TIMES in every imaginable setting. Here is a list of the places we sang:
Sunday, May 1:
Morning Worship at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church where the Holy Spirit moved mightily. After our songs, Pastor Dwayne Simmons abandoned his sermon and communion service plans and preached on prayer and led us into an hour long time of praise and prayer for chains to be broken in the congregation and the city.
Evening Worship with the Chinese Church in Hudson Ohio followed by Q&A about worship and music ministry then dinner with the church members and guests.
Monday, May 2:
Concert at Tower City Mall in downtown Cleveland at lunch hour which led to many spiritual conversations.
Singing in four locations on the downtown streets of Cleveland. Fun time!
Concert at the Cleveland VA Hospital, one of the largest VA hospitals in the U.S.
Tuesday, May 3:
Concerts in three Assisted Living Centers where NAMB church planter Dave Wible has started discipleship groups. (Dave has started over 70 discipleship groups in the past three years in the Cleveland area.)
Flash Mob twice at local mall food court… many great conversations!
Two concerts during evening feeding shifts at Lakeside Lutheran Men’s Shelter. Amazing experience!
Wednesday, May 4:
Concert at the Medina OH town square gazebo for Brunswick Community Church then lunch at cafes all around the square to talk to those who had seen and heard us. Pastor Buck Wilford, former Special Forces officer, was meeting and talking to those passing with great energy and a huge smile.
Flash Mob at the historic Westside Market in West Cleveland, a huge inside market featuring bakeries and delis and butcher shops.
Concert for Liberty Hill Baptist Church, an African American congregation that loved us and provided for us in their dormitory style rooms where many mission groups stay each year and let us use their full kitchen for our meals.
Thursday, May 5:
Participated in and sang for the Cleveland National Day of Prayer Event in Wade Oval Park, a powerful four hour prayer and praise fest with Christians from across the city.
Concert of kids songs and gospel magic for Laura’s Home, shelter for abused mothers and children. One of the real highpoints of the trip… watching our group “dance” and sing motion songs with the kids. Jim Diehl, Director of Missions for Aiken Baptist Association, presented the gospel through kid-friendly magic, too.
Friday, May 6:
Traveled halfway home and presented an evening concert at Ansted Baptist Church in West Virginia for a packed house pastored by Randy Spurgeon who is the former Worship & Music Director for WV but was called to pastor this church last fall. This church is a major force for the gospel, running around 200 in worship in a small town of only 2,000 residents. What a great way to end our trip!
THIS IS GOING FULL CIRCLE… WORSHIP THAT LEADS TO DISCIPLESHIP AND MISSIONS! And YOU can do it, too. GO! — Mark Powers
They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man,
who has a good reputation with the whole Jewish nation, was divinely directed by a holy angel
to call you to his house and to hear a message from you.” The following day he (Peter) entered Caesarea.
Now Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.
Acts 10:22, 24, HCSB
Here is the goal of missions: That a year from now, there would be more people who know Christ as Savior, as a percentage of the population of a specific people group, than right now. Based on that specific goal, we must “develop a contextual process to reach, disciple, congregationalize (gather), mobilize, and reproduce believers among specific ethnic, lifestyle and life-stage groups,” a definition of missional strategy that Curt Watke teaches in his missional training.
Across America and the world, new strategies are springing up almost daily to accomplish this goal. My purpose is not to recommend one or the other, but rather to encourage us to explore the variety of ways God is moving to win people. The establishment of missional communities is one such strategy sweeping our world. Reggie McNeal accurately chronicles these in his book Missional Communities: The Rise of the Post-Congregational Church. McNeal is careful to say that missional communities can exist alongside our congregational churches as an alternative church life form. And both can and must learn from each other. The term “missional community” embraces a wide variety of groups. In general they are groups of between ten and seventy people collaborating together to fulfill a mission strategy. Sometimes, a missional community is formed by smaller cluster groups such as discipleship groups, etc. Members of missional communities worship, study, grow and do missions together in formal and informal ways. 3DM Ministries, founded by Mike Breen, facilitates missional communities to model the three dimensions of Up-In-Out. This is a close correlation to the full circle of worship-discipleship-mission. I highly recommend Launching Missional Communities: A Field Guide by Mike Breen and Alex Absalom for excellent insight into missional communities and how they function. This resource is based on more than 20 years of developing a practical nuts-and-bolts approach to starting highly effective missional communities.
The house church is one prevalent form of missional community. Since New Testament days, the house church has been a powerful seed in church planting. The house church movement is alive and well across the world, moving under the radar of institutional awareness and control. House churches are the engine fueling the rapid growth of Christianity in China, India, Brazil, and many other parts of the world. Lessons from the house church movement—both good and bad—can give excellent insight into leading your worship ministry to become a missional community. You can read more about the house church network at http://housechurch.org/about.html.
Meanwhile, institutional churches are being revitalized by the “mission outpost” strategy. An outpost mission team is called out and trained in the five-fingered-approach specifically to start mission outposts to become new churches under the guidance of the sponsoring church. The mission outpost process is very simple: form and train a mission team, target a people group in your community, place the team at a home or public setting to do missions, form a home discipleship group from contacts made there, and then grow the discipleship group into a house church to reach indigenous people around them.
These strategies and many more are predicated upon finding the “person of peace” and his/her household. In Luke 10:5–7 (NIV), Jesus sent his disciples on mission with this instruction: “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.”
God shows us where he is about to visit by the presence of one or more people of peace. In the Scripture above we see Cornelius, the person of peace who reached out to Peter and opened his household. God instructs us to look for a person of peace in a target people group and connect with that person and his/her household. If there is no person of peace there, then we simply move on. God may prepare the most unlikely people to be your “person(s) of peace,” so be open to everyone. Finding and building a relationship with the person(s) of peace is the key to connecting with their households—their relational networks. It is imperative to involve persons of peace in our Missional communities as quickly as possible so they embrace the gospel and join God’s mission. This will equip them to be leaders as our outpost grows into an indigenous church or missional community on its own.
So here is the circle of missional strategy:
1. Churches present local mission events;
2. From those events, mission outposts are established to meet people at their point of need on a regular basis in your community through ongoing mission projects;
3. Persons of peace are discovered from the mission outposts and enlisted to host Bible storying groups in their home or another community setting;
4. As people in the group accept Jesus as Savior, the outposts become indigenous house churches;
5. House churches link together to become a constituted church or missional community;
6. These present local mission events . . . and the missional strategy keeps going full circle.
New Testament churches were basically missional communities worshiping, discipling, and doing missions. They reached out to persons of peace in their own communities and established new missional communities household to household. Using this model, Christianity grew exponentially in three centuries from about 1,000 believers in 40 A.D. to 33.8 million by 350 A.D. Would you agree that the strategy worked? Can the strategy work today?
WORSHIP LEADERS – I am challenging YOU to do ongoing Mission projects in and through your worship ministry, discovering persons of peace in YOUR neighborhoods, then discipling them to establish mission outposts for the sharing of the gospel of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. WHO WILL GO? — Mark Powers
Watke, “M3 lectures.” South Carolina Baptist Convention, 2012–2013, used with permission.
My post last week was entitled “For God’s Sake… Don’t Do This!”. You can read it here: https://goingfullcircleblog.wordpress.com/2016/01/16/for-gods-sake-please-dont-do-this. On Wednesday of last week the article was read more than 120 times that one day and totaled 153 reads for the week. There were several excellent comments posted by readers, too, and I encourage you to click above and go back and check them out.
Where did things go wrong in the case study I presented in last week’s article? How can we fit our understanding of worship and culture together in a way that glorifies God and takes us full circle? Let’s start by reviewing what we know so far in this journey of “Going Full Circle in worship, discipleship, and mission.”
First, God created worship for himself. Worship is never about us; instead, worship is “all about” God.
Second, our style preferences are idolatrous when we put them on the throne of worship.
Third, real worship, empowered by spirit and truth, connects us to God to help us fall deeply in love with him. This love ignites us to a lifetime of daily discipleship and mission.
Fourth, culture is a tool from God we can use to connect people with him.
Here is my two-fold conclusion. Read it carefully and think about it. It may shake your pre-conceptions:
IN THE CHURCH: We must use indigenous cultural styles to connect Christians to God in their heart language even if the style they love seems somewhat outdated to others. Regardless of style, worship must be totally focused on God alone. Style in the church exists for no other reason than to connect Christians with God and move them to deeper discipleship and mission – not to keep members happy, giving, or attending. So, in the church, we offer worship in the members’ heart languages to intentionally move them to daily discipleship and mission action.
IN THE WORLD: As Christians are connected with God in worship and discipleship, God sends us to the world to connect others with him in their heart language. Christians must learn the unique cultural expressions and styles of our target group so we can communicate the gospel in their indigenous heart language.
There it is, as simple as that. We first worship in our heart language. Then we go learn the heart language of the target group to whom God sends us. With this understanding, our slavery to attractional thinking can be broken. We are free to connect Christians with God in a style that fits them best so that they can be sent on mission. — Mark Powers
Some men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved.” But after Paul and Barnabas had engaged them in serious argument and debate, they arranged for Paul and Barnabas and some others of them to go up to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem concerning this controversy . . . Peter stood up and said . . . “Why, then, are you now testing God by putting on the disciples’ necks a yoke that neither our forefathers nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way they are.” Then the whole assembly fell silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul describing all the signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles . . . Then the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, decided to select men from among them and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas . . . For it was the Holy Spirit’s decision—and ours—to put no greater burden on you than these necessary things.
Acts 15:1–2, 7, 9, 11–12, 22, 28, HCSB
Paul could have had “rock star status” by remaining in the church in Jerusalem after his conversion. But he chose to leave his comfort zone and go share Christ with the world. Back home in Jerusalem, trouble was brewing. There were those in the Jerusalem church who insisted that circumcision should be a requirement for acceptance of Christ. They would require this sign of faithfulness given to Abraham in ancient days not just for Jewish males but for all male converts of any ethnicity. Those who argued for circumcision were proponents of institutionalism, keepers of standards, who would force this external condition on those coming to Christ as Savior. Peter, James, and Simeon were leaders in the Jerusalem church. As original disciples of Jesus who had walked with him on earth, they knew the road to salvation could not be paved with institutional requirements. So their courageous response went against the grain of popular feeling in the church. Peter, James, and Simeon summoned Paul to Jerusalem, listened to the arguments from both sides, and ruled in favor of the unhindered circle of worship-discipleship-mission as the model for relationship with Christ.
A great setback to the spread of the gospel of Christ was averted that day. The mission of God to redeem the whole world, not just the Jewish people, continued to move forward. The three leaders of the church exercised their prophetic voice and re-commissioned Paul to go to the neighboring people groups as a worshiping disciple on mission. Meanwhile, the Jerusalem church was freed to do the same in their own community without the restriction of religious requirements. Things that once were helpful to the gospel can become a hindrance to the gospel when they become ours.
But God used the Jerusalem Council in another way, too, that day. Our all-knowing Father granted Paul and his partners on mission the rare opportunity to share their methodology with the home church. Paul was able to tell how God was using him as a tentmaker to infiltrate communities for Christ. No doubt, the stories Paul shared of his work as a missional artisan inspired and taught the Jerusalem church. The five-fingered-approach-to-handing-someone-the-gospel came alive in Paul’s testimony. In stories like Paul’s, we can catch a glimpse of all God is calling us to be as his missionary. In stories of missional obedience, we too hear the call, “Whom shall I send?” and can confidently respond, “Here am I, send me!”
The concept of culture as a God-given tool to connect people with him has not been taught well in our churches and Christian schools. There have even been times in the history of the Christian mission movement when missionaries themselves did not understand the concepts of cultural context and heart language. They tried to force their own culture on those to whom they were sent. Instead of adopting the native dress, language, diet, music, art, etc., they resolutely demanded that the native people accept western dress, the English language, American food, English hymns, and western architecture. Instead of being God incarnate to those they came to serve, they insisted that the native people incarnate the imported culture of the missionary. The obvious results of this kind of cultural snobbery are barriers to acceptance of Christ and failure to plant churches that are indigenous to native people. We must not force another culture to adopt our culture before they can accept Christ. Can you see how self-centered and egotistical this approach is? It is the height of idolizing my own culture to make my style and tastes a prerequisite for others to know and follow Christ.
But wait a minute. We do this all the time in our own churches. This cultural snobbery is a notorious characteristic of the institutional church. We see it in church-ianity where stylistic peripherals become significant priorities. We think that if new churches are started in our community they should certainly worship in the same style we do. It’s easy for us to idolize our favorite style and demonize others. When will we realize that culture is not a tool with which to beat others over the head until they accept my way of doing things? Culture is a God-given tool to meet people where they are and connect them to him. — Mark Powers
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