PODCAST: [Subversive Radio] What Is The Didache? (Part 1)

The Didache is a first century document that contains the teaching of the Apostles for how to train new followers of Jesus in the Way of Life.

How has it remained obscure so long? What does it actually teach?

Listen and find out here!

Effortless and Free

I’m currently in the research phase of writing my next book. That means I’m doing a lot of reading and studying and thinking about the topic before I eventually sit down to put my own thoughts down on paper.

This weekend as I was immersed in this process, I discovered something new and I had to share it with all of you here on my blog.

Many of us are familiar with Jesus’ statement :

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Now, I’ve always read that verse as if Jesus was saying, “Are you tired? Are you stressed out? Come to me and I’ll give you the peace you’re searching for.”

While this is still a valid reading of that verse, I discovered something even deeper was going on that I wasn’t aware of until now.

Jesus had a lot to say about the teachers of the Law, and almost none of it was good. His main criticism of them was this:

"(The teachers of the law) tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them." (Matthew 23:4)

"Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them" (Luke 11:46)

See, Jesus was pointing out that the teachers of the Law burdened people with endless rules and added pressure to perform in order to be accepted by God. Keep in mind that these same teachers of the Law were unable to keep these rules themselves, and they also refused to help anyone else keep the Law.

So, when Jesus turns and says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”, He is contrasting the Law of Moses with His Law (the Law of Christ).

This is significant for several reasons. One, because Jesus is giving people a choice. They can continue to try and follow the Law of Moses – which no one can keep. Or, they can take off that yoke and put on the one He offers which is easy and light.

This is a radical teaching. Jesus is offering people an opportunity to find peace, and to please God, without jumping through the hoops imposed by the Law of Moses. The Apostles expressed this same idea when they said:

"Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?" (Acts 15:10)

But we’re not done yet. The second thing I realized was that Jesus’ offer to take on His yoke is not about following an easier set of rules. In fact, if anything, the Law of Christ is even more difficult to keep. Why? Because Jesus raised the bar on the Law of Moses by declaring that even our thoughts about sinful actions were equal to committing those acts.

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” (Matthew 5:21-22)

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus contrasts the Law of Moses (“thou shalt not murder”) with His Law which says, “If you are angry with your brother you will be judged.” He also says that if you look at a woman to lust after her it’s the same as committing adultery with her, and so on. Yet, Jesus still maintains that His yoke is easier, not harder, than the yoke of Moses. How can this be?

Here’s the key. Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says something that, at first, sounds like bad news:

"For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:20)

Wait…what? My righteousness must be greater than those Pharisees? How can that make things easier for me? That sounds more than impossible, especially if those guys can’t even keep the Law themselves.

And that’s the point. See, while the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law placed burdens on people that they themselves couldn’t carry, Jesus only expects us to do the things that He has already done demonstrated are possible to accomplish, (i.e. – Loving our enemies, turning the other cheek, forgiving those who persecute us, etc.). And while the Pharisees wouldn’t lift a finger to help people keep the Law of Moses, Jesus promises us that if we will remain in Him, He will empower us to bear good fruit and keep His Law of Love.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

See, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were victims of a grave misunderstanding. They thought, “If we do enough righteous things, we will become righteous.” That’s insane. Jesus pointed this out by saying:

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." (Luke 6:43-45)

In essence, the idea is this: Trying to produce good fruit will never make you a good tree. But, if you are a good tree you will naturally bear good fruit.

This is the major difference between the Law of Moses and the Law of Christ: Jesus makes us into “Good Trees” that naturally bear good fruit. That’s why it’s so easy to keep His Law of Love. As long as we remain in Christ, who is Love, then we will be filled with His Love and we will bear good fruit that pleases Him.

I’ll end with one more verse, this time from the Apostle John who said:

"And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister." - (1 John 4:21)

"In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome..." (1 John 5:3)

Keep in mind, the commands John refers to here are not the commands of the Old Covenant, but the New Command of Jesus that we love another. This command, unlike the Law of Moses, is “not burdensome” because Jesus is the vine and divine love flows through him like rivers of living water. All that matters is being grafted into that vine of life and endless love. The rest, is easy.

 

-kg

LEAVING HOME

 

As much as I love the idea of “Home” the truth is I still find it necessary to leave now and then. That’s normal. Some people have a fear of the outdoors or the unknown and they end up spending their entire lives cut off from the outside world. That’s not what we’re called to do. As followers of Jesus, we are commanded to go out into all the world and to make disciples who will follow Jesus and obey everything that Jesus commands. (See Mark 16:15)

Staying at home where it’s safe and comfortable isn’t an option for us. Not if we’re serious about following Jesus and putting His words into practice. This is part of our individual calling or mission. Jesus has made each of us to be uniquely gifted and qualified to go. He’s strategically placed each one of us to have the maximum impact on our world, on our street, to our neighbors, in our workplace.

This means our lives are not accidental. We are who God made us to be. We have the strengths, and even the weaknesses, that God placed within us. We are created with a special purpose in mind, and the only way we can truly discover what our mission and purpose is involves getting outside of our comfort zones to go.

This doesn’t mean that everyone is an evangelist. Far from it. Scripture is clear that:

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” (Eph. 4:11-16)

And:

“Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?” (1 Cor. 12:29-30)

The assumptive answer here is “No,” we do not all have the same gifting or ability. That’s the point. None of us is expected to do it all alone. We need one another. We need you. You need the rest of us. Together we make up the Body of Christ in this world and act as His hands and His feet at His command.

Sadly, some of us have found it easier to retreat from the world and to create a Christian version of the world where we are safe and comfortable. In this fantasy world we call the Christian Subculture, the only way people on the outside can find their way in is if they come to us. We lower the drawbridge on Easter and Christmas and we ask them to come over to where we feel the most secure. But that’s not what Jesus commanded us to do. He not only said to “go”, He also prayed that we would not be taken out of the world:

“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” (John 17:15)

Yet, our Christianized version of reality essentially removes us from the world and prevents us from going out and taking the light of the Gospel with us.

To fulfill our mission and follow Christ, then, we have to leave home. We have to let go. We have to venture out into the unknown and cling tightly to our Lord every step of the way as He leads us, and empowers us, and helps us to bear fruit for His Kingdom.

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Luke 18:29-30)

“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” (John 15:3-5)

 Leaving home can be scary, but that's where life - and ministry - happens.

-kg

 

 

 

HOW TO MAKE DISCIPLES: Part 1 – The Problem

Discipleship is a mystery to some Christians in the church today, but what’s even more confounding is the idea that being a Christian and deciding to become a disciple should be viewed as two separate things.

In other words, a disciple is a Christian and if you’re a Christian then you are already a disciple. As it says in Acts 11:26: “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.”

So, according to the New Testament, disciples are Christians. In fact, the default mode for all of those who follow Christ is classified as “disciple”, which just means “follower”.

If this is so, then how is it possible that Christians wouldn’t understand how to “go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them to obey all that (Jesus) commanded”? It would seem that anyone who is a disciple should understand intuitively how to go and make others who are just like them, at least in terms of faith and practice.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that many Christians still don’t have any clue how to “make disciples”. How can this be?

I believe the main reason for this phenomenon is simple; Christians are largely concerned with making converts. In other words, it starts with the way we understand (or misunderstand) the Gospel and then flows into the way we evangelize.

Most Christians today understand the Gospel as simply saying a prayer so that you can go to heaven when you die. This isn’t the Gospel. It is a simplistic element of the larger doctrine of the Atonement, but it’s not the Gospel. The same problem would arise for example if we were to confuse the Gospel with the doctrine of the Incarnation, or any other doctrine. It’s not that those other doctrines are wrong, they’re not. It’s that we’ve mislabeled the Gospel message that Jesus came and died to preach and thereby lost the point of making disciples.

So, because we’ve misunderstood the Gospel as saying a prayer so we can avoid hell, our method of evangelism has involved asking people if they want a ticket out of damnation and handing it to them by getting them to repeat a prayer of salvation with their eyes closed or by raising their hand when no one is looking as if they are voting for their own eternal security.

Because of this unbiblical practice, there are thousands (perhaps millions) of people who have “prayed the prayer” and who consider themselves Christians although none of them have never made any decision to follow Jesus. This is quite sad.

See, Jesus would not consider someone a Christian if they did not decide to follow Him. Believing in him (whatever that means) is not enough if you do not continue onward to obey the teachings of Jesus.

As Jesus himself said:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21-23)

“And why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not do the things I say?” (Luke 6:46)

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matt. 7:24-27)

"If you love me, you will obey what I command." (John 14:15)

"You are my friends if you do what I command"- (John 15:14)

"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me." - (John 14:21)

I could go on and on. But I think you get the point. Jesus came and preached the Gospel (or “Good News”) of the Kingdom which was simply that the Kingdom of God had come to Earth and that by following Jesus you could enter this Kingdom here and now. This is why Jesus’ invitation was to “follow me” and those who did so were called “Disciples”.

If we continue to preach a message that only asks people to vote on their preferences for heaven or hell, then we will continue to fail our Lord Jesus when He commands us to “go and make disciples”.

How then should we evangelize? We should ask people if they are interested in following Jesus today. Why? Because Jesus is awesome. He is glorious. He is the only source of true, abundant life, peace and joy. Nothing else even comes close.

So, instead of asking people “If you were to die tonight would you be in heaven tomorrow?” we should ask, “If you were alive tomorrow, who would you follow and how would you live your life?”

Our invitation should be to ask people if they want to follow Jesus daily, the same way that we are trying to follow Him. If we’re not following Jesus daily, we will certainly have no idea how to teach others to do so.

-kg

"A notable heresy has come into being throughout evangelical Christian circles; the widely—accepted concept that we humans can choose to accept Christ only because we need Him as Savior and that we have the right to postpone our obedience to Him as Lord as long as we want to...salvation apart from obedience is unknown in the sacred scriptures." - A.W. Tozer.

ANATOMY OF AN OPEN MEETING: What Leaders Do?

Part 5: OTHER FUNCTIONS OF A LEADER IN AN ORGANIC CHURCH

In this, our final installment, we'll talk about a variety of things that leaders (or "elders") in the open meeting or new testament church should be prepared to do, as-needed.

Making Disciples
The purpose of the Church is to disciple others to follow Christ and to obey everything that He commands. Obedience to Christ, then, is critical to the life of the Body, and our gatherings together should be one of the primary places we learn how to follow Christ together on a daily basis.

Discipleship, I believe, is not always a leader/student arrangement where the mature Christian is teaching the baby Christian how to follow Christ. Not that it can’t be that way, of course, but I don’t believe it’s the only way we make disciples.

In our house church family I’ve found that a by-product of our fellowship together is a sort of constant discipleship where the Body works together to help everyone else follow Christ daily. It’s an ongoing reality where we are learning together how to follow Christ personally.

Dealing with Conflict

As an elder in the Body of Christ, one of our roles is to deal with conflict when it arises. It might be an argument between individuals in the group, or it might a divisive person who stirs things up, or it might be a disagreement over an issue of doctrine or a point of contention over a practice in the Body.

Our group has had a variety of these issues over the last six years. Sometimes the issues are trivial, and other times they are challenging. As always, spend time on your knees asking the Lord how to proceed. Remember, Jesus is the one who is building His church, not you or I. Always, continually, submit everything to Jesus and allow Him to move and to lead your church family through this process of healing and reconciliation.

Discipline

Sometimes, a leader might have to confront a member who needs to be disciplined, and for that I recommend a group of elders within the Body who are motivated by love and full of wisdom and Godly insight. The goal is always reconciliation and restoration. Be as discreet and private as possible as long as the person is cooperative and repentant. Only take things to the entire church body as a very last resort, and then again, only with the desire to bring repentance, reconciliation and restoration.

Guarding your Family
Sometimes there are predators who come into your church family and you need to have discernment to recognize them and move quickly to remove them. This might involve meeeting with them in person to let them know why you're asking them to leave, or you might need to pull them aside and give them a warning if you think they just need a friendly reminder to change their behaviors.

The kinds of behaviors we need to be wary of are those who cause division or strife in the Body:

“I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.” (Romans 16:17)

Also look out for those who seek to have their way or to run the show. If this is something that you're not called to do, then it's certainly not something that anyone else has the right to do:

“I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.” (3 John 1:8-10)

Rather than allow one person to have their way and drive others out of the church, you should step in with other elders and ask this person to leave if they cannot fellowship without throwing their weight around.

You, of course, need to watch out for people who claim to be Christians but who are actually not following Jesus at all. As Paul explains:

“But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.” (1 Cor. 5:11)

What Paul means, literally, is that we should not allow these people to gather with us when we eat and fellowship as a Church.

As always, the goal is reconciliation and restoration in the Body, not to damage people or to condemn people. So, if you're doing this right, no one else in the Body will ever know that you've met with anyone to discuss anything because you're honoring the people you love, not engaging in gossip or slander.

Again, this is not about control. We don't want our church fellowships to be about making people act like us or think like us. Please don't use this as a license to police the behaviors of your church family.

 Defend the Liberty of Everyone

This one, to me, is the most difficult but one of the most important things to remember in an open meeting. In our church family we like to say that "everyone is in process" and this means that we're all coming from different denominational backgrounds and we're all at different levels of maturity in various areas of our walk with Christ.

This means that we do not ever attempt to get everyone else in the Body to agree with us on every point of doctrine. Our group does not have any Statement of Faith for this very reason. Our only criteria for gathering together, and for accepting people into this Body is simply this: "Do you love Jesus? Are you actually seeking to follow Him in your daily life?" And if your answer is "Yes" then you are welcome to be a member of this Body.

All we ask is that you don't attempt to change us to believe what you believe and we promise not to try to change you to believe what we believe.

This simple attitude of liberty has allowed our group of former Baptists, Pentecostals, Charismatics, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. to fellowship together for over six years without heated arguments over doctrine. We gather only to seek Jesus together and to help everyone else in the group to follow Him in their daily lives.

Unless you want to create a church that is full of people who act and think and believe just exactly the way you do (and to me that's a nightmare), I encourage you to learn how to disagree agreeably and to major on Christ when you come together, not on this or that little pet doctrine or theory.

You'll not only learn things from people who think different from you, you'll also fulfill Christ's desire that everyone in His Body be one, even as He and the Father are one. Our unity isn't based on agreement on doctrines, but on our sincere love for Christ alone.

Did I miss anything? If you've got any further questions about anything I've talked about in this series, please leave a comment below. I'm open!

-kg

[END OF SERIES]

LOOKING FORWARD AND LOOKING BACK

Keeping a journal has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. I can go back to old journals from ten or fifteen years ago and see what I was thinking, what was happening in my life that day, and what God was doing in me at the time.

On New Year’s Eve, just a few days ago, I sat down and looked back at what was going on in my life over the previous year. One thing that jumped out at me was how much of what I was experiencing and struggling with back in December of 2008 and January of 2009 was exactly the same as what I was experiencing in December of 2009 and January of 2010.

So, what does that tell me? I suppose the most obvious thing is that I haven’t grown very much over the last year. If I’m still having the same internal dialog a year ago that I’m having now, it must be because I’m still asking the same questions and wrestling with the same issues. It also tells me that spiritual growth and maturity don’t happen overnight. Sometimes – maybe all the time – our process of learning and re-learning what it means to trust God takes serious time to sink in. There are no easy answers. There are no get-mature-quick shortcuts to spiritual maturity.

Honestly, for most of last year I was deeply saddened and empty. I read over my journals from 2008 and over and over again, I read about my feelings of being alone, of being empty, of being in severe emotional pain. Much of that stemmed from being rejected by brothers and sisters in Christ who I had poured my heart and soul into for several years. It hurt – really, really hurt – to be told I wasn’t welcome anymore to teach or encourage people who mean so much to me. I also endured the loss of having two dear friends move away in 2008. These were people who inspired me, loved me, and connected with me in ways that only my wife Wendy could rival. When they moved away it left a very large hole in my heart. I can’t say I even expected it to hurt me so much, but it really did. And it still does.

Last year at this time I was trying to finish my third book, “This Is My Body”. I’m still trying to finish it. Although, I am in the final stages now. The book is all written. I just need to finish it and get it ready to publish.

Last year I resolved to disciple my sons each week and spend time with them one-on-one to teach them about the Kingdom of God, and encourage them, and pray with them about their walk with Jesus. I was also having to start, and re-start, this on a regular basis as other things began to crowd out our time together. I am still having to fight to keep this appointment on a weekly basis, but the fight is part of the resolution. It keeps me in the battle for my sons and their spiritual development every single day.

Last year I was concerned for the direction our house church was taking. We were growing larger, and to me, this signified a need for us to plant a second house church. I prayed about this, I voiced this concern to the group, we met and discussed this as a Body, and then God showed me how I needed to let go of this and allow Him to worry about it. So, I did that. Now I’ve just begun to realize that part of what God was doing in me last year was loosening my grip on this church. He was showing me that this is His Church, not my church. I am a member of this Body, but it’s His Body. I am a brother among brothers and sisters in this Family of God. I am not the Father. There is only one Father and one Lord. We are all called to submit to His Headship.

This year, I’m excited about experiencing life in the Body as one of the functioning members and not as “the Pastor”. This year, I’m resolved to disciple my sons and teach them what it means to follow Jesus with their whole life and to love Him and love others – and to demonstrate to them how those are all really the same thing.

This year, I know that I will journey deeper through the valley of the shadow of death with my friend, Robert Higgins who is dying of bone cancer. He has no family but me and a few friends. He has nothing but a few belongings that could fit into the back seat of my car. He has barely enough money to afford his motel room and a little food each month. I already know that I will be with him on the day he dies. In fact, just yesterday I made a few phone calls to investigate cremation services for him and to make arrangements for all of it. The reality of this is looming nearer now. I know that he, and I, cannot avoid what is coming. My only prayer is that I can be the friend, and the pastor, that he needs right now…and on the day he breathes his last.

This year, I am looking forward to finishing up my book and having that out of my hands and into print. Twice now I’ve nearly abandoned the entire project. Thanks to the encouragement of my mother-in-law, Ellen, and author Jon Zens (who contributed the Foreword and did a lot of proofing for me), I have made it this far. Now, with my wife Wendy’s help, I will finish it this year. Already I’m looking forward to experiencing life without this book hanging over my head.

This year I look forward to seeing God do more incredible things at the Church that He is building at the California Studio Inn in Santa Ana. I’m grateful to be included in the team of men who teach there and I’m humbled to see what God is doing to change lives and bring healing and hope through this Body of believers. It truly is a work that God is doing and I love seeing His joy as people learn to “be the Church” and love one another.

Above all, this year I’m looking forward to letting go of some of the things that have held me back from walking by faith. I look forward to embracing Jesus more and more. I look forward to what new things Jesus has in store for me and my family as we follow Him daily.

-kg

The Gospel: For Here Or To Go? (5 of 6)

By Keith Giles

PATTERNS OF EVANGELISM
One thing that’s also helpful to me is to realize that, contrary to popular opinion, there is not a formula to evangelism found in the New Testament. Several times in the Gospels we see various people who come to Jesus and ask point blank, “What must I do to be saved?” One of the most shocking things is that Jesus never gives the answer that all of us have been trained to give. Not once. Jesus never says, “Confess your sins, believe in me and repeat this prayer after me.”

What we see is that Jesus gave a different answer to this question every single time. He never gave the same answer twice. It’s as if Jesus goes out of his way to demonstrate to us that evangelism needs to be done in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, being sensitive to the specific heart of the one person we are speaking to, and not applying the cookie cutter approach to preaching the Gospel.

Let’s look briefly at the various answers Jesus gives to those who approached him asking about what must be done to inherit eternal life and see what we can learn from Him.

To Zaccheus Jesus simply acknowledges him in the crowd, invites himself to dinner and when Zaccheus repents of skimming from the taxes he’s collected, Jesus proclaims that salvation has come to his household. In the case of the Rich Young Ruler, Jesus commands him to sell everything he has, give it to the poor and become a disciple under Jesus. The man refuses and is allowed to walk away, seemingly unconverted. Nicodemus, a Pharisee, is told he must be born a second time. This confuses him and Jesus does little to explain what he means, leaving the teacher of the Law to work it out on his own time. The Woman at the Well is boldly confronted with the promiscuous lifestyle she’s been living and yet never feels offended or condemned by Jesus throughout the conversation. Finally, the Thief on the Cross is converted and welcomed into Paradise simply for realizing that Jesus was the promised Messiah. His only part in the process seems to be the amazing good fortune of being crucified for his crimes on the same day as the Son of God.

Many other examples of salvation in the New Testament reflect this same lack of pattern and tailor-made response to the Gospel message.

How does your personal conversion experience compare to these found in the New Testament? Do you see a common pattern in your own story?

When I look at this amazing variety of conversion experiences in Scripture it really puzzles me as to why we’ve made evangelism so predictable and uninteresting.

What’s more, our focus on evangelism seems to be in asking whether or not someone knows whether or not they would go to heaven if they were to die tonight? If anything, it seems the basic questions beings asked by Jesus and His disciples dealt with what one would do if they knew for a fact that they’d be alive tomorrow. The real question seems to be, “If you were alive tomorrow, who would you follow and how would you live your life?”

Are we asking the wrong questions?

HAVE YOU EVER FALLEN IN LOVE?
If you’ve ever fallen in love you know that it’s a scary, delicate and uncertain process. Sometimes we get it right, sometimes we get in the way of the natural progression of things. Other times we fall in love and we can’t even really explain how and when it really happened, only that one day we woke up and realized that we could not live without this other person in our lives. There is no science to the process of falling in love.

What I think we fail to realize is that, conversion to Christ is really a process of falling in love with Jesus over a period of time. When we make this process about a series of steps and a progression of words, we have seriously interfered with something that is far outside our ability to grasp and coordinate.

I can remember when I fell in love with my wife, Wendy, back in college. I can remember that first time I ever saw her, as she stepped onto the bus headed to a leadership conference we were attending with an on-campus student ministry. As she walked towards my seat and eventually sat in front of me I remember thinking, “Wow. Who is she? I’ve not seen her around campus.”

Before the bus left the parking lot she and I were engaged in small talk, she leant me new batteries for my Walkman and we barely interacted for the rest of the trip. A few weeks later I joined the Drama group she was leading, just to be near her. Over a series of months I got to know her. Finally I asked her to join me to see a local play and she turned me down cold. I was crushed.

Eventually she did join me and over time we got to know each other over the course of a year or so. After formally dating for a few months I asked her to marry me and a year later we were married.

Now, what if I took my own personal experience of falling in love and created a formula by which all others who wanted to fall in love must follow? Would that make any sense?

Hopefully we can plainly see that to expect everyone to fall in love the way that we fell in love is ridiculous. Yet, we have formulated a process for falling in love with Jesus and if people miss a few steps along the way we are quick to point out that they have failed to fall in love with Him in the acceptable way.

Doesn’t this seem foolish?

My prayer is that we will begin to see evangelism, and conversion, and discipleship to Jesus as an organic, creative, and miraculous process, as mysterious and marvelous as falling in love.

“And they will know that you are my disciples if you love one another”
–Jesus (from John 13:35)

(end of part 5)

*Excerpted from the book, "The Gospel:For Here Or To Go?" available as a free, downloadable PDF at www.KeithGiles.com

THE GOSPEL FOR HERE OR TO GO? (Part 3 of 6)

By Keith Giles

BELIEVE, BELONG, BECOME
Someone once told me that every single human being has a desire to believe something, to become something and to belong to something. As we enter into relationship with others we need to listen for the clues to where people are at in this process.

Ask people questions about what they believe, find out what they are searching to belong to, help them to come to grips with what they want to become.

In some cases, the answers to these questions will be very practical. Some people want to become a nurse, or a mechanic. Others want to become significant or necessary. A few people we talk to will reveal that they want to belong to a family, or a discussion group, or that they are already identified with people who share their viewpoint. Until we engage people in real, honest relationship we’ll never discover the answers to these questions, and we cannot help others find their own answers to these questions.

If nothing else, start your conversation with the person in front of you by saying, “You know, I was reading the other day about how everyone wants to believe, belong and become something. What do you think about that?” Let the Holy Spirit guide things from there and see where things go.

GARDNER VS WARRIOR MODES OF EVANGELISM
Another useful concept for me lately has been the understanding that there are two different styles of evangelism we can employ. As described in Spencer Burke’s book, “Making Sense of Church”, the two styles are “Warrior” and “Gardener”.

The “Warrior” model is the predominant method that I have been trained in over the course of my Christian life. This model uses ideas like closing the deal, winning the lost, and targeting sinners, as if they were deer on the other end of our hunting rifle. Our mindset, in this model, is squarely centered on results, and often we expect the result to come sooner rather than later. If we take a shot and miss, we simply move on to the next target and take a shot at another one.

Granted, this sort of evangelism style has been largely successful in bringing hundreds of thousands of people into faith in Christ over the years. Perhaps, again, our focus has been so centered on conversion that many have fallen through the cracks, but over the decades of the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies especially, this “Bag’em and Tag’em” mode of evangelism netted scores of new converts.

I think in today’s culture this warrior form of evangelism is a dead-end. If anything, it does more damage to the Gospel than good, in my opinion. The reason why is that, honestly, we’ve gotten so good at blasting out the message that “Jesus Loves You” and “Jesus Died For Your Sins” that the world is tired of hearing it. What they want now is to see.

They want to see, with their eyes, if what we say is true, and they are looking at the lives of those who identify themselves as followers of Jesus to find the evidence.

The “Gardener” model of evangelism takes a much different approach. Like a farmer or a gardener plants, waters and protects the growing things in their care, they recognize that making the plant produce fruit is not their job. They recognize that they are simply cooperating with the natural process of growth inherent in the creation.

This does not mean that the gardener does nothing. Far from it. As anyone who has tended a garden knows, success depends on daily attention and care, but the bloom and the fruit will come in due time. These things cannot be forced or coerced. They must be allowed to occur in an organic and natural way.

To apply this to evangelism, it means trusting that God loves people more than we do. It means daily placing our attention on the lives and spiritual development of those whom we are in contact with. Our goal is to cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He urges us to love people into the Kingdom of God. This means we’ll be invested in the lives of people for the long haul. We’re not loving them because we want to push them into our way of thinking, we are loving them simply because God loves them and we are committed to love them in tangible ways to express the love of God to them every single day.

END OF PART 3
*From the book, "The Gospel: For Here Or To Go?", available as a free, downloadable PDF at www.KeithGiles.com