By Daniel McCoy: Dr. Orpheus J. Heyward is involved every day in the trenches helping people to be disciples of Jesus. He uses the Word of God as his foundational manual for disciple making. And yet … there are many people with questions about Scripture.

The following is a Question and Answer post by Daniel McCoy and Orpheus.

Daniel McCoy: Alister McGrath wrote Christianity’s Dangerous Idea in which he explains that if you give everybody their own Bible in their own language, you will have tons of different interpretations. With everybody having their own Bible (and their own social media account, blog, podcasts, etc.), there’s a risk that people will invent and teach some very unbiblical interpretations. Can you give an example of when you heard somebody’s interpretation of a Bible passage and it made you say, “What in the world?!”

Dr. Orpheus J. Heyward: I can think of numerous cases and some of those cases may even be from my own early preaching experience, where after looking back retrospectively, I started to realize, Man, I really took some Scriptures out of context.

In the name of theology and doctrine, sometimes our zeal gets ahead of our hermeneutical understanding. When we want to be orthodox or when we want to ensure that we’re theologically correct, sometimes we’re more loyal to a particular religious tradition than to a proper interpretation of Scripture.

One example would be 1 Corinthians 14:40. This is a really common passage, where it says,

“Let all things be done decently and in order.”

That passage has been used for a great variety of things from saying you shouldn’t clap in church, to how women are dressed in church, to what should be the order of worship, to the idea that you can’t sing and do the Lord’s supper at the same time.

Protecting the Practice vs. Interpreting the Scripture

So, there have been numerous ways that that passage has been used to suggest various positions, and every position I’ve heard on that passage has been about trying to protect the practice—as opposed to truly treating what the apostle Paul was treating in the context of 1 Corinthians 12 and 14.

In 1 Corinthians 14:40, when Paul says that all things be done decently and in order, contextually he was dealing with the management of spiritual gifts. And he was dealing with the fact that you had prophets and tongue speakers who were not doing things in a way that would be edifying, in a way the church could understand.

Yet we have taken that passage and used it for everything we want to use it for. We use it as a double-edged sword. We cut people coming and going without truly understanding what Paul was dealing with in that context.

DM: What’s another example of people teaching a Bible passage which they clearly hadn’t taken the time to interpret correctly?

OH: Another would be in Acts 17, which says that God is not worshiped with human hands. That verse has been used to suggest that clapping is a sin. Yet, if you look at the context, you see that they were making idols. Paul addresses the practice of idol making by helping them to understand who God truly is—that he is not a God that needs you to make him or create him. In that context, he’s far from dealing with clapping.

DM: I think clapping is a sin … but only when it’s off-beat. Other than that, I think it should be okay. So, a lot of people see spirituality as a matter of opinion. They might say, “Well, this is how I read the Bible. And I find it to be an inspirational, inspiring way of reading it.” If I’ve got my own inspirational feelings from reading the Bible my own way, then does it really matter what the original authors meant to say? Isn’t it enough just to figure out what it means to me?

OH: You know, that’s a common approach of reading literature called the “reader-response method.” The reader response method took the position that in the absence of the author—since we do not have access to the author and we can’t ask the author what is meant—then we need to ascertain what it means to us. Therefore, the method was called “reader response.”

The problem with that is that God places the meaning in Scripture. We need to be very careful that we don’t negate the methodology of God by which He wants us to be guided by his wisdom. And to that end, he gives us Scripture and Scripture is not to be privately interpreted from the perspective that I can come up with what it means to me.

I need to ask, “What is God trying to communicate to me? What is God trying to say to me? What is the instructive mechanism involved here?”

For instance, 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness that the man of God might be equipped for every good work. Well, if it’s left up to me to come up with what it means, where’s the rebuke? Where’s the correction? Where’s the instruction in righteousness? It then becomes subjective, which means I can then bend Scripture to my will as opposed to making my will bend to Scripture.

So it becomes a dangerous process when I lead with the notion that I can give Scripture meaning. That perspective negates the wisdom of God—that God is the revealer of Scripture by which He wants to communicate meaning to us. So, I think the reader response philosophy is very dangerous and gives birth to a plethora of different religious positions that are predicated on what people want and what people feel as opposed to what did God actually communicate.

________________________________________________________________

Recommended resources related to this topic:

Join Orpheus Heyward in the Discipleship.org Collective on Thursday, April 22nd at 10:00 am CT where he will talk about how to read and understand the Bible and what to do with our questions. Hosted by Daniel McCoy and Renee Sproles from Renew.org

Original Blog Source: https://renew.org/whats-so-dangerous-about-bible-misinterpretation-qa-with-orpheus-j-heyward/

The post What’s So Dangerous About Misinterpreting the Bible? appeared first on Discipleship.org.

Source: What’s So Dangerous About Misinterpreting the Bible?

The post What’s So Dangerous About Misinterpreting the Bible? appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Carey Nieuwhof: It’s the hope of almost every preacher I’ve ever met that people will embrace Jesus.

That’s been my hope every time I preach.

And yet the opposite seems to be happening: more people than ever before seem to be walking away from Christ. It’s not that they haven’t been to church, they have. And they’ve left.

The wave of de-conversions among Christians seems to be growing every day.

While the stories of  high profile Christian leaders walking away from their Christianity and others who are questioning their faith abound, the headlines are symptomatic of a deeper trend: atheism and spirituality not connected to any orthodox understanding of Christianity are on the rise. In fact, as the Barna Group reported, atheism has doubled in Generation Z compared to other generations.

I don’t want to be part of any Twitter mob or comment gang that piles on leaders who share their deconversions publicly. I honestly can’t see what good comes of that. Anyone who thinks judgment and hatred will win people back to the Christian faith needs to think again. Judgment is a terrible evangelism strategy.

Anyone who thinks judgment and hatred will win people back to the Christian faith needs to think again. Judgment is a terrible evangelism strategy. Click To Tweet

I feel some empathy for people who are deconverting. I too have gone through some deep questioning of my Christian faith.

Ironically, in college my questions didn’t lead to an abandoning, but instead to an embrace of Jesus and the Christian faith. Since then, my own questions and my consideration of other viewpoints, faiths, and worldviews keep drawing me back even more deeply into the embrace of Jesus, but that doesn’t mean the questions people are asking aren’t legitimate or real.

The paradox for me personally is that my questioning of Christian assumptions over the years has deepened my faith, not eroded it. But I also realize this isn’t what’s happening for many people. They question, explore and then leave.

So the question becomes why.

While the answer is complex, I think some of it may have to do with the state of preaching today.

In this post, I want to offer a few reflections on what might be contributing to the rise in atheism, agnosticism and the rather astonishing deconversions we keep seeing—namely, the way we preach. Obviously, that’s not the sole cause of the deconversions happening, but at some level, it has to be a contributing factor.

Preaching is one of the central features of our public worship times, and Gallup indicated that 76% of people still choose a church based on the quality of the preaching. Clearly, the way we teach and preach still has an impact, for better or worse. It’s also why my friend Mark Clark and I put this together for preachers.

There are at least three factors about our preaching that might be spurring deconversions. I share these out not to point fingers, but just to say that our current approach isn’t working nearly as well as it should or could. I also offer them as a preacher.

Preaching should help people find faith, not cause people to lose it. And it haunts me that there are tens of thousands of people who grew up in church listening to sermons who have walked away.

Here are 3 ways preaching is perhaps contributing to the rash of deconversion stories we’re seeing.

Preaching should help people find faith, not cause people to lose it. Click To Tweet

1. Our preaching can seem shallow and unresearched, because often it is. 

The Christian faith is hardly simplistic or trivial. But sometimes our sermons are.

People today have access to ideas, insights, arguments, and data most didn’t have access to even a decade ago.

Why? Well, in a single word: the internet.

Think back to the early 2000s. The average person listening to a message didn’t have easy, instant access to information about whatever subject was being covered on a given Sunday.

Perhaps they went to college. Some, of course, were well-read. But the average person mostly only had access to what they saw, heard and read in the mainstream media and what they might here at church.

The Christian faith is hardly simplistic or trivial. But sometimes our sermons are.Click To Tweet

Today, virtually everyone you’re speaking to has a phone with them, and not only are some of them fact-checking you when you speak, but many (especially the unchurched and curious) have also already Googled and more deeply researched what you’re talking about.

Many have read books and even more have listened to podcasts that debate the very subject you’re covering. While you might say that’s not true of Christians in your church (maybe they only listen to Christian media), I promise it’s 100% true of any unchurched people exploring faith and Christians who are questioning their faith.

And please hear me. I am not saying Google is the most reliable or scholarly way to get great information or that the information they’re accessing online is unbiased, research-based or even helpful. But I am saying it’s real.

And compared to the intellectual depth of a lot of preaching today, the other sources people are reading and accessing, it’s not that hard to preachers to come off as shallow or unresearched.

Many of us who preach haven’t changed our study or research methods much. We’re teaching and preaching as though the internet didn’t exist, and as if people should blindly accept whatever we’re saying. I promise you they won’t.

Many preachers are teaching and preaching as though the internet didn’t exist, and as if people should blindly accept whatever we’re saying. I promise you they won’t.Click To Tweet

I’ve found over the last decade in particular that I’m reading more, not less. Not just commentaries and theological books (which, of course, you need to), but far more widely.

Truthfully, at first, I was a little nervous to get outside of my little Christian echo-chamber and school of the already-convinced. I wondered if reading alternative viewpoints would erode or destroy my faith. (It didn’t.)

But over the last decade as I’ve read leading authors as varied as Yuval Noah Harrari, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Eckhart Tolle, Robert White, Dan Harris, Sam Harris, Mark Manson and many others (all of whom are not Christian, and some of whom are scathing in their critique of Christianity), I have a much better appreciation of the questions and objections people are carrying with them when they access a sermon, and as a result can address that.

I’ve also listened to hundreds of podcast episodes featuring people who don’t share my worldview or faith at all (like Tara Brach for example), and, while I may not agree,  it’s helped me understand what other people are listening to, exploring and increasingly embracing.

I’m not sure today’s preachers are winning the intellectual war. To simply offer advice or insight and insight and a clever line or two isn’t cutting it anymore, at least if you’re speaking to people who are exploring other world views, which I assume you are.

And to use the line “just preach the Word and trust God” is a denial of responsibility. There is a power in the text and a power in the Holy Spirit that is undeniable and for which I am deeply grateful and rely on greatly in my preaching. But that doesn’t mean you just fail to prepare and hope it all works out.

But perhaps one of the reasons God used the Apostle Paul so powerfully is that he was deeply schooled not just in Judaism, but because he understood the mind of the Epicureans, Stoics and Greek philosophers. He understood differing world views and used that knowledge to draw people into the embrace of Jesus as Lord.

If God created the mind, then thinking isn’t inherently an enemy of faith. In fact, good thinking can just as easily lead back to Christ as it does away from him. I would, of course, argue even more so does good thinking lead to Christ than it leads away from him.

Thinking more deeply and praying more deeply are both needed in preaching today.

If God created the mind, then thinking isn’t inherently an enemy of faith. Thinking more deeply and praying more deeply are both needed in preaching today. Click To Tweet

2. Knocking down straw men doesn’t impress anyone. Shoot for steel.

It’s a classic debating tactic to set up the opposing point of view as a straw argument or straw man (a bad argument), and then knock it/him down to show how compelling your point of view is. A slight variation is to reduce and ridicule the other side until it seems only fools could believe that.

Classic example:

To believe Darwinian explanations of unguided evolution is like believing a tornado swept through a junkyard and randomly assembled a fully functional 747 jet.

That’s actually a moderately decent analogy with some truth behind it, but you have not nearly made your case. Finding a clever metaphor like that can help, but it is not a complete argument. A lot of preachers pretend it is, and with one clever analogy feel they’ve buried unguided evolution.

Hardly.

Leaving it at a simplistic, dismissive level gives the impression that people who believe unguided evolution are unintelligent, which they clearly are not.  Atheists, skeptics and people who embrace alternate spiritualities are not stupid people. Many of them are incredibly intelligent. All of them are made in the image of God.

Atheists, skeptics and people who embrace alternate spiritualities are not stupid people. Many of them are incredibly intelligent. All of them are made in the image of God. Click To Tweet

Taking opposing views seriously is one of the best ways to respect people who think differently than you and perhaps gain a hearing.

I haven’t always done this well, but fast forward to a more recent example of where I tried to engage the opposing view more seriously. Below is the description I wrote for a message I preached earlier this year in a series I called Undrink the KoolAid. The message is about science and faith:

Religion is basically how ancients understood the world, but science has taken us so far beyond that. Between what we know about evolution, astronomy, genetics, biology, and so many other sciences, we’ve explained what we used to attribute to God. If science explains or will explain everything, why do we really need God?

I wrote the summary of the message not from a Christian viewpoint, but from an opposing viewpoint because that’s exactly how I’ve heard many atheists and skeptics talk about religion and science. When they read that, they are far more likely to be surprised and say to themselves A church actually understands what I think? Further, a growing number of Christians in your congregation are thinking the same thing. They just haven’t said it out loud.

Of course, during the message I argue that a deep understanding of science can just as easily lead toward faith as away from it, and quote not only scripture but a number of scientists and then explore the thinking of the 17th-century physicist, mathematician, and philosopher Blaise Pascal. (You can watch the message here if you’re interested.)

Taking the counter-argument seriously and presenting some of its strongest points makes your argument stronger. And, of course, if you can’t counter the counter-argument with strong points, well, that’s a whole other issue.

Taking the opposing view seriously makes people who hold the opposing view take you more seriously. Ridiculing your opponent makes you less persuasive, not more persuasive.

And it makes your viewpoint seem like a far more plausible alternative to theirs.

Ridiculing someone rarely makes them want to embrace you or what you stand for.

For bonus points, think about how this principle could change the current political discourse. It’s really what we all long for, but no one seems to be leading the way. So lead.

Taking the opposing view seriously makes people who hold the opposing view take you more seriously. Ridiculing someone rarely makes them want to embrace you or what you stand for. Click To Tweet

3. Being Closed to Questions and Conversation Closes Doors

Sometimes I wonder how many times people would have stuck around if Christians had been better with questions and conversations. But we seem more interested in making a point, defending what we believe or winning arguments.

Sure, whenever you speak from any point of view, you’re making an argument (hence my first two points).

But ultimately, the point isn’t to win an argument; it’s to win the person. There’s no point in winning an argument and losing people.

Yes, logic matters. Yes, truth and being firm in your convictions matter, a lot. But people matter even more. And you don’t have to sacrifice one to keep the other.

If you win arguments and lose people, have you really won?

There’s no point in winning an argument and losing people. If you win arguments and lose people, have you really won?Click To Tweet

The reality is everyone has questions. You do, I do. Everybody who’s ever listened to a sermon has questions.

The issue is: where can you bring those questions? And too often in the church, the answer is nowhere.

You asked about evolution, science, reincarnation or sexuality and got a pat answer. Or no answer. Or worse, you got judged for asking the question.

I don’t know about you, sometimes when I’m asking a question, I’m not really even looking for an answer nearly as much as I’m looking for a conversation or simply for someone to listen.

In my personal conversations with atheists, agnostics and others who don’t share my faith perspective, I’m trying much harder to hold my tongue, listen, not rush in with pat answers, honor their questions (or at least the intent behind them) and show respect. Do you know what happens a remarkable number of times? They talk themselves out of their question or make the point I would have made anyway. They just needed someone to listen long enough.

Further, when you listen, give them credit and tell them they’re really thinking (which in most cases, they really are) and you appreciate the questions, they are shocked to find an open-minded Christian. And usually what they want is another conversation.

Preaching works that way too.

Let people know their questions are important.

If you don’t know the answer, don’t make one up. That does a disservice to God and to them. And if the answer is unknowable (as sometimes it is, tell them that while we can’t be certain of issue X, here’s what we’re thinking about issue Y.)

If they have a good point, tell them.

And of course, in the process, share the hope that’s in you too.

Being open to dialogue makes people open to you. And being open to questions ultimately helps people be open to different answers.

Embracing peoples’ questions makes them far more open to embracing different answers.

So what happens if you can’t handle questions, conversations and dialogue?

Easy. People leave. They’ll take their questions elsewhere.

Someone else will listen, empathize and over time, perhaps even persuade them of a new way to think and believe. And you won’t.

In fact, that may be exactly what’s happening.

And then you’re left with your absolutist friends believing you’re right and everyone else is wrong.

Embracing peoples’ questions makes them far more open to embracing different answers. Click To Tweet

3 Things You Can Do

Before I let you go…let me reiterate that I am firmly convinced that Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life and that I hold an orthodox view of the Christian faith.

I just think we’re losing people like crazy in our new, post-modern reality.

If you want to grow in this area further, try this. They’re easy to understand, really hard to do, but so worth it.

Read, study and understand opposing points of view. Some of the authors/podcasters mentioned in this article are great places to start. You can’t address a different point of view if you don’t understand it.
Become friends with a thoughtful atheist, agnostic or someone entirely different than you. I have a few atheists and agnostics in my life I hang out with regularly. They’re smart, well read and push me to new levels of my faith and ability to articulate it that would never happen if I didn’t have those relationships. I am learning loads. So, they tell me, are they.
Embrace questions. When you embrace a question, you embrace the questioner. Similarly, when you’re open to hearing people, they’re far more open to hearing you.

When you embrace a question, you embrace the questioner. When you’re open to hearing people, they’re far more open to hearing you. Click To Tweet

All My Best Preaching Training (And Mark Clark’s As Well)

Preaching isn’t easy. Just ask anyone who’s done it.

That’s why my good friend Mark Clark and I put the best of what we know about preaching into our online, on-demand course, The Art of Better Preaching.

And for just a few more days, it’s available at current, low pricing.

Every week, Mark and I preach to thousands of churched and unchurched people, Mark at Village Church in Vancouver BC, and me at Connexus Church north of Toronto. We have very different styles, which means this course is not a preach-just-like-me approach to preaching. And both churches are reaching many unchurched people in a thoroughly post-modern context.

You can customize it to help you preach better messages, and it draws from the rich tradition of different approaches that actually connect with unchurched people. Plus, we share our best secrets on how to craft the best messages we know how to create.

In the course, Mark and I cover:

How to Preach to the Unchurched
How to Give a Talk Without Using Notes
The Why and How of Preaching
How to Craft a Killer Bottom Line So People Remember Your Talk Years Later
How to Stay Fresh over the Long Haul

And much more.

We’re so excited to help you become the best communicator you can be.

Sunday’s coming. Boost your ability to connect!

Click here to learn more and gain instant access to The Art Of Better Preaching before the price goes up.

What Are You Seeing?

I know this isn’t an easy subject. What are you learning?

What are you changing?

The post Some Thoughts on the Wave of Deconversions and The State of Preaching Today appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: Some Thoughts on the Wave of Deconversions and The State of Preaching Today

The post Some Thoughts on the Wave of Deconversions and The State of Preaching Today appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by unSeminary: If you’re a church leader, chances are you’ve heard some form of criticism that sounds something like this:

“It’s not deep enough.” “I wish we would go deeper.”“I wish our church was more gospel-centered.”

I feel like these criticisms are as old as our faith. In fact, after talking with church leaders across the country, it appears they hear some version of this common comment all the time. This commentary isn’t limited to one particular style or theological persuasion of church; it’s heard throughout various corners of the Christian world. From the happy-clappy to the frozen chosen, from the Bible-centered to community-responsive models, it always seems like there is a segment of Christ followers that are happy to provoke their leaders by complaining that the church just isn’t “deep enough.”

How do you respond to such criticism?

For many leaders, it can feel like a dagger to their very souls. None of us got into ministry because we wanted to have a shallow faith. None of us are sacrificing the things we do just so we can scratch people’s ears or simply present some sort of watered-down version of the Gospel.

Church leaders try to establish a faithful representation of the biblical community they see in the New Testament within their own communities today. The heartbeat of church leaders is to apply the timeless teachings of Christ to the life we experience today. We’re looking for ways to apply the ancient scriptures so that people can live out that faith in a robust and generous manner during their day to day lives.

Practically speaking, how do you react and respond to this question when you’re confronted with it? Like every question that’s asked of you as a leader, it’s good to dig below the surface and understand the real reasons behind the question before responding.

Let’s consider how you can respond to discipleship critics at your church. Here are some ways to think about how to encourage people to understand your mission more deeply and to engage with the community you’re attempting to connect with.

Faith in action

The New Testament leans towards the fact that our faith in Christ is not primarily something between our ears but rather something to live out in the world around us. Sometimes when people are criticizing the church for not being “deep enough,” what they’re actually looking for is more trivia acquisition. They’re looking for more Bible facts and figures so they can impress other Christians at cocktail parties (but let’s be honest, this crowd doesn’t go to cocktail parties).

However, that motivation is starkly contrasted to even just a plain reading of the New Testament. Time and again, people ask, “How are we living out our faith? How are we taking what we know about Jesus and putting that into action?” It doesn’t appear that true faith, from a New Testament perspective, is just about information acquisition or a simple verbal or mental assent to a series of timeless truths.

It’s legitimate to push back when someone comments that the church is not deep enough and ask them to explain what a deeper faith looks like. From what I can tell, it would appear that a deep faith is one that attempts to live out the message of Jesus in a relevant manner in the communities around us.

“Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.” – Proverbs 19:17“‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’” – Luke 4:18-19“All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.” – Galatians 2:10“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” – James 1:22“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” – James 1:27“My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” – James 2:1-4“Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” – James 2:15-17“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” – Matthew 25:40“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” – 1 John 3:18

“There’s another church across town.”

You’ve got to watch how you say this one, because you don’t want to come across as aloof or emotionally disconnected from someone when they’re asking you a legitimate question. However, it is true that your church isn’t going to be the right fit for everyone in your town.

We need lots of different approaches in order to reach different kinds of people. It’s perfectly acceptable to point to another four or five churches within a 20-minute drive of your church that you could refer people to when they come to you with this kind of complaint.

A great way to do this is to ask them to complete this sentence: “I like our church; however, I wish it was more ______.”  That would be the time to help someone understand there may be other churches in town that are more in line with what they’re looking for.

For example, someone might complain that your church doesn’t “do more worship.” After you process that idea with them and realize that you don’t seem to be coming to a meeting of the minds,  you could say, “If you’re looking for a church with more musical worship, you really should check out this other church across town. I know the pastor there, and they have great people at Across Town Church. They love the Lord, and you know what? I happen to know that they do 45 minutes of musical worship every Sunday. You should check them out.”

People might say, “I really love our church, but I wish it was more focused on expositional teaching.” And you could say, “Well, I’m glad you mentioned that. My friend Pastor Susan across town is in the middle of a 24 week series on the book of Luke. It’s fantastic, I really think the world of them. You should check them out. Would you like me to make that connection for you?” By being disarmingly open with your people, you both clarify why it is you do what you do and show that there really is no competition in the body of Christ. It’s so important to realize that at the end of the day we all want people to get more connected and deeply rooted in their churches.

Challenge into leadership

When someone comes to you and says that the church simply isn’t deep enough, you might consider engaging this person in a conversation about leadership.

Sometimes this concern stems from a very genuine place about the discipleship makeup of a church. In fact, this might be the opportunity to help this person become more connected to the community by becoming a leader in the church. Sometimes people raising their hands like this are the ones you want to get more plugged in!

Rather than deferring them or challenging them about whether they’re putting their faith into action, you could simply acknowledge that yes, we are looking for ways to continue to grow the discipleship culture. Ask them to explain how they would see that the discipleship culture grow, or how they would improve this aspect of your ministry. Maybe they’ll offer to lead a small group, suggest the possibility of a Bible elective, or run a weekend preaching conference. Once they mention their ideas, it would be entirely appropriate to ask if they would be willing to help that idea come to fruition.

Reaching new people

This can be a perfect opportunity for us to talk through the mission of our church. The church I attend has regular conversations about how we’re trying to be the kind of church that unchurched people love to attend. For us, that means that we do feel uniquely called to engage those who don’t normally attend church.

Consider when Jesus was asked questions about faith. He often just responded with more questions rather than diving into long, theological diatribes. Following in that tradition, we are attempting to engage the broader public as they’re asking questions about faith, about things that are relevant to the Bible, and about the teachings of Jesus

I don’t believe that there are church leaders who are attempting to water down the message of Jesus in order to reach people; rather, we are trying to hold to the timeless truths of Christ and engage the broader culture at the same time.  And so, we are going to err on the side of engagement because we think that there’s a bigger mission out there.

The local church is the only organization in the world whose primary focus should be on the people not yet within its walls. In the same way that Jesus sent us into all the world to share the good news, we feel a unique call to reach out to our community and ask, “Hey, how can we engage the people in our community with what it means to follow Christ?” Ask the person who questions the church’s depth about how they’re engaging with that mission and what you can do to help them become more deeply involved in seeing their community be impacted by the message of Christ. This can be a good time to help people get clarity on the mission and to invite them to join in and be a part of it.

How do you respond to critics in your church? I suspect that most of the church leaders reading this have heard this criticism lodged against them at some point in time. What do you say when people say your church is not deep enough? I’d love to hear in the comments below about how you respond to this issue. What conversations have you had that have been helpful in ultimately turning a critic into a more engaged member of your church? I’m cheering for you as you tackle those hard conversations, and I’m honored that I get to serve alongside you as you attempt to reach the people that God has put in your path.

Download PDF Article

Source: “It’s Not Deep Enough”: Responding to Discipleship Critics in Your Church

The post “It’s Not Deep Enough”: Responding to Discipleship Critics in Your Church appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Bobby Harrington: Dear Discipleship·org community,

Defining a church and a disciple making church are big challenges.

We brought a small group of disciple making leaders together last month to help us define these two key terms that are crucial for disciple-making leaders to thrive. I wanted to share the challenge and our working solutions with all our readers, and that’s why I’m writing to you today.

There are three key definitions:

A church
A disciple-making movement
A “Level 5” disciple-making church (viral multiplication of disciple making within a church)

It is hard to define each of these terms because they represent complex, nuanced realities.

We tried to broach these definitions at a gathering of Discipleship·org leaders in 2018, but we got bogged down and had to stop. I knew we would need to come back to this important work early in 2019 and that’s what we did in early January. After praying about it and seeking counsel, we met in Phoenix. This article is a summary of our meeting and the working definitions that we plan to use with Discipleship·org.

Thank you for taking time to read through my brief summary of our definitions and for joining this conversation with your comments and prayers:

KEEP READING BLOG

For King Jesus,

Executive Director, Discipleship.org

Sign up for the 2019 National Dis

td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}

Weekly Update: How Do You Define a Church and a Disciple Making Church?ciple Making Forum in Nashville, November 7-8 by clicking here.

New Blogs

“Disciple Making Movements – a History and a Definition (Part 2)”

by Roy Moran

READ THE BLOG

“6 Habits of an Effective Disciple Maker”

by Jim Putman

READ THE BLOG

“New Book on Fasting and Prayer: Revival Starts Here”

by Bobby Harrington

READ THE BLOG

New Podcast Episodes

LISTEN NOW

S6 Episode 3: How to Let the Holy Spirit Guide Your Discipling Relationships (Kent Chevalier)

S6 Episode 2: Bridging the Intergenerational Gaps—X, Millennials, Z and More (Heather Zempel)

S6 Episode 1: Making Disciples with Mandisa (Dave Buehring and Mandisa)

The post Weekly Update: How Do You Define a Church and a Disciple Making Church? appeared first on Discipleship.org.

Source: Weekly Update: How Do You Define a Church and a Disciple Making Church?

The post Weekly Update: How Do You Define a Church and a Disciple Making Church? appeared first on Passion for Planting.