Your Presence Lord

Your Presence LORD!

I recently attended a Small Groups conference in Torrance CA. The conference was hosted by Saddleback church, which is where Rick Warren (author of The Purpose Driven Life) is the Senior Pastor. My preference is to refer to them as Community Groups rather than Small Groups, because community -not size- should not be the central defining characteristic. For that reason you’ll see me refer to them as Community Groups herein.

In recent years there has been a shift from the Sunday School model (a mid-sized group of folks led, taught, and cared for by a mature Christian with sound theological understanding and a practical life where that understanding was walked out) to a Community Groups (smaller facilities with little or no room for Sunday School, which birthed gatherings in homes and other private venues) model within many evangelical protestant churches.

With the shift from Sunday School to Community Groups there are significant challenges, many of those challenges have to do with the equipping of leaders. Whereas a Sunday School teacher might host several hundred people in their class, Community Group leaders typically tend to host about 8-16 people in their group. You might readily notice that finding 4-5 quality Sunday School teachers is a far less daunting task that finding 1 quality leader for every 8-16 people in the local church.

My take away from the conference was that while many churches have adopted the Community Groups model, very few churches are actually participating in discipleship, which is the ultimate goal - not simply meeting or connecting.

In one of the breakout sessions we attempted to discuss what exactly it meant to “disciple” someone. The key phrase that kept popping up was “benchmarks.” Several people asked, “What are those ‘benchmarks’ to know whether or not someone is being discipled?”

You may have read some of my blogs in the past on Matthew 28:18-20, and how we in the West typically translate v.18 as “Therefore, go make disciples of all nations,” which is not what Jesus was saying at all.

I tried to speak a little bit as to the influences of the Enlightenment Project and Industrial Revolution upon our translation and interpretation of that passage, but the group was having none of it. I was quickly shut down and the focus returned to those elusive “benchmarks” necessary to ensure standards of care and the effectiveness/success of our “making” disciples. If you want to read a great book about those things and more I highly recommend Glenn Sunshine’s book, Why You Think the Way You Do, by Zondervan.

There are a few points I’d like to nuance beyond what I’ve already stated in previous posts because I think it may be incredibly helpful to folks engaged in, or looking to get involved in, vocational ministry.

1) Reality: God is the ultimate reality as eternal TriUnity (Father, Son, and Spirit). I mention this because if you don’t begin with the foundation of reality then everything that ensues is frivolous. God is Trinity and They created humanity in their image (community) and likeness (altruistic love).

2) Authority: Because God is Sovereign there is an ultimate authority (God) that governs all. Since God is the ultimate authority and the embodiment of eternal altruistic love then humanity is truly alive and blessed when we willfully submit to God’s inherent authority.

3) Accountability: One term I noticed that was frequently met with opposition at the conference was “accountability.” Several people gave “pushback” (which is apparently the new PC term for disagreement) when the term “accountability” was used. Folks automatically went into statements such as, “Are we micro-managing groups like Big Brother or are we providing care?” Another great one was, “Are you looking to manage people or shepherd them?” Accountability is a wonderful thing when appropriated well.

4) Process vs. Product: I don’t think most Westerners realize how much we want to resolve, fix, make, streamline, and produce. We don’t really know how to “be” anything, we only know how to “do” stuff. There is a huge difference between Jesus command (through Paul) to “love your wives” and making babies. Many of you probably snickered or laughed when you read that, but that’s the exact interpretive error we make in Matthew 28:18 when we translate Jesus’ imperative command “Therefore, go make disciples…” rather than “Therefore, having been brought through, disciple…” Jesus commanded us to be involved in a process -NOT- the product.

Read Mark 4:26-29. In the parable of the seed (not the parable of the sower and 4 types of soils) we read, “Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.” The farmer’s responsibility is to plant and reap, but God is the one that causes the seed to grow.

5) Baptizing Them: Again, I’ve covered this topic in several blogs (Death by Symbol, et al) so I won’t go into great detail here, but suffice it to say that with our INDUSTRIOUS mindset we want to make and produce, so we’ve perverted “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” into a mystical water ceremony. Several people at the conference used baptism as one of those “benchmarks” to identify whether or not people are progressing in being “made into disciples.” A water baptism is an external symbol of the character and culture of God - it is not Hell Insurance, nor does it ensure one’s faith in Christ. It is merely a one-time symbol of one’s obedience to God’s 1) reality 2) authority, and 3) our personal accountability. If we are perpetually indoctrinating people into the culture and character of God (commUNITY, altruism, selflessness, and love) then we are fulfilling Jesus’ imperative “disciple.”

6) Teaching Them: Another area I was surprised to experience so much “pushback” (i.e. disagreement) on was the idea of leaders “teaching.” With the shift from Sunday School to Community Groups many churches have faced the harsh reality that there just aren’t that many people out there today who know their Bible. Therefore, rather than investing on the front-end and equipping folks who feel called to serve - most churches have simply “dumbed down” the requirements to lead. The standard criteria now for many churches look like this:

• Can and will you pray for your group?
• Can and will you prepare for your meeting and discussion time?
• Can and will you serve your group as their first point of contact for life-issues?
• Can and will you keep the church up to date on how things are going, and we promise not to call this accountability?

The problem is that Jesus commanded His Bride (the Church) “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Preaching isn’t teaching and discussing isn’t teaching, so how exactly are we being obedient to Jesus’ imperative to “disciple all nations by baptizing… and teaching them?”

7) Goal in Mind: Repeatedly I heard leaders at the conference say, “Small Groups isn’t the goal, discipleship is.” I wholeheartedly disagree. Go back and read Exodus 33:12-16. The Israelites had sinned against God through the Golden Calf fiasco. God was about to abandon Israel to sin when Moses stepped in and plead with God, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here! Nothing else will distinguish me and your people from all the other peoples on the face of the earth.”

Discipleship is not the goal - God’s enduring, life-giving, glorious Presence is the goal. When we focus on “making” disciples we fail epically. When we focus on Small Groups we fail epically. When we focus on discipleship we fail epically; but when we “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…” then “all these things will be given to you as well.”

When we desire the Presence of God above and beyond fame, growth, popularity, podcasts, pageviews, and/or everything else in the universe - then AND ONLY THEN - does Jesus our LORD say, “Behold! I am with you always to the very end!”

Like Moses, spend time with God. Allow God’s character and culture to transform you and yours - then you’ll never have to sell another program, promote another event, or pitch another campaign, because “I AM” (the LORD) will be “with you” (Immanuel) always to the very end… And just as the disciples found out in that tiny boat on the Sea of Galilee besieged by swells and breakers… Our LORD’s Presence is all we ever need.

Blessings,

-Kevin