Missional Shift #1: From Preaching to the Choir to Communicating with Cultural Clarity

“The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” Mark Twain

As Christendom continues to fade away, God’s people in the United States are beginning to awaken to the new normal of the 21^st century. The United States has shifted spiritually. The former “world” religions are now part of the fabric of American culture while simultaneously the United States is becoming demographically diverse.  While the overall population continues to rise, most mainline congregations are experiencing slow and sustained decline. What are we to do as United Methodist Christians?

I will propose three critical shifts to help congregations (re)engage their local communities with the Gospel. My proposals find their roots in preaching and kingdom activity of Jesus in the Gospels and also in the words and actions of John Wesley.

To recapture the apostolic mission of the New Testament, it is crucial to begin with Jesus. Jesus began his earthly ministry by announcing the arrival of the kingdom of God (Matt 4:17, Mark 1:13–15 cf. Luke 4:16–20). The core of Jesus’ message was that God’s long awaited age of salvation had arrived. In response, Jesus called all of his listeners to an ongoing repentance in light of the kingdom’s arrival. Repentance in Matthew 4:17 refers to a (re)aligning of one’s movements, intentions, and actions in light of God’s Kingdom. Jesus called religious insiders to realign with the coming of the kingdom while simultaneously inviting religious outsiders to align with the kingdom.

Jesus’ words serve as a guide for how we are to respond to the Gospel as we read it. As we engage Jesus’ teaching, preaching, and actions, we respond to Jesus’ modeling and announcement of the kingdom by (re)aligning ourselves with it. These ongoing shifts are vital as we seek to live faithfully in the world.

The initial response to Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom was the calling of the first disciples (Matt 4:18–22) and the creation of a new community. As we ponder Jesus’ actions, we will find the three shifts that we need to make in our 21^st century contexts.

Shift #1 From Preaching to the Choir to Communicating with Cultural Clarity 

Jesus calls his disciples by using language familiar to them. He says, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people” (4:19). When Jesus spoke these words, he took hold of something familiar to his new disciples. They were fishermen. Jesus was calling them to a mission. Instead of saying, “I’m calling you to announce the good news through mission and evangelism,” Jesus chose the familiar. This is a critical but overlooked part of this story. Jesus helped his fishermen to understand their new calling by speaking on their turf rather than expecting them to gain a new vocabulary from the beginning.

Let me illustrate this why this is critical. I can remember singing a song about Jesus’ calling of his disciples as a young child. Its lyrics went “I will make you fishers of men, fishers of men, fishers of men. I will make you fishers of men, if you follow me.” It was a fun song to sing, but there was a problem. I grew up in an urban context and I had never fished. Therefore I had no clue of the meaning of the song. In fact, I remember my Sunday school teacher having to explain to us what fishing involved and then trying to explain how this was a metaphor for us telling others about Jesus. It didn’t make sense to us.

We must begin to think about the words that we use to communicate the Gospel. Who is our audience? Are we choosing the right words or are we simply doing the easy thing and using words that we understand without reflecting on if they are clear to those with whom we share the Gospel.

In the introduction to his Sermons, John Wesley speaks directly to this issue:

“I design plain truth for plain people: Therefore, of set purpose, I abstain from all nice and philosophical speculations; from all perplexed and intricate reasonings; and, as far as possible, from even the show of learning, unless in sometimes citing the original Scripture. I labour to avoid all words which are not easy to be understood, all which are not used in common life; and, in particular, those kinds of technical terms that so frequently occur in Bodies of Divinity; those modes of speaking which men of reading are intimately acquainted with, but which to common people are an unknown tongue. Yet I am not assured, that I do not sometimes slide into them unawares: It is so extremely natural to imagine, that a word which is familiar to ourselves is not so to all the world.”

Make sure that the words you are using actually communicate the meaning that you think you are sharing. As we (re)engage a culture that lacks Christian memory or in many cases does not even come from a Christian background, we must adopts and deploy new language as we seek to introduce the Gospel anew in our world. I am not arguing for the elimination of traditional Christian vocabulary. The key is making sure that we lead with words and phrases that connect with our audiences before we introduce words and phrases that are completely foreign to them.

Here are some questions that may help you to assess your own language as well as the language used in the public services of your community of faith:

What words or concepts do I expect my audience to understand as a precondition for hearing the Gospel from me?

What do we expect a non-Christ follower to become before they can understand our presentation of the Gospel at our community of faith? 

As we seek to advance Jesus’ kingdom in our day, let us commit ourselves to communicating with cultural clarity.

What do you think?

From Maintenance to Missional: Transitioning Established Churches into Kingdom Outposts

 Pastors often ask me, “I am not planting a new church. God has called me to serve in an established congregation. How can I lead my church to transition from a maintenance mindset to a missional culture?”

I believe that this is the key question for existing communities of faith in the Western world. Every day in the Western world there are 5000 less Christians. This means that the West needs to be re-won for Jesus Christ. But there is good news. Footholds and resources are already in place from which to begin. Transitioning established congregations is not an easy task—but it is an essential one as we seek to be faithful stewards of all that God has given. 

Here are some thoughts:

The key is to create a new culture. I have written elsewhere about viewing leadership in the 21^st century in terms of shaping ethos. The following are key transitional points that push this along:

1) Reintroduce the Apostolic story of Acts. At the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), a small group of persons whom God filled with the Holy Spirit began to turn the world upside down. The Church launched that day in fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy was a movement of dreamers and visionaries empowered by the promised Holy Spirit from God.

Don’t pass over the phrase dreamers and visionaries too quickly. In many struggling churches, the people of God have lost the capacity to dream of what God might do in and through the community. One of the first steps in transitioning to a missional model is to help followers of Jesus Christ to begin to dream again dreams shaped by the Scriptures.

2) Move from Surviving to Living.

Struggling churches are merely seeking to survive. When followers of Jesus Christ under the guidance of the Spirit begin to dream again, they slowly begin to realize that survival isn’t a goal. Survival is a prison that keeps a group from living. The goal of the Church of Jesus Christ is life in relationship to God. Living may sometimes means dying. Following Jesus Christ involves living as though you have already died (Matt 16:24). A vital relationship with Jesus moves us beyond fear to follow Jesus into the world on mission. This is the source of life.  Apostolic dreams lead to apostolic action.

3) Move God’s people from consumers of religious services to becoming collaborative influences for the Kingdom of God.

Missional churches are not about providing programs/resources to meet “felt needs” as ends in themselves. Missional churches call people to convert to the Gospel. This involves a reorientation from a life focused on self to a life centered on following Jesus Christ. The people of God shift from consuming to becoming Kingdom-rooted entrepreneurs who seek to extend the influence and reign of God to the ends of the earth. Congregations shift from inviting people to have their needs met to unleashing people to change the world.

4) Shift from Attractional Methods to Interactive Engagement.

Too many churches wait for people to show up at the door.  Missional churches are not opposed to advertising or raising awareness of the community of faith, but they do not sit round waiting for the World to show up. Instead, missional churches collaborate and envision ways to engage new Social networks. This is a key shift. The World no longer serves as a threat from which followers of Christ flee. Instead, the World becomes the venue for life and service in God’s mission. By engaging the world, we recapture the biblical vision of reaching the ends of the earth with the good news.

What are your thoughts?

© 2015 Brian D. Russell

Need a curriculum that helps trains disciples for mission rather than maintenance. Check out Invitation. Invitation introduces the narrative framework of Scripture through the lens of mission, character and community. Participants in the study will discover the missional DNA of the Christ following movement and learn to find themselves in the story of God's mission for humanity and all creation.

Learning to Speak Human: Part One (Videoblog)