When the gospel is presented what is being presented? So often, in hopes of seeing people enter the Kingdom of God, "altar calls" simply present a decision to get out of hell. Or, to look at it from a more positive perspective, people are given the chance to "accept Jesus" so that they can go to heaven. While entering into a relationship with Jesus does gain you access to heaven it is not what the Christian life is all about. I would even argue that these weak "altar calls" have the tendancy to give people a false sense of security in their salvation, only find out after their death, that they do not even have salvation.
As Willard has so well written, Jesus NEVER told us to make converts to Christianity, he did however tell us to make disciples. Our responsibility as Christians is not to make more Christians but to make more disciples of Christ. Gaining access to heaven is merely the tip of the iceburg of Christianity. Think about it, if Christianity were only about having sins forgiven so that one might go to heaven, why don't we all committ suicide after being converted (sorry pastors you have to wait to go to heaven, someone has to convert new believers). I know this seems extreem, but allowing people to believe that all that matters is "accepting Jesus into your heart," leaves us to ask, why continue on living, I have done all that is really important.
It is about time that the Church starts paying attention to Jesus and not to those who create large numbers of "converts" that never become disciples. As the Church we don't need to be purpose driven, contagious or developing the leaders around us, we need to be creating followers. That's right followers. Our churches are doing something terrible by creating so many leaders, we need followers, followers of Christ.
Think back to the high school cliques, the followers in the group would always talk about the leader and how they knowthe leader and how they hang out with the leader and spend all day bragging that they get to hang out with the group leader. The followers are the ones who get their aquaintances and friends to join the group in order to hang out with the leader. The Church has one leader and that is Jesus Christ. If we began developing followers (disciples) we would begin to see churches that were driven by a desire to follow Christ, churches that people came to because the followers were so excited to be following Christ, churches that would be developing the followers around them.
It is time we stopped creating superstar leaders that can convince people that they need to make a single decision to get out of hell. It is time we started to become followers of Jesus, and called others into lives of following Jesus. It is time we became disciples so that we can go and make disciples.
2 comments:
I just have to say, I love this posting. Scott, I think you've hit the nail on the head and is precisely the thing I've been struggling with in regard to "church". There has been too much of a "get 'em in" approach and not a "get 'em in and raise them up" approach. I think this is part of the problem we've found in trying to "blend" the generations. The generations may have forgotten their purpose; why the church really exists. They haven't been stretched to think beyond their own personal comfort. Hey, I'm not pointing fingers, because it's something I struggle with too. And actually if the younger generation were to admit, they also struggle with this. But it's in the struggle that we grow, as long as we're big enough to face the fact that we may be wrong; that all of us need to put others before ourselves.
There used to be someone in our church who always liked to (I would call it) brag about the amount of time spent with the pastor; like it was some medal of honor. It used to bug the heck out of me. You addressed this in your high school clique analogy. But your one sentence, "Our churches are doing something terrible by creating so many leaders, we need followers, followers of Christ", while I agree with this, I think we're also doing something terrible by creating so many attendees, rather than "followers of Christ".
You know our Alpha program where people sit around and debate fairly simple, yet deep, questions of faith, I'd love to use the same format for regular attendees at church to sit around and debate questions such as the one you've posed here. That whole "think tank" idea, with the intent to grow our people to think with deeper questioning their role in God's kingdom.
Sorry, I've gone on and on. But I just want you to know that I appreciate what you've shared here and I'd really like to sit down with you and others because honestly this may be what is holding us back from taking the next big step, which is becoming truly "fully devoted followers of Christ".
Good article.
Walking forward at an altar call, in and of itself, does not save a person; and too often, it may lead to a false convert. Praying a 'prayer of salvation' without repentance, and without really understanding what you are praying, and simply repeating what somebody else is saying, will not necessarily save you. A 'salvation prayer' is not some magic words. Repeating a prayer after someone so that you are now "good to go," and then going out and living your life as you please, does not cut it.
In addition, making disciples, as your article points out, is neglected by most churches, I think. An older Christian discipling or mentoring a baby Christian is practiced in far too few churches. Commitment is rare these days; so is respect for authority; hence, true commitment to Christ is too often replaced by seeking God merely for healing or prosperity/wealth, as if God were a giant magic Genie in the sky, or a giant slot machine in the sky. God is too often seen, it seems to me, as a big, lovable teddy bear in the sky (or a giant Stay-Puft marshmallow man) who just wants to make friends with everybody. And, as long as you're cool with God, He's cool with you. Respect for God's sovereignty; fear of God's wrath; awe at God's blinding holiness...all of these are seemingly too often ignored today, and shunned, just as "Hell" and "sin" are no longer appropriate topics, but instead have become taboo.
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