How do you fill a church with passionate, enthusiastic worshippers? For starters, you could try scheduling Sunday services at a more convenient time for everyone listed on the membership roster. How about this: call everyone and ask when they would like to come to church and then try and draw up plan from that data. Or, maybe just rotate Sunday school and Worship... Worship service first then Sunday school... maybe that’s the ticket. Good luck with these ideas and many more that are tried every day to bolster church attendance... but be prepared for less than you expect, as they might not work like you hope they will.
Okay, lots of good ideas are tried but don’t produce the hoped for results. You could always rent the church for concerts and symposiums. You might even see a few of your church members at the commercial events. In fact one of them might even ask you, "When are “you” going to have this place this full on a Sunday?" Yes indeed, when will “you” get that done? The simple answer... when people who claim to be Christian start living a life of genuine discipleship.
Perhaps the greatest threat to the growth of the church has been the development of "clergy" and "laity." Either explicitly or implicitly, there has developed over the years since the first century, two classes of people in the church – a core of religious professionals who apparently do the major and important religious work, and a crowd of religious onlookers whose sole duty appears to be watching what the clergy are doing... and very often complaining about it.
Seems totally foreign to what the Scriptures say about the formation of the early church. Jesus the founder of the church did not come to establish a clergy or laity. He came to call disciples. It was never intended that a few take religion seriously while the many dabble in it only on Sundays. He didn't come to establish a group of theological specialists. Nor, in His mind, was there room for an entire class of religious people who enjoyed all the benefits of the kingdom without shouldering any of the responsibilities. Religion, to Jesus, was never intended to be a spectator sport. Jesus came to call all of us to a life of active discipleship.
When we fail to take our personal discipleship seriously... we strike a disabling blow at the natural passion and enthusiasm that should grow in each of us for Jesus' method for winning the world. The life of Jesus was a brilliant bonfire of light amidst the darkness of the world of His time. Like a fire that grows from a spark and leaps to a nearby tree, there is no real cause for alarm when only one tree is burning. However, it is the very nature of fire to be contagious – to spread, to grow, to expand, to multiply. One burning tree ignites others, until an entire forest is ablaze. So it was with the spreading of the gospel by the passion and enthusiasm of believers in the first century church.
Jesus chose the method of personal discipleship because He understood how people are, how they think and respond and how they themselves, once disciples, would serve as sparks or catalysts for spreading the gospel message. We also share that same challenge. We must also embrace his method. And we must do everything we can to keep personal discipleship as simple as possible, for the doers and the hearers.
We know there was a public aspect to Christ's ministry. The gospels speak of His public teaching ministry. Jesus went through Galilee, teaching in a very public way. He preached a sermon from a boat, in the Temple, and to large crowds gathered on hillsides, such as the Sermon on the Mount. You can find these examples and many more by reading the accounts in the first gospel of Matthew. The gospels speak vividly of Christ's interaction with crowds of people. Consistently, His encounters with people are not just crowds but "large crowds."
Today, Christians have focused on this aspect of Christ's ministry - on the preaching and the edification of crowds. We have marveled at his ability to draw people by the thousands and modeled our efforts along the same lines. Much of the focus of Christians today is on the public proclamation of the Word in a Sunday assembly of members and seekers, supported by so-called equipping programs.
But the real power in Jesus methods was the “private aspect” of his teaching. He started His ministry by calling individuals. The calling of Peter, Andrew, James, and John (Mk 1:16-20). The calling of Matthew (Mt 9:9). The calling of Philip (Jn 1:43).
The nature of His work was a culling and honing process... always narrowing those He interacted with from one level to the next. From unbelievers to believers. Then He narrows further, from believers to disciples. Finally, He narrows from disciples to apostles. He moved consistently from the public arena to the private one-on-one, from the crowds to the individual.
Jesus called individuals to discipleship. Jesus had a purpose for calling these men to himself. They were to be "fishers of men.” They were to be His “partners” in the greatest work the world would ever know... The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). They were to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
Something very important took place first. Jesus didn't call them and immediately give them the magnanimous assignment to change the world - he first called them simply to follow and to learn. He created the concept of “hanging out” and it served as the environment where He developed in his disciples the foundations for evangelism. He didn’t spook anyone with too much too soon. He just said... "Follow me." "Spend time with me, get to know me." "Watch what I do. Listen to what I say." "Be my disciples." "Become my students. Let me be your teacher." "Commit yourselves to me and go where I lead."
Jesus spent time with those whom he called to be His followers. He took them with him everywhere he went. When he preached throughout Galilee, they went with him. When he toured through the regions of Tyre and Sidon and the Decapolis, they accompanied him. On his several trips to Jerusalem, they went along. On the long, meandering final journey to Jerusalem, they were with Him every step of the way. Apart from the few occasions when Jesus spent a night alone in prayer, the disciples were always with Him. He often took them away by themselves. We read of times when pressing crowds became so great that Jesus and his disciples did not even have time to eat. Jesus would take them away "to a quiet place" where they could be together. Often, we are told, Jesus would speak in parables to the crowds, but then would gather his disciples in private to explain everything clearly to them.
This private, individualized aspect of Christ's ministry cannot be ignored. It was as important a part of his work as was the public preaching to large crowds. It would be difficult to imagine Jesus' ministry if you took away the emphasis he placed on calling a few, training them intensively, and preparing them to continue, multiply and expand the work which he started in just three short years of ministry. He was “lighting the fires” that would spread the gospel across the known world like a raging firestorm.
So ask yourself this question... If you are going to turn the world upside down, change history, how would you go about the task? Consider How Jesus did it and what he didn’t do.
Jesus could have committed himself to writing words which would outlive him. He could have spent his life with pen and paper, writing down all his truths for later generations. The only time we are told of Jesus writing was when he wrote in the dirt (John 8). Not very permanent. Though more words have been written about Jesus than any other figure in history, not one of them was by his own hand.
Jesus could have committed himself to establishing an institution which would outlive him. He could have organized a foundation or set up a corporation to continue his work when he was gone. Though Jesus talked about building a "church," he certainly did not mean the kind of well-oiled, closely managed, hierarchical systems we see today dominated by denominational dogmas and heretical interpretations of what The Bible actually says and teaches. Jesus left behind no charter to organize an institution, no bylaws, no name for it to be called, no administrative plan to manage it. The “church” we see today is largely the product of man, not of God.
Instead of all the pomp and circumstance of ritual and institutions, Jesus committed himself to people. The words of truth he came to give, he gave to people who would pass it along to others. The only way to ensure continuance of his work that would bloom into The Great Commission, was to make it the passion and obsession of his disciples. So the primary task of His life was making disciples who would continue his work after he was gone. It was a deeply intimate and personal interaction with people, his closest followers, that laid the foundation that would spread the gospel.
The church he came to inspire, he entrusted to people who would build it, name it after Him and expand it. The ministry of Jesus was a ministry focused on changing people's lives, on making people disciples, on instilling in them a vision that would motivate them to write the words... and build the church... and change the world.
The Church today has too many onlookers, observers and critics and not enough “doers of the Word” (James 1:22). We have the same work to do that Jesus did... the same work to do that was done by the first century church. The work is not finished and the “method(s) of engagement” has not changed. We also must focus on people.
It is easy for us to focus on the programs or the institution or the doctrines. Ultimately, however, if we are not focused on changing people's lives, on calling people to follow Jesus, on instilling in them a vision that consumes them and transforms them, the other stuff is pointless.
We also must pass the torch to the next generation... and the next... and the next. There was never any cause for concern that the work of Jesus would die with Him on the cross. He was God... His plan was perfect and He was sending a “helper” in the person of the Holy Spirit to help us continue His work of preaching... teaching... making disciples.
However, God’s work entrusted to us could very easily die with us, if we are content to keep the work bottled up rather than encouraging others to make the work theirs. If we hoard it... it’s power will die. Sharing the gospel, one-to-one keeps it alive in us and the world around us!
Christians have to look beyond themselves and make time to multiply the workers (Matthew 9:37; Luke 10:2). We must be intently focused on spreading the Word outwardly beyond the four walls of our church buildings. Don’t be deceived. Satan our adversary seeks to thwart our evangelism anyway he can. If he can keep what we do and know confined to the programs “inside” a church building, then he wins.
Our focus must be on people “out there” as we constantly tune our minds to “outward focus” just as Jesus said it would be in Acts 1:8... "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Today Jesus is saying... it’s the street corner outside your church building, it’s the surrounding neighborhood, it’s the nearby communities, it’s the greater region and it’s the mission fields anywhere and everywhere around the world. Wherever people are, we can be there and share the gospel message of salvation.
Do you really want to start a fire? Do you really want to see passion restored in your church? Do you want to see passionate, enthusiastic worshippers on Sunday? Make a disciple. Then watch that disciple make another disciple... and that disciple make another... and another... and another. Watch the sparks as they grow to smoldering embers to a raging firestorm... all for the “sake of His Truth!”
