A catastrophic event reveals a lot. The response reveals the infrastructure and readiness of an organization. The chaos that follows exposes the maturity and equipping of its members. The church did not respond well to the Pandemic and the years that followed. But like most things, revelation is an opportunity to reflect, evaluate, and rebuild. For such a time as this, we need non-reactionary leaders. We need those who can lead with clarity, conviction, and compassion.
What happened in the last three years could be considered the perfect storm comprised of the Pandemic, acute political divisiveness, and the #churchtoo movement on the heels of the #metoo movement. These three elements together had a compounding effect, and leaders were left scrambling for solutions to the fractures and disillusionment within the body of Christ.
Reflect: How did we get here?
As people stayed home to quarantine during the Pandemic, churches struggled to create on-line services and community groups while Zoom’s stock value skyrocketed. Most people worked remotely, spent lots of time with family, and life slowed down. Families grew used to a slower pace and companies made working at home the norm. For some, this change in pace was a positive one that allowed them to spend more time with their loved ones. However, even after safety measures of masking and with the availability of vaccines, people didn’t come back to church. Arbor Research and ChurchSalary estimates that 30-40% of church goers either left the church, their faith, or preferred virtual church.
As if the stress of the Pandemic was not enough, politics further accentuated divisiveness during this time. Relationships ended overnight from debates about the mask mandate and the validity of vaccines. The church where you grew up, got married, and raised your kids could now be dispensable if it appeared to align with a policy, often conflated for political stance, you did not share. Churches and denominations were divided over everything and you felt forced to pick a side.
Next came the exposure of abuse and coverup in many churches at the local and national level. Social media became a platform for deconstructing faith and revealing a web of lies that covered up all levels of abuse. We wept as trusted leaders and assumed structures of accountability failed to protect the sheep. Leaders were forced to step down, the abused walked away from the church, and those carrying the burden of rebuilding faced burnout. Young men and women, potential future leaders who felt disillusioned by the church, chose not to go to seminary. We faced a mass exodus of leadership within the church. Churches now wait years to fill positions that used to have quick turnaround.
As some leaders fell, the rise of celebrity pastors and mega churches continued to solidify. Social media, podcasts, and Youtube launched or amplified many charismatic speakers. Churches looked for pastors who could draw a crowd and praise teams that could produce their own marketable worship songs. Slowly we moved toward an ‘Attractional-Model’, directing resources towards the public facing ministries of the church.
Evaluate: The Aftermath
The perfect storm unveiled that the church had gotten side-tracked from her primary calling to make disciples–to mature and equip her members. Members were no longer intentionally being led from one stage of their spiritual formation pathway to the next. Where was the intimate and safe space for broken sinners to expose their idolatry, repent, and to be kept accountable to their commitment to change? We were less focused on progressive sanctification through our spiritual disciplines. Such spiritual growth takes decades of intentional discipleship. Who has time for that, right?
The good news is that the next generation wants much more than shiny, charismatic, celebrity pastors and churches. The next generation longs for a safe environment where they can grow through intentional spiritual formation. They want to be discipled by someone who will long suffer with them through their weaknesses. They follow leaders who have an intentional plan to help them find the Gospel to be both beautiful and believable. They want a space where hard things are said with kindness—a space where repentance becomes like breathing and vulnerability is seen as a strength not a liability.
It takes decades to produce a mature and equipped follower of Christ. Jesus didn’t have a Plan B. He spent three years discipling a few men and asked them to do likewise. To believe that a program or a monthly leaders meeting is capable of producing such leaders is foolish or naive at best.
The world is waiting to see how the church will respond after such a brutal and necessary exposure of its veiled sins. Is this the end of ‘Christianity’ as we have known it, awash with consumerism, narcissism, a mis-placed reverence for the celebrity, and a culture that hides abuse and blames victims? I hope so. But my greater desire is for God’s people to thrive following such a season of exposure and repentance.
So we are forced to answer the question: “Do you have an intentional spiritual formation pathway to disciple, mature, and equip followers of Christ?” We are all making a promise to every person who walks through our doors. We are promising to take them to the next step of their spiritual maturity. To become someone who lives for the flourishing of others because they find Christ most beautiful and believable.
Are you willing to give the greatest portion of your resources–your leadership, finances, and time–toward intentional discipleship?
Rebuild: Intentionally Formed Lives
Many problems we are facing in the church come from a lack of discipleship in helping people process, repent, and seek to be transformed through drinking the Living Water daily. Many of us lack intentional ‘life-on-life’ discipleship, having a group of men/women walk with you and share their idols and humbly repent alongside you.
Pastors focused on spiritual formation, like Mark Sayers, Carey Nieuwhof and John Mark Comer, believe we have a unique opportunity before us. The Spirit of God used ‘the storm’ to call the church back to Himself, back to the last thing our Savior said to his disciples before He ascended to prepare a place for His good and faithful servants.
“Go therefore and MAKE DISCIPLES of all nations, baptizing them… and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…”
If ‘intentional discipleship’ is our calling, why do churches invest more into programs and quick fixes? Though the answers are varied, oftentimes it’s because leaders feel like they don’t have the time nor resources to do so. They can’t add weekly discipleship of a few members to their already busy schedule. They need a quick fix for a larger impact, before more people walk away. They don’t have time to invest years of their best resources into just a few members.
While daunting, there are resources available to begin the journey. The key is to find a resource that goes beyond a conference or a book. We must find a systematic and replicable discipleship movement that starts small and grows exponentially. The movement must find its foundational principles in how Jesus loved and equipped His disciples.
For our church, our search led us to become part of Life on Life, a ministry birthed by Randy Pope and his staff at Perimeter Church. Their systematic discipleship movement is one of many ways to begin a discipleship movement at your church. The best part of the discipleship movement is the staff’s willingness to walk with you for 2.5 years as you begin the journey.
We are seven years into this ministry and have gone from five members to over 100 members, currently in 21 discipleship groups of 3-5 members per group. The exponential growth and depth of transformation will be both certain and immeasurable for decades to come. A majority of those who started our daughter church plant were members who had been discipled through our Life on Life missional discipleship groups.
My own group, composed of four men who have walked together for three years, have experienced transformation in their marriages by becoming chief repenters. They love their children by pursuing their child’s heart first instead of demanding adherence for their own comfort. They are daily repenting of their idolatry and selfishness. They have come together to support a single Egyptian mother in our community by monthly supporting her and her son. During the pandemic they dropped off Tide, chlorine wipes, toilet paper and prayed for them. We meet with her son yearly to celebrate his birthday over Nashville hot chicken sandwiches and his brand new Jordans. Our hearts were bursting as we watched the young boy’s eyes fill with tears in disbelief.
The men in my discipleship group are being transformed by a weekly exposure of their idolatry of comfort and control. In a safe, gospel centered environment of discipleship, they exhort one another to follow their Savior.
I believe the Spirit of God is calling us to cry out again for a renewal of the church. The past three years have been a great catalyst for the leadership to repent and to seek His face. This is an exciting and hopeful time for the church. I believe God is bringing us an opportunity for renewal in the aftermath of the storm, one discipled life at a time.
Photo Credit: Julie Blake Edison