Spot the Difference.
My eyes have seen it, my ears have heard it. A movement of God in the Western world, the fruit of which is disciples and churches to the glory of God.
The gospel goes out. Disciples are learning to obey Christ together.
Why should it surprise us that God should do this miracle in a maximum security prison and on death row? It’s no more surprising that after a generation of Islamic rule, Iranians are among the most responsive people in the world.
Do we have nothing to learn from these movements of God as one suburban pastor assured me? Our world is so different from theirs. Yes it is, but God doesn’t change. The principles are the same. The lessons are there if we’ll heed them. Here are a few for starters.
1. Begin with desperate people.
These men are tired of their way of life — the drugs and alcohol, the gang violence and pornography. In the suburbs we’re desperate to entertain. Discipleship is something we do for the people who attend. That’s the deal on offer.
Try raising the bar on discipleship. Watch with a heavy heart as some wealthy, young rulers walk away. Search for God-prepared people.
2. Speak the truth in love.
Heaven and hell are real to these men. They know where they’ve come from. They know where they are going.
The greatest theologian of the twentieth century was Karl Barth. He taught that the Bible only *contains* the Word of God. Who gets to say what the Word of God is? The theologians and exegetes. That enabled Barth to bring his mistress home to live with him, with his wife and his children. Little wonder that church leaders who follow him are silent or supportive when the culture seeks to bend us to its will regarding identity, sex and marriage.
3. Ordain everyone
The engine-room of the movement of God, is the Word of God proclaimed in the power of the Spirit by ordinary people.
In a movement baptism is your commissioning into the ministry of Jesus. You might be an illiterate grandma in Rajasthan, India or a triple murderer on death row. You are loved. God is your “good good Father,” (It’s who he is) but he has something for you go do. He calls you to follow and he’ll teach you to fish for others.
No elevated platforms and pulpits. The Word goes out in the power of the Spirit in a thousands places.
A successful church planting pastor asked me, “Why don’t we in the West see disciple making movements?” I answered, “Why don’t you train your people to make disciples and then set them loose?”
4. Defy success
I used to run around Australia with charts showing the devastating decline of the churches. I’d say, “If this long trend continues, by year xx they’ll all be gone. As though our mission was to save dying institutions. I wasn’t wrong about the trends. I was asking the wrong question.
Don’t ask, “Does this model ‘work’?” Was it working for Jesus as he hung on the cross?
Instead ask, “What did Jesus do? What did he train his disciples to do? What did the risen Lord continue to do through the book of Acts?”
5. Ask the right questions.
These convicted criminals, washed clean in the blood of Christ, sanctified by the Holy Spirit read the Word of God and ask:
How did Jesus enter an unreached field?
How did the Word spread, grow and multiply?
How did he make disciples and form them into churches?
How did he multiply workers and reach new fields?
The Bible is their handbook. They read the Gospels and Acts, and ask, “What does this look like today?”
They follow Christ and he teaches them to fish.
Maybe we have nothing to learn from the hundreds who are turning to Christ behind bars, or the thousands under Islamic rule, or the millions across the sub-continent of India.
Then again, God is always up to something. Often where you’d least expect. Why not follow their example, as they follow Christ? Nothing to lose and everything to gain.
