How NOT To Be a Missional Church series: Click | View Series

The missional church movement has been good and bad. On a positive note, let’s focus on the bad. I want to suggest three ways to not be a missional church. In continuation of the series, this post examines some of the defects of evangelism-driven mission.

Evangelism-Driven Mission

These churches focus almost exclusively on evangelism. Their view of the gospel leads them to see social action as optional. For them, mission is synonymous with evangelism, and evangelism is highly programmatic. They focus on training individuals through evangelism training programs, apologetics, and use of evangelistic tracts. What’s wrong with learning evangelistic presentations, memorizing apologetic defenses, and using tracts?

1. Evangelism-driven mission is often answer-based and heaven-centered.

These churches train individuals and teams “How to present the gospel” in a brief period of time. Typically, these programs look for the person being evangelized to offer a specific answer. For example, “If you died tonight and stood before God and he said: ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’ What would you say?” Notice that the questions are answer-driven. The goal is to get someone to say the right answer and to believe the right facts, like “Jesus died for my sins.” What we need is less belief and more faith.

In his new book, The Future of Faith, Harvey Cox makes a helpful distinction between belief and faith. He writes: “We can believe something to be true without it making much difference to us, but we place our faith only in something that is vital for the way we live.” We can believe without it making a difference.

Many Americans believe that Jesus died on the cross for their sins, but it makes very little difference in their lives. They possess mere belief. This mere belief undermines the gospel. What we need is faith. Moreover, mere belief in the right answer baits people, not with Christ, but with heaven. It is heaven-centered, not Christ-centered. In evangelism-driven mission, Christ is subordinated to the treasure of heaven, instead of heaven being subordinated to the treasure of Christ. The goal is heaven, not Jesus. Answer-driven and heaven-centered evangelism leads to nominalism and distorts the gospel. Evangelism-driven mission can undermine, not advance the gospel.

2. Evangelism-driven mission can be defensive and fact-oriented.

Training in apologetics has its place; however, when our approach to non-Christians is driven by apologetics, we very often reduce people to projects. Apologetic mission can foster too much defense and too much offense because it aims at the head to the exclusion of the heart, to change someone’s mind, but not their lives. Just because someone agrees with our facts and embraces our logic doesn’t guarantee true conversion. We need to be prepared, not only to defend the faith, but to love people intelligently. Most objections to the gospel have existential and personal roots. If we can get beyond the arguments to the idols of the heart, we can show just how tremendously superior and satisfying Jesus is to whatever they love, desire, and pursue most!

3. Evangelism-driven mission is often outdated and fails to contextualize.

The methods used are often prepackaged and outdated. Evangelistic programs falsely assume that our listeners still understand the meanings of sin, Christ, and faith. But very often, they hear something very different, like legalism, moral teacher, and mere belief. When we fail to express the gospel in context and vocabulary that our listeners can understand, we fail to share the gospel. Christ dated and contextualized himself to all kinds of people so that his message would make sense and connect with their deep needs for redemption. Using packaged illustrations and methods assumes a one-size-fits-all, but the Incarnation reminds us that the gospel is much more personal and dynamic.

4. Evangelism-driven mission is individualistic.

This approach to mission trains individuals, not communities. It reduces the gospel to a conversation between two people, without focusing on embodying the gospel in communities. Statistics have shown that individuals are consistently converted to communities before they are converted to doctrines. Our methods are often doctrine-driven and individualistic.

Jesus prescribed a kind of communal evangelism in John 17, where our community is so redemptive and rich that it points people to Jesus. Paul called for a distinctive discipleship in churches that set the community of faith forth as an example, as salt and light in their cities, attracting others to them. Individualistic evangelism doesn’t create community because it doesn’t convert people to the church. It aims at converting individuals to a set of answers and to heaven. Evangelism-driven mission has very little to do with the Jesus of the Church, the Head of the Body.

To be continued.

This series is based on Jonathan Dodson’s talks at the LEAD ’09 conference.

Resurgence Literature

Re:Lit is a ministry of Resurgence. There you will find a growing line of books to help guide the resurgence of the new reformed. Find out more.

How NOT To Be a Missional Church series: Click | View Series

The missional church movement has been good and bad. On a positive note, let’s focus on the bad. Over the next few posts, I want to suggest three ways to not be a missional church. We’ll organize these reflections under three headings:

1. Event-Driven Mission
2. Evangelism-Driven Mission
3. Social Action-Driven Mission

Event-Driven Mission

These are churches that, in the name of mission, throw block parties, do Easter egg drops from helicopters, hand out water at intersections, do gas buy-downs, or even, as was recently suggested to me, do coffee buy-downs. What’s wrong with these approaches to missional church?

1. Event-driven mission is works-based.

It begins on the wrong foot, the foot of action instead of the foot of identity. It makes mission out to be an act of man, not a participation in an attribute of God. Mission is something we are before it’s something we do. Event-driven approaches to mission turn mission into an event, something that is optional for the super-spiritual, gets us points with God, and gets him on our good side. But God can’t be bribed by mission or anything else. Event-driven mission builds mission on works, not grace.


2. Event-driven mission is very often consumerist.

The event approach to being a missional church often appeals to consumerism, not to genuine social or spiritual needs. It aims at the consumer-in-want-of-stuff, not the sinner-in-need-of-grace. These attempts at mission appeal to the consumerist longing for a deal, instead of the sinner’s deep down longing for redemption. They try to buy people off: “I’ll give you an Xbox if you come to my church. I’ll pay for your gas if you visit on a Sunday.” If you have to pay people to come meet Christians, something is seriously wrong with your understanding of gospel and mission. Event-driven mission makes appeals based on idolatry, not grace.


3. Event-driven mission doesn’t work very well.

In urban contexts, people can smell a bait and switch a mile away, and that is exactly why they left the church (if they were in it in the first place). If we want to reach non-Christians in a post-Christian context, then we will have to prove to them that they cannot be bought off, that we are a real community, and that we care about them enough to live next door to them, eat with them, work with them, suffer with them, rock out with them, and be with them. Event-driven mission is a bait and switch.

To be continued.

This series is based on Jonathan Dodson’s talks at the LEAD ’09 conference.

Pastor Dad

Every dad is a pastor. The important thing is that he cares for his flock well. Pastor Mark Driscoll's new eBook offers spiritual insights on fatherhood. Get it here.

From the free e-book Grow: Reproducing Through Organic Discipleship.

Empower People to Serve

One way to help people connect with Christ-centered community is by empowering people with the gospel to serve God and others. Serving is one of the greatest things that Christians can do as disciples. We should be committed to helping people grow as disciples by using their gifts and talents for God in a way that will bless others and make the community a better place. The Bible tells us that God gave each of us the ability to do certain things well (Romans 12:6‐8). The Holy Spirit gives gifts to believers to be used for the building up of the body of Christ. As a church, we need to help people find and use these gifts for God. Serving is a powerful connection point that many churches ignore or simply overlook.

Serving others is certainly not encouraged in our individualistic society. To be a servant means that we must look after the interests of others. It means selflessness as opposed to selfishness. A servant asks, “What can I do for others” instead of “what can they do for me?”

Serve Like Jesus

Christians must strive to be like Jesus, our perfect example. Jesus set the example of being a servant by saying, “For even the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). This scripture beautifully embodies the task of Christian ministry. Disciples are to serve and give their lives for others. Serving is the example that Jesus gave, and his followers should follow it. Jesus met both the physical and spiritual needs of the people he ministered to in the Gospels. As the Body of Christ, we become his representatives to a lost world.

Create Pathways for Service

A servant revolution in our churches will reach our community and show the love of Christ. Each week and month, our church provides dozens of different opportunities for people to make a difference through service projects that touch peoples’ lives in the community. These pathways of service help people connect to their community with their God-given ability to serve. Serving is one of the major connection points in our church. The church should be an army of servants who are making a positive difference in their families, their community, and the world. Help find creative pathways for people to connect to your church through serving.

Read Winfield Bevins’ free e-book Grow: Reproducing Through Organic Discipleship.

Resurgence On Facebook

Become a fan of the Resurgence on Facebook, get connected with other fans, and stay current on all the latest updates. Find out more.

A Diverging Church and Culture

Increasingly, ministry in North America is an exercise in crossing cultures. As the culture moves its own way with everyone “doing right in his own eyes,” the church and the culture look increasingly divergent. Thus, Christians are left with a challenging task: how do we faithfully proclaim a clear biblical gospel in the shifting sands of culture?

It would be arrogant to think our culture different from all the others where the gospel is preached. For two millennia, Christians have addressed cultural questions.  Honestly, it has not always gone well. In every cultural encounter, some go too far and many don’t go far enough.


Joining Jesus In His Mission

Thus, in the Re:Train course "Missional Missiology," we will be asking missiological questions from a missional framework. The title of the class gets at the issues. First, we will look at things from a “missional” perspective. In other words, we will seek to join Jesus in his mission. That will require us to understand things like the mission of God, the Kingdom of Christ, the work of the church, and the cultural context.

The last point, the cultural context, gets at the missiological question. Missiology asks, “How can we most effectively be engaged in mission here, now, in this place and culture?”

We stand at a crucial time in the North American church, but the answers are always the same— a biblically faithful culture engaging and transforming its culture for the glory of God, the redemption of men and women, and the advance of his Kingdom.

Dr. Ed Stetzer teaches a course on Missional Missiology at the Resurgence Training Center. For more info, go to ReTrain.org.

Books By Ed Stetzer:

• Compelled by Love: The Most Excellent Way to Missional Living
• Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can, Too
• Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community
• Planting Missional Churches
• 11 Innovations in the Local Church: How Today's Leaders Can Learn, Discern and Move Into the Future
• Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them
• Perimeters of Light

Re:Sound

The musical arm of the Resurgence offers music that is theologically unified, stylistically diverse, and musically excellent. Find out more.

From the free e-book Grow: Reproducing Through Organic Discipleship.

Converts vs. Disciples

Some churches focus on evangelism at the expense of discipleship by seeking to win converts instead of making disciples. The goal of evangelism is disciple making. The Great Commission in Matthew chapter 28 is to make disciples who will follow Christ rather than simply win converts. When Jesus said, “make disciples” the disciples understood it to mean more than simply getting someone to believe in Jesus and they interpreted it to mean that they should make out of others what Jesus made out of them. Robert Coleman explains the Great Commission in the following way:

“The Great Commission is not merely to go the to the ends of the earth preaching the gospel (Mark 16:15), nor to baptize a lot of converts into the name of the triune God, nor to teach them the precepts of Christ, but to ‘make disciples’—to build people like themselves who were so constrained by the commission of Christ that they not only follow, but also led others to follow his way.”

Superficial Discipleship

The Great Commission compels Christians to focus on keeping people through discipleship as much as they focus on reaching people through evangelism. With the rise of the modern evangelical movement in North America in the 20th century came an over-emphasis on evangelism at the expense of discipleship. At the First International Consultation on Discipleship, John R.W. Stott called attention to the “strange and disturbing paradox” of the contemporary Christian situation. He warned, “We have experienced enormous statistical growth without corresponding growth in discipleship. God is not pleased with superficial discipleship.”

Bill Hull also addresses this issue by saying, “The church has tried to get world evangelization without disciple-making.” The church must once again make discipleship a priority for a new generation of believers. The consequences are evident. Statistics show that the average church in North America loses 74 percent of people between the ages 18‐24. According to one of the most recent statistical surveys of the top 25 churches, many of the denominations in North America are in decline rather than growing.

Not only are churches in North America not growing through evangelism, they are not keeping believers through discipleship. One example is The Southern Baptist Convention. In 2004, they reported more than sixteen million members. Only 6,024,289 or 37 percent of their membership are present for the average Sunday morning worship service. Where are the other ten million people? Lack of discipleship and not just evangelism is one of the growing contributing factors for church decline in North America.

The church needs to bring evangelism and discipleship together. Christians have viewed discipleship as something they do on one hand and evangelism on the other, which is a false dichotomy. The church needs to rediscover the integration of evangelism and discipleship in order to fulfill the Great Commission and make 21st century disciples of Christ.

Read Winfield Bevins’ free e-book Grow: Reproducing Through Organic Discipleship.

Resurgence RSS Feed

Subscribe to the Resurgence syndicated feed and have all our content delivered straight to your feed reader. Find out more.

From the free e-book Grow: Reproducing Through Organic Discipleship.

Grow Disciples Naturally

Many churches have a linear discipleship program where they try to funnel everyone through the same process. Sadly, many times churches simply use the latest program or book in hopes that what works for a large church across the country in a different context will work for them. I have learned that discipleship is usually the opposite. What works in California or New York might not work in Tennessee. You need to find out what works in your culture and context. Being organic means that you begin with the gospel and let the people grow naturally, right where they are. This is growing disciples naturally.

Why Organic?

You may be asking yourself the question, “Why organic?” The answer is in the Bible. The Old and New Testaments are based on an organic worldview. The Bible uses various organic metaphors to describe spiritual growth such as sowing and reaping (John 4:37; 2 Cor. 9:6) planting and watering (1 Cor. 3:6), growing (1 Pt. 2:2; 2 Pt. 3:18) and bearing fruit (Mt. 7:17‐20; John 15:1‐16; Gal. 5:22). The church is spoken of as a family (for example the use of terms such as brother, sister, mother, father, bride, etc.). The church is also the body of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12:12‐27 Paul talks about the whole body as a distinct metaphor for Christ’s church. In Paul’s body metaphor, every part has an important role to play in the whole.

The Body of Christ

Nowhere in the New Testament do we find the word church referring to a building. In its earliest expression, the church meant a group of individuals who had come together in the name of Jesus Christ. The Greek word for church is ecclesia, which literally means “the called out ones.” Interestingly enough, the English dictionary describes church as, “A place of public worship.” Over the ages, the concept of church has shifted from being a body to becoming a building. People have gotten it backwards. Followers of Jesus must get back to an organic understanding of what it means to be the church.

The church is the spiritual and living Body of Christ. Like all healthy organisms, it requires numerous systems and structures that work together to fulfill its intended purpose and overall health. Just as the physical body has to have an organic structure to hold it together while allowing it to grow and develop, likewise the body of Christ must have an organic structure that can do the same. As a new church continues to grow and change, it will outgrow its old systems and structures. Leonard Sweet says, “We must develop ministries that continually adjust and change with our continually changing culture.” In a similar way, a church’s discipleship strategy must be structured enough to maintain order, but organic enough to change with the ongoing needs of the church as it grows or it will hinder its growth. Therefore, the church’s discipleship strategy must be organic.

Organic Discipleship

Organic Discipleship is an organic understanding of spiritual formation that begins and ends with the gospel. Organic means growing or developing in a manner of living organisms. An organic understanding of the discipleship will require church leaders to rethink current church systems and structures in Biblical terms. Alan Hirsch argues that an organic image of the church and mission is theologically richer than any mechanistic and institutional conceptions of church that we can devise. Organic discipleship is not a program or curriculum; rather it is about learning the natural rhythms of discipleship within your church context.

Read Winfield Bevins’ free e-book Grow: Reproducing Through Organic Discipleship.

Advance 09 Media

Video, audio, and images from the Advance 09 conference in Raleigh-Durham, NC, June 2009. Find out more.

Jesus sends his disciples ahead of him

Jesus is comfortable leading passively from a distance at times, and lets his disciples go out before him on their own. We don't have a clear description of what they are doing when they go out before him, but you can infer that they are living the life that Jesus is teaching them about outside of the structure of Jesus physically being present with them.

When they are on the boat after the miraculous feast of 5,000, they were most certainly processing what just occurred. Jesus wasn't there to tell them explicitly, but he gave them a framework to understand the sovereignty of the Father over something as simple as the conservation of mass—yeah there were two pounds of bread, but God can make it into two tons and feed an army.

We can see Jesus' intentionality in giving his disciples time to synthesize what they are learning. The lessons are becoming more than head knowledge, and becoming part of who they are.

Jesus prays for his disciples

Jesus cares deeply about his disciples. He speaks of them as his sheep and of himself as the shepherd who will gladly die for their safety, cries when his friend dies, and spends his last minutes praying for them in his high priestly prayer.

Jesus doesn't just trust that they will be okay, but pleads with the Father that he would continue the work that has begun.

This is a series of reflections on how Jesus made disciples, based on the book of John.

Advance 09 Media

Video, audio, and images from the Advance 09 conference in Raleigh-Durham, NC, June 2009. Find out more.

Prayer series: Click | View Series
The Mars Hill sermon series that inspired this post

"While we ordinarily first bring our own needs to God in prayer, and then think of what belongs to God and his interests, the Master reverses the order. First Thy name, Thy kingdom, Thy will; then give us, forgive us, lead us, deliver us… In true worship the Father must be first, must be all."
—Andrew Murray

Pray Like Jesus

When the apostles said to Jesus, "Lord teach us how to pray," it was because they knew he was a man of profound devotion and prayer. The gospels tell us that Jesus prayed at every major event in his life: his baptism (Luke 3:21); the choice of apostles (6:12-12); his transfiguration (9:29); before the cross at Gethsemane (22:39-40); and on the cross (23:46). The Bible tells us that he continues in prayer for us. Hebrews 7:25 says, "He always lives to make intercession for them." He sets the example for us to follow:

• "And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone" (Matthew 14:23).
• "And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place" (Luke 4:42).
• "But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray" (Luke 5:16).
• "In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God" (Luke 6:12).
• "He took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray" (Luke 9:28).
• "He departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed" (Mark 1:35).
• "He went up on the mountain to pray" (Mark 6:46).

Shape Your Prayer Life to The Lord's Prayer

The secret to Jesus' powerful prayer life is found in the most important prayer of the Bible, commonly known as The Lord's Prayer. It is one of the most popular passages of Scripture read at funerals, weddings, and church services throughout the Christian world. But few people really grasp the meaning of this little prayer. It is Jesus' definitive teaching on prayer. It is an outline by which we can shape our own personal prayer life and begin to learn how to pray according to his will.

To be continued.

Resurgence On Facebook

Become a fan of the Resurgence on Facebook, get connected with other fans, and stay current on all the latest updates. Find out more.

Click through to the Resurgence if you can’t see the video.

Missional cultural engagement is a challenge. How far does one go to engage culture? According to missiologist Ed Stetzer, that is the nature of contextualization. In his recent post Ancestor Worship and Taiwanese Christians, Stetzer gives some helpful guidelines on contextualization as well as this short video of a Taiwanese believer explaining the difficulty of contextualization in his culture of ancestor worship.

Rain City Hymnal

The first offering from Re:Sound is the Rain City Hymnal. Listen online and get the record from the Re:Sound website. Find out more.



Not to be dramatic, but a little dramatic. This is the overwhelming feeling I have when I’ve been working all day, had a few hours to connect with my family in the evening, and am now sitting at my desk reading a 480-page pdf document (book) on the church, or slugging away at a 25-page paper till the wee hours. Amazing stuff, but the feeling is a bit overwhelming as the proverbial Re:Train is barreling down the tracks, and I’m stuck in the middle, staring at the oncoming lights and deafened by the blaring horn. How do I escape the wrath?



Re:Train has been a significant investment of time and energy, but it’s an investment that has been extremely beneficial and filled with the grace of God. This weekend was another testament to that as Dr. Gregg Allison lectured and answered questions for two days regarding ecclesiology and the missional church.  

An ecclesiological man among boys

His wisdom, humility and love for the church was inspiring. He is a seasoned pastor, well-studied theologian, faithful husband, father and grandfather, elder in an Acts 29 church, and his daughter and son-in-law attend Mars Hill Bellevue. After a few moments with the Allisons, my wife said, “Wow, that’s the type of couple everyone wants in their church. Godly, stable, wise, humble, and encouraging.” As Pastor Tim Smith put it on Twitter, “Gregg Allision is an ecclesiological man among boys.”  Here are a few takeaways that have left me pondering further.



These are a few reflections from Re:Train with Dr. Allison. The full impact of his teaching and friendship will have a long and sustained impact on the church planting taking place through Mars Hill and Acts 29.


1. Ask good questions before you leave your church.


Dr. Allison loves the local church, and he did a good job of distinguishing between true and false churches as well as less pure and more pure churches among those that are true. He had some good words and questions to ask yourself before moving from one true church to another:

1. Have I expended all of my opportunities to effect change in this church?
2. Will continued participation in this church exert a negative impact on my relationship with and worship of God, my ministry for Jesus Christ, the use of my spiritual gifts, etc.?
3. Do I have to compromise too much—essential doctrines and practices, a lifestyle in accordance with biblical values and principles—in order to remain in this church?
4. Do I have a legitimate reason for leaving?  In a culture where church-hopping and shopping is the norm, I felt these were timely words for Christians to ask themselves before leaving their church so that we don’t flippantly move on from a place God may want us to persevere in.

2. Have something in your life you can finish.


Pastors and those in ministry need to have some outlet in their life that allows them to finish something.  Ministry is never finished, and the pile of work continually grows. Paul told Titus to “put what remained into order” (Titus 1:5).  Based on my experience, I don’t think Titus ever finished getting everything in order.  As he appointed elders, it meant more training and leadership; as new people met Jesus, it meant more teaching and discipleship; as the church grew, it meant new systems and structures.  The church is alive and therefore never finished.

This is why Dr. Allison recommended having something you can finish.  It might be writing a book, refinishing your basement, or some other outlet for bringing something to full completion so that you can enjoy the work and rest upon its completion.  He wasn’t legalistic about it, and didn’t attempt to prooftext any verses to support this position--it was just a piece of pastoral advice from a seasoned pastor.


3. Fight for unity.


The church begins at a place of unity.  In Ephesians 4:3, Paul says, “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”  Wow, the church is unified because of the Spirit’s work, yet our sins of pride, envy, gossip, jealousy, dissention, and the like are actively working to destroy the unity of the Church.

Dr. Allison pointed out from Ephesians 4:2 that unity is maintained and achieved through the attitudes of gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another in love.  He challenged all of us to dig deep into the places where we and our churches are not unified and accurately diagnose the root issue, which is nearly always sin of some sort.  One of his closing lines on this topic was profound: “The will to maintain unity can overcome significant differences.”



For more from Dr. Allison, read his posts on Missional Ecclesiology on the Resurgence.



You can follow Pastor Jamie on Twitter at twitter.com/jamiemunson.

Total Church

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis present a vision for churches centered on gospel community. Find out more.