I am teaching the book of Ephesians in one of the adult Bible fellowships in my home church this spring. This week we studied Paul’s second prayer for the Ephesian believers at the end of chapter 3. The prayer ends with a benediction in verses 20-21, both for the first half of the book and for the prayer. “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
I see four key ideas in this benediction. First, it is imperative that we see God as powerful. Theologically we know this to be true. But practically we often see God as impotent. We doubt that He is really in control of or involved in the mess we see in the world we live in and the mess our lives sometimes are.
Second, we need to pray big, audacious prayers. We need to tap into all our creativity and innovation, and ask God to do some wildly significant things. We need to claim the promises of Scripture, and ask Him for outrageous things.
Third, we need to not only see God as powerful, but see His power at work in us, His body, His Church. We are not all, but certainly part, of how God will answer our prayers. He will share His power freely with us as we prove faithful to use it to further His mission in the world, and not our own.
And finally, our prayers need to focus on the glory of God. Not some self-focused desire or personal agenda. We need to become consumed with what will advance God’s reputation and God’s mission in the world. Not what will add to my or someone else’s personal peace and affluence.
So what should you and I pray?
A great place to start is with the hundreds of unconditional promises found in Scripture. But guided by the framework that God laid out for Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3. “Blessed to be a blessing.” Not asking God to bless us as an end in itself (prosperity gospel). But asking God to allow us to join with Him in His mission and use us as vehicles for blessing the nations.
A second suggestion is to begin to take advantage of some great daily prayer tools to pray for those at the very center of God’s mission in the world today – those with little or no access to the gospel, the world’s least reached peoples. Check out Joshua Project’s unreached people of the day (www.unreachedoftheday.org) or the USCWM’s global prayer digest (www.globalprayerdigest.org).
Let’s start to pray some big, hairy, audacious prayers and see what God does in response.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
from February 6, 2011 prayer update
I am handling the resource table (selling books, DVDs, etc.) at one of Austin’s two Perspectives on the World Christian Movement classes this spring. This class, hosted by my home church, has more than 120 students participating, with a healthy mix of older and younger students. We have already completed 3 of the 15 sessions.
I love this class. It looks at missions through four lens: Biblical, historical, cultural, and strategic. It brings in a different expert from across the U.S. to serve as the speaker each week. And there are excellent reading assignments between each class with articles written by global experts. I have the privilege of teaching the lesson “the task remaining” in Kansas City and Columbia, MO this spring. And teaching the lesson “world Christian partnership” in Fort Worth, Tyler, and Costa Rica this spring.
The class is fantastic at casting vision for unreached (least reached) peoples around the world. According to Joshua Project there are 16,594 distinct people groups living today on this planet. 9723 of these are reached (more than 2% evangelical Christian), 6871 are unreached (less than 2%). Of the 6871 unreached peoples, approximately half have Christian outreach efforts that have begun among their people. Sadly half (approximately 3400 people groups) are totally unengaged. And 632 of these unengaged unreached peoples involve populations of at least 50,000 people. These 632 largest unengaged unreached people groups represent the highest priority of missions sending organizations like Pioneers.
These unreached peoples stand in strong contrast to the U.S. where, according to the 2010 edition of Operation World, 77.6% of the population are professing Christians and 28.9% are evangelical Christians. This is not to say there is no longer a need for evangelism in the U.S., but not nearly on the scale of many other places around the globe. The issue is access to the gospel. Many people groups still do not have any access whatsoever.
The Perspectives class has been rightly critiqued as being too conceptual, without enough hands on experience and practical ways for participants to engage in what they have been challenged with. Virtually everyone leaves the class with a new view of their Bibles and the world. They are highly motivated to get involved in some way with missions. Local churches that have folks attending Perspectives this spring would be wise to plan ahead. Make certain you have tracks that goers, senders, welcomers, and mobilizers coming out of the class can travel down long-term. Be an excellent steward of this God provided opportunity. Take the initiative to meet one-on-one with each class participant before June and help them identify specific and appropriate next steps. Then walk with them as they embrace (perhaps for the first time) God’s global mission.
I love this class. It looks at missions through four lens: Biblical, historical, cultural, and strategic. It brings in a different expert from across the U.S. to serve as the speaker each week. And there are excellent reading assignments between each class with articles written by global experts. I have the privilege of teaching the lesson “the task remaining” in Kansas City and Columbia, MO this spring. And teaching the lesson “world Christian partnership” in Fort Worth, Tyler, and Costa Rica this spring.
The class is fantastic at casting vision for unreached (least reached) peoples around the world. According to Joshua Project there are 16,594 distinct people groups living today on this planet. 9723 of these are reached (more than 2% evangelical Christian), 6871 are unreached (less than 2%). Of the 6871 unreached peoples, approximately half have Christian outreach efforts that have begun among their people. Sadly half (approximately 3400 people groups) are totally unengaged. And 632 of these unengaged unreached peoples involve populations of at least 50,000 people. These 632 largest unengaged unreached people groups represent the highest priority of missions sending organizations like Pioneers.
These unreached peoples stand in strong contrast to the U.S. where, according to the 2010 edition of Operation World, 77.6% of the population are professing Christians and 28.9% are evangelical Christians. This is not to say there is no longer a need for evangelism in the U.S., but not nearly on the scale of many other places around the globe. The issue is access to the gospel. Many people groups still do not have any access whatsoever.
The Perspectives class has been rightly critiqued as being too conceptual, without enough hands on experience and practical ways for participants to engage in what they have been challenged with. Virtually everyone leaves the class with a new view of their Bibles and the world. They are highly motivated to get involved in some way with missions. Local churches that have folks attending Perspectives this spring would be wise to plan ahead. Make certain you have tracks that goers, senders, welcomers, and mobilizers coming out of the class can travel down long-term. Be an excellent steward of this God provided opportunity. Take the initiative to meet one-on-one with each class participant before June and help them identify specific and appropriate next steps. Then walk with them as they embrace (perhaps for the first time) God’s global mission.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
from January 16, 2011 prayer update
A week back, I began teaching a 16 part series on the book of Ephesians in one of the adult Bible fellowships in my home church. The series is titled “BE the Church”.
We all know that the local church is NOT a building. Nor is it an event (like Sunday morning corporate worship). Although frequently our vocabulary (and perhaps our practice) is not always consistent with what we know to be true.
We (the believers) are the Church, both in its local expression and in its universal expression. We are the Church 24x7, not just for a few hours on Sunday mornings at a particular location. As a matter of fact, the Church should be at its best when it not gathered together at a specific location, but when it is dispersed in a community, seriously engaging in its calling.
The church building is NOT the “house of the Lord”. We are where God has chosen to take up His residence. “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” I Corinthians 3:16. God indwells and empowers His people, not bricks and mortar.
Rick Warren, in his book The Purpose Driven Church, describes five core functions of the Church: worship, community, discipleship, service, and outreach. Interestingly these are the same five core functions that he describes for the individual believer in his best seller, The Purpose Driven Life. Why? Because we are the Church.
Although there are five core functions, there is only one core mission for the Church – outreach (with both local and global components to it). God has called the Church (you and me) to seek and save the lost, in our natural spheres of influence and among the least reached globally.
I have seen a T-Shirt that reads “the church has left the building” – I love it! There is an apostolic (literally “sent ones”) role that did not cease 19 centuries ago. God has called every believer to GO. To embrace and be sent out to meaningfully join with Him in His mission.
Ephesians, like Paul’s other epistles, has two major sections. The first (chapters 1-3) I have titled “the high calling of Christ’s Church”. The second (chapters 4-6), “daily behavior and important relationships in Christ’s Church.”
Paul begins with the conceptual (doctrine / theology about the Church). We need to understand conceptually who we are and why we exist. But he then shifts to the practical, what should our daily lives look like as we live out these truths? Paul talks about things like unity in the Body, the priority of equipping every believer to be a worker, the process of life transformation, the importance of personal holiness, wise and Spirit empowered living, and spiritual warfare. He also discusses what it means to be the Church in our marriages, in our parenting, and in the workplace.
Great stuff! Are you playing church or have you seriously embraced BEing the Church? There is a BIG difference.
We all know that the local church is NOT a building. Nor is it an event (like Sunday morning corporate worship). Although frequently our vocabulary (and perhaps our practice) is not always consistent with what we know to be true.
We (the believers) are the Church, both in its local expression and in its universal expression. We are the Church 24x7, not just for a few hours on Sunday mornings at a particular location. As a matter of fact, the Church should be at its best when it not gathered together at a specific location, but when it is dispersed in a community, seriously engaging in its calling.
The church building is NOT the “house of the Lord”. We are where God has chosen to take up His residence. “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” I Corinthians 3:16. God indwells and empowers His people, not bricks and mortar.
Rick Warren, in his book The Purpose Driven Church, describes five core functions of the Church: worship, community, discipleship, service, and outreach. Interestingly these are the same five core functions that he describes for the individual believer in his best seller, The Purpose Driven Life. Why? Because we are the Church.
Although there are five core functions, there is only one core mission for the Church – outreach (with both local and global components to it). God has called the Church (you and me) to seek and save the lost, in our natural spheres of influence and among the least reached globally.
I have seen a T-Shirt that reads “the church has left the building” – I love it! There is an apostolic (literally “sent ones”) role that did not cease 19 centuries ago. God has called every believer to GO. To embrace and be sent out to meaningfully join with Him in His mission.
Ephesians, like Paul’s other epistles, has two major sections. The first (chapters 1-3) I have titled “the high calling of Christ’s Church”. The second (chapters 4-6), “daily behavior and important relationships in Christ’s Church.”
Paul begins with the conceptual (doctrine / theology about the Church). We need to understand conceptually who we are and why we exist. But he then shifts to the practical, what should our daily lives look like as we live out these truths? Paul talks about things like unity in the Body, the priority of equipping every believer to be a worker, the process of life transformation, the importance of personal holiness, wise and Spirit empowered living, and spiritual warfare. He also discusses what it means to be the Church in our marriages, in our parenting, and in the workplace.
Great stuff! Are you playing church or have you seriously embraced BEing the Church? There is a BIG difference.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
from January 2, 2011 prayer update
A new year is a great opportunity for new beginnings and for personal / organizational goal setting. There are so many good things to choose from for personal goal setting: spiritual life, character, work, personal ministry, marriage, parenting, health, finances, friendships, education, new skills, and the list goes on.
The things we set our heart on and direct our attention toward reveal a great deal about our values. What personal goals have you set for yourself in 2011? And what do they reveal about what you truly value?
Psalm 90:12 says: “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 103:15-16 reads: “As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.”
I temporarily lost my dad to death 32 years ago and temporarily lost my mom 2 years ago. I am now the oldest surviving member of the McDaniel clan. If I live to be 80 (which is older than either of my parents lived) I have about 8700 days left. If I only make it to 70, that becomes about 5000 days. That is not a long time.
The apostle Paul did not fear death, He welcomed it. In Philippians 1:21 he said: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” As I have gotten older, I too have begun to look forward to living in a sin-free environment in the very presence of God. This world does not hold the same allure it once did for me. But I also recognize that God created me for a reason, as He has every human that ever lived. I don’t want to depart this life without have accomplished what God uniquely created me to do.
Life is not about me asking God to bless me and mine, and to enable me and my organization to accomplish our personal goals. Life is about God and what He is doing in the world (today and throughout all of history). What a joy and a privilege to know that He has designed me to join with Him in His vast, timeless, and very significant mission.
As I embrace this view of life, my thoughts about personal goal setting change. I become less concerned about one year, measurable objectives (although certainly there is a place for these). I become very concerned about life direction, who I am becoming, and who I am living for. Because I am a slow and often a resistant learner, these translate into life-long goals. Four of the biggies that I can’t get away from are:
1) To know Christ more and more intimately as time passes -- thru the exchanged life, thru His Word, thru prayer, and through personal obedience to what I know to be true.
2) To become more and more like Christ as time passes. Boy do I have a long ways to go there (selfishness, lust, critical spirit, anger, . . . ).
3) To fully engage in Christ’s mission, which centers around seeking and saving those who are lost. Both in my natural spheres of influence and among the least reached globally.
4) To invest deeply in the lives of other believers who will eventually share these high level life goals. And to see my life impact multiplied as a result.
Would you pray for me as I continue to press toward the goal? And if you will share with me what God has challenged you to pursue, I would count it a privilege to pray for you. May 2011 be a year in which God receives great glory thru our lives.
The things we set our heart on and direct our attention toward reveal a great deal about our values. What personal goals have you set for yourself in 2011? And what do they reveal about what you truly value?
Psalm 90:12 says: “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 103:15-16 reads: “As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.”
I temporarily lost my dad to death 32 years ago and temporarily lost my mom 2 years ago. I am now the oldest surviving member of the McDaniel clan. If I live to be 80 (which is older than either of my parents lived) I have about 8700 days left. If I only make it to 70, that becomes about 5000 days. That is not a long time.
The apostle Paul did not fear death, He welcomed it. In Philippians 1:21 he said: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” As I have gotten older, I too have begun to look forward to living in a sin-free environment in the very presence of God. This world does not hold the same allure it once did for me. But I also recognize that God created me for a reason, as He has every human that ever lived. I don’t want to depart this life without have accomplished what God uniquely created me to do.
Life is not about me asking God to bless me and mine, and to enable me and my organization to accomplish our personal goals. Life is about God and what He is doing in the world (today and throughout all of history). What a joy and a privilege to know that He has designed me to join with Him in His vast, timeless, and very significant mission.
As I embrace this view of life, my thoughts about personal goal setting change. I become less concerned about one year, measurable objectives (although certainly there is a place for these). I become very concerned about life direction, who I am becoming, and who I am living for. Because I am a slow and often a resistant learner, these translate into life-long goals. Four of the biggies that I can’t get away from are:
1) To know Christ more and more intimately as time passes -- thru the exchanged life, thru His Word, thru prayer, and through personal obedience to what I know to be true.
2) To become more and more like Christ as time passes. Boy do I have a long ways to go there (selfishness, lust, critical spirit, anger, . . . ).
3) To fully engage in Christ’s mission, which centers around seeking and saving those who are lost. Both in my natural spheres of influence and among the least reached globally.
4) To invest deeply in the lives of other believers who will eventually share these high level life goals. And to see my life impact multiplied as a result.
Would you pray for me as I continue to press toward the goal? And if you will share with me what God has challenged you to pursue, I would count it a privilege to pray for you. May 2011 be a year in which God receives great glory thru our lives.
Monday, December 20, 2010
from December 20, 2010 prayer update
Merry Christmas from the McDaniel family! May your Christmas this year be focused on the One that left all the benefits of heaven to make God understandable to us and then to die as a substitute in our place.
Twice each year our ACMC staff gathers at Pioneers headquarters in Orlando for several days of interaction. Last week was one of these gatherings. It is always an encouragement and benefit to be with my colleagues from across the U.S.
We had the opportunity to interact with Pioneers’ U.S. president, Steve Richardson. It was helpful hearing his perspective on what is happening around the world among unreached peoples where Pioneers missionaries labor to initiate church planting movements. And we interacted with Steve Shadrach, mobilization director for the U.S. Center for World Missions. Steve is keenly aware of the heartbeat of young adults in this country and how to effectively engage them in the task of world evangelism. We also devoted a session to interacting around David Platt’s excellent new book, Radical (my best read of 2010).
ACMC is about to begin its 36th year of service to local church mission leaders. We are distinct from most missions mobilization organizations in that our focus is on engaging local churches, not individuals. The local church in the U.S. has changed radically since our formation in 1975. The birth of the mega-church. The spread of seeker focused churches. The rapid expansion of charismatic churches. The decline of mainline churches. The birth of the house church movement in this country. And the recent missional church movement. Among many other noteworthy changes. Because of these changes, ACMC has changed as well. And we will continue to change going into the future.
Under the leadership of Pioneers new VP for church resources, Denny Spitters, ACMC will make a priority in 2011 of seeking God regarding our future as an organization. Our sense at the front end of this process is that our mission will remain unchanged -- “ACMC helps churches mobilize their resources for effective involvement in world evangelization”. However, we will be developing a new vision statement. We will re-examine our core values. We will likely sharpen the focus and scope of our mission. And we will consider what methodologies will best serve us in accomplishing our new vision moving forward.
Please pray for our task force which will be grappling with these issues in early 2011. We will be enlisting the involvement of an outside facilitator, Matthew Ellison with 16:15, to assist us in this process. Our hope is to be able to sign off on this work at our next staff gathering in late June. And then begin the important work of realigning what we do in each of our areas of service around what God reveals through this process.
Twice each year our ACMC staff gathers at Pioneers headquarters in Orlando for several days of interaction. Last week was one of these gatherings. It is always an encouragement and benefit to be with my colleagues from across the U.S.
We had the opportunity to interact with Pioneers’ U.S. president, Steve Richardson. It was helpful hearing his perspective on what is happening around the world among unreached peoples where Pioneers missionaries labor to initiate church planting movements. And we interacted with Steve Shadrach, mobilization director for the U.S. Center for World Missions. Steve is keenly aware of the heartbeat of young adults in this country and how to effectively engage them in the task of world evangelism. We also devoted a session to interacting around David Platt’s excellent new book, Radical (my best read of 2010).
ACMC is about to begin its 36th year of service to local church mission leaders. We are distinct from most missions mobilization organizations in that our focus is on engaging local churches, not individuals. The local church in the U.S. has changed radically since our formation in 1975. The birth of the mega-church. The spread of seeker focused churches. The rapid expansion of charismatic churches. The decline of mainline churches. The birth of the house church movement in this country. And the recent missional church movement. Among many other noteworthy changes. Because of these changes, ACMC has changed as well. And we will continue to change going into the future.
Under the leadership of Pioneers new VP for church resources, Denny Spitters, ACMC will make a priority in 2011 of seeking God regarding our future as an organization. Our sense at the front end of this process is that our mission will remain unchanged -- “ACMC helps churches mobilize their resources for effective involvement in world evangelization”. However, we will be developing a new vision statement. We will re-examine our core values. We will likely sharpen the focus and scope of our mission. And we will consider what methodologies will best serve us in accomplishing our new vision moving forward.
Please pray for our task force which will be grappling with these issues in early 2011. We will be enlisting the involvement of an outside facilitator, Matthew Ellison with 16:15, to assist us in this process. Our hope is to be able to sign off on this work at our next staff gathering in late June. And then begin the important work of realigning what we do in each of our areas of service around what God reveals through this process.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
from December 5, 2010 prayer update
The tensions in life are often presented as a choice between A and B. I am convinced that many of these tensions are better viewed as both A and B, rather than either A or B. Demonstration of the gospel vs. proclamation of the gospel is one such tension.
For 150 years in the Western world, there has been a polarization between the theologically liberal (social gospel) vs. the theologically conservative (verbal gospel proclamation) when it comes to the responsibility of the Church with the lost. When I study the models of evangelism presented in the four gospels, the book of Acts, and the epistles, I see both prominently present. People come to faith in Christ in response to the clear verbal proclamation of the gospel (Romans 10:14-15). However, cultivation of the soil and the resulting openness to the gospel message usually comes as the direct result of selfless acts of service that demonstrate the reality of the gospel.
Perhaps a helpful illustration would be an arrow, with demonstration of the gospel representing the shaft of the arrow and proclamation of the gospel representing the arrow’s point. There is no penetration and impact without the force and momentum of the shaft behind the razor tipped arrow point. Both are absolutely essential.
For the past decade a focus on justice for the vulnerable and exploited, and benevolence toward the poor and needy, have increasingly been the calling card of the emerging generation (18-35 crowd) of evangelical Christ followers. May this new generation avoid the social gospel only error of their grandparents and great grandparents. May they recognize that as important as justice and benevolence are, they are of limited kingdom value if pursued in isolation. They must be coupled well with a clear verbal proclamation of the gospel. And may the evangelical boomers and busters that have preceded them embrace the power and increased effectiveness that this new emphasis on justice and benevolence can bring when strategically joined with intentional and culturally relevant evangelism.
May we powerfully demonstrate the reality of the gospel through our tireless service among the lost. And may we also boldly verbally proclaim the life transforming good news of Jesus Christ in our natural spheres of influence (where we live, work, and play) and among the least reached around the globe. What better opportunity to do so than during our culture’s Christmas celebrations.
For 150 years in the Western world, there has been a polarization between the theologically liberal (social gospel) vs. the theologically conservative (verbal gospel proclamation) when it comes to the responsibility of the Church with the lost. When I study the models of evangelism presented in the four gospels, the book of Acts, and the epistles, I see both prominently present. People come to faith in Christ in response to the clear verbal proclamation of the gospel (Romans 10:14-15). However, cultivation of the soil and the resulting openness to the gospel message usually comes as the direct result of selfless acts of service that demonstrate the reality of the gospel.
Perhaps a helpful illustration would be an arrow, with demonstration of the gospel representing the shaft of the arrow and proclamation of the gospel representing the arrow’s point. There is no penetration and impact without the force and momentum of the shaft behind the razor tipped arrow point. Both are absolutely essential.
For the past decade a focus on justice for the vulnerable and exploited, and benevolence toward the poor and needy, have increasingly been the calling card of the emerging generation (18-35 crowd) of evangelical Christ followers. May this new generation avoid the social gospel only error of their grandparents and great grandparents. May they recognize that as important as justice and benevolence are, they are of limited kingdom value if pursued in isolation. They must be coupled well with a clear verbal proclamation of the gospel. And may the evangelical boomers and busters that have preceded them embrace the power and increased effectiveness that this new emphasis on justice and benevolence can bring when strategically joined with intentional and culturally relevant evangelism.
May we powerfully demonstrate the reality of the gospel through our tireless service among the lost. And may we also boldly verbally proclaim the life transforming good news of Jesus Christ in our natural spheres of influence (where we live, work, and play) and among the least reached around the globe. What better opportunity to do so than during our culture’s Christmas celebrations.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
from November 21, 2010 prayer update
“Come and see” (attractional model) and “go and tell” (missional model) methodologies for evangelism represent a growing tension in the evangelical church in the U.S. A study of the New Testament will provide ample evidence for both models in the first century Church. However, the priority of the 5 great commission passages and the book of Acts is clear. It is “go and tell”.
Sadly the majority of churches in the U.S. are inwardly focused and are not meaningfully engaged in either attractional or missional evangelism. And the majority of larger churches are involved almost exclusively in well honed “come and see” evangelism events and programs (the most prominent being Sunday morning worship).
Research indicates that about 35% of the lost in the U.S. are reachable through attractional methodologies. Although that percentage is dropping, and it is weighted heavily toward a suburban demographic. That means that 65% of the lost in the U.S. can be reached only through a “go and tell” methodology.
What are the implications of all this? Let me suggest five among many.
1) There is a huge need to awaken the sleeping giant (inwardly focused churches) to their responsibility to focus both inwardly and outwardly. There are a many excellent books, DVDs, conferences, consultants, networks, and para-churches organizations that could positively impact these churches. Educate and exhort these churches to take advantage of the available resources.
2) The suburban mega-church needs to ask itself some hard questions, if it is vested primarily in a “come and see” approach to evangelism.
• Are they content to see the audience they are targeting continue to shrink year after year?
• Can they, with a clear conscience, continue down this road knowing that they are automatically excluding 65% of the lost in their community by doing so?
• Are they subtly communicating to their congregation that their only personal responsibility with evangelism is to invite friends to Sunday morning worship or to an outreach oriented event?
3) Churches that are inwardly focused and churches that are vested primarily in attractional evangelism need to take several important steps:
• regularly teach and cast vision for what the New Testament says about missional evangelism
• provide practical training for individuals in “go and tell” evangelism (entry level and more advanced)
• primarily hire staff with a “go and tell” heart and gifting, not “come and see” heart and gifting
• regular hold up as positive examples lay members of your congregation who are living missionally
• affirm and release, rather than seeking to control and manage, those with apostolic and evangelism gifting in your congregation
4) The creation and multiplication of missional communities may be the most effective long-term strategy to see a church morph into a missionally focused church. These are highly intentional small groups who are living life and growing in Christ together, as they engage a shared evangelism target, and integrate the fruit of their efforts into their community.
5) Start planting new churches that are missionally focused from day one (especially among underreached demographics of a community).
Sadly the majority of churches in the U.S. are inwardly focused and are not meaningfully engaged in either attractional or missional evangelism. And the majority of larger churches are involved almost exclusively in well honed “come and see” evangelism events and programs (the most prominent being Sunday morning worship).
Research indicates that about 35% of the lost in the U.S. are reachable through attractional methodologies. Although that percentage is dropping, and it is weighted heavily toward a suburban demographic. That means that 65% of the lost in the U.S. can be reached only through a “go and tell” methodology.
What are the implications of all this? Let me suggest five among many.
1) There is a huge need to awaken the sleeping giant (inwardly focused churches) to their responsibility to focus both inwardly and outwardly. There are a many excellent books, DVDs, conferences, consultants, networks, and para-churches organizations that could positively impact these churches. Educate and exhort these churches to take advantage of the available resources.
2) The suburban mega-church needs to ask itself some hard questions, if it is vested primarily in a “come and see” approach to evangelism.
• Are they content to see the audience they are targeting continue to shrink year after year?
• Can they, with a clear conscience, continue down this road knowing that they are automatically excluding 65% of the lost in their community by doing so?
• Are they subtly communicating to their congregation that their only personal responsibility with evangelism is to invite friends to Sunday morning worship or to an outreach oriented event?
3) Churches that are inwardly focused and churches that are vested primarily in attractional evangelism need to take several important steps:
• regularly teach and cast vision for what the New Testament says about missional evangelism
• provide practical training for individuals in “go and tell” evangelism (entry level and more advanced)
• primarily hire staff with a “go and tell” heart and gifting, not “come and see” heart and gifting
• regular hold up as positive examples lay members of your congregation who are living missionally
• affirm and release, rather than seeking to control and manage, those with apostolic and evangelism gifting in your congregation
4) The creation and multiplication of missional communities may be the most effective long-term strategy to see a church morph into a missionally focused church. These are highly intentional small groups who are living life and growing in Christ together, as they engage a shared evangelism target, and integrate the fruit of their efforts into their community.
5) Start planting new churches that are missionally focused from day one (especially among underreached demographics of a community).
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