REDISCOVERING THE RELEVANT CHURCH

I am re-reading a book that, in my opinion, needs to be read by every church member, especially every pastor and church staff member.  The name of the book is Disciples are Made?Not Born by Walter Henrichsen.  Brother Henrichsen was a long time leader of the Navigators a ministry begun in Southern California in the late forties by a man named Dawson Trotman.  The growth of this ministry is legendary, but most people in Christian circles will recognize NavPress the present day publishing arm of the Navigators.

In any event, the forward to this book is written by none other than Howard Hendricks, well known Professor of Christian Education at Dallas Theological Seminary.  In the forward to Henrichsen's book, Hendricks makes the following statement:

"Make disciples" is the mandate of the Master (Matt. 28:19-20).  We may ignore it, but we cannot evade it.

Our risen Christ left this legacy?the magna charta of the church.  He provided both the model and the method.  His life and death?recast the lives of men.  He demonstrated that you have not done anything until you have changed the lives of men.

"Follow Me," He urged His men.  And then that staggering assurance: "Lo, I am with you always."  Somehow we have forgotten that this promise is not a carte blanche; His promise is linked with a process.

Much of the feverish and frustrating activity of the contemporary church is devoid of relevance and fulfillment.  Entertainment, not education, is our program.  Laymen are disenchanted.   They are looking for an involvement with eternal bite.  C.S. Lewis said it: "All that is not eternal is eternally out of date."

Disciples are Made?Not Born is not a collection of dry, doctrinal dust, but eminently practical and provocative cud to chew on.  The writer constantly hits the nail on the head.

At first reading, this sounds like the description of other popular books written to our generation such as Simple Church, and  The Purpose Driven Church and others like these.  On the contrary, this book was copyrighted in 1974.  Some of the present day popular authors were not even born when these words were penned.  If you want to know the roots of why the present church declares itself to be in a spiritual and numerical decline, I believe this book and a few others like it are insightful.  Similarly, I believe this book helps us rediscover the biblical mandate of the church which seems to be lost amid the present day flurry of constant church activity, worship wars and increasing conflicts about how to do church rather than the more important issue of why we do church.  Rediscovery of the church's purpose and the renewal of God's people to the pursuit of that purpose is, in my humble opinion, the vital necessity of our day.  The reading of this book could hold a key to this rediscovery.

I have two challenges and thoughts to share in light of this:

1.        I encourage all of you who see the need to rediscover the purpose of the church to find and read this book.  You may have to hunt for it.  Let me suggest that you not try your local Christian Bookstore, instead, try Amazon.com or perhaps Christian Book Distributors.

2.       Let me encourage you, upon reading it, to share with me your thoughts on why the church exists.  I want your response to this question: "Since Jesus declared that our purpose was and is to ?make disciples' are we really justifying our existence as the Church if we are not 1) certain as to what a disciple is and 2) intentionally seeking to accomplish that goal in believer's lives?"

If Hendricks is right and we have done nothing until we have changed the lives of men, I wonder how much the church is really doing today.  What is our priority?  Is our priority changing lives or preserving the church from any change at all?  Is our priority being used of God to promote conversion and discipleship or conformity to a denomination?  Is it entertainment or education, doing church things or discipling the flock, mere growth in number or more growth in spiritual maturity that ought to be our priority?  I suggest that it's time for us to shelve the discussions on preferences in styles of music and get back to discussing THE priority of how best to serve our Master.

Does your congregation spend as much time, energy and resources on evangelism AND discipleship as it is does in electronic equipment for worship or entertainment for Senior Citizens or activities for Youth?  What is the present-day priority of the church?

Now, let me set the record straight.  I am strongly supportive of getting all the electronic equipment we need for true excellence in worship.  I don't decry one dime spent on true ministry to Sr. Citizens, and I am very supportive of an active Youth ministry.  But if we have all those things in abundance and yet miss attaining the purpose we as the Church have been called to accomplish, we are pursuing the wrong priorities and negating our justification for existence.  Let's do our worship with excellence, let's provide ministries to our Seniors and activities for our Youth, but let's plan it all with this question in mind, "How does this worship, this ministry, or this activity help us to accomplish our purpose of making biblical disciples?"  If any project does not contribute to the biblical purpose of the church, we need to modify the elements of that project until it does.  If the project is only marginal in its contribution to the accomplishment of that goal, we need to find ways to make it more effective.  If we cannot modify it sufficiently so that it clearly contributes to the accomplishment of the biblical purpose of the church, then we need to abandon that project and replace it with something that does.

It's time to rediscover and recommit to the Church's biblical reason for existence.  This rediscovery of our existence is the path to an involvement with an eternal bite most true believers are looking for today.  When believers find this, they are well on the road to rediscovering the relevance of the church.