Church Planter Update – October 19, 2005

More Time with Fewer People

Our denomination, both internationally and domestically, is currently grappling with ecclesiology and methodology of being and doing church. Lots of questions are being asked about structures, methodological models, and definitions of words. The answers to those questions have been addressed by the “Ecclesiological Guidelines.” This document provides “riverbanks” for the methodological and structural question of “what is a church?” Our energies can be given to the task of fulfilling the commission given to us by Jesus. The commission from Matthew 28 says to “Go . . . and make disciples of all the nations,” but often our strategies still seem to focus on doing attractional events rather than living and being missional every day of our lives.

In my own life, I have recently been asking myself how I can make disciples in such a way that the new leaders that are emerging from the harvest are passionate followers of Jesus, living lives that are missional 24/7. I recently asked my oldest son (17) and my oldest daughter (15) what were the spiritual mileposts of their journey with Christ. Both of them cited the times when people in our church had mentored them one on one. They reflected that the time spent with them by someone who was modeling a life of being a follower of Christ was one of the events that made the most impact in their spiritual development. Upon reflection, that is true in my own experience as well.

Consequently, I want to share where I am in my journey of answering the above question.

All of my adult ministry life, I have been focused on “church growth” with the strategy being that if we connect with large numbers of people in church or in a seminary class that we will make more disciples. In my experience, that hasn’t been the case. Many of our churches are full of people who have been passive listeners of sermons for years and are still not missional leaders in their everyday lives. I am discovering that we make a greater impact in the kingdom of God by spending more time with fewer people. This principle was lived and modeled by Jesus, and the disciples who made the greatest impact in the kingdom later in their lives were the ones with whom He spent the most time. Even though Jesus didn’t mentor Paul, Paul was invested in and he himself invested in others.
I fully believe that most of the commands of Jesus are more fully obeyed when we are the church “scattered” in our everyday lives. For example, Jesus taught in order to love our neighbors, we have to leave church and encounter them in everyday lives, meeting their needs if necessary. That being the case, the purpose of our gatherings together as the body of Christ is to get us edified, encouraged, and equipped to go back into the community. That is why I think Jesus sent out His 70 disciples two by two in Luke 10, with instructions to be relational. Again, we make a greater impact in the kingdom of God by spending more time with fewer people.
The action plan for this is twofold. First, we must pray that God would change us so that we can see His principles and be aware of our assignments. In other words, who has God assigned to you to invest your life in? Then we invest in them first by praying for them all the time. Second, we prioritize our lives so that everything that we think is more important than investing in a few is moved down the list of our priorities.

We have a commission as our assignment. Jesus modeled it for us. In our lives, we make a greater impact in the kingdom of God by spending more time with fewer people.

~ Alan Karr, Nehemiah Center Professor, Goldengate Seminary (Denver, Colo.)