Working the Process
“But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
John 5:17 (ESV)
Ok. First, some context. I have a wooden storage shed in my backyard (actually, two, but that is not relevant to this story). A couple of months ago, I went out to get something and when I picked up a plastic storage container, I realized that termites had invaded and eaten through about half of the floor of the shed. As such, I had to decide the future of the shed; repair, renovate, destroy, or buy a new one. Once word got out about our dilemma, which seems to happen in the church world, a group of men from our church construction team agreed to come over and rebuild the foundation and re-lay a new floor for us. A few weeks later, I received a call that two of them would be coming by one evening to drop off some lumber for the project. A little while later, they pulled up with a truck and trailer. After the obligatory greetings and small talk, one of the men backed the trailer up to the shed to unload. The other man and I started walking toward him when I happened to look down and saw something in the grass. What I at first took for a fallen tree branch (we essentially live in a forest), was something very different. In a second’s time, and by the grace of God, I processed the scene and realized that we were about to step on a 3 ½ foot copperhead snake. I held my hand out over the chest of my friend, as you would do for a passenger in a car if you were suddenly breaking. We both stopped, gasped, and slowly backed up (or was it fast? I can’t remember). We then signaled to our companion at the shed what had happened and why we were not joining him.
Let me say this as clearly as I can. I love animals. Well, most animals. Spiders, scorpions, mosquitoes, and ticks might be exceptions. But living in the American south, you just learn to live with all of these. Even snakes. My basic philosophy before I moved here was that the only good snake is a dead snake! But now that I have been here almost a decade, I realize that there are “good snakes” and “bad snakes”. The good snakes can still bite, but aren’t venomous, and take care of rodents and many times will dispatch the venomous snakes. The snake in question falls into the “bad snake” category. It is venomous, dangerous to humans and other animals, and just downright scary! As such, a quick decision was made to send the snake on to wherever snakes go once a human separates its head from its body. Plus, once my wife was alerted to the situation, it was clear that if we were going to stay in our home that evening that there was to be a permanent resolution to this situation!
So, the three of us began to formulate a plan to dispose of our scaly friend. Several options were discussed and employed including firearms, shovels, rakes, and concrete blocks (It was all very gruesome). In the end, after about an hour of planning and working the plan, we found success and I was able to sleep in my house that evening.
So, what does this have to do with disciple-making? Well, a lot, I think.
Many of us know that disciple-making is the core command that Jesus left to His church, but few churches embrace it as the central call for their ministry. In essence, it is the snake in the grass! Ministry leaders work hard at keeping the foundation of their organizations strong by implementing outreach strategies, solid programming, financial “on-ramps” for people to support the work, and mission’s opportunities. In the proper context, all of these are good things, but fall into what Will Mancini calls “the lower room”, or the spaces where people emotionally connect with the church. The problem is that many times these are detached from the “upper room”, which is “God’s unique disciple-making vision for the church”.1 In other words, on our way to the lower room we keep running into Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:14-16, Luke 24:44-49, John 20:21, and Acts 1:8, and honestly don’t know what to do about it since such a vision isn’t driving what happens on the “lower floor”. As such, we may need to respond in several different ways.
First, we might respond with fear. Snakes are dangerous! But so might be disciple-making! To embrace a vision for a disciple-making culture in your ministry context might change everything. It might result in confusion, conflict, and criticism. Fear was our first inclination when we ran into the snake. As such, one of our first strategies was to simply ignore it. The thought was, “If we ignore it, maybe it will just go away, and we can get on with our initial plan”. The problem was that it never moved. It was still there, and after the reminder (ultimatum) by my wife, not unlike those inconvenient verses mentioned above, we knew we had to do something about it. But what?
Second, we may need to recalibrate our thinking. If we can’t simply dismiss disciple-making, then what do we do? We need to think differently about it, especially as it relates to the gospel that we preach. In Conversion and Discipleship: You Can’t Have One Without the Other, Bill Hull quotes philosopher Dallas Willard. Willard states,
“For Evangelical Christians, turning around the ship of their social reality, and restoring the understanding of salvation that characterized evangelicalism from its beginnings in Luther and periodically after him, will be very difficult if not impossible. It would primarily be a work of scriptural interpretation and theological reformulation, but modification of time- hardened practices will also be required. Radical changes in what we do in the way of ‘church’ will have to be made.”2
In other words, we must reinvestigate the biblical gospel and how it relates to Jesus’ call to disciple-making. In doing so, we begin to ask the question, “What are we inviting people to?”. Are we inviting people to make a “decision” about Jesus or into a life of following Jesus?3
Third, once we begin the “work of scriptural interpretation and theological reformulation” regarding the gospel and disciple-making, we will need to develop a process to lead people toward the goal of Jesus’ command. We went through several different iterations of a plan to engage and ultimately dispatch the snake before we settled on a course of action. If you are serious about creating a disciple-making culture in your setting, you will walk through many versions of a strategy both before and after you implement it. In fact, if you are not constantly asking hard questions along your journey that causes you to pause and recalculate, you probably aren’t putting much effort into it.
Fourth, we must work the process with patience. Disciple-making and creating a disciple-making culture is a process over a long period of time. Therefore, patience is a key virtue in reaching your goal. After our first attempt at resolving our snake problem, the snake did move. In fact, it moved underneath a large shrub, making it impossible to engage it in the open. This totally messed up our strategy. As such, we revisited point #1, ignore it and maybe it would be gone in the morning. I then looked up and saw my wife looking out the glass door and knew immediately that we must proceed. But how? We had to tweak our strategy to make it more effective when our context changed. Though some of the original strategy was retained, new, creative elements were introduced to accomplish our task.
Fifth, we need to learn to celebrate the results and keep moving forward. Following the implementation and success of our plan, I have a great picture of the three of us doing a victory dance in the trailer. Over the course of the coming week, we shared our journey and victory with countless others (and each time the snake grew in length and ferocity!). But the shed still needed fixing, and the men came as planned and did a great job of restoring the floor. Similarly, we don’t simply replace the “lower room” with “upper room” philosophy, but allow the purpose of the church, making disciples, to drive what the lower room looks like. In fact, once we address Jesus’ vision for the church, it frees us to engage the ministry of the church in new and exciting ways.
So, be “strong and courageous” (Joshua 1:9), engage the call to make disciples, and work the process!
1 Will Mancini, Future Church: Seven Laws of Real Church Growth (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2021), 22-29.
2 Dallas Willard, Spiritual Formation as a Natural Part of Salvation, talk given at Wheaton College in 2008 quoted in Bill Hull, Conversion and Discipleship (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016), 22, emphasis added.
3 This is a key component of The Bonhoeffer Project which is covered over four cohort sessions. For more information on how to join a cohort, go to www.thebonhoefferproject.com.
