Not More, But Better

Just when there seems to be a hint of a trail-head leading 'emerging SBC leaders' out of the SBC's denominational morass, we may find our feet plugged in the muck once again.

Jimmy Draper is the leader of Lifeway, the uber-resource for Southern Baptist publications.  He is also the one SBC leader who had enough guts to care about and facilitate talks with young SBC leaders.  In the mix is Lifeway's Younger Leaders Solutions board, which is an almost worthless (though noble-intentioned) place for emerging leaders to offer our 2 cents about the need for the SBC to change.  I've offered an alternative which is growing every day, Emerging SBC Leaders.

For the record, I am very encouraged that Dr. Draper has spent time with young leaders, opened his ears and heart, made an honest attempt, and so on.  I am encouraged by his concern, have nothing against him personally, and I look forward to meeting him at the SBC Annual Meeting in June.

That said, the gap between those emerging and those mired in the ways of yesterday is ever clearer as Dr. Draper has offered a new article on the gospel in Baptist Press.

Draper thinks we need a lesson in economics.

Evangelicals need a basic business lesson. Research shows that evangelicals are not supplying the Gospel in a manner that matches the public’s demand.

What is demanded by Americans?  Draper gives his opinion.

A recent MSNBC/Newsweek online survey asked readers the following question: “Do you believe that Jesus rose from the dead after the crucifixion?” Eighty-one percent of those who answered responded “yes,”....It reflects other research showing that the population at large is searching for meaning in life.  

So, according to Draper, people's belief in the resurrection shows they are searching for meaning in life.  And churches are failing to supply the meaning of life to those who demand it.  Why?

Draper believes it's because evangelism isn't the highest priority for pastors.

Sadly, according to a previously released Barna Group study, fewer than half (46 percent) of the Protestant senior pastors surveyed listed evangelism and outreach as a ministry priority. Spiritual development finished No. 1 at 47 percent. (Sixty percent of Southern Baptist pastors place evangelism as their top priority).

Spiritual development is important, but it is not the primary purpose of the church....We’ve turned churches into comfortable country clubs for members when, in fact, the purpose of the church is to reach those who are not members. Evangelism is the proper expression of mature, or discipled believers.

I don't think Draper adequately shows that a cultural belief in the resurrection means people are seeking the meaning of life.  Honestly, I'm not sure what it shows.  It probably shows that most Americans are liars, or have cultural beliefs but not real beliefs, or are willing to go along with what mommy and daddy told them to believe.  I think he makes a tremendous leap here to make "supply and demand" seem plausible, but I don't see it.

But I do believe it's a biblical notion that God has made us for something bigger than the mirror, and therefore everyone is in some sense looking for meaning in life.  People are inescapably religious.  But sadly people are usually falsely religious because they reject the God of Creation for other things (Rom 1).  Let's leave that theological point aside and focus on those who are truly hungry.

Draper's answer for meeting this innate spiritual hunger is to avoid focusing on discipleship more than evangelism, and then do more evangelism. 

But we should never attempt to put evangelism against discipleship. Jesus didn't when he said in Matthew 28 to make disciples of all nations.  That means more disciples (evangelism, baptism) and better disciples (teaching/discipleship).  Evangelism and discipleship are organically connected vines, not puzzle pieces locked together.

But Draper seems to understand this already when he says, "Evangelism is the proper expression of mature, or discipled believers."  I think he realizes it's not less discipleship, but better discipleship that results in evangelism. 

And I think Draper's answer, that we need more evangelism, only hints at the problem.  Surely there isn't enough evangelism, but we don't need more bad evangelism.  We need more better evangelism. 

We need evangelism that doesn't see people as a demands to be supplied, but as image-bearers to be loved.  We need evangelism that is not first organizational, but organic and relational.  We need evangelism that is not about keeping a tally of distributed tracts (look for the tally at June's SBC), but about spending time shooting pool with sinners. 

It's no wonder that Draper and other SBC leaders are struggling to understand emerging generations.  He takes statistics and economic ideas and tries to paint the church as a failing business that needs to retool on the fundamentals of 'supply and demand.'  But emerging generations see things more organically. 

SBC leaders, please hear us.  We will not be professional pastors who are running a "supply and demand" business.  We want better disciples believing better theology and doing better evangelism through better families and homes and churches.

Draper told us that Jesus said in Matthew 9:37, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few."  No doubt, we need to pray for more laborers.  That's biblical.  But more of the same evangelism and discipleship we see today will never solve our problems. 

That is, in my opinion, a big part of what being an emerging SBC leader is.  The status quo is not acceptable.  Reformission is necessary and good.

Comments

[Rodney McCarty]

Well said Steve. I've been encouraging the folks here to go party with the pagans more. They (me included) have to be around lost folks and getting dirty in order to make an impact. We have a teflon coating anyway - it's not gonna stick.

[John Mark Inman]

I think you might be overreacting a bit. I think Draper is using the business principle, that we are all familiar with, to draw our attention to the the need for doing more evangelism. Draper doesn't address the need to do 'better' evangelism in this article. He would probably agree that there are bad forms of evangelism, but that's not his point here. I don't think he wants you to be a "business-style" pastor practicing supply and demand ministry. He just wants you to realize that there is a great need for more evangelists.

I do agree that he might be reading too much into the 81% of Americans believe in the resurrection. Miracles are in these days. Submission to one who has been given all authority in heaven and on earth isn't.

[Paul]

I think what has not been grasped is that proper and thorough discipleship both is evangelism and leads to more evangelism.

The either/or approach is the reason for the mess we are now in (imho).

I'm reminded of someone who was referencing 1 Peter 3:15 (always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have) and said the problem is that no one is asking. Why not? Because they don't see anything in us that they want. Why not? Because we are feeble disciples. Willard suggests that if we actually learned to be like Jesus (do the kind of things he would do if he were me) that we wouldn't be able to keep people out of our churches. Discipleship could very well be the most evangelistic thing we can do.

[jvpastor]

The big problem I see is that we think we are marketing something as if the "gospel" or "discipleship" is a product that needs to be sold to the american public and to the world.

There is a great post about the modern church over at the parish if anyone is interested:

http://theparish.typepad.com/parish/2005/04/why_not_just_gi.html

[Steve McCoy]

John Mark,

I know what Draper is doing. He's addressing a problem (wrongly defined, and in a discipleship vs. evangelism context) and giving the wrong solution (more of the same). If we have problems now, it's not because we don't have enough evangelism, but because it's bad evangelism. My point is it's not about MORE, but BETTER.

I also think Draper and I would disagree somewhat on what is good and bad evangelism.

[John Mark]

Steve,
I know you and Draper probably would engage in evangelism differently. He does introduce a dichotomy of discipleship and evangelism to make a point. But he immediately unites them as an expression of true Christianity. "Evangelism is the proper expression of mature, or discipled believers." The text that Draper draws from doesn't address "better" evangelism methods, but more evangelists. We should be looking for more "biblical" ways of doing evangelism. More and better. Both messages need to be heard. I don't think Draper's article shows that "the gap between those emerging and those mired in the ways of yesterday is ever clearer." It is a challenge that we can learn from, in the same way as your plea for "better" evangelism is.

[David Phillips]

Dr. Draper's comment that

"We have seen a renewed interest in discipleship –- which is good –- and we thought that if believers were discipled they would be automatically strong witnesses and become more evangelistic. Sadly, this has not proven to be the case. We’ve turned churches into comfortable country clubs for members when, in fact, the purpose of the church is to reach those who are not members. Evangelism is the proper expression of mature, or discipled believers."

is very interesting to me. It is interesting because he, in fact, heads the agency that produces the discipleship material used by most SBC Churches. So if the discipleship is causing a country club mentality, shouldn't his group accept some responsibility?

I would suggest that Steve is exactly right in the fact that we don't need more, but better evangelism tools. The failure of groups like Lifeway is that they adopt easily reproduceable programs from people who are not even leaders in the field. For example, FAITH Evangelism. It was developed at FBC Daytona, where the current SBC president Bobby Welch is pastor. It is an alright program - though it takes scriptures out of context and assumes to a large degree exposure to a church setting. It may work for their context. But FBC Daytona will not be in the top 10 in baptisms this year, and haven't been for several years. If the SBC is to promote evangelism, why not promote Saddleback or Fellowship Church or Northpoint, where they're baptizing thousands, not hundreds. I just don't think Lifeway is producing culturally relavant material to do either discipleship or evangelism.

As far as the whole "resurrection belief=looking for meaning" idea, I'm not sure I by it. In Delaware, people are not so interested in meaning as money, activities, etc. While that ultimately may be an issue of meaning, you can't start with meaning. You start with relationships.

[Steve McCoy]

John Mark, I don't think you are getting my point. If we have more without the better, it's worse. If we have better without the more, it's good. If we have better and more, it's great. Bottom line: if we don't discuss better, we might as well not discuss more.

The SBC default, too often, is desiring more without thinking about better. Draper has wrongly assessed the problem, given the wrong solution, and I'm trying to point to the correct problem and a more helpful solution. I think it's one that emerging leaders see more clearly.

[Pastor Rob]

Steve,

Blessings on your blog. Great and thoughtful reading!

[Steve McCoy]

Thanks Rob. Great to have you around, though when I saw your name I immediately ducked thinking a "shrinkwrap ball" was headed my way. (former co-worker joke) ;^)

By the way, you need a blog.

[Joe Thorn]

Draper, and most others are understanding... something's wrong here. We're the biggest protestant denom/conv, but we loose over half of our "converts." We're known as a people of the book and teach our kids the Bible stories, but we have no clue what those stories actually mean. For all the material LW puts out on both evang and disc we have managed to produce a convention whose membership is full of unbelievers who never show up and people who show up who don't know what they believe. We are in bad shape as a convention. Like Greg Wills used to say in his church history class, "the SBC is alive, it's breathing, but on life support."

The good news is, people like Draper and others see that things are not as good as we like to pretend. The bad news is I think Steve is right. Many in the convention think more of the same will change things. I think it will drive the convention into it's grave. The article by our man Draper is well intentioned and on that level we all agree with him. Yet even without reading too much into it, it reads like everything else written so far, and implies that we do more of what we've been doing. In this case, more of the same will continue to bloat our convention in size without true converts. God help us.

[Tally]

It's funny to me how the word "discipleship" is used and used again by different people expressing different things. Between Draper and McCoy you have two distinctly different generations and some semantics separating two different connotations of the word "discipleship".

Discipleship in Draper's mind is classroom instruction within the walls of the local church (or some small group environments). Discipleship in my mind (and I assume other emerging leader's minds) is more of a set relationship with the purpose to bring people a greater understanding of who God is and who the individual is in Christ. My working definition has been 'Discipleship is the process by which a Christian with a life worth emulating commits himself/herself to an individual or a few others for an extended period of time, the purpose being to aid and equip them to reproduce themselves in a third spiritual generation'.

This view of discipleship (one to a few others in relationship) is not what Draper refers to. This is why we who are younger scream that it's not separate from evangelism. Draper doesn't see it this way (generational problem, not his own personally). We who are committed to leading our churches and ultimately convention in 20 years need to carefully define the language before we begin the debate. I personally feel that Draper is making an argument with which we would basically agree. For us as young leaders to criticize him over semantics or generational differences is not productive. We can however continue to define words that aren't communicated well across the generational lines.

My experience has been that if you show results, the conventions (state and national) will listen. Let each of us continue in our harvest field and evangelize, disciple and whatever else we have to do to see people come to Know God (John 17:3). We also should remember that our "new" ideas will be beaten on in 40 years by some younger 'more relevant' generations who think we've lost our minds.

Let's not head toward constant hostility with our predecessors but rather offer dialogue that is intelligent(as demonstrated by this blog-- thanks Steve), defined and productive. The reality is that many of us can affect change and we will.

[Gerry]

With all the "Purpose Driven" stuff that has come out over the lst several years, we have seen a compartmentalization of our purpose. As you stated Steve people often don't see that Worship, Ministry, Discipleship, Fellowship, and Evangelism are intertwined. You can't have one without the others. I think you also pointed out something that has increasingly frustrated me as a Southern Baptist. The first church I served in and others I have been in treated evangelism like some disease that we got and the world needs to have. We would train people how to share their FAITH, if you know what I mean, and yet never really talk to them about loving people. We would teach them basic apologetics but not about building relationship and caring for that person beyond a conquest and a number to add to our yearly baptism list. Also, the people who did not participate in the visitation program were somehow less a christian than the ones who did. Then to top off my rant...let's have some program almost every night of the week and chastise people for not doing these things because they could bring their lost friends to one of these and they could learn about God and get saved. Why not have less organized stuff and encourage people to build their relationships and show love to those they know need Christ...Ok I'm done.

[Kiki]

Good article Steve. I love the quote "Evangelism and discipleship are organically connected vines, not puzzle pieces locked together." So right.

But I want to address Paul's question: "Why aren't they asking?" I think Paul is correct that many Christians are not living lives that would attract others (I might even go a step further and question how many professing "Christians" truly have an intimate connection with God--but that's another topic.)

But another problem I see is the "GO" and evangelize mentality. Shouldn't we already be "IN" the world? If we have to GO to find lost people, we're already positioned in the wrong spot.

We need to get past this separatist mentality, of going and "looking for lost people." We should be immersed smack dab in the middle of the darkness, shining our light and attracting people to Jesus.

I think it smacks of arrogance when we go seek out people SOLELY for the purpose of "evangelizing" them. Think of how that person feels. It communicates, "I am not reaching out to you because I care about you or love you personally, but because you are a project for my denomination."

[Paul]

Great comment, Kiki.

I was in my local LifeWay store the other day. Fully one-third of the three shelves devoted to apologetics consisted of "evangecubes." It appears that a significant piece in this question about discipleship/evangelism is that we need more evangecubes. Read more about it here.

[Marty Duren]

The SBC is on life support? I'm glad to hear that Thorn, I was afraid that we were already unplugged.

Great comments all; you guys are really giving this old guy food for thought.

[Kiki]

Paul,

I was laughing out loud at your comment. That's it---more evangecubes! : )

We actually have a few of those--freebies from Student Week at Glorieta and Ridgecrest. My son uses them with his plastic soldiers. They make great bunkers!

Thanks for the humor.

[K. Cawley]

I agree with Joe's comment when he says, "The bad news is I think Steve is right."

SMILE

Great stuff brothers. These problems exist everywhere, so us 'outsiders' are enjoying how you're pressing us in good directions.

[Steve McCoy]

HAHA! Kevin, you got there before I could. Joe will do anything to make me look bad. Even his compliments are subversively degrading. ;^)

Tally, I couldn't tell for sure from what you said (mixed signals), but I want to respond by saying I think the semantical issues are smaller than you implied and the real differences are bigger than most think. Also, the discipleship issue is secondary in Draper's article and my response. It has more to do with more evangelism vs better evangelism. I hope I haven't misread you, but it seemed like you took one of my secondary points as if it were primary.

[Kiki]

But doesn't "better evangelism" incorporate discipleship? Matthew 28:19-20 commands us to "make disciples" and "teach them to observe all things."

[Steve McCoy]

Kiki, yes.