The workers are few

Last week we laid down some serious Biblical foundation for this vision we’re sensing from God. If you’re curious about the foundation, read the previous blog on Acts 17.

In Matthew 9:37, Jesus said “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few,” meaning the potential for people becoming followers of Christ is colossal. A few years ago, there was an apple orchard out west that had to let about 15 million pounds of apples rot on the ground, simply because there weren’t enough workers to pick them! Jesus is saying that there is massive potential for multitudes of people becoming disciples. The problem is, we need workers who will follow Christ’s methodology. Today, most people in America don’t want to “go to church.” I don’t think it’s because they all hate the message. I think our methods often times do not relate well with them. We say, “You gotta come to this church building, and we will make you a disciple here.” Jesus and Paul are saying, “We gotta go to them, and meet them on their levels.” For many years, churches in the US had prominent places in society, and could expect floods of people to come to their buildings, sing their songs, and listen to their sermons. Things have changed. Therefore our methods need to adapt.

Following Paul’s example in Athens, our goal is to engage non-Christians on their level first, then teach them the Word, all the while “reaching out without selling out.” In order to do that, here are some ideas. We don’t know when God will make them happen. He may add, delete, or modify any of them as He so chooses!

1). Relocate into retail space: preferably in Westland.

2). Operate 7-days a week, offering people entertaining activities. Like what? Something like this: pool tables, ping pong tables, pinball machines, arcade games, Euchre and Texas Hold ‘em tournaments (no gambling of course!), open mic nights, and concerts. We want to create a community of creativity, so we could offer art lessons (painting, sculpting, etc), guitar, piano, and drum lessons, and a film editing studio (Final Cut on a Mac or two). Tutoring for Jr High and High School kids could be provided.

3). Where do Ekklesia people come in? Obviously we need workers. There will be plenty of opportunities to get involved, even for as little as 1 hour a week. We also need people to just hang out. Whether our people are working or hanging out, we always need to be intentional about making disciples. We won’t just shoot a game of pool to shoot a game of pool, but we’ll do it to intentionally develop disciple-making relationships. Think about it. Rather than going door to door, ringing doorbells and asking people if they want to come to church, you get to know people by engaging them in the kinds of activities they enjoy. And we would offer as many of these things as we could for FREE.

4). We would hold our Sunday services in the same location. Instead of asking people to go to a “church” building, we would meet in the same building they enjoy throughout the week.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS? We REALLY want to hear from you!

This whole month we’re gonna be listening to God, praying, and talking about a new direction we believe He’s leading us in.

Sunday we laid down some serious Biblical foundation… a foundation that has guided us thus far, and will direct us until Jesus comes back to get us.

Acts 17:1-34. Read it. Understand it. Become lifelong friends with it.

Here’s how it is. In verses 1-9, Paul goes to Thessalonica, and his strategy is to enter the synagogue (important Jewish religious building), start with the Scriptures (Old Testament) and then engage their culture.

In verses 10-15, Paul goes to Berea, and carries out the same strategy. Synagogue, Scriptures, culture.

In the remaining verses, 16-34, we witness a quite different approach when Paul goes to Athens, Greece. Athens was known for big time idol-worship (not one of God’s favorite activities). When Paul sees this chaos, he becomes outraged. Usually, when a man is outraged, he goes on a rampage. What does Paul do?

He enters the synagogue, yes, but every single day he engages the marketplace (lots of wicked things happenin’ here). His teachings about Jesus and the resurrection stir up controversy and curiosity. They take him before the city’s top dog decision-making council, the Areopagus. It’s his time to speak, before a highly influential audience. What will this outraged man do? Go on a rampage?

He begins his speech with a compliment to their culture (v 22). Then he tells them how he’d been walking around and carefully studying their idols. The modern reader can scarcely grasp the significance of this event. For most of us, idols are considered art, or artifacts if they’re nice and old. For the Jesus-centered man or woman, locking eyes on an idol is of greater vulgarity than a hard-core porn flick. Don’t get me wrong, Paul would not have studied porn, but here he engages is something even more nauseating. Notice I said he studied the idols. He didn’t enjoy them. In our setting, this would be like studying a crude film or song that captivates the minds and hearts of the American people.

He quotes from an inscription on an idol, then from there, points the people to the Scriptures. In Athens, Paul starts first with the culture, then goes to the Bible (verses 23-27).

Realizing the Bible is so new for them, he quickly returns back to their culture, quoting two famous false-god-worshiping poets (verse 28). Many Jews would’ve been furious that Paul was repeating these blasphemous words. Today, this would be like quoting from Tupac or Kurt Cobain. Religious people would’ve said, “You may be reaching out, but you’re selling out!” How do you even know such things? Darkness can have no fellowship with light!

There’s a woman that attends a large church here in metro Detroit. One day at work, she told her co-workers how much she loved her church. She went on and on about their programs and events and what not. She then said, “And the best part is, they rarely use the J word!” (Meaning “Jesus”) This is a church that reaches out, at the expense of selling out.

Paul quotes their poets, finding the good in them, but doesn’t stop there, because their poets don’t draw the right conclusions. He then points the culture to Jesus and judgment, two very non-so-popular words (verses 29-31). Some mocked, some wanted to know more, some became disciples (verses 32-34).

This is the passion of Ekklesia, “to reach out without selling out.”

“Church is an organism, NOT an organization.”

Take a step back… reflect on the implication of this statement… Every living organism has at least ONE thing in common… they all reproduce… or die off. They all multiply… or become extinct.

Depressingly, today very few churches in America are multiplying. I’m not talkin’ about splitting, or dividing. That is just appalling! I’m talkin’ about churches that live up to their identity as an organism and give birth to churches regularly, frequently, effectively… They give birth to churches that give birth to new churches, and so on and so forth.

Most churches in America have a “come to us” mentality. “Our pastor(s) will evangelize you!”

This is similar to how the church in Jerusalem did it for years, and they did not multiply the way they were designed to. It’s not until Acts chapter 11 that all of that starts to change, radically! Sunday, we looked at the Antioch church in Acts 11:19-30, and 13:1-3, and how it multiplied in just over 1 year, because “when disciples engage society, multiplying churches are born.” The Jerusalem church leaders didn’t even have a church planting strategy for Antioch. It just happened… Then it happened again. And again. And again…

Want to hear about a modern-day example of this phenomenon? OK, think about the church movement in China. Around 1950, when Mao Zedong came into power, there were only about 2 million Christians in China. However, the government decided that Christianity needed to be totally annihilated, so what did they do? They booted out all foreign missionaries, brutally murdered the best of the best church leaders, destroyed Christian institutions, demolished Christian meetings, and declared that those who promote these ideas would be killed.

What do you think happened next? Their pastors are dead… No more buildings… No more Bible schools…

Here’s what they did. They did exactly what the simple disciples who started the Antioch church did. They said to themselves, “We know this Jesus thing is true, and everyone needs Him!” So they started engaging society in the workplaces, marketplaces, wherever they happened to be. They made relationships and shared a very short and simple message about Jesus: who He is, what He did, and what it means for us.

Before I tell you what happened next, think about how counter-cultural this Jesus message was to this country? Think about it… This is not something they were likely to believe. It goes against everything they were taught their whole lives. Oh yea, and it would possibly mean they would be murdered in cold blood if they chose to believe it…

So what happened? Tens and hundreds and thousands and millions of Chinese started believing it and turned their lives toward Christ. Multiplying churches were born over night, and those churches planted new churches, and those new churches planted more new churches and so on and so forth.

By the 1980’s there were around 60 million Christians in China. That’s a 58 million increase in 30 years!

WOW!

Every church is meant to multiply, over and over and over. That means we need you to step up and do your part. “When disciples engage society, multiplying churches are born.”

Here are my questions for you (please respond to any or all of them):

1. Have you ever been part of a multiplying church? If so, can you tell us a quick story?

2. How do you feel about sharing the Gospel with other people? Are you nervous? Are you doing it frequently? Why or why not? We will learn a lot by you sharing your struggles. We’ve all been there!

3. What is at least one way that YOU can engage society with the Gospel? Give us an example how you want to do this at work, at school, at the gym, while you’re shopping, on the phone, online, or wherever…