And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20
Imagine if you were posed a challenge that if you could gather a group of unchurched people in 365 days that you’d receive one million dollars for every person. The catch would be that you can’t take them from existing churches. Oh, and their participation would have to be a genuine interest in knowing Christ. In other words, you can’t pay them. The gathering would have to be weekly and would need to include a serious discussion of the Bible. Nothing can be watered down. The gathering can meet any day, any time of the week, and any place. Maybe there are some other guidelines too, but you get the idea.
If you have seven people gathering consistently after a year, then—seven million dollars! Even if you aren’t motivated by money for yourself, imagine what that kind of money could do for your kids, or for the global poor. Imagine the missionaries you could help. It’s a ridiculous scenario, I know, but imagine how this challenge would suddenly stir motivation and creativity.
You’d figure it out
What would you do? What would be your plan? Where would you find people interested in being discipled and gathering with others to learn about Jesus?
Depending on where you live, you’d probably take stock of all the unchurched people around you. There might be college students, people in prisons, immigrants, friends, co-workers, family members, soccer moms, widows, folks in nursing homes, homeless, and so on. Heck, you might even think about the crowds at Walmart. You might even consider knocking on doors in one of the housing projects. You might suddenly get brave when it dawns on you that you’d receive a million dollars for every person you find who is willing to be part of your gathering.
You’d likely realize that what you are asking these people would sound strange unless you knew them in a trusted way. For that reason, you’d probably start with people you knew. But after a month you might find out that only 1-2 of the people you know well are willing to join you in your gathering. At that point, you go out to “the highways and byways and compel people.” Especially in New England, you’d come up against the difficulty of approaching strangers. You’d quickly realize that you are perceived as an outsider that people don’t trust or listen to.
To become an insider I believe you would use your best creativity to figure it out. You’d figure out how to spend time with people. You’d listen and learn about them. You’d find out what they love and what they hate. You’d discover their struggles and needs. Opportunities would quickly emerge to help in practical ways. Relationships would form. Trust would be built. You’d realize that they aren’t going to magically know that you are hosting a gathering. You have to tell them about it. And invite them. Some of them would be eager to join you in a regular gathering to learn about Jesus.
Persons of peace
If you are familiar with the principle Jesus taught, you’d be looking for persons of peace. It’s that one person amidst a sea of persons who is exceptionally open. It’s a person that has already been prepared by God to receive the gospel. It might be someone who went to church as a child but fell away. It might be someone who has never heard the gospel but has a strong interest. It might be an agnostic who is open to exploring the Christian faith. Or someone at wits end in their marriage, in their parenting, or with an addiction issue. You’d be looking for these kinds of people who are ripe and ready.
Tolerance of rejection
Because the financial reward of a million dollars for each person is so extravagant, we would power through rejection. We might even be met with angry responses at times. We might be pushed to the ground for even suggesting someone needs God. We wouldn’t care. We’d walk away smiling as we realize that this is expected. Our hearts would be on the prize of millions of dollars. A little rejection wouldn’t stop us!
I’m pretty sure most of us would identify the people around us that appear to be most ripe and that we’d have the most success in getting to know. Now, during this 365 day challenge we can’t just take work off for the year. We still have to work. We have to care for our families if we have family. We can’t neglect responsibilities. We need to care for our bodies. We would suddenly become very savvy in managing our time. We’d eliminate anything unnecessary that is robbing us of time we could spend reaching people. We’d find time to search for people and to spend time with people. We’d figure it out.
Dig deep
Some of us might have an above average ability to persuade people. But I believe all of us would dig deep and figure out ways to be winsome with people around us. Our approach might be quieter than others, but for a million dollars we would probably stretch ourselves to be more socially outgoing.
Since our aim is to gather people who are eager to experience Christ we’d also make sure our lives are at peace with God. We’d want our little gatherings to be marked by the presence of God. We’d want to be equipped to lead hearty discussions on the Bible. If the gatherings we have are boring, the people we invite would likely not return. We’d probably pray and fast—a lot!—to ask God to lead us to people who are open. We’d realize the importance of hospitality. We’d probably provide good food at our gatherings. We’d aim to make people who are coming feel relaxed and at home.
I know this is a crazy hypothetical situation, but I’m trying to make the point that each of us has it in us to go into all the world and make disciples. It’s really not as hard as we think. If we received a million dollars for every disciple we made, I’m sure we think this is the easiest money we ever made.
Church decline
I’ve heard it said that the average church is about 100 people. It’s also said that most churches do not grow numerically or are even in decline. Every year, thousands of churches decline so badly that they close their doors. There are certain factors like people moving away or deciding to attend a different church that play into this reality. Sometimes people fall away from the faith or just fall out of the habit of attending church. But you’d think in a church of 100, especially in populations that are mostly unchurched, that the church would grow. If every member discipled just one single person in a 365 day period—the church would double to 200. And the next year it would double to 400! That’s if each member reached only one person a year. Some members might reach 5 or 10 or more. The Church is meant to grow exponentially as it did in the first couple of centuries!
Why is growth so often stunted? There are exceptions, of course. In America it seems like the exceptions are usually churches that have a highly gifted charismatic leader at the center. The church that can crush the competition and create the best show in town will likely drain out Christians from neighborhood churches. The church that has the resources to build a state-of-the-art building with a multi-million dollar sound system will attract the best musicians which will, in turn, attract people looking for the best music. This is called “transfer growth” and, well, it’s lame. I’m not talking about that kind of growth.
Healthy things grow
Why aren’t churches growing? Why aren’t they bearing fruit? If we planted a tree in our front yard that popped up to a few feet but then halted, we’d be concerned. If its branches were dying and there was no fruit, we’d think something is wrong. In the same way, we should be concerned when our church isn’t growing. Healthy things grow. I’m not saying all churches should become megachurches. Many growing churches plant new churches and constantly send people out into the world as missionaries.
To say it plainly, churches that are plateaued or in decline are typically not making disciples. They have lost sight of the mission of the Church. They have turned church into a consumer experience. The people attend on Sundays (or once in a while) to drink the coffee, sing the songs, say hi to friends, and hear a sermon. The other 6 ½ days of the week they aren’t making disciples. They are just tending to their lives—working, playing, scrolling, cleaning, exercising, eating, drinking, reading, even praying. But they aren’t making disciples. They aren’t actively searching for “persons of peace” who are open to learning more about Jesus. There’s no time for that. There’s no heart for that.
First century Church
In the Church of the first century there were 120 believers gathered on day one. How did this small group of ordinary men and women in Palestine become millions across a wide region into Turkey, Rome, India, and beyond? They took the command of Jesus to make disciples seriously. It was part of their ethos. The job wasn’t left to Peter and Paul. No! Ordinary followers went out into their world and made disciples. They were filled with the Spirit and went out and preached the Word with boldness.
I can’t offer you a million dollars for every disciple you make in the next 365 days. But I can promise that your reward will be great in heaven if you pour yourself out doing the work of Christ. Open your eyes and behold the fields around you. They are ripe. Who can you serve? Who can you spend time with? Where can you find people to disciple? Don’t wait for your pastor to launch an outreach. Don’t wait for your church to ask you to lead a discipleship effort. Just go out and do it. Many of the discipleship opportunities inside the church are aimed to disciple the already saved. There’s a place for that, we all need to go deeper, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. Go out amongst the lost, the prodigals, the nominals, the agnostics, the seekers, the sick and the lonely. Go into the prisons. Go to the shelters and the soup kitchens. Go to the nursing homes. Be in your neighborhood. Find ways to serve and win favor. Find people who are interested in exploring Scripture with you. Find one unchurched person to disciple. Start with one.