No More Church As Usual
Written by Nick Greenwood
Edited by Ruth Happ
Bottom line: I am unwilling to continue church as usual because I want to see new disciples of Jesus made.
What has this COVID season revealed? We are far too interested in getting back to what is easy, safe, known, risk-free, and ultimately not working! The assumption in play is that what we’ve known and done is what is best and right, so we have to get back to it. But to always run from pride and work to dismantle our idols, humility demands we ask at least two questions: What is God doing right now? And how should we be moldable in order to respond? What about what we are doing or what we think we know is unhelpful and needs to change to get in line with God’s current work and purpose? Asking these questions is a step of humility.
So here’s my observation since April 2020. Generally speaking, the loudest voices for getting back to church-as-usual are the ones reaching the fewest lost people. Correlation? Uh-huh.
The most common support I’ve heard for the drive to return to church-as-usual is “don’t forsake the gathering” in Hebrews 10:25. But my challenge with this is that the context of Hebrews 10 is speaking to people who are discounting the importance of meeting with other believers because they don’t want to and because they are drifting from faith, not because they can’t meet together. The ones who want to are figuring out ways to do so. Hebrews 10:25 is speaking to a heart issue, not a social circumstance. It is not speaking to an anxious and fearful church in the midst of a pandemic. It’s speaking to those who have previously professed faith in Jesus and are drifting from that first love.
Disclaimer: Please resist the unhelpful urge to put me in a deconstructionist millennial box and assume I am advocating for the discontinuation of all-things-normal-church as we know it. Joining the assembly, hearing the Word preached, and singing praises are all right and good. However, we millennials are pretty tired of form-over-function idolatry, which previous generations have found themselves unknowingly holding when it comes to church systems, structures, and attitudes.
The assumption I am working from is what I call “Gospel Motivation” (see chart below). Essentially, if we understand and embrace the Gospel with our whole lives (because it was actually proclaimed to us), we fall deeply in love with God. He then gives us His heart and eyes of love for others, and that necessarily demands we lovingly share His good news with them. If we don’t, we are less than loving. The logic is air-tight. Gospel growing in us equals Gospel going through us to others. That’s the design. And as you know, there is no fear in love, so we can’t hide behind our shyness, “personality,” or claim we don’t have that gift of evangelism. We have to admit our love-level is lower than ideal. And the reality is, every single one of our love meters is lower than ideal. So, we always need more Gospel, every day!
Rather than running first, then, with a distracting tendency to fight the liberal man, demanding our God-and-country freedom, and insisting we get back to the way things were, I urge you to ask the questions:
What are you doing, God?
What do you want me to notice? And how should I respond?
Am I aligned around what is most important?
Am I distracted with an idol?
Has the Sunday form become an idol of mine in any way?
The western church is in its lethargic state in part because we don’t humbly and regularly ask God what He is doing and how we can respond in alignment with Him.
One really good test to know if you are in alignment with Him is to ask yourself, how much am I directly involved in sharing the good news of Jesus with the lost?
Why is that a test? Because, if the Gospel in you has not caused you to reorient your life around the Great Commission of Jesus, which He gave to His every disciple, then I encourage you to think long and hard about how much of a disciple of Jesus you are—or are you just a church goer…a church-form idolator?
Pastors and their people all over the country right now think they are smack dab in the middle of the right conversation. They are fighting for their so-called God-given right to freedom of religion because our forefathers languaged a document a few years back that sought to secure that ability through human means. They are fighting to preserve a free future for the rest of us. But wow, look what they are trying to primarily stand on. It’s not Jesus’ words about how blessed you are because you are persecuted. Or the historical reality that waves of people become new disciples of Jesus when persecution occurs. Sadly, the result they are fighting for with all they have is to avoid the very conditions that produce the best fruit—new disciples!
A strong litmus test for pastors and their people is to stay curious about how interested they are in the very goal Jesus gave us as He ascended into Heaven—new disciples.
I would tell pastors not to abandon the main goal for a secondary one. But the truth is, I highly question to what degree they were in the main fight, to begin with. So many pastors don’t personally make disciples, and therefore so many church congregations don’t either. Pastors hide behind their pulpits and people hide behind their pastors. People mimic what is modeled. So, it makes sense to me that they’d get fascinated with the secondary—the idol—the fight for their “freedom.” When the Gospel in you isn’t compelling you to make new disciples, you are distracted. No question. And just because pastors “preach the Gospel” on Sundays doesn’t exclude them from personally reaching their neighbor outside of the Sunday gathering. I can’t tell you how many pastors I’ve heard confess to me their embarrassment for not even knowing their neighbors’ names. Are they compelled by love for their neighbors? I’m not sure. And the lack of new disciples in their church people’s lives would confirm this suspicion.
In this season of isolation and difficulty, we all long to be with other believers for various reasons. This is good. But will you consider reevaluating if you are actually in the main fight, the main game, seeking the main goal? Start with the assumption that you are not, and let the Lord speak to that place of humility. If you are, I’m suggesting you’d be consumed more with lost people in your life knowing Jesus than you are about getting back to church-as-usual. COVID is shaking local churches up all over the world. Some are refocusing in amazing ways. It’s those churches that are seeing new disciples of Jesus made even though they can’t meet in their buildings. We get to adapt. Don’t get left behind. I believe deep in your heart you at least want to want to see new disciples of Jesus made.
Be reminded of the beauty of the Gospel. Let it draw you near to our Lord. And listen for His heart for people far from Him, not just the people in your holy huddle. Could it be that one of the main things He is doing with COVID is inviting you to get uncomfortable for the sake of others’ eternities?
If you want to engage the main goal of loving the Lord in a way that results in you loving others for the sake of their salvation, please consider joining us for the Discover A(D) workshop series. Let us help you begin to catch a vision for the main thing.
Risking offense for the sake of breakthrough,
Nick Greenwood
reFocusing’s ACTIVATE(D) Director
Novo Missions Mobilizer
