The Anti-Church-Growth Strategy of the Real Jesus
(Somewhere in Monroe…)
In Luke 9 Jesus responds to three men who come to him saying “I want to follow you.” Instead of just saying “Cool - another warm body to inflate the numbers of my followers,” Jesus proceeds to tell them what it will cost them to actually follow him.
This is important because the Real Jesus is looking for followers, not pew-sitters. The definition of a “follower” is this: someone who actually follows. If, then, a person says “I am a Christian” but does not actually follow Jesus, then (logically) they are not a follower of Jesus. That’s pretty simple to understand, isn’t it? And if someone says they are a Christian but don’t actually follow Jesus, then I confess to not having a clue as to who or what they are. But one thing I do know: the Jesus of Matthew-Mark-Luke-John is after nothing less than followers. And following Jesus is costly.
As a pastor I have long been familiar with the church-growth strategies that are given to us. The idea is that “bigger church” equals “success.” Now I think that adding persons to the church is great. But, as a possible marketing strategy to do this, what Jesus says in Luke 9 is odd. Look at it, and ask yourself how this approach might work in your church. (Luke 9:57-62)
57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
59 He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.”
62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
What’s the point Jesus is making? It’s this: Jesus is looking for disciples. Disciples actually follow after Jesus and carry on his mission. He wants to be Lord and King in a person’s life. The result is a life released from what Jesus calls the kingdom of darkness and liberated into his beautiful kingdom. There is a cost of discipleship. There is a cost of following after Jesus. This has nothing to do with nominal “Christianity.” The inflated numbers of “Christians” in America fail to identify what Martin Luther called the true church, or the “invisible church.”