Personal benefits of engaging unbelievers
January 26, 2009
When you engage unbelievers with the gospel, on their turf and on their terms, it has residual positive benefits. These benefits will be personal (improving the quality of your spiritual life) and corporate (impacting the church or ministry you lead). Here are some benefits you will experience.
Keeps you connected to real people. Christian leaders live, work, (and it seems breathe) Christian community. If we aren’t careful, we can spend all our time with believers. We can find ourselves isolated, with all our close friends being Christians. This is spiritually deadening, personally and professionally.
Being engaged with unbelievers, really connecting with them in community, keeps your perspective clear on the issues, struggles, hopes, and dreams of everyday folks. This will positively permeate all aspects of your ministry.
Helps you understand issues church members face daily. When you are engaged with the unbelieving community, you will experience what many of your fellow believers and church members encounter regularly. Most believers, unlike Christian leaders, live among unbelievers daily. They are in tune with what everyday people are facing – and may wonder how you can be so out of touch with their reality.
When you learn to live and work among unbelievers, you will experience what your followers live with daily. You will be much more effective as a leader when you have a more realistic picture of what they are facing.
Changes your preaching and teaching ministry. When you are among unbelievers, you realize how much jargon and how many code words Christians use to communicate. A story becomes a “testimony.” Good fortune becomes “a blessing.” You will be forced to communicate in plain language if you want to be heard by unbelievers.
You will also adjust your subject matter after being among unbelievers. You will be much more in tune with everyday concerns – making a living, raising children, problems at work, conflict in extended families. Your speaking ministry will be much more productive when you align your subject matter (not your content) with the issues that occupy the minds of people in your larger community – not just your church.
Models outreach for your followers. Most Christian leaders talk a lot about reaching out, being on mission, winning the lost, or some other phrase related to impacting unbelievers with the gospel. Our teaching and preaching has new power when we are living what we are communicating.
When I was a pastor, from time to time I would introduce a new convert who was a result of my ministry in the community. My example modeled effective community investment for the purpose of building relational bridges for the gospel. Actually doing what you want others to do, as a model, is a powerful force multiplier for your teaching ministry. Being in the community and openly living the gospel also attracts people to your church who first meet you in another setting.
Contributes to you emotional well-being. For some reason, being around unbelievers and sharing the gospel energizes us. We are healthier leaders when we are not completely immersed in Christian stuff. My daughter calls it “getting outside the bubble.” The bubble can be stifling. Outside the bubble, living for Jesus requires authenticity, practicality, and most of all – faith! Engaging unbelievers with the gospel, on their turf, on their terms, energizes us spiritually.
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Steps to Engaging Unbelievers
January 20, 2009
Last week we looked at barriers that keep Christian leaders from engaging unbelievers with the gospel. Engaging unbelievers means taking the gospel into existing structures, activities, and relationships among a specific group of people in your community. You can do this, but it may take a specific effort to break out of current patterns. Here are some steps to guide your process.
Change your thinking. My spiritual upbringing included a heavy dose of “separation doctrine” designed to get me to shun the world and separate myself from it. On one level, this was healthy. But on another, it was too extreme because it cut me off from sharing life with unbelievers. Reversing this trend was a difficult choice. Some days I felt like I was denying my spiritual heritage to change in this area.
Changing your thinking about engaging unbelievers may lead to internal struggle, relational conflict, and misunderstanding or criticism by fellow believers. When you replace church activities with community involvement, some may question your commitment to the Lord or if you are doing your job. When you host unbelievers in your home, rather than your small group, people may question your priorities.
Change doesn’t just happen. It emerges from specific choices to alter our thinking, resulting in new behavior. If you have some deeply ingrained thought patterns that prohibit developing meaningful relationships with unbelievers, change your mind. Then, you can make permanent lifestyle changes – not just temporary attempts at change.
Adjust your schedule. Christian leaders are busy. We are busy doing good things. A major life change to become more involved in a community will take time. Freeing up this time means adjusting your schedule by dropping current activities and commitments, some of which may be quite meaningful to your current followers.
When I became the chaplain to a major league baseball team, it meant I had to reserve 12 Sundays per year for chapel services. That meant 12 fewer Sunday speaking engagements in churches – an inevitable consequence of committing to being part of that community.
Engaging unbelievers in meaningful relationships with the gospel takes time. You can’t add it to your already over-busy schedule. Transactional planning means when you add something to your schedule, you also have to subtract something. Sounds simple, but leaders know how difficult these choices can be. But if you are serious about immersing yourself in the lives of unbelievers, you must adjust your schedule to include less “Christian stuff.”
Choose an affinity-based activity. Leaders, like other believers, are unique – defined by their interests, activities, and family structure. When you are deciding how to engage unbelievers, consider your affinities. For example, choose an activity you already enjoy. That’s why I have been involved with the baseball community for more than 20 years. I enjoy baseball and “baseball people.” You should also choose something with an affinity to your family. When our children were younger, we were immersed in youth sports and public school volunteer projects. We would have been there anyway, so why not make a commitment to being there with the gospel and to develop relationships for the gospel? Finally, choose an activity compatible with your Christian leadership role. I could not have been a sports chaplain while I was a pastor. Now, it fits nicely with my current job.
Engaging unbelievers isn’t about creating a parallel universe with your Christian life or family life. It’s about naturally connecting with people in normal life traffic patterns, but doing it for the purpose of introducing Jesus into the conversation!
Work through these three steps and you will be your way to a new lifestyle of engaging unbelievers, on their turf and terms, with the good news of Jesus Christ.
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Barriers to Engaging Unbelievers in their Culture
January 12, 2009
Most Christian leaders want to connect with unbelievers and share the gospel. Too often, however, we do this solely through developing Christian ministries. This is not wrong, just limited to reaching unbelievers who will attend a service, program, or activity. Christian leaders must learn to engage unbelievers in their culture – to develop a new mindset about evangelism.
Cultural engagement is taking the gospel into existing structures, activities, and relationships among a specific group of people in your community. As we learned last week, one example of these contrasting methods is the difference between starting an orphanage and joining the state foster care system. Another example is the difference between having a Christian school and volunteering in the public schools. The fundamental difference in these approaches is the issue of control. Culture engagement strategies place believers in the culture, where they don’t have control of the values, schedule, or environment.
What keeps Christian leaders from being more engaged with unbelievers in the culture? What keeps us from being comfortable on their turf, meeting their needs, and speaking the gospel? Here is an outline of a few barriers that limit us.
Anger with the culture. The first, and most troubling barrier, is our anger with the culture. We harangue sinners, attacking them for their negative impact on our communities and country. And, frankly, some of the immoral and amoral agendas are frustrating. But simmering anger toward people who are acting out their natural tendencies apart from a personal relationship with God is counterproductive. Our anger will not accomplish God’s righteousness.
Concern about compromise. This can be a legitimate concern. Christian leaders are expected to live above reproach, not involved in questionable activities commonplace in the culture. But it often seems we are more concerned about compromising our reputation or status with other leaders, rather than compromising our actual moral or ethical purity. If you are avoiding connecting with unbelievers on their turf to protect your reputation or status, repent!
Behavioral expectations for Christian leaders. This is closely connected to concerns about compromise. Church members have behavioral expectations for leaders. We must continually evaluate whether we are pleasing people or God in deciding permissible activities. Don’t use this as an excuse to avoid contact with unbelievers on their turf.
Diminished understanding of the power of service. Some leaders have lost sight of the power of service to open doors for the gospel. Because of our fear of a “social gospel,” we overreact and make sharing the gospel an activity or program rather than part of a larger process of impacting lives. We forget how powerful acts of service are in creating openness to the gospel.
Wrong definitions of church, discipleship, and commitment. Christian leaders sometimes have wrong definitions of key issues related to Christian service that focus too much on what Christians do for each other, rather than for the unbelieving community. We define church as an institution to support rather than as an organic movement. We define discipleship as completing a program rather than life transformation in a person’s daily context. We define commitment as supporting church activities rather than obeying God in daily decisions. Wrong definitions lead to wrong conclusions about our relationship to unbelievers.
These are some of the barriers that hold us back. All can be overcome, although for some this will be a tough process. Take a few minutes and ask, “What is keeping me from engaging unbelievers on their turf with the gospel?” Then overcome that barrier!
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Breaking out of the Christian subculture
January 5, 2009
The longer you serve as a Christian leader, typically the less engaged you are with unbelievers. That’s one of the dirty little secrets of Christian leadership. We are supposedly on mission to unbelievers, yet our job requirements isolate us in the ivory tower of Christian community. Being a Christian leader requires personal discipline to avoid the trap of spiritual isolation leading to ghetto mentality – existing in our little world and trying to create an alternative community to the secular one we naturally inhabit.
As leaders, it’s easy to become locked into a Christian ministry mindset. By this, I mean we naturally think of engaging unbelievers through creating, organizing, and controlling Christian ministries. While many of these are good, they all have a fatal flaw. They depend on unbelievers to engage them – to come to a service, activity, or program to learn about the gospel. Again, while this is a vital and effective model, our definition of cultural engagement can’t be limited to this way of thinking.
In contrast to Christian ministry thinking, let me challenge you to develop a new way of thinking about your work called “culture engagement thinking.” Changing your mindset on this point may be more difficult than you first imagine.
Some time ago, I shared with some ministry leader friends (all effective, committed leaders) about the important of culture engagement thinking. One guy agreed with the importance of this concept and said, “Let me tell you about a woman in our church who is a good example.” He then told us a story of a woman who had a burden for unwed mothers. She formed a board of local Christian businessmen, created a Christian ministry entity, raised money, rented a house, took in some women, and now has a thriving ministry.
My response was, “That’s a great story. I’m glad for the work she is doing. But her story isn’t an example of culture engagement thinking. In fact, it’s the exact opposite of what I am proposing.” My friends were shocked and intrigued. I hope you are! What then is
culture engagement thinking and how does it express itself in our mission?
Culture engagement thinking is taking the gospel into existing structures, activities, and relationships among a specific group of people in your community. Before we spend some weeks understanding how to do this, let’s consider a chart which contrasts the results of Christian ministry thinking and culture engagement thinking.
Christian Ministry Thinking Culture Engagement Thinking
Start a Christian school Volunteer to serve a public school
Upward Bound basketball Coach YMCA basketball
Start an orphanage Join the foster care system
Church camping trip Lead a Boy Scout troop
FCA Chaplain a sports team
As you can see, the ministries on the left are all vital, helpful, and need-meeting. They are, however, controlled by Christians and operated in a Christian environment. While all may be welcome, an unbeliever must take the initiative to be involved. Notice the activities on the right of the chart. All these take place in the community, where unbelievers may be completely in charge, and where believers will have to do their work with people on their terms. Most Christian leaders are very comfortable in column one, not so much in column two. Over the next few weeks, consider the challenge of developing a new mindset in your role as a leader – culture engagement thinking.
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