Making Disciples. Heather Heinzman Lear. Obstacles and Opportunities in Urban Congregations

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1 Making Disciples Obstacles and Opportunities in Urban Congregations Heather Heinzman Lear Dr Heather Heinzman Lear is the director of evangelism at Discipleship Ministries of the United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. She holds degrees from Boston University, Duke Divinity School, and Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. Abstract This article looks at the current theological understanding and practice of evangelism in the United Methodist Church. In the early 2000s, the denomination crafted and adopted the mission statement Make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World. As someone who has worked at both the local church and denominational levels of the United Methodist Church, I have seen a gap between the denomination s stated mission and the actual ministry of local churches due to two primary obstacles. Congregations are unsure of what it entails to make disciples and do not understand that the purpose is for the transformation of the world. Through interviews and the study of local congregations, impediments to fulfilling this statement emerged. The article concludes by offering an example of an outlier congregation that is effectively engaged in life-affirming evangelism in an urban setting. At September 2015 s Evangelism in the City gathering in Sydney, the World Council of Churches and Council for World Mission invited an ecumenically diverse group of participants to explore what life-affirming evangelism means and looks like in our individual contexts, in a city that, for me, is on the other side of the world. I served as the only representative from North America and knew that the mainline church in the United States, in particular, has much to learn from our global brothers and sisters. This article reflects on the current state and theological understanding of evangelism in the United Methodist Church (UMC) and offers a bright spot of life-affirming evangelism in one of our urban congregations. My Ministry Context For three years I have been privileged to serve as director of evangelism for the United Methodist Church. In the transition from serving as a local church pastor to Copyright VC (2016) World Council of Churches 5

2 International Review of Mission Volume 105 Number 1 July 2016 denominational staff, I spent significant time listening and discerning the current state of evangelism in the United Methodist Church, and in particular the United Methodist Church in the United States. I quickly discovered that not only had evangelism lost its primacy of focus in many of our local churches and judicatories, but the understanding of what evangelism should entail as a church in the Wesleyan tradition had been greatly influenced regionally by the practices of other faith traditions, often leaving people with a negative view and unwillingness to engage in evangelism. As director of evangelism ministries, my job description is determined by The Book of Discipline, our denominational law book. 1 In addition to providing oversight of the evangelism ministries of the UMC and setting a theological basis for personal, corporate, and social aspects of evangelism, I also provide resources for local churches, relate to denominational and ecumenical associations, and work with our seminaries and professors of evangelism. 2 My office is one of 15 program areas in the Leadership Ministries Unit at Discipleship Ministries in Nashville, Tennessee. Discipleship Ministries was created in the early 1970s from the merger of the Board of Evangelism and Board of Education. In the past four decades, evangelism shifted from the work of an entire board to one programme area. As a result of the compartmentalization of ministry and evangelism becoming one of many church programmes, I title much of my work reclaiming evangelism. Evangelism from the United Methodist Perspective Crafted partially in 2000, the mission statement of the UMC is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. In response to the decline in membership in the denomination and with the acknowledgment that local churches serve as the primary vessels for disciple making, the General Conference 3 passed a resolution in 2000 to formally instate a mission statement to direct local churches work and goals. The original statement was abbreviated, commending churches to make disciples of Jesus Christ. In 2004, the Council of Bishops and Task Force on the Episcopacy concluded that the statement was incomplete and should be expanded to include why churches should engage in discipleship. On 28 April 2008, The Book of Discipline is the instrument by which United Methodists govern themselves. Every four years, General Conference, the legislative body of the UMC, amends, perfects, and clarifies the Discipline. The Evangelism Responsibilities are found in 1112 of The Book of Discipline. General Conference is the legislative body of the United Methodist Church that meets every four years and is the sole entity that can speak for the denomination. 6 Copyright VC (2016) World Council of Churches

3 Heather Heinzman Lear Making Disciples the General Conference overwhelmingly approved the addition for the transformation of the world, in an effort to connect local church practices and God s mission in the world. 4 Within a year of passing the addition to the mission statement, the gap between the General Conference s pronouncement and the actual practice in local congregations was recognized at the denominational level. How does a church live into this mission, and what practices contribute to its effectiveness? The Council of Bishops voted in the fall of 2009 to measure ministry effectiveness in the denomination with a call to action. An outside firm, Towers Watson (TW), conducted the research, seeking qualitative data to determine which congregational structures and practices would emerge that contribute to vitality or a congregation s effectiveness in fulfilling its mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The guiding question in the study was In addition to the informed observations and opinions of various lay, clergy and academic observers, how can we measure levels of vitality in statistically valid and reliable ways? 5 Towers Watson s research determined four indicators of church vitality that were to be quantified by the following measurements: Average worship attendance. Evangelism measured by professions of faith. Spiritual formation measured by small groups, Sunday school classes, and Bible studies. Missions measured by number of people in the congregation engaged in local, national, and international outreach. Stewardship measured by the total amount given by a congregation to other organizations for support of benevolent and charitable ministries, including apportionments to the denomination as a whole. 6 The areas listed above continue to be regularly measured and reported by congregations throughout the connection through an online dashboard Christie R. House, United Methodist Mission Statement Revised, 1 May 2018, UMC website, news-and-media/united-methodist-mission-statement-revised. David De Wetter, Illene Gochman, Rich Luss, and Rick Sherwood, United Methodist Call to Action: Vital Congregations Research Report, 28 June Heather Hahn, Church Vitality: How Do You Define It?, UMC website, 26 April 2013, Vital Congregations, Dashboard.htm. Pastors or church administrators enter their figures on this site on a regular basis determined by their bishop and cabinet. Copyright VC (2016) World Council of Churches 7

4 International Review of Mission Volume 105 Number 1 July 2016 In my work, both as a local church pastor and now at the denominational level, I discovered two significant obstacles that prevent congregations from living out their charge. Simply because legislation has been passed stating that local churches are to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world does not mean they are engaged in the work or have received training to assist in its fulfilment. The statement makes assumptions that certain teachings and understandings exist at the local church level, which I have found to be faulty. The first issue is discipleship. How does a church engage in disciple making and what are the characteristics of a disciple? Discipleship is a way of living that follows the example and teaching of Jesus Christ. Our discipleship is how we live our lives in relationship with Christ and with other members of the household of God. 8 A disciple is not someone who is merely content with having his or her sins forgiven, but who embraces the lifelong journey toward full Christ-likeness. This journey entails regular Christian practices and disciplines. Just as one needs to practise an instrument or sport to increase capacity and skill, there are Christian practices that should be engaged in to increase capacity for holiness and Christ-likeness to become natural behaviour. 9 Despite our deep Wesleyan tradition that connects spiritual formation and intentional faith practices and everyday life, most United Methodist congregations no longer encourage or expect church members to participate in small groups or Christian education experiences. There is an assumption that people who spend one hour a week sitting in a pew will naturally know what it means to be and how they are to practically live as disciples of Jesus Christ. The second obstacle to churches living out the mission statement is that they do not understand their purpose to be joining God s mission in their local community. Churches are charged with discipleship for the purpose of transforming their community to reflect the kingdom of God. Again, the addition by the General Conference is helpful in theory, but little has been done to equip congregations for this work. For decades, congregations have centred their ministry on programmes and finding ways to attract people to their physical building. The expectation was that the community would come to them, and seminary training focused on ministry within the walls of the church. With the latest research around church attendance, we know that fewer than 40 percent of Americans attend church at least 8 9 Steve Manskar, Accountable Discipleship: Living in God s Household (Nashville, Tenn.: Discipleship Resources, 2000), 17. Randy Maddox, Wesley s Prescription for Making Disciples of Jesus Christ, Quarterly Review 23(1) (Spring 2003): Copyright VC (2016) World Council of Churches

5 Heather Heinzman Lear Making Disciples twice a month. 10 This internal focus also did not help congregations understand and relate to their unique context. I question whether these metrics are the key components required for a congregation to fulfil its mission of making disciples for the purpose of transforming communities and the world. How do we know if communities are being transformed to be more like the kingdom of God when we are only measuring factors inside the church walls? I particularly question evangelism being defined singularly as professions of faith, disconnected from spiritual formation and mission. Professions of faith are also equated with church membership, and this emphasis reinforces the internal focus of most congregations. While serving three different congregational settings in North Carolina, I faced the challenges of helping my congregations reach out to their surrounding communities as well as encouraging members at all ages and stages of faith to continue their path of discipleship. Each setting was very different, and each setting had a distinct culture both inside and beyond the walls of the church. Each setting also employed a unique operating theology or starting point for ministry. I needed to discern each church s baseline in order to develop an intentional teaching and preaching plan that would help them interconnect the various programs and compartmentalized ministry areas and live out their mission as a United Methodist congregation. In my current work, I often hear leaders lament that their congregations fail to put their beliefs into practice. What I discovered in my appointments was that the congregations structures and programmes were the direct result of their operating theology and what they understood the purpose of the church to be. They were putting their beliefs about Jesus and the church into practice, but their beliefs did not necessarily align with or focus them on the denominational statement. Definitions and Elements of Evangelism As churches attempt to engage in the practice of evangelism, William Abraham, in The Logic of Evangelism, identifies five common evangelism models that have been employed in recent years: 10 Kelly Shattuck, 7 Startling Facts: An Up Close Look at Church Attendance in America, com/pastors/pastor-articles/ startling-facts-an-up-close-look-at-church-attendance-in-america.html. Barna s numbers are the highest, at 40 percent. Additional studies show average worship attendance as low as 20 percent. Copyright VC (2016) World Council of Churches 9

6 International Review of Mission Volume 105 Number 1 July 2016 Evangelism as the public proclamation of the gospel. Evangelism as the converting of individuals to the Christian faith. Evangelism as recruiting and making disciples of Jesus. Evangelism as church growth and planting. Evangelism as public acts of mercy, justice, and peace. After an analysis of the positives and drawbacks of each model, Abraham proposes to integrate the five approaches, which I think is both helpful and necessary, into an overarching framework of the kingdom of God. According to Abraham, the primary focus of evangelism is to initiate people into God s kingdom for the first time. This understanding of evangelism can take many forms, including prayer, preaching, inviting people to join a small group, participating in acts of justice, handing out pamphlets, or a variety of other activities. All of these activities are opportunities to either communicate the good news of God s reign that Jesus proclaimed or initiate people into the ongoing journey and life under God s reign. 11 Scott Jones agrees that basing evangelism on the reign of God is a helpful step in providing a more holistic approach to understanding the gospel, but disagrees on the starting point or motivation. Jones argues that God s reign and the incarnation of Jesus come out of a motivation of love. Human beings are invited to respond to that love by accepting God s offer of a relationship and all of the new possibilities that offer entails. 12 Evangelism for Jones, then, is that set of loving, intentional activities governed by the goal of initiating persons into Christian discipleship in response to the reign of God. 13 I agree with Jones argument that evangelism should entail an intentional set of practices that does not conclude with conversion or initiation into the kingdom of God, but includes an invitation to a lifetime of discipleship. Henry Knight III and F. Douglas Powe further Jones understanding with their claim that Above all evangelism is about love; God s love for us in Jesus, our love for our neighbor, and the invitation to receive and grow in a new life that is characterized by love. 14 They affirm both Abraham and Jones in their work of helping to reclaim a Wesleyan understanding of evangelism by linking faith sharing and William J. Abraham, The Logic of Evangelism (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1989), Scott J. Jones, The Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor: A Theology of Witness and Discipleship (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2003), 33. Jones, The Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor, 114. Henry H. Knight and F. Douglas Powe, Transforming Evangelism: The Wesleyan Way of Sharing Faith (Nashville, Tenn.: Discipleship Resources, 2006), Copyright VC (2016) World Council of Churches

7 Heather Heinzman Lear Making Disciples Christian formation. Community is also essential to a Wesleyan understanding: helping each other to be more Christ-like by finding ways to strengthen relationships with God and neighbour. 15 In response to the recent history in the area of evangelism and how churches have responded through practice, in Is There a Future for God s Love? Knight unpacks three different emphases of evangelical theology in the last two centuries: apologetics, transformation or church renewal, and missional. 16 He argues that when congregations focus on one emphasis to the exclusion of another, they miss an important part of the Great Commission. The apologetic concern, or orthodoxy, helps people to understand who God is and what God has done as Creator and Redeemer. Yet, when this is the sole approach, it can become too abstract and disconnected from the current cultural climate. 17 For many Christians who embrace evangelism, apologetics has become the predominant understanding and purpose of the Christian faith. It is about having the right beliefs and acting a certain way. Church leaders in Jesus day taught faith through a complicated set of tasks and rules. Jesus simplified the message by boiling it down to two tasks: love God and love neighbour. The renewal approach, or orthopathy, enables people to grow in their relationship with Jesus and understand the church as the body of Christ. Without apologetics or mission, however, it can become too individualistic and inwardly focused. Renewal theology needs to be grounded in scripture and tradition, while examining God s activity in the world beyond the church walls. Renewal should be concerned with transformation: transformation of individuals as they enter and grow in their relationship with God through Jesus Christ, transformation of churches, and transformation of local communities where churches are located. 18 A narrow individualistic focus of this approach was primary in the last congregation I served, and as a result members struggled to connect their faith with the needs of the surrounding community. The missional approach, or orthopraxy, helps people understand how to live out their Christian life in the world and participate in God s own mission to the world. However, engaging in mission without being grounded in God s revelation and the transformation and new life offered through Jesus Christ might lead to moralism. People might not understand why they are engaging the world and could operate Knight and Powe, Transforming Evangelism, 33. Henry H. Knight III, Is There a Future for God s Love? (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 2012), ch. 1. Ibid., 28. Ibid. Copyright VC (2016) World Council of Churches 11

8 International Review of Mission Volume 105 Number 1 July 2016 out of motivations and principles contrary to the gospel. Without the integration of orthodoxy and orthopathy, the work of the church in a community is no different from that of a civic organization. While not a Methodist, Anglican bishop and scholar N. T. Wright offers helpful insight to the necessary integration of participating in God s mission with personal faith: To hope for a better future in this world for the poor, the sick, the lonely and depressed, for the slaves, the refugees, the hungry and homeless, for the abused, the paranoid, the downtrodden and despairing, and in fact for the whole wide, wonderful, and wounded world is not something else, something extra, something tacked on to the gospel as an afterthought. And to work for that intermediate hope, the surprising hope that comes forward from God s ultimate future into God s urgent present, is not a distraction from the task of mission and evangelism in the present. It is a central, essential, vital, and life-giving part of it. 19 The integration of all three approaches is necessary for a faithful witness and to embody the Wesleyan call to grow in love of God and neighbour throughout one s life. Most churches employ one of the approaches quite effectively, and some intentionally integrate two of the approaches. Jesus leadership style and methodology for evangelism was holistic and integrated and focused on the entire person. Jesus spent his time teaching, preaching, and healing, and he was concerned about the wellbeing of the whole person: physically, intellectually, and spiritually. He accepted people in their current situation, met their needs, and invited them to experience an alternative way of living. Impediments to Churches Fulfilling Their Mission I recently completed my doctor of ministry degree. The focus of my research was to determine what congregational practices are necessary to help our churches fulfil the denominational mission statement. For my project, I worked with six congregations of various ages, sizes, and geographic locations to determine if I could find consistent trends across United Methodist churches in the United States. The lack of a holistic understanding and practice of evangelism was evidenced in the following four findings: 1. The overwhelming majority of the participants were unable to articulate why Jesus is important in their lives and how offering Christ to another person would benefit their life. 19 N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope (New York: Harper One, 1989), Copyright VC (2016) World Council of Churches

9 Heather Heinzman Lear Making Disciples 2. The majority of congregations did not create intentional space for people to practise sharing their faith or foster an environment of authenticity where members felt they could be vulnerable and express struggles. 3. The majority of participants could not differentiate good works done by the church from those of a civic organization or non-christian. 4. The majority of participants indicated that their congregations were not known in their community and that mission opportunities were developed based on member preferences instead of community needs. As a denomination, we have a great deal of work before us related to disciple making, both in education and practice. Few congregations understand and employ the integration of invitation, discipleship, and mission in their contexts, and therefore struggle to fulfil their mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. In settings where people are not encouraged or provided with space to regularly share their faith journey, there is discomfort in sharing their faith with people beyond the walls of the church. Additional education around the congregation s responsibility and role in the local community is also critical. Because the denomination s focus for decades was bringing as many people as possible to the physical church building, congregations do not see the need or know how to go back out to the world to engage their neighbours. Until they are challenged with a different set of questions, I found most leaders did not realize what they do not know or that they possessed significant areas for growth. The September 2015 Evangelism in the City gathering in Sydney challenged me to think specifically about engaging the community and discipleship in an urban setting. My conversations with some of the aboriginal and indigenous participants from Australia and the Pacific Islands caused me to reflect on the importance of place and people. As they shared stories of the land and their people, I wondered how the church is providing place and belonging, particularly in transitory, growing communities. Sydney is a booming city, full of young people looking to define their identity and start their adult lives, not unlike many cities across the globe. Connecting in the City In my doctoral research, one congregation was an outlier to my findings: a new church starting in one of the United States largest cities. This congregation understood its context:church in an urban setting looks different from most of our established suburban and rural churches. In recent decades, young adults have accounted for the majority of growth in cities, and this congregation s primary demographic is young adults in their 20s and 30s. Copyright VC (2016) World Council of Churches 13

10 International Review of Mission Volume 105 Number 1 July 2016 As the founding pastors established this faith community five years ago, authenticity, vulnerability, and hospitality were key values. From its inception, this congregation has a designated slot for testimony in every worship service. The pastor explained that this time is not intended for only the mature Christians to share their story. This testimony time provides space for seekers to ask questions and people to share their struggles with tenets of the faith and their relationship with God. The rest of his team added that the openness to question and search creates a culture of authenticity and makes members feel comfortable inviting friends to worship who had negative or little church experience. This culture is also reinforced in the congregation s small-group ministry. When people start attending regularly, they are invited to join a small group for accountability and growth. One laywoman on the team shared that her small group not only meets weekly, but regularly checks on one another during the week, and provides support and encouragement through a closed Facebook group and text messages. Eleven of the 13 people present for the interview were involved in a small group. This church also had the clearest understanding of the integration of acts of mercy and acts of justice with their discipleship. With the average age of this congregation being in the 30s, and its location in a major city, members of this congregation had a serious interest in issues of social justice and making a difference in the world. The leadership of the church understood this to be a powerful connecting point for other young adults with a passion for justice, but little positive experience with church. Three of the people present for the interview initially became involved with the church through the congregation s justice ministry and later joined a small group. Conclusion As the mainline church continues to face decline, we can no longer assume that people who attend church on Sunday have been formed in the faith without creating intentional faith practices and education for all ages and stages of faith. Five of the six churches in my study did not create intentional space for people to share their faith and ask deep, theological questions. They also did not encourage or actively seek to place people in small groups for discipleship and accountability. Finally, congregations need help understanding that their purpose in making disciples is for the transformation of the world. Really loving like Jesus and meeting people where they are is the supreme characteristic in the reign of God. Creating authentic communities where people can find place and purpose is crucial as we seek to engage people everywhere, but especially in the city. 14 Copyright VC (2016) World Council of Churches