The Discipleship Handoff

Before I get to the Discipleship Handoff, I need to say a few more words about not cancelling church for Sunday services.  You have to ask yourself: what will you cancel, and what will you NOT cancel?

We had serious leaks at church because of ice dams on the roof.  But we worked hard Saturday-- thanks to Steve Vice, Rick Bradley, Johnnie Fryman, Dan Markwell, Jessie Mansfield and Junior Wilson for making sure the doors would be open and the church dry!

Did UK cancel the basketball game?  Nuff said.

Or not.  Sue Wells came into my office on Sunday and said how happy she was that we did not cancel church.  She said in all her time as an elementary student at Breck, as a student at MSU, and as faculty at MSU she only recalled 3 days missed for snow!  She said one Sunday there was a terrible snow and ice.  Randy said, "surely the weather is too bad for church..."  Sue said, "I asked him, 'do you think there will be work tomorrow?'  And he just went to the shower and got ready!"

Mike Adams did not cancel New Hope, our church plant in Menifee County last Sunday, and they had it worse than us.  He had to get a tractor to drag his car down to the road so he could get to church.  There was a small crowd, but a visitor came!  The new guy is in.  He was blown away they were open and that Mike would preach to 6 like he would to 1,000!

Donner had church at Headquarters.  His youth and children's ministry leaders were pumped because all the kids were there and they remembered what they learned the week before when all the other churches were closed.

BOOM!

The Discipleship Handoff.  This is too cool.  Johnny Bajusz was the first guy I baptized here, I think.  Mike Adams was instrumental in winning him to Christ.  Then Mike left to plant New Hope and Johnny had a new youth pastor, Adam Foster.  It would be easy for a kid to feel lost after the youth pastor who took him in goes.  But no, Adam fit right in.  Then Johnny goes to the Methodist Student Center at MSU, and Drew is there to pick up.  And Drew has disciple some dudes, Donner and Jacob Wilson, who helped Johnny navigate that first year.  Now Johnny is working as a youth associate at the church Donner pastors.

Those who know me well know I am no way near organized to set up a system like this.  I sure want to build on it, but the Holy Spirit is doing His work, the way only He can do!  In fact, I am starting to see it at work all over the place.  I am really going to rejoice when a kid Jessie has in children's ministry gets turned over to Adam, then to Drew, then to a call to ministry!  Discipleship is submitting every part of life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  Even, especially, our kids!

You know what I really, really want?  I am praying hard for a disciple-making movement that wins (takes back!) Eastern Kentucky for Christ!  And I also want to see this church send out evangelizing and disciple-making teams all over the world.  Just going APE planting churches and winning people to Christ.  We are on the edge... we need a push over it.  We need to not fear.  And we need to make sure we never say we've done enough and it's time to stop and focus on ourselves...

Another Church That Did Not Close

So... Mike Adams didn't cancel church at New Hope, our church plant in Menifee County, even with their more significant snow.  He had 6, I think.  But they were jazzed, one family saying they thought it was the only church in Menifee County that did not close.  What if Methodist churches became known for not closing?  I have to give a shout out to Ashley Petersen, who drove from Fleming County to lead worship.  From Fleming County, when everyone else was staying home.

The Day I Canceled Church

It was the first heavy snow of my first year at my first church, a little church in the hills outside of Winchester. I had a few church leaders call me and say that normally under such conditions, they canceled service. What did I know? So we canceled, and someone knew to let the tv stations know.

No church and there was our name on the tv screen. I guess any publicity is better than no publicity.

Later in the evening, another Methodist pastor called me. It was Eric Patterson, a guy who has become one of my favorite pastors for his gentle and honest insight. It seems I often run into Eric at hospitals-- he is just that kind of guy, taking the basic work of the ministry very seriously. Let's just say I have benefited from his advice over the years and have paid for it when I did not listen to him.

“I see you guys canceled church. How did that feel?”

I had not really thought about it, but as he asked me, I had to admit that it did not feel good.

“Can I give you some advice? Don't ever cancel Sunday Service.” He went on to lay out some reasons why I should not cancel services. I lived right next door to the church, so there was no reason for me to cancel. And even if I lived some distance away, leave early and drive slow to get there. If it is really bad, then you stay the night before with someone who is close by. He went on to say that you should tell your folks if they don't feel safe, by all means do not come, but church is open. And they probably should not be at Wal-Mart or the Mexican restaurant if it is too bad to get to church. You might find that some people whose church canceled, or who may feel they actually can't get to the church they normally attend, will visit your church that day. Not for you to steal them away, but to worship.

So you will know, the church was in the wildwood. On a winding, windy, hilly road, 12 miles out of town. Many of my people lived up more difficult roads.

I never canceled church again. Miss Alice, in her 80s, suffering from arthritis, would drive from town in the worst weather. And we did get some visitors who would come because we were close enough for them to feel safe coming to church. And we did not steal them away.

There were some folks who would come in week after and say they did not feel safe coming. And that is totally cool. One family, tho, got busted when one of the kids asked why they still went to Lexington... if it was so dangerous and all?

I have to confess. I do not understand the mania to cancel church. If there is snow on Thursday, it seems they're calling church off. On a day like today, it looks particularly foolish. The roads were clear. And again, if you don't feel safe, don't go. But the way we cancel church is embarrassing.  It feels like we are looking for a reason to not go to church.  I used to mess with my boss and "call in well" on a really nice summer day when I wanted to fish.  Oh, wait, we do that, too...

I try to preach this to the fellows we are sending out in ministry, to anyone I have mentored. (Except Chad Brooks, who is planting a church in Louisiana. He gets to ride his Harley to church. In winter. The bum.) Andrew Donner, a fellow who is at Headquarters UMC, a small church farther out in the country than my first church was, had folks wondering if they would cancel. No, he said. If you don't feel safe, don't come. But we are having church. It is a small church that he is leading to growth and revival. Anyway, they normally run about 17 people. 21 today, when everyone else is canceling because there's... no way to get to church...

Some Things I Need to Say

We have been working on hard on discipleship for a year or more.  We are starting to see some fruit using the pattern of the old Methodist Class Meeting.  We won't know for a while if it is truly fruitful-- only when we see people consistently involved and experiencing life transformation, being conformed to the Image of Christ.

But I also want to make sure that we don't miss that we have been doing this for some time, in other ways.

The men's prayer meeting on Wednesday mornings has functioned much like a class meeting for years.

Some Sunday school classes work very hard in terms of learning, fellowship, service, and most importantly, pastoral care of the members. This church would not function at such a high level without them.

The goal is to make discipleship a priority of the church, a commitment, not just something that happens here or there.

Pumped Up

Sunday, we had three baptisms, which was awesome.   I cannot thank the generous souls enough--you know who you are-- who gave the money to buy our baptismal pool. Adam Foster is our youth pastor, and his parents were in town.  His mom, Becky, had a great comment that his dad, Jeff, echoed.  We were standing around our baptismal pool after the crowd had thinned out a bit.  Becky said, "You must be really excited about all that the Lord is doing here... 3 baptisms, people coming forward to the altar..."  Jeff said, "That's a good day."

Amen to that.  But there's more.  The baptisms are the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.  The visible part of a move of the Spirit.

I mentioned to the congregation towards the end of the year that 20 people had left the church.  I told the church that I was happy they left.  There were some shocked faces... until I told them that the people who left are young men who have answered the call to ministry and are now serving some of our rural churches.  And they have taken wives, girlfriends and friends out to the churches with them to support them and play music...  I am really excited about people hearing a call to ministry!

We are in the process of trying to "change the scorecard;" not just counting "butts and bucks," but really paying close attention to how many people come to know Christ, how many are baptized, how many new members do we bring in.  You work towards what you celebrate, and so we are hopeful that putting evangelism front and center will help us catch fire!

Another part of the scorecard is discipleship.  We want to make sure people are becoming disciples, being disciple.  After so much prayer and a lot of people crying out to God that we want to go deeper, and show us how, Lord... we have "brought back" the old Methodist Class Meeting, the foundation of Methodism for 150 years... before we got too smart to need accountability and growth in grace.

It's another story how powerful something as simple as the old Class Meetings have been.  We set a goal that we wanted 50 people in such meetings by year-end.  We were at 42 last week, and every week brings someone new to a group or someone asking to form a group.  God is good.

So yes, I was pumped on Sunday.  But I am staying pumped up throughout the week, because I know something awesome.  We have been growing and reaching people, perhaps better than the average bear.  But it's not good enough!  It's ok.  But we have been doing it without a comprehensive discipleship plan.  Now we have that.  And we will be able to see these groups invite pre-believing friends to the rich fellowship and life-transforming power of Jesus Christ!  I think we will find it a lot easier to invite someone to our class meeting than to church.  When they come to know Jesus, when we are natural in our invitation to the Jesus-life, that is when we will see baptisms and on-going growth in grace!

Visiting Door-to-Door

I kept a journal for about ten years, 1998 to somewhere in 2007. Not exactly sure why I stopped. I have picked up the habit again.

I was reading through a section of it from when I served Dunaway United Methodist Church, outside of Winchester, KY. I came across something that may be of help in understanding why door-to-door visitation is so important.

I had an entry about a house I stopped at. It's strange I remember exactly where it was, and even some details about the house, even though the family never came to our church and I am not sure that I ever stopped there again.

A woman answered the door and I shared a bit about our church and was probing to see where she was spiritually, what doors might be open for a conversation about Jesus. Before I left, I asked her if there was anything I could pray for her about. She said yes, her 18-year old son was very sick with kidney problems. So we had prayer.

We often make excuses for why we don't do door-to-door evangelism. We say it is ineffective (which since most people who say this have never consistently done it, I am not sure why they say it is ineffective.) We say it is intrusive, an invasion of privacy, and Americans don't like that and they associate it with Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. I can answer from experience that very few people have ever been disturbed that I came by.

And more: there is such a great benefit. I got to pray with a woman with a deep concern for her son. I learned something about the community I lived in. When you add up all the homes I tried to visit and people I tried to talk to, I think I generally got a better perspective on what was actually happening than most other people.

If for no other reason than learning what is hurting and helping your community, learning what they pray for and praise, shouldn't door-to-door visitation be more of a priority? And was it not a great benefit to that mother? I have countless other stories of people who never came to the church but were blessed by a visit. And I also have countless stories of how many people did come to the church because of a visit to their house, being blessed by the knowledge that God cares, that His shepherds were out roaming the hills, gathering up the scattered flock! In net numbers, we grew by about 30 in worship in that little church. If you count my first year growing it down from 35 to 20, the net gain was closer to 45 or 50. And I am not sure how to count all the people who visited here and there for a season. Is it any wonder that one of the vows Wesley had his preachers take was to “visit from house to house?” We still take that vow, we are just not held accountable to it. In fact, it seems the majority of UM pastors don't think those vows actually mean anything!

After reading my journal entry, I was convicted that I need to get back out there. I realized I have not been as diligent about it this year. And here are some things to consider. Last year at Morehead, we had 20 professions of faith, bringing in 30-something new members. This year, 4 professions of faith and 12 new members. I get it, the Lord blesses how He's going to bless, so you can't just look at the numbers. But I think the numbers do mean something when you realize you were not out there as much as you needed to be. I let too many good things get in the way of doing the important thing! And how amazing is it that I have a lot of help in this work... more than I ever have had anywhere? Time to get serious about systematically using it!

We Had It, Then We Lost It

A few days ago I was at the Conference Office for a meeting. I was in Paul Brunstetter's office, looking at his and bookshelf. He had a Book of Discipline of the Northern Methodist Church from 1900. I am fascinated by the old Disciplines. They were short and the Bishops wrote compelling, convicting introductions. They stood firm for orthodoxy and historic Methodism. They wrote in the Bishops' Greeting something that I think should be very instructive and convicting to us. They were talking about the amazing amount of success the church was having, and had been having for about 20 years. They were in that phase of our history where we were opening a new church EVERY DAY. Can you imagine? Opening one new church every day. They were, in fact, close to opening two a day for a while.

They attributed their success to the very reason we have a Book of Discipline: our structure and organization (the METHOD in Methodist) was (WAS) geared to get out and evangelize, make disciples and gather them into churches. They attributed the success directly and unequivocally to “the itinerant preacher and the sub-pastorate of the class meetings.”

We had it.  Then we lost it.

The pastors weren't itinerant solely based on the Bishop moving them around. They went out looking for the people and places where Jesus was not worshiped as Lord. People would be gathered into small discipleship groups, and when there were enough of those, they became a church. In the times between the return of the preacher, the small group leaders provided pastoral care and encouragement for spiritual growth.

1900 was about 160 years after the Methodist movement started. 160 years after the Wesley brothers started, their movement had another outburst, of probably greater growth than the first revival! So a movement can still burn 160 years later! No doubt it can happen again. And it is, just not among the Methodists. We wryly say, “The Wesleyan movement is alive and well in the non-denominational church.” Other people have adopted the Method. I am part of a learning community from the Exponential Conference. It is my second go-round, learning from churches that are doing discipleship well. They are all working heavily with accountable small-group discipleship. Alan Hirsch, perhaps the foremost thinker in this movement says that all he does is “teach Methodism.”

I am hopeful that some may rediscover “the old paths,” and that individuals and churches here and there will start class meetings because they see and feel the life transformation. Perhaps it might even become so compelling that we re-adopt it again as the model for our churches!