Do the Word

The Participation/Engagement/Ownership architecture runs on sanctification software.

That is, absent a robust theology of sanctification, it doesn’t make any sense to talk about growing champions comprehensively in the likeness of Christ.

That’s particularly challenging for us in a day and age when no small portion of contemporary evangelical Christianity refers to the term “works” only perjoratively , in conjunction with the term “righteousness”.

Christianity today has a surprisingly hard time distinguishing between sanctification and works righteousness.

I say “surprisingly” because although some branches of the Protestant family tree may talk about sanctification more than others, all branches–whether Lutheran, Calvinist, Wesleyan, Anabaptist, or Anglican–have always historically affirmed that Christ not only frees us from the penalty of sin, but that He also progressively frees us from the power of sin.

In say “Christianity today” because I was absolutely shocked by Mark Galli’s article, We’ve Won the Lottery–Now What?, on Christianity Today’s website at the end of July.

Galli begins with a fair question:

Why does the evangelical community end up with sinners like Governor Mark Sanford (adultery) and Ted Haggard (immorality) and CEO Kenneth Lay (fraud) and evangelist Jim Baker [sic] (licentiousness)—to take but a very few examples!

His analysis?

What has gone wrong? The first answer seems to be that we are not thinking right or doing enough. Some put their chips on redefining the gospel in social terms; they assume the problem is individualism. Others bet on spiritual formation; the problem is that we’re lazy and spiritual disciplines point the way to a more godly future. Some say we need the dynamism of the Holy Spirit; the problem is formalism. Others plea for more accountability groups or more thoughtful worship music or more time in prayer or more of some other magic bullet. If we only do something more, things will improve.

We’ve tried all these, and tried them time and again. The lamentable conclusion seems to be that while the gates of Hades will never prevail against the church, the spirit of moral mediocrity has pretty much won the day. This is not to deny those wonderful moments when the church really acts like the church, when outsiders notice Jesus Christ as a result! Such moments are pure gifts, signs of the coming kingdom. But history suggests they are intermittent. The usual reality is that the church, from corrupt Corinth to amoral America, remains a sinful institution, full of sinful people.

Perhaps it’s time we try a new approach, and do less.

Inexplicably setting aside two-thirds of what the Apostle Paul actually wrote, Galli asserts:

The primary issue for Paul was not striving for transformation but resting in forgiveness. That he continued to sin, and sin woefully, was not as important to him as the fact that no sin he could commit was beyond God’s desire to forgive—nothing, not even his ongoing sinfulness, could separate him from the love of God in Christ! No wonder he lived in gratitude—doing less!

Since when did a robust theology and practice of sanctification become antithetical to justification by faith? Certainly not in either the New Testament, the Protestant Reformation, or orthodox Christianity through the ages.

It’s hard to get less controversial a resource than The New Bible Dictionary, which ticks off without hesitation the abundance of New Testament passages relating to the essential and praiseworthy nature of works in the Christian life:

The believer also demonstrates by his good works the divine activity within him (Mt. 5:16; Jn. 6:28; 14:12). Conversely, the man who has no faith demonstrates by his evil works his separation from God (Jn. 3:19; Col. 1:21; Eph. 5:11; 2 Pet. 2:8, etc.). Good works are therefore the evidence of living faith, as James emphasizes in opposition to those who claim to be saved by faith alone without works (Jas. 2:14-26). James is in harmony with Paul, who also repeatedly declared the necessity for works, i.e. for behaviour appropriate to the new life in Christ following our entry into it by faith alone (Eph. 2:8-10; 1 Cor. 6:9-11; Gal. 5:16-26, etc.). The works rejected by Paul are those which men claim as earning God’s favour and securing their discharge from the guilt of sin (Rom. 4:1-5; Eph. 2:8-9; Tit. 3:5). Since salvation is given by God in grace, no degree of works can merit it. The good works of the heathen are therefore unavailing as a means of salvation, since the man himself relies on the flesh and not on the grace of God (Rom. 8:7-8).

Wood, D. R. W. ; Marshall, I. Howard: New Bible Dictionary. 3rd ed. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill. : InterVarsity Press, 1996, S. 1249

Do we really want to submit Sanford, Haggard, Lay, and Bakker–and by extension adultery, immorality, fraud, and licentiousness among Christians–as evidence that we Christians have taken spiritual disciplines, accountability groups, and moral training too seriously?

Or is it possible that the church has, by and large, simply lost the ability to disciple Christians and that Apple Computer does a better job in this arena than we do?

Participation/Engagement/Ownership should never be diminutively understood as an organizational fundraising strategy. It is nothing less than an effort to restore works to their rightful place in the Christian life, in the context of a robust theology of sanctification that arises not in opposition to justification and forgiveness but rather as its boon companion, like thunder follows lightning.

Our Mission Increase Foundation free workshop/lab sequence for August/September is Marketing Your Ministry. (If you haven’t attended yet, do make sure to sign up now.)

One of the core concepts of the workshop is that in Transformational Giving, marketing is actually not the work of the nonprofit. Instead, it’s something we mentor our O-level champions to do as they spread the cause in their sphere of influence, recruiting new P-level champions for the cause.

The Signature Participation Project is the vehicle for that to happen. Typically we (the nonprofit) create it as a tool for our O-level champions, but they’re the ones who execute it largely on their own.

For a fuller explanation of what a Signature Participation Project is, and to learn about my former favorite Signature Participation Project, click here.

But let me tell you about my new favorite Signature Participation Project:

Secret Church.

The brainchild of David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama, Secret Church received a nice send-up in a Christianity Today post this week.

It’s well worth letting Pastor Platt set this up at length:

We have severely dumbed down the Word, and shown a lack of trust in the sufficiency of the Word in the way we preach. We find it necessary to supplement it with entertaining stories and quips or good practical advice for living the Christian life that are not based in the Word. This deficiency transfers into people content with a little “Word for the Day,” in a devotional book at best, as opposed to deep knowledge of Scripture.

We’re trying to hit at the problem from a variety of angles at Brook Hills. First of all, in worship we’re quoting the Word, singing the Word, and engaging in intensive study. We’ll study 55 minutes to an hour. We try to really saturate the community of faith with the Word when we gather together.

I go to other places, such as house churches in Asia, and they study for 11 or 12 hours, knowing they risk their lives. They’ll dive in deep. We came back and tried to do something similar here. We call it secret church and do it a couple times a year. We gather together for intensive study with no frills, nothing flashy, no entertainment value. The first time, about 1,000 showed up. We studied Old Testament overview from 6 p.m. to midnight, but usually it goes longer, supplemented by times in prayer for the persecuted church. It’s all ages, but the predominant demographic is college students and young singles. It’s grown to the point where we need to offer tickets at $5 for reservations and the cost of a study guide. We’ll do it again in October with 2,500 folks. It’s theological in nature. We’ve done a night on the Atonement, another on the doctrine of God. This time we’re doing spiritual warfare. It’s one of my favorite sights as a pastor to look out at 12:30 a.m. and see a room full of 2,500 people, their Bibles open, soaking it in.

Think of it like this:

How do you grow people in the cause of Hebrews 13:3, “Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering”?

Obviously it’s helpful to hear and read the testimonies of persecuted Christians. But Secret Church takes things one step further.

Through Secret Church–the simple act of gathering under cover of darkness for extended Bible study, punctuated by periods of prayer for the Persecuted Church around the world–participants participate in an act of solidarity with the Persecuted Church, namely, gathering together for intensive study and prayer.

From the Secret Church website:

When we think of “church” in America, we think of going to meet at a building, singing, praying and hearing a message from a Pastor or teacher. But in many places around the world, “church” meets in a home, an apartment, even in secret. These small groups of Christ-followers often meet for many hours in study, prayer and fellowship, as it is dangerous to travel to “church” and they want to make the most of their time together.

Best of all, though the Secret Church webpage credits Open Doors, one of the largest and most prominent nonprofits associated with ministry to the Persecuted Church, Secret Church is clearly not an event to promote Open Doors. In fact, the site links to a total of nine Persecuted Church ministries (the only one missing there is Seoul USA!).

Sum it up and say:

• Here’s a Signature Participation Project (SPP) that beautifully and brilliantly advances the cause and gives people a real sense of participation in it.
• The church is an Owner of the cause of Persecuted Church ministry. They’re doing this SPP. All the nonprofits related to Persecuted Church Ministry are part of the stage…not the actors.
• The SPP itself is a deepening of, not a deviation from the church’s core ministry of taking the Word seriously and engaging with it deeply.
• The whole thing is about fidelity to scripture, not just creative marketing.

An absolutely flawless SPP, with the church at the center of it all. Imagine!

We’re in the process this week of judging the Transformational Giving Implementation Award winners for the Mission Increase Foundation lapsed champion workshop/lab series we did earlier this summer.

The homework assignment?

Create a champion covenant and share it with a lapsed champion from your organization. Propose it as the basis for a renewed and rightly centered mutual accountability relationship designed to advance your shared cause.

(For a description of what a champion covenant is and why you’ll want to have one as you engage in Transformational Giving in your organization, click here for the Magnum Postus on the subject.)

I can’t reveal any of the winners yet, but there was a really well-done covenant that deserves honorable mention, even though it didn’t snag a prize. The authors were Colorado Springs-based Alpha Relief.

What I like about this covenant:

• It removes the we/you split between organization and champion. In this covenant, “we” means all those committed to the cause of the persecuted church.
• It’s comprehensive but not vague. It gives Alpha Relief a nice Participation/Engagement/Ownership discipleship framework.
• It nicely encapsulates the organization’s values. When I read this, I get a sense of what it would be like to be a part of what the covenant refers to as “the Alpha Relief family”.
• It doesn’t sound diminutive or silly or gimmicky. If I as a champion were asked to abide by this covenant and grow in the areas it outlines, I would feel like I was being asked to do something that would aid my Christian walk, not be ancillary to it.
• It’s specific to their cause. It doesn’t read like a generic champion covenant.
• It embodies Transformational Giving. We received more than a few submissions that were covenantal in form but traditional/transactional in approach, saying things like, “We will consistently thank you and gratefully acknowledge your prayer, material and financial support, providing appropriate receipts for your tax deduction purposes in accordance with existing federal income tax regulations”.

With that prelude in mind, here’s the covenant:

Alpha Relief Family Covenant

1. We make a commitment to do all we can do with what God has given us physically, emotionally, and spiritually to aid, serve, and ensure hope for persecuted Christians.

2. We make a commitment to continually pray for God’s persecuted ones, for their health, prosperity, freedom and strength.

3. We make a commitment to facilitate the growth of Christ’s underground, persecuted church through creative, organized and Divine means.

4. We make a commitment to uphold and encourage the Alpha Relief family members (staff, volunteers, supporters, partners) emotionally and spiritually, regardless of their level of involvement.

5. We make a commitment to be a resource for churches, organizations, foundations, or individuals who are seeking to serve persecuted Christians.

6. We make a commitment to honor Christ and exemplify his great love through our actions and words whether at work, home, church, traveling, or elsewhere.

Great work, Alpha Relief! You didn’t win a Mission Increase Foundation Transformational Giving Implementation Award, but for appearing in today’s blog you do win an ant in a matchbox and our enduring respect and admiration.

Now, dear reader, go and do likewise, creating a champion covenant for your organization!