Are People Meeting Jesus?
And when you held feasts, was that for me? Hardly. You’re interested in religion, I’m interested in people. (Zechariah 7:6 MSG)
This morning I was invited to attend a Pastors Appreciation Breakfast. Free Breakfast? Are you kidding, I’m there! I end up sitting next to a fellow Foursquare pastor. He asks me how church is going. I excitedly tell him about our 7 Year Anniversary celebration at New Hope Seattle and the birth of the Nw
Hope North City church. He then asks me what I found has worked best regarding getting new folks to church. I thought about it for a bit. I thought about how we have tried mailers, and advertising in the local papers, big events, etc. Then I told him the only thing that has really resulted in people actually coming to New Hope Seattle and staying is other people. When New Hopers invite family, friends, co-workers and neighbors they are usually the ones who stick around, get involved, get discipled, invite others, etc. I said, “It turns out that what worked in the beginning is what works in the end.” Then my pastor friend resonated with that and relayed how he had been reading through the Gospel of John again. He marveled afresh at how Jesus called His ministry team together:
Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John’s witness and followed Jesus. The first thing he did after finding where Jesus lived was find his own brother, Simon, telling him, “We’ve found the Messiah” (that is, “Christ”). He immediately led him to Jesus. Jesus took one look up and said, “You’re John’s son, Simon? From now on your name is Cephas” (or Peter, which means “Rock”). The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. When he got there, he ran across Philip and said, “Come, follow me.” (Philip’s hometown was Bethsaida, the same as Andrew and Peter.) Philip went and found Nathanael and told him, “We’ve found the One Moses wrote of in the Law, the One preached by the prophets. It’s Jesus, Joseph’s son, the one from Nazareth!” Nathanael said, “Nazareth? You’ve got to be kidding.” But Philip said, “Come, see for yourself.” (John 1:40-46 MSG)
One guy meets Jesus and as a result of this naturally-supernatural encounter they want the ones they know to meet Him too and so the word spreads! Its so simple. Why have we made church growth and discipleship so complicated? This was the question God was asking His people through His prophet Jeremiah. Why have they chosen the complexity and confusion of religion over the simplicity and transformation of relationship with Jesus? I realized out loud with my friend that a big danger for me is introducing people to Church before introducing them to Jesus. It was not to the synagogue that Andrew, Peter, Philip & Nathanael were rushing to invite each other to experience. No, it was because they had. personal encounter with Jesus and it changed and charged them! Is it possible that I can sometimes send people away on a Sunday with a great experience of good music a well thought out message but never an opportunity to connect with Christ? Lord, forgive me for offering people hungry for transformation something less then You! Then the speaker, Bob Lapine of Family Life Today began to speak to this very issue: “We have bartered the real Gospel for a weak substitute. The real Gospel is about real change. The substitute is just about making people feel good about themselves.”. Ouch! Religion is not what is going to cause people to tell their friends and come back for more! This is not what God has called me to do. Instead it’s when the encounter is with the person of Jesus Christ that everything changes and consequently the world changes around me: Well, the message hasn’t changed. God-of-the-Angel-Armies said then and says now: “‘Treat one another justly. Love your neighbors. Be compassionate with each other. Don’t take advantage of widows, orphans, visitors, and the poor. Don’t plot and scheme against one another-that’s evil.’ (Zechariah 7:9, 10 MSG)
Lord, I pray that You would get all the glory for every good thing that has happened these past 7 years. I pray that people would meet You before anything else. Are people meeting Jesus? Let me be able to answer this question in the affirmative every time we gather in Your Name!
