Jeremy Hoover

In his new book, Radical Together, David Platt touches on an idea that I've often considered: that churches encourage their people to so many good things that sometimes the best things get left out. He encourages us, when we evaluate an existing program or consider a new one, to ask "Is this the best way to accomplish our mission/goal/objective?" Sometimes, the good gets in the way of the best.

For example, consider the activity of many churches that have multiple meetings each week. You arrive early on Sunday morning for Bible class and stay longer for worship. You return Sunday evening for another worship time. You have a small group on the weekend. You teach a Bible study on Wednesday night. All of these things are good, but they may discourage you away from what's best because they take so much time and energy that you are left with little when you consider what your goals and objectives really are.

If Jesus taught us to make disciples of all peoples, how are we accomplishing this through what I call "meeting bloat" (as seen above)? While we are accomplishing many good things, the best thing--making disciples--may be going by the wayside even as we grow personally in our own faith.

So how can we fulfill this command of Jesus to make disciples? In my opinion, we do not do so by adding more commitments to our already (too) busy schedule. Consider this: what if we subtracted one commitment each week in order to convert that time to disciple-making time? What if you gave up teaching the Wednesday night Bible class (but still attended)? Suppose you only spent a couple hours each week preparing. Now that you've freed that time up, you have an extra two hours each week that you were already committing to Christian ministry that you can now commit to making disciples. Or suppose that you stopped attending Sunday evening worship service or your small group. Each of these choices can free up an hour or more that you can commit to making disciples.

Obviously I am not advocating that we stop supporting the programs of our churches. But it is not feasible to keep asking Christians to do more and more and become busier and busier. I am advocating that we take Jesus' command to make disciples seriously and that we do not allow the busy-ness of many churches (most of which is not commanded) to get in the way of that command.

Many of us already commit a large chunk of time to ministry activities. Consider how you can reallocate some of your already-existing ministry time towards an intentional and serious effort to make disciples.

This is for those who have ears to hear.

Yesterday I read the below quote in a neat little book called Words to Winners of Souls by Horatius Bonar. An older book, but still very valuable, as he calls the minister to true conversion and an accurate understanding of his job—not to deliver sermons and go on the occasional visit, but to work diligently in every way to convert people to God, and so to save them.

"To deliver sermons on each returning Lord's Day, to administer the Lord's Supper statedly, to pay an occasional visit to those who request it, to attend religious meetings—this, we fear, sums up the ministerial life of multitudes who are, by profession, overseers of the flock of Christ. An incumbency of thirty, forty or fifty years often yields no more than this. So many sermons, so many baptisms, so many sacraments, so many visits, so many meetings of various kinds—these are all the pastoral annals, the parish records, the ALL of a lifetime's ministry to many! Of SOULS that have been saved, such a record could make no mention."

Challenging. I pray that after 30–50 of ministry that I will not realize I have been ministering in vain.

See this thread that details my project to read at least 52 books this year. At that thread I list each book I've read and provide a brief summary of it. I'm writing these three brief book reviews in one post to provide a little more context.

The Missional Mom by Helen Lee

I read this book because it came highly recommended on a website I think highly of. Sadly, I was disappointed with it. Although I appreciated the variety of topics that Lee chose to write about, and her emphasis on her church, I was turned off by an incident related early in the book that I completely disagreed with. My view of this incident affected the way I viewed Lee's entire project.  Perhaps the most valuable lesson I learned from Lee's book is this: you can be both missional and a member of a "traditional" church. I already knew this, but I think many "missional" books underemphasize (or omit) this connection.

Update (2/14/2001): I want to be more positive about this book. As I've thought more about it, it was not right for me to largely dismiss the book because of what I disagreed with early on. In fact, Helen Lee has offered a very accessible primer on missional living. I don't have a particularly large collection of missional books, but of what I do have, Lee's book is perhaps the cleanest and simplest introduction to missional living. In other words, if I had to give someone one book on missional living out of my collection, I would more than likely give Lee's to a person.

Right Here, Right Now by Alan Hirsch and Lance Ford

I always enjoy reading Hirsch's books. Though I find them too theoretical for what they are, they are also filled with practical ideas and concepts. This book is no different. Hirsch wrote the first and last chapter and provides insights throughout the book. Ford wrote the majority of the book. The two worked out a good pattern--the book is engaging, interesting, theologically sound and theologically practical. I recommend it if you want to learn how to engage people in mission for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Church Planting is for Wimps by Mike McKinley

I loved this book! I'm finding that anything in the 9Marks series hits the mark, so to speak. McKinley was an intern at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., and followed Mark Dever's suggestion that he plant in a church in northern Virginia. His efforts led him and his wife to revitalize an already existing church, rather than plant a new one. This short book details how he went about the process of revitalization, with an emphasis on gathering around the word of God, maintaining integrity with the membership rolls, creating an accurate and useful statement of faith, and changing the church's constitution and by-laws to organize around biblical leadership (elders). A final chapter encourages a dedication to faithfulness, not numbers. Very encouraging! I highly recommend this book for anyone in church ministry.

It was interesting to read these three books inside of the same way. In my opinion, too many books written from a supposedly missional orientation leave the organizational church out. They include discussions of the church but with much more nuance. For example, Hirsch and Ford tell a story about a group who had bush walking as a hobby but could only meet on Sunday. This became their "church." I'm personally uncomfortable with designating this activity "church." That doesn't mean it's wrong; this is still something I'm processing as I study scripture and keep reading. To me, despite the problems I had with Lee's book, one strength was her ability to create a bridge between the organizational church and missional activity.

McKinley's book focused more on the outreach activities of the church as evangelism. In my opinion, many missionally-oriented books simply describe ways of evangelizing people with integrity. These writers and practitioners cringe at the traditional methods of evangelism, as do I. But evangelism can be done properly and with integrity. There is much to learn from the missional movement and their books about evangelism without throwing away the organizational church (despite its flaws). McKinley fills in these gaps and provides the necessary building blocks while maintaining a witness to the community around the church.