Growing Churches & Multiplying Disciples in the Mega-City:  Are we up to it?

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One of the questions I have often pondered is how the church can grow in a mega-city?  There are plenty of people for sure. In some ways the modern city is like the first city of refuge, Babel, in that it is a place where people congregate for their security and livelihood. But mega-cities are at the same time scattered places. Distance, the tyranny of traffic, the isolation of high rise apartments, and the ubiquitous security defences tend to separate rather then bring people together.

How could the church grow in such an environment? With difficulty, is the short answer. The external and internal constraints are great. But before I get too far ahead of myself, some will ask why does the church need to grow? And which church are we talking about?

 

1. Which Church?

We could start with any local church. Does it need to grow? Does it want to grow? Some small churches want to grow so that they are big enough to sustain the kind of life that the members value. But once that size is reached the tendency is not to grow any more. Research indicates that traditional churches are unconsciously self-limiting. That is, there is an optimum number beyond which a church will not grow unless a different pattern of life is developed.

This first major limit is related to relationships. And although this is partly to do with members having relationships with other members, in fact it is mostly connected with the members knowing and being known by the minister. There is a limit to the number of people who can become spokes in this minister-centric wheel.

Beyond that a different method is required. Most of these methods involve breaking up the congregation into smaller units in which the same kind of relationship recognition can take place. Some churches focus on programs designed to meet the needs of particular interest groups – each with their own significant leader. Others develop extensive small group networks. Some combine either of these with large concert like meetings where the sense of belonging happens on a different level.

However, growing the church may not be the best way to express the question because it leads us to think about particular congregations getting larger. While this is generally a good thing, the main question is not primarily about the church.

A better way to approach the question may be to ask how the disciples of Jesus can multiply in a mega-city, and if they did multiply, what would be the best way for them to meet as the church.

2. Making disciples

Once we talk about multiplying disciples we are taken back to the mandate Jesus gave his followers (Matt 28). And we are faced with a personal decision about whether we want to do what he said. In some ways talking about church, and especially about church services, is much easier because it allows us to talk about structures and methods. But making disciples involves talking about the message and people.

Well not talking about it, but doing it. How can disciples multiply in a mega-city? Some would read this as a methodological question also. And it is in a way. But it is not really our question. Because the multiplying of disciples is in the first place the responsibility of the Master. He is the one who has to decide on the method. The disciples should follow the method the Master taught them. And the method the Master modelled and taught was to make disciples by teaching and practising the message, and to use disciples to do it.

Disciples are the method. And the tools they have are just the message of repentance and forgiveness that Jesus taught them (Luke 24), and the power from the Holy Spirit which he gave them for the task.

In fact the evidence suggests that it is the Holy Spirit who directs the disciple-making process. The spread of the message in Acts is obviously directed by God. Paul seems to have thought of a tactic in that he visited the synagogue first when he went to a new town. But the big strategy was not planned by the disciples. Church history, I think, suggests the same.

No doubt the Holy Spirit calls disciples together to work in teams, to engage in cooperative ventures to take the gospel to all the nations. No doubt church fellowships are stirred up to act together to bring the message to their community, and to send some to the outside to make disciples of alien groups. But the cooperative ventures are not the heart of disciple-making.  There are three central parts: disciples, the message, and power from the Holy Spirit.

But how does it happen?

 

3.  How does disciple-making happen?

How does disciple-making happen? Mysteriously I suppose, but essentially through talking. You can see the pattern in Jesus’ ministry – he was always talking. Even his miracles of healing involved discussion, explanation, rebuke.

Jesus taught his disciples to talk, to proclaim, to announce a great event. He gave them the words for it, he spoke about the Kingdom of God being on their doorstep. He taught them how to make sense of the promises in the Old Testament. He taught them what the key ideas were, and what was the basis of their life as disciples.

And he left them to it – to talk about him. And talk they did, and write. And as they spoke many who heard them believed what they had to say. And they turned to Jesus in repentance and trusted his death for their forgiveness. And then they joined the disciples and learnt how to be disciples themselves.

Even a highly educated and eloquent man like Apollos was discipled by Priscilla and Aquila so that he understood better what to talk about. And then he really spoke. Arguing and debating and proving from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

The pattern of Jesus and his disciples is very clear. Discipleship begins by hearing. Making disciples begins by talking. Most of us are quite good at talking although we usually talk more easily about some things than others. The kind of talking we are talking about here involves talking about Jesus. And about the scriptures.

And in the face of severe censorship. One of the minor trends in world Christianity is the increase in secret believers. These people are generally identified as former members of other religions whose lives would be in danger if their community knew they were Christians. So they live secret lives in which maybe only one or two others know they are Christians.

But there appear to be many secret believers in western countries where there is no threat at all to their life.  What there is, is hostile antagonism, intimidation and ridicule so that Christians are frightened to talk about Jesus. It is as though to talk about him is to commit a huge social sin: to bring into public what should be kept as a private matter.

But that is exactly what being a disciple involves. Bringing into the public sphere the wonderful story about Jesus. It involves shining a bright and disturbing light into the dark world that prefers lies and fantasies to truth.

But it is not done by disciples on their own. They are not left to their own strength and devices. They get help – or are they the help?

4. Help for disciple-making

Disciple-making involves telling the wonderful story about Jesus in public and in private.  But who is responsible for this? The excellent answer is, not us.

This is God’s responsibility, but we are his agents, servants, messengers, explainers, persuaders, witnesses. We are his help. He is the great evangelist who comes himself into the public life of his world and into the secret places of the hearts of humans to whisper and shout and shine his own light.

He does this because he is Spirit and it is the Holy Spirit sent from the Father who brings the Father’s message. But he does this through human speech and words, spoken and written by humans. We human messengers and the Holy Spirit work together in the great task of making disciples.

That is one reason Jesus told his first disciples to wait until they had been clothed with power from on high. It was no use them rushing off on their own to tell the great message about Jesus – they would have got nowhere – unless it was prison.

Instead they had to wait until the divine messenger came upon them and filled them so they could speak for him. And when the Spirit came, speak they did. In fact Luke’s version of the story makes clear that the major impact of the coming of the Spirit was to help them speak - which makes sense since the Bible portrays the Spirit of God as a speaking Spirit.

What was true for the first disciples has been true for all the disciples since. Our work as messengers, agents, explainers and persuaders has to be done under the power and direction of the Holy Spirit, since the Spirit is the primary evangelist. We are the help.

But we are helpers at the front-line. Amazingly God has decided to use ordinary humans as his main spokespeople. Ordinary people who speak for him. Just as the Father chose to send the Son as an ordinary human, so he has sent ordinary humans as speakers on his behalf. Because he wants to express the message in ordinary human speech so ordinary humans will obey it.

And he has sent out all his people, not just some of them. He is engaged in saturation evangelism. Sending every kind of disciple so as to reach every kind of fellow human. And what if some are not very good speakers, or not very bright, or too frightened, or too ignorant? It doesn’t seem to matter to the Father because those are the kinds of people he wants as disciples of Jesus, the same as the ones he asks to pass on his message. But what is his message?

 

5.  What to say?

So what if some are not very good speakers, or not very bright, or too frightened, or too ignorant? Or live in what we could call a restricted context?  None of this seems to trouble the Father because he calls all those kinds of people to be disciples of Jesus, and places them just where he wants them. And gives them the message that fits them and their context.

So does that mean the message varies? Undoubtedly. But only in the way it is formed and applied. The apostles obviously adapted the message to suit the people they were speaking to (compare Acts 13 and 17 for example). But the core of the message remained the same and its central application was also the same.

The core always concerns Jesus. He is the Christ, the Lord, the one who died and was raised. He was spoken about by prophets, promised, sent and anointed. When we start to talk about Jesus, his God and Father gets drawn into the message because it is the Father who sent the Son. And the life and forgiveness that is promised through the Son is given and comes from the Father and the Son.

 

Furthermore the message promises that the presence of the Father and Son will be with the disciples in the person of the Holy Spirit who is sent from the Father. So the core of the message exposes the true God into whose name the disciples are baptised, the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This God is to be worshipped, loved, obeyed, and trusted.

And what are the hearers to do? They are called to change their attitude to this God so that they do actually worship, love and obey him. The message calls on people to change their mind and attitude and consequently to change their behaviour. But such a change also requires pardon – obviously because of the fundamental lack of worship, love and obedience on their part towards God.

God has to find it in his heart to forgive them. God loves them – no doubt. But can he just forgive as though nothing had happened, without any consequences? Can he act as though there was no justice or right and wrong? Would this not be the worst kind of favouritism? The message at its core also tells how God put forward his Son as a sacrifice of atonement. It tells us that forgiveness is possible because the Son willingly laid down his life for us. And that leaves disciples in considerable debt.

6.  Facing the world

The Son willingly died for our sins. That is part of the core of the message that gathers people into churches. But it places disciples in an entirely new position.  Paul put it this way, “we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” 2 Cor 5.14.

Disciples are dead people granted a new life by Jesus who took them to death in his death, and raised them to new life in his resurrection. Disciples have no claim over their lives anymore. They owe their life to Jesus. In fact the life they are living is not their life but rather his life which he is living in them. This means they can only sustain this new life by trusting Jesus to continue to live his life in them.

They are on a perpetual life support system. But an utterly reliable one which provides an entirely different kind of life – a life lived in the company of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and filled with the life of the living God.

Now that their life is under the direction of Jesus – in what direction is it facing? It is facing in the direction not of heaven but of the world. Disciples are being sent to all parts of the world – to all the nations and ethnic groups. And to all the different kinds of people in those groups. They are being sent specifically to make disciples from those groups.  And the variety of those who are sent matches the variety of those they go to. Remember that the responsibility for this lies with God. It is God who matches the talkers with the hearers. You may not think you are much good at telling the message, but the Father knows who you will be good at talking to, and he will bring you together.

Disciples are sent to make disciples. And to gather them together into churches. The disciples that Jesus first gathered were called to be together. More than called. They had their life through their relationship with Jesus. They were necessarily together as part of him. No wonder that Paul could describe the group of disciples as the body of Christ. They realised that they were the embodiment of his life.

Jesus had already given them some instructions about this. He said that people would know that they were his disciples by the fact that they loved one another as he had loved them.

The gathering of the disciples together therefore has them facing inwards as well as outwards. Always going out with the message from the Father and gathering together in the body of the Son where the Spirit of God meets with them and builds them together as one body. And that building together is one of the hardest parts of discipling.

 

7.  Facing in

We began this discussion by asking how the church can grow in a mega-city. One of the difficulties concerns making disciples. But this difficulty is not peculiar to the mega-city. Indeed it may be easier in a big city where traditional customs and habits are looser and where people are already adapting to new ways of life. But the gathering of the disciples into churches where they can build each other up is difficult.

I take it that the heart of church is fellowship and growing together in Christ. This is because church is the meeting of Jesus’ followers in which they can be his fellowship and enjoy and share his life.

Because we are not yet in heaven, this gathering also has a focus on helping the body and the individuals grow up into Christ, so that individually and together they become more like Jesus (so that the world can see by their love for one another that they are Jesus’ disciples and not disciples of someone else).

Paul thought that one of the main purposes of meeting as church was to edify or build each other up (1 Cor 14). And he thought that this was something that each person had some role in. The bible does not seem to have any concept of passive attending of meetings nor of disciples being entertained. It does have a strong view of them being edified – primarily through the ministry of the word of God to each other.

Once again Paul, who had a lot to say, thought that although this might be done in a major way by prophets, apostles and teachers, it also was to be done by all the members of the body in some way (eg Col 3.16). That is why the dominant idea of church in the New Testament is meeting.

Disciples need to meet if they are going to be built up together. And when they do meet, they need to be able to talk to each other about what builds them up – that is, the word that has come from God. And they need to pray for each other, and encourage each other, and bear each others burdens, and teach each other. And now we are getting closer to one of the main problems facing disciples and churches in the mega-city.

8. Facing up

Large cities usually have serious transport problems. In order for people to meet together they need to travel. And travel is one of the things that tire people in big cities. So there is often a reluctance to make yet another journey. Especially if the journey is over an unfamiliar route.

But a difficulty is not an impossibility. The physical problem of meeting depends in the first place on a desire and intention to meet. Without the decision of the mind and will, that meeting with the other brothers and sisters is a core part of being a  disciple, the physical difficulties will be used as excuses to hide the real commitment (ie that meeting is not important).

But with the desire and intention, the real physical difficulties need to be overcome. Sometimes they have to be overcome with patience and effort. Most people in big cities do go out, they do go to events and meetings if they want to. But if disciples are to meet regularly they may need some strategy. Obvious strategies are to meet with people who live or work in the same location, or to meet at times when traffic is less of a problem.

Of course Christians are not the only ones affected by traffic. Everyone in the city is. So there is competition for meeting times. The reality is that there is a limit to the number of time slots a person has. There is a limit to the number of off-peak time slots as well. Which means that disciples are making choices about which meetings or events they will use their time and energy for. And for most people there are many choices – of meetings, activities, entertainment, recreation. Many things that make demands or offer benefits. I think traffic is not the main issue for most people, rather it is the wealth of options they have.

It is easy to adopt a sort of fatalistic approach to this question. But in fact we all have choices and we all make choices. Disciples need to face up to their choices.

Developing strategies for meeting as God’s people is important if the church is to grow in the big city.  But strategies for meeting also imply strategies for multiplying meetings – after all where will the new disciples go when they change their mind and start following Jesus?

 

9.  How to meet

So far I have referred to meetings rather than church services. Church services ought to be a form of meeting. In the Anglican tradition they are meant to serve the goals of building up God’s people by the regular hearing of the Word of God, by the confession of sin, by the prayers and by bringing our praise and thanksgiving together.

And although we ought at all times humbly to acknowledge our sins before God; yet ought we most chiefly so to do, when we assemble and meet together to render thanks for the great benefits we have received at his hands, to set forth his most worthy praise, to hear his most holy Word, and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary, as well for the body as the soul. From the Morning Prayer Service of the Book of Common Prayer 1662

These traditional Sunday meetings of the church serve valuable purposes because they bring many together to hear the scriptures and to praise and pray together.  They allow disciples to recognise and be encouraged by the fact they are part of a larger group. But the larger meetings do not need to be restricted to Sundays. And they do not need to be especially large (although they could be). One of the difficulties with church size (as I said earlier) is that congregations are self-limiting because of the fellowship relationships in the church.

One of the ways to allow more disciples to join in is to multiply the number of church meetings of this size. This also fits the reality of  the mega-city because it allows the large meetings to be spread around in different localities. Mega-city churches do not have to be mega-churches.

In any case a normal Sunday church meeting is already too big to do some of the things that are crucial for the life of the church. The mutual ministry of the word of God, the praying for each other, the bearing of each other’s burdens happen better in small gatherings.

The church in the days of the apostles met in homes (there was usually no other place). Later, when Christians were allowed to build or to use large buildings, the nature of their meeting changed – but not necessarily for the better.  The gain also reflected a loss.

One of the ways that the church can grow in the mega-city is by multiplying small meetings of the church. And not only in homes, but also in work places, and in any public places that a dozen people can meet in peace.

But the problem that faces the larger meeting also faces the small meeting. Fellowship relations in the group tend to close the group to new people. And in fact although new people can be drawn in, there is a numerical limit. More than about 12 people in a small group means that some will become non-participants, and will gradually drop out.  So what is the answer?

10.  Multiplying

The solution to this brings us back to one of the main issues for disciples in the church. The multiplying of disciples implies the multiplying of churches. And just as the making of disciples is an intentional activity directed by the Spirit of Jesus, so is the multiplying of churches.

Some churches have multiplied by dividing. Disputes, power struggles, bad teaching have regularly led to church splits. This is not a good way to multiply churches. However some evidence suggests that new disciples find it easier to enter new churches than ones that are long established.

So one of the challenges for small and large church meetings is whether in the process of making disciples we can commission a starter core of a new meeting that can more easily draw in new disciples. In my experience this is an effective strategy. But it has to overcome the unwillingness of people to leave behind some relationships in order to make new ones.

This is one of the difficulties of the mega-city. It is fluid. People come and go. Relationships are temporary. So we want to hang on to whatever relationships we have.

But the world and life is temporary. By contrast the fellowship of God’s people is eternal. We are part of a heavenly church that includes all those who belong to Jesus. Wherever we go we find we are part of the same fellowship. A fellowship that is being continually renewed and increased.

So although close friendships are very helpful in a city that is always changing (especially if you are a temporary expat), the desire to multiply disciples and churches does not mean the death of friendships, but rather offers the promise of increasing them.

The call of disciples is not to live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. And his primary call is still to make disciples from among all the nations. And to build them up into unity in his body.

11. Conclusion

We have been discussing making disciples and the building up of the disciples in the one body of Christ through the meetings of the church. We have not been discussing the importance of church activities or programs. In many modern churches, the activities of the church can become not only the centre but the whole of a Christian’s life.

But God’s call on our lives takes us into many vocations and occupations. For some disciples their main ministries will be connected with building up the church. Others will be called to help with the household tasks of the church. But others will be called to minister for Christ outside, in the workplace and in the public life of their society.

All of us however are part of the group of disciples whom God is using to call others to himself. All of us are part of the one body of Christ into which he has baptised us by his Spirit. So all of us have a share in these ministries. All of us need each other, all of us are needed by the others so that we can grow up into Christ and be encouraged and supported.  All of us are God’s helpers in bringing his message and calling others to be disciples of Jesus too.

Copyright © Dale Appleby 2009