Five Characteristics of an Unstoppable Church

I just finished a teaching series on the book of Acts with our church, and it has me pretty fired up. Acts is the story of the early church, the first group of people who were radically committed to Jesus and his teachings. As we read through this book we discover a church that was simply UNSTOPPABLE!

They grew like crazy, shared their possessions with one another, healed people, raised up leaders, saw the movement's top enemy become one of its greatest leaders, and crossed cultural and ethnic boundaries with the Gospel. And the whole "from Jerusalem...to the ends of the earth thing"...they actually pulled that off!

Yet too often we talk about Acts as if it were the "good ol' days." Remember when God did that? Wouldn't it be awesome if God used the church in that way again? I may be nuts but I actually believe that the church wasn't just unstoppable 2,000 years ago, but that it can still be unstoppable today, and if we really believed this and tapped into the power of the Holy Spirit we would experience some incredible things. So are you part of an unstoppable church? Here are a few characteristics to guage where you're at.

1. An unstoppable church is full of transformed people who transform the world.

We like the idea of changing the world and even believe that God has called us to join him on this mission. We don't however like the idea of personal transformation as much. Yet, we will not experience being agents of transformation in our community and world unless we're transformed anew by God ourselves. Transformed people bring about transformation in the world. If you want to change the world then allow God to change you first.

2. An unstoppable church has a sense of mission.

To be on mission literally means to be "sent." As the church we are a "sent" people, not a "stay" people. Imagine that someone sent me to go and find the best chicken wings in the world, paid my expenses, gave me a map of every chicken wing place, put me up in posh hotels, and provided a private jet. But instead I simply gather some friends once a week and sing about our love for chicken wings and then listen to someone talk about chicken wings for 30 minutes? That would be ridiculous! Jesus has invited us on his mission to rescue and redeem the world from its brokenness and when we reduce this to just an hour-long service once a week then we're not on mission. Our weekly gatherings should only further encourage and empower us on this mission.

3. An unstoppable church communicates a clear message.

When we read of Paul's missionary encounters in Acts his message his laser-sharp. It's all about Jesus: his death and resurrection and the need for humanity to repent and live in the way of Jesus. Our churches become stoppable when we muddy the message by colluding it with some political or moral agenda, or we water it down so as not to offend anyone. Keep the message clear and about Jesus and make sure people know what the heck you're talking about.

4. An unstoppable church depends on the power of the Holy Spirit.

If we're honest with ourselves too many churches depend on the giftedness of a few people. We gather some talented musicians, a dynamic and engaging speaker, and throw some funds at a first-rate children's ministry and then we're successful. The problem is take away a few musicians, the gifted speaker, and the money and the whole thing collapses. The early church didn't have the best band (consider a 4-piece harp band), the most gifted speakers (unschooled and ordinary men), or the best facilities, but they had the HOLY SPIRIT and incredible things happened! If you're a part of a small church with only a few gifted people, no funds, a deteriorating facility but you have the Holy Spirit, then you have everything you need to be UNSTOPPABLE! (I would still address these other things though).

5. An unstoppable church is bold and courageous.

Let's just say that there really is a Holy Spirt and that he really does give us power? Shouldn't we be bold and courageous? Shouldn't we confront injustice head-on? Shouldn't we be reaching out more to those in need? Shouldn't we be speaking truth into the lives of our friends and family? Shouldn't our marriages be more in tact? Shouldn't we actually expect God to do big things in and through us? Too often at the first sign of discomfort we shrink back, get in the fetal position, and cry for our mommies. Christ-followers should be the most courageous people on the planet!

We're not called to be an "Acts" church; we're called to be a church where the Holy Spirit acts and when the Spirit acts we are unstoppable!

So what is stopping you?

Fish Wars and Engaging the Culture

I became a Christian at age 15 and very quickly entered into the American Christian subculture. I traded in my Snoop Dog and Bone Thugs and Harmony albums for the latest popular Christian music. I put a Jesus fish on my car as well as some of the clever bumper stickers available at the local Christian bookstore: "My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter," and the always popular "Warning: In Case of Rapture this Car will be Unmanned." Soon after entering into this new world I began to observe that there were some who didn't particular care for such expression of religious commitment. They had their own fish and stickers as well. Only their fish grew legs and said "Darwin" inside of them, and their bumper stickers said things like, "Born Once, Doing Just Fine," and "In Case of Rapture Can I Have your Car?" Some of them even had Darwin fish eating Jesus fish, while others on "our" side had bigger Jesus fish eating Darwin fish.

Finally I began to ask some questions. Why all the fish wars? Why all the bumper sticker battles?

When it comes to the culture that we live in I believe that the church typically responds one of three ways:

1. Run Away and Hide. We run from the culture and as a result we simply create our own. Our little culture is safe with its own language, music, t-shirts, and other cultural artifacts. Often times what happens is we end up living in this Christian bubble where the only people we ever interact with are...other Christians. We don't really realize it but we actually begin to look weird to others. Yet, remember what Jesus prayed for his disciples the night before he died, "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one." (John 17.15) This is a good theological approach for responding to the culture.

2. Roll Over and Go to Sleep. This is the other extreme. Some Christians simply throw up their hands and say, "this is just the way things are and there isn't much we can do about it. Let's just not worry and let these cultural fads pass and we'll be ok." The problem is that this is a dangerous slippery slope as especially evidenced in youth culture. When we just ignore the culture and the message its sending our kids grow up with a very mixed idea of what it means to be a follower of Christ. The top influence in a young person's life isn't the church, nor is it their parents. Its the media and the messages that it carries. When we roll over and go to sleep the media becomes the prophet of our day, and their message can be a dangerous one.

3. Defend the Faith. Another response is to defend the faith and wage holy war on the evils of culture. In this response we get angrier, louder, and more hostile in efforts to rid the world of its evil. We see this in picket lines outside the abortion doctor's office, or the in the guy driving around in the herse with hurtful words painted on the side and being spewed through the bullhorn. This isn't very loving and it isn't very attractive and it only further confirms how weird and out of touch with reality we can appear.

I want to suggest another option.

4. Engage the Culture. The best option is to engage our culture with the redemptive good news of Jesus. This means we seek to understand our culture, and then lovingly speak truth into it. We become students, not critics. We listen to the stories of others before telling our own. And we always lead with love. A great example of this is Paul speaking at Mars Hill in Acts 17. He stands up among a sea of idols and instead of judging the Greek philosophers he affirms that they're very religious, he validates their spiritual quest, BUT he also uses this as an entry point to share the story of Jesus and his resurrection. Just listening and loving is not enough. We only fully engage the culture with the good news when we actually tell it, but this must always begin first with LISTENING and LOVE.

Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn't just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it! 1 Corinthians 9.19-23

So let's burst our bubbles, step out into our culture and lovingly engage it with the redemptive message of Jesus.

God is good, and we're ok.

A friend of mine recently gave me a book to read titled Sowing, Reaping, Keeping: People Sensitive Evangelism. This book by Laurence Singlehurst ended up being an unknown treasure for me.

I've learned that "evangelism" can be a bit of a scary word in church circles, and for the most part I can totally understand this. On the one hand we try to make it too simple by teaching some rote acronym for people to spout off. The problem with this is that once the person is taken off their script they're doomed. On the other hand we make it as if a person need's a degree in systematic theology to be effective in evangelism.

What I loved about this book is that it uncomplicated evangelism while still retaining its importance and depth. Often times Christians feel as if evangelism is this one-time event where we must "seal the deal" with someone. Share a few truths, have the person pray a little prayer, and boom...we have a new Christian! Singlehurst reminds us that this is instead a process, and long before we present the message of Jesus to someone, it helps if we first become their friend. While elements such as sin, forgiveness, and grace are important, most people are wrestling with whether God exists at all and for the most part find Christians to be well...a bunch of nutjobs.

This little book recommends that before we share the content of the gospel with someone, evangelism begins as we develop a relationship with a person and demonstrate to them that God is good, and we (Christians) are ok. We're not weird, socially awkward people, who only watch rated G movies and who always talk about the "end times." (a waitress recently went on a diatribe about this with me and I was even weirded out, and we're on the same team!)

So if you are into Jesus and want to tell others about him here's my suggestion: go hang out with some people who don't go to church. Be kind, generous, fun, and authentic around them, commit to doing this for a while (like months, maybe even years), and sooner or later they might begin to see that God is good, and you're ok, and they might even be intrigued to ask more questions. And I highly recommend this book.