Half-Built Towers
April 5, 2013 | By Chris Case | No Comments
While reading through Luke 14, I read verses 28-30 where Jesus is talking about discipleship and says:
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
How substantially different Jesus operates from how we opperate in Church today. I have so often looked forward to someone going from a nonbeliever to a believer, and as soon as they are ready, we ask questions like “Do you know you are a sinner in need of grace?” “Yes!” “Do you know Jesus died on the cross for sin?” “Yes!” The problem is, as David Platt points out, even the Devil could say yes to those questions. Jesus is challenging people away from making any sort of quick or emotional decision about following Jesus. Yet, we make the doorway in our culture to follow Jesus so wide and so shallow that I think so many have ‘made a decision’ to follow Jesus, yet lie in ruins. The great preacher John Stott has a great indictment about this:
The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict half-built towers. The ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish. For thousands of people still ignore Christ’s warning and undertake to follow Him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so. The result is the great scandal of Christendom today, so called nominal Christianity. In countries to which Christian civilization has spread, large numbers of people have covered themselves with a decent but thin veneer of Christianity. They have allowed themselves to become somewhat involved, enough to be respectable. Their religion is a great soft cushion. It protects them from the hard unpleasantness of life while changing its place and shape to suit their convenience. No wonder the cynics speak of hypocrites in the church and dismiss religion as escapism. – John Stott
As I have found in my experience, even within the traditional ‘small group’ model, there are often just 2-4 people that I may TRULY do life with. They were the people that I spent any considerable time outside of ‘small group’ with, who knew me well, consistently had dinners with, etc. They are almost always same sex relationships, often groups of about 2-4 men or 2-4 women who develop a framework for confession, accountability, encouragement, prayer, and support. An even small community that allows very high levels of vulnerability. LifeTogether RARELY has to be “programmed,” because most people often develop or connect with 2-3 close friends. It is simply looking at these relationship with the lens of discipleship and the Gospel.
The traditional small group model was birthed out of a good place, that is… Jesus’ model of intimate relationships. Jesus chose twelve men to follow him around, to go deep in spiritual development, and to be His disciples. In relationships of about twelve we develop dynamics including conflict, refinement, and bearing with one another in love that may not happen among the the smaller LifeTogether relationships. In these groups, there is an ability to walk together through spiritual disciplines, such as prayer, study of Scripture, fasting, and accountability. This also provides a context to plan, develop, and implement the larger LifeGatherings below, as well as pray, equip, and remind each other of the mission to make disciples. Most LifeGroups will meet 3-4 times a month.
Taking the definition from the previous post, this is truly the “Missional Community.” This is often groups of 30-50 and provides the ideal environment for building new relationships. Often these groups are formed geographically, but can also be focused on specific segments of society. Say a LifeGroup starts as a group of artists who really have a heart for the artist community within Atlanta. That same LifeGroup may start having LifeGatherings with other artists in the area with the intention of making disciples and proclaiming the Gospel to an artist community. Often these will occur over meals, just as the early church did (1 Corinthians 11: 20; Acts 20: 7) and Jesus did, so much so, he was even called a glutton (Luke 7: 34). Within these larger groups is where we socialize, serve, and celebrate, alongside nonbelievers or young Christians, as well as allowing them to see our joy, celebration, and love for each other. Most LifeGatherings will occur 1-2 times a month.
Eventually, as the pattern of meetings gets established, Resonate will begin to meet every week for the purpose of gathering all the LifeTogether groups which are part of LifeGroups which are part of LifeGatherings together to celebrate together. We will be ‘incarnational,’ representing the very body of Christ as we worship together. At these larger meetings, we will tell stories of how God is working in each missional context, pray for the larger needs of the city, mobilize and leverage the larger influence for larger mercy projects, celebrate the diversity of God’s people, and to continue to rally around the message of the Gospel of Jesus through teaching, songs, liturgy, and more. As people who have ‘Good News,’ this will often be a celebratory environment, but also recognizing the awe and wonder of the God who created all things.
