Going Full Circle: Worship that Moves Us to Discipleship and Missions

Diagrams

Diagram 1—Going Full Circle

Diagram 2—Worship Full Circle

Diagram 3—Discipleship Full Circle

Diagram 4—Missions Full Circle

Diagram 5—The Circle of Mission Strategy

Diagram 6—The Circle of Spiritual Growth

Foreword

Why Do You Go to Church?

By Charles Billingsley

Why do you go to church? Why are you a part of a church? What’s the point of this whole thing, anyway?

I was brought up in the church. In fact, I was a Southern Baptist nine months before I was born. All I have ever known is church life—not only its culture, politics, quirkiness, and ugliness, but also its beauty and the heart of its mission.

I have lived long enough and been in enough behind-closed-door meetings to know that what happens on the platform Sunday morning does not always represent what is happening Monday through Saturday. Whether it be problems related to relationships, money, numerical growth, spiritual growth, or whatever, it seems all local church bodies go through a myriad of issues on almost a weekly basis.

Part of this is due, of course, to the fact that we, as believers, have a great adversary in Satan, and he does not want the church to succeed in any way, shape, or form. He likes nothing more than to fill our sanctuaries and the lives of Christ followers with innumerable distractions. He uses everything from busy personal schedules at work to squealing monitors on a stage to try to distract us from our worship experience and ultimately our true calling as believers.

But I believe the rest of it can be attributed to an overall spirit of indifference. As I travel the country, and having been in almost 2,000 churches now, it is rare that I encounter a body of believers whose focus is outward to the community. Rather, the focus tends to lean inward toward ourselves. In so doing, we have missed our true calling as the children of the living, redeeming, almighty God.

Our true calling is really quite simple. We find it first in Deuteronomy 6:5. Then we see it again in Matthew 22:37 and Mark 12:30. Our true calling is to love the Lord our God with all our hearts. As all Sunday school children are taught, this is the greatest commandment. This is truly what it means to worship God, simply to love him with a lifestyle that honors him and blesses him. To do so in every aspect of our lives is to live the greatest commandment. However, Jesus added another great commandment to this first one. He also said to love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:31). This is called the second greatest commandment. There is no hint of indifference in either of these commandments. So, if we are going to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, then the natural outflow of that will be that we love others as he loved us.

But this is where the trouble begins. Granted, self-focus is usually not the mindset of a new Christian. In fact, most new adult Christians have just been rescued out of a lifestyle of sin that had held them in bondage and misery, so they are free for the first time and can’t wait to share the good news of what Jesus has done in their lives. No, this indifferent mindset doesn’t set in until we have been in church a little while. It takes a few years, but once the initial emotional charge has simmered, all this new convert has to do is settle into a life of weekly church-going. It is here that he or she can develop a new set of friends, a new system of values, a new repertoire of songs, and even a new list of complaints. Oh don’t get me wrong, they have been changed by the Savior. But the church has a way of dulling our senses to the culture around us and even has a way of taking us completely out of it. And that’s bad.

This new Christian can easily merge into the massive flow of fellow believers and sing his heart out on Sunday mornings, give 10 percent or more in the offering, and amen every good point the pastor makes, while at the same time becoming completely disengaged from that ugly sinful culture outside the walls of his own church building. So, instead of going out into the world as Jesus calls us to do, we develop a proclivity to just sing louder and give more from the inside. It’s just easier that way. Plus, the sacrifice is way less risky.

We have created our own little world within the world. It’s a world where only Christian things are true, where everyone lives happily ever after, and most importantly, where we can be safe from the other world--that big, crazy, godless world out there. As a result we have Christian music, Christian coffee, Christian bookstores, Christian schools, Christian clothes, Christian jewelry, Christian radio, Christian TV, Christian movies, entire Christian industries. If we are not careful, we can exist entirely in our own subculture. I am just as guilty of this as anyone.

Don’t misunderstand me. I am a worship leader. I want my congregation to sing loudly their praises to God. I want a body of believers who tithe and live upright, holy, and godly lives. And, of course, God inhabits this worship. He wants it too. But we must also never forget that the God we worship is also the Savior who told us to go and make disciples!

Jesus said we are to be in the world, but not of it. What world is he talking about? This one! The world of the Bible is the same one we live in today. And, as Chuck Colson said, The way we see the world can change the world.

The book you are about to read is all about this subject. How can we effectively move from being complacent churchgoers to dynamic disciple-makers? How can we transform the church from an institution back to a mighty movement? Can God still use us? Does he still want to? Can we develop a healthy Christian worldview that is grounded in the passion of the great commandment yet culturally relevant enough to carry out the Great Commission? You will find those answers and more in this wonderful book by my friend, Mark Powers. I pray it enlightens you, convicts you, and becomes a catalyst for change in the body of Christ.

Charles Billingsley

Worship leader, Thomas Road Baptist Church, Lynchburg, Va.

Artist-in-Residence, Liberty University, Lynchburg, Va.

Acknowledgments

I lived daily in humble amazement at God’s provision as I wrote this book. Every step of the way, he was there providing each piece of the full circle puzzle at the right time in the right way just as I was ready for it. All glory to him!

To my editors: Allen Hendricks, content editor and worship guru; Curt Watke, content editor and missions guru; and Margaret Colson, copy editor par excellence.

To my family: Jean and Wildred Powers, my mother and father, who taught me to think outside the church box; my wife, Kay, for common-sense editing and constant love and encouragement; my son, Jeremy, the best theologian/philosopher I know personally; my daughter, Lauren, the best musician I know personally (who also loves circles).

To other wonderful friends who read parts of the manuscript and advised: Lee McDerment, Kevin Batson, David Parks, Monty Hale, Mike Glenn, Reggie McNeal, Charles Billingsley, Charles Roberts. To Henry Deneen, my childhood friend, now President of Greater Europe Mission, for a missional vision imparted over lunch in Columbia in 2010. To Dr. Jim Austin, Executive Director, SC Baptist Convention, for your encouragement and support.

And to my fellow state Baptist convention music leaders who kept telling me to write the book. Let’s start a nationwide music-arts mission movement together!

At the conclusion of each chapter, sections entitled Return to the Cross are meditations on historic hymns of our faith in the public domain. Copyright restrictions made it difficult to use more modern hymns and choruses. Be inspired by these classic hymns and know that I have no prejudice against songs of today.

1

The Wrong Track

It’s a recurring dream of mine—a nightmare, really. We are all together on this train. It’s called the Church Train.¹ We’ve traveled the same track for many years. Those who grew up on the Church Train cannot comprehend any other track. After all, we’ve been on this track as long as we can remember. Traveling happily along in the club car—the church club car—we are very comfortable with the way we do things. The pastor and staff serve as stewards, keeping us inspired and happy, attending to our needs with great dedication as we travel this track. On occasion our train pulls into a station. Those of us on the Church Train eagerly invite those standing on the platform to join us. Don’t they see that our train is a happy place to be? We can’t fathom why anyone would refuse a ride in our club car. We’ve done our best to decorate in a way that would be inviting to those outside. Yet, most of them refuse to join us on our train. We don’t really understand why.

Lately, some riders on our train have upset us. They look down the track and say we’re headed for disaster. We haven’t paid them much attention. They say there is a landslide ahead. We are headed for a plunge into destruction, they claim. How strange to hear those on our own train say such things. Surely God would not allow such a thing to happen to the Church Train. Some keep whispering about how we need to build an alternate track that will take us to a different destination. The radicals say we ought to get off the Church Train and move among the people. But, as hard as I try, I can’t get off the train. It’s a recurring dream of mine—a nightmare, really. We are all together on this train. It’s called the Church Train . . .

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, If you, even you had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you. Luke 19:41–44, NIV

During Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, he looked into the near future and foresaw the Temple under siege by outside forces. He prophesied that this institution of Jewish religion would fall to destruction. Just a few years from that day the prophecy was fulfilled.

Today, the institutional church is under siege. Just as in Jesus’ day, church people like you and me are blind to the part we are playing in the process of its downfall. If we stay on this track we are headed for a landslide.

Have you seen the latest statistics about the evangelical church? It’s quite possible that you have not paid attention and are still assuming that all is well in our churches. We who have lived most of our lives inside the walls of churches have a tendency to live in our own world, don’t we? But if you are paying attention at all, you have an inkling that things are not like they used to be in church. Attendance is down, budgets are tight, and friends are being released from staff positions. Statistics point to the church’s diminishing influence in society, and we are being laughed at in the secular media. Our Church Train surely is headed down the wrong track.

According to Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, in the United States 65 percent of the Builder Generation (born prior to 1946) is Christian, while just 35 percent of the Boomers (born 1946 to 1964) and only 15 percent of the Busters (born 1965 to 1983) claim a relationship with Jesus. The numbers for Generation X and Y (born since 1984) continue this dramatic downward spiral. In Great Britain and Europe, there are places where only one percent of the population is in church on any given Sunday. Even in the Bible Belt of America, church attendance is losing ground quickly. In a 2011 study, the Barna group discovered that 41 percent of all Americans are unable to identify any individual who they consider to be an influential Christian.²

Those raised in church can hardly comprehend these facts. We have lived in the comfort and confines of the church club car all our lives. So our worldview is very narrow when we look out the window of the Church Train. But the bad news doesn't end there.

Church growth experts say that as many as 30 to 40 percent of our existing churches could close their doors within the next 25 years. This statistic is not limited to traditional churches only. Churches started just 10 to 20 years ago with contemporary worship styles are just as liable to fall into the church club car trap. Does it alarm you that 25 years from now, one out of every three churches in your community may be closed? Had you realized that the church today is going downhill that fast? Would it really matter to your community if your own church closed its doors today? Would your neighbors miss your church if it no longer existed? Those are tough questions, but we must ask.

This decline is not just limited to those outside the church. Among church members, too, the statistics are telling. According to the 2011 Barna study quoted above, most Americans—roughly four out of five—considered themselves to be Christians. For this group of professing Christians, the 20-year period from 1991 to 2011 was a time of substantial change in their religious behavior:

The largest change in belief was the ten-point decline in those who firmly believe that the Bible is accurate in all the principles it teaches. Only 43 percent of self-identified Christians had such a strong belief in the Bible in 2011.

Whereas 30 percent of the self-identified Christians volunteered at a church during a typical week in 1991, that figure declined to 22 percent in 2011. It’s no wonder that churches are struggling to provide the number of programs and ministries that were once a staple of their existence.

Not only has volunteerism declined in church, but also attendance at church services declined among self-identified Christians by nine percentage points across those two decades. These days less than half of those calling themselves Christian (47% in 2011) could be found in church during a typical week.

Even more telling, less than one out of five (18%) of this group attended Sunday School or a small group Bible study during a typical week by 2011.

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of this valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, Son of man, can these bones live? I said, O Sovereign Lord, you alone know. So I prophesied as He commanded me and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. Ezekiel 37:1–3,10, NIV

Please understand what I am not saying. The body of Christ is not doomed. The kingdom of God and of his Christ shall reign forever and ever! I am not saying we should be the voice of doom. A sign in a national tool distributor shows these words super-imposed over photos of all varieties of tools: The Bad News: Our World is Falling Apart. The Good News: Our World is Falling Apart. To us who have trouble using a hammer, the knowledge that the world is falling apart is bad news. But to those who earn a living by fixing things, a world falling apart means they will never run out of work. Our Almighty God has the power to fix this world. He uses our brokenness to heal, help, and move us to his purposes. The Church is his body, and he is the healer of broken bones. Ezekiel experienced firsthand God’s power to put us back together when the body of believers seemed dead and disjointed. So we need to remind ourselves every day that, though institutional churches are in trouble, God’s church for whom Jesus died will endure into eternity. May we never stop praying for revival in our land.

But until revival comes, worship leaders must find the courage to look beyond our job security as stewards of the Church Train and see reality. It requires real courage. It also requires faith in God and in the people of God. Most of all, it requires that we know that God will build his church when we follow his blueprint. Jesus said the people of Jerusalem could not know the way to peace because it was hidden from their eyes. Oftentimes, the people who are most involved in an institution are the last ones to see its decline. We are like homeowners on TV renovation shows. When outsiders tour the home and make negative comments about the design and décor of an older home, the homeowners get quite defensive and angry. The longer we live in one place, the less we truly see what is going on around us. We get blinded by our presuppositions, stuck in deceptive mindsets, held captive by our refusal to see objectively. God must take the dry bones of familiarity and breathe in new life. Only then can we become the vast army he is calling us to be.

Do you have the courage to see what is really happening in our churches? Will you ask God to open your eyes and see the truth? That’s not easy. The process is not for the faint-hearted or weak. You will have to confront your own shortcomings and misguided mindsets in the same way that I have had to confront my own. We are people who truly love our churches and our love reflects God’s love for his church. So I ask you right now for the privilege of leading you on this journey of confronting the old ways of thinking that have led us to decline. I beg your permission to let me guide you lovingly and carefully in the thought process through which God has led me. Will you allow me to speak heart to heart with you from God’s Holy Word? Let’s ask God to guide us in this journey to rediscover his blueprint for the church. Come alive, dry bones, and go forth as a mighty army—the people of God!

Return to the Cross

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross is widely regarded as the most popular Christian hymn in the world. Isaac Watts, the English hymn writer, wrote this great hymn of our faith in 1707.

When I survey the wondrous cross,

On which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,

Save in the death of Christ, my God;

All the vain things that charm me most,

I sacrifice them to His blood. ³

Oh, Lord, when I see what you have done for me by sending Jesus to die on the cross for my sin, I am overwhelmed. Nothing that I personally could ever achieve could count more than the gift of your Son. Nothing in which I could ever take pride could equal your love for me. Yet Lord, I have taken the cross for granted. Christ’s gift of his blood and his body too easily becomes old news to those of us in church. I keep asking this question. It haunts me as I stand to sing another hymn on another Sunday in another worship service across these long years of church attendance. Would you, Almighty God, the creator of the universe, send your Son to die for me just so we can have a somewhat inspiring and mildly entertaining worship service each week? Is that why you sacrificed your very own Son to a violent death on a cruel cross? There must be more! Show us, O Lord, what more there is to worship. Heal the blindness that comes from being too familiar with church, and worship, and you.

Questions for Thought and Discussion

Do the statistics quoted in this chapter shock you? Why or why not?

How do you see these declining statistics reflected in the churches around you? How much of this decline can you attribute to the Church Train mentality?

What are some effects that the Church Train mentality has in your own life? In the church you attend?

How does the confession of Isaac Watts in "When I Survey the Wondrous