A Really Great Commission: crossing the
class and racial barriers in our discipleship.
Originally titled
Fulfilling the Great Commission through Discipleship
Jim Swearingen
8-18-03
A paper presented to Dr. Phillip W. Sell
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
EM 675 Discipleship In The Local Church
The process of discipling is seen as the key focus needed in the church in three of the
books we read on discipleship. They all rely heavily on the great commission as a key
directive of Christ to the church.
The great commission is stated in Matthew 28:18-20 when Jesus came and told his
disciples, “I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go
and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have
given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Hull in his introduction heading on Evangelizing the World God’s Way, states “Jesus
left us with the great commission instructions to populate heaven…Discipling leads to
reproduction and finally multiplication, which are God’s design and method to reach the
world.i” He begins his first chapter with a focus on the great commission “The key
passage to our understanding of discipleship lies in the Great Commission itself.”
Barna in his first chapter, after quoting Matthew 28:18-20, says “iiThe Great Commission
gets our juices flowing, doesn’t it? It’s our marching orders from God….How many
believers do you know who get out of bed every morning and ask what they can do to
show and tell people about Jesus, to make those people disciples of the Lord, and to act
like true disciples themselves?” #7 He then goes on to survey people to discern how
many of them do this, and then gives four church examples that he deems successful at
making disciples. He then tries to suggest a model taking the best of their discipling
models and suggests a “Best Of” modeliii. #156
Robert Coleman in The Master Plan of Evangelism uses the great commission as a key
measuring tool for measuring the church’s effectiveness. In his preface he states “The
question must always be asked: Is it worth doing? And does it get the job done?…Are our
efforts to keep things going fulfilling the great commission of Christ?”
I agree with these authors that the great commission needs to be heavily weighted in
considering the purpose of the church. It is essential that we make disciples and teach
them to obey what Christ commanded. The problem I see in theory and practice is that
even when their discipleship methods are followed there are two serious shortcomings to
the fulfillment of the great commission. One is in “going to all the nations” and the other
is in “teaching them to obey all I commanded you.” If we follow the greatest discipleship
methods yet fail in fulfilling the great commission our efforts will be for naught since this
is the foundation the methods depend on.
In fulfilling the part of the commission to “go and make disciples of all the nations”
churches have often opened their doors rather than going, or when we have gone it has
been to another country. The result has been homogenous churches. Whether it is a
“White church”, a “Black church”, a “Chinese church”, or a “Hispanic church”, we have
made single-culture disciples. Just sending people to other countries or saying they are
welcome at our church is not enough to fulfill the great commission directions to go to
other nations. We must value going out to other nations in our own locale, and develop
multi-cultural disciples.
Foreign missions groups have done a good job of focusing the church on “going to all the
nations” and defining what that means. Ralph Winter the founder of U.S. Center for
World Missions states “…”make disciples of all the ethne (peoples)” does not let us off
the hook once we have a church in every country – God wants a strong church within
every people!”iv He defines crossing barriers of culture and peoples into very defined
terms represented by E1, E2, E3 evangelism. He prioritizes going to “unreached peoples”
through “frontier missions”.v In terms of going to other nations around the world we still
have a long way to go but it is very defined and called for in the church. This is good but
the vast majority of Christians are unable to go overseas. We must reach the people
groups in our own cities while we encourage some to go out to “unreached peoples”.
I think we need to realize that the modern world has people flocking to large cities where
many different ethnic backgrounds and cultures exist. Ray Bakke, the Executive Director
of International Urban Associates has been traveling the world for decades and training
Christians to reach the cities with the gospel. He states “Imagine an ethnic tour of
London: the East End basically Asian; South London by and large black (West Indian,
Jamaican, Ugandan); West London (aside from the theater district and the Westminster
Palace area) largely Arab. The British Empire once included more than fifty nations, and
now all those nations live in London…Or consider St. Olav's Catholic Parish in the center
of Oslo, Norway: people from ninety-seven different countries can be found in that one
parish—nearly half the nations of the world. A more dramatic pluralization of what was
once a homogenous community could not be imagined…More than one million Japanese
now live in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (You cannot get farther away from north Pacific Japan
than south Atlantic Brazil.) Some eighty million Chinese live outside of China. While we
have been focused all these years on how to get the Christian mission into China, these
millions of Chinese people have been scattered by the Lord of history into cities all over
the world. The whole world has come to the cities, and the cities present amazing
challenges.”vi
To make disciples of all the nations we need to cross the cultural barriers in our own
cities and not just overseas. This needs to be a value that permeates the whole local
church and not just seen as something for the few missionaries that go out from their
church to another country.
Unfortunately many discipleship books and modern church movements have tended to
stay within their own cultures in growing the church and making disciples. I often hear
preachers stating that “the most segregated hour of the week is on Sunday morning”. In
describing how the early church crossed racial barriers Hull observes, “Actually the
socioeconomic barrier looms larger than racial one. Most local churches attract people
from a single community that represents a single economic strata…in most local
churches, the opportunity for mixing races and economic stratas remain remote.”vii
Even though Hull laments this fact, in his own strategy for outreach/church planting he
advocates reaching out to those with whom are in the “natural flow of our lives”, those
with whom we “live, work and play”.viii This is exactly why we are in this situation in the
church! By following “the natural flow of our lives” we never reach across the strong
barriers of culture, race and class.
If we stay within our own homogenous groups locally and only go cross-cultural when
we send people overseas, what kind of disciples will we raise up in those places? Do we
really think that our missionaries will be one-culture Christians here but then go overseas
and teach the disciples they make there to be multi-cultural? We must value going to all
the people groups where we are and then take this type of value when we go to other
cultures.
If we reach cross culturally in our own locale and teach our disciples to do this the church
will be greatly enhanced in many ways.
It will be obedient to the great commission. We can not be obedient to the great
commission without going to “all the nations” right around us. While we need to raise up
disciples from our “natural networks” we must teach these disciples to go cross-cultural.
We can not cut out one part of the command “making disciples” among our own culture
and leave out another part “go to all the people’s” and think we have fulfilled the purpose
of the church.
It will enrich our understanding of the scriptures, the world, and the needs of
others. By reaching out to different cultures we will become enriched in our
understanding of the scriptures. I grew up in an affluent mostly white suburban culture. I
had no real understanding of how the scriptures might apply to other cultural settings
until I got to know someone from another culture that could give me insight into how the
scriptures applied to his situation. One of those people was John Perkins. He really knew
how the scriptures applied to being black and oppressed in America. He had been beaten
nearly to death in Mississippi by white police officers. The injustice he and the Blacks
suffered in Mississippi gave him a keen interest in scriptures about Justice, Forgiveness
and Reconciliation.
In my sheltered culture I never really felt injustice and oppression to the extent that I
understood the application of scripture to these situations. By getting to know John and
others who were oppressed I could begin to understand the richness of scripture that
taught about these areas.
For instance John’s son Spencer went to an all white school once the courts had
integrated public schools in Mississippi. He suffered much abuse and name calling from
the students. He said he understood those coming against him aggressively but then there
were all those other kids that didn’t do anything aggressively wrong but stood by and
watched, not lifting a finger to stand by his side. He defined a racism of omission. He
called it passive racism. He thought white people must not be able to be Christians
because his dad taught him if you were a Christian you would stand up for the truth and
help others who were being oppressed.
How enriched I was by John and Spencer’s teaching in these areas. I learned more about
the way the world was for a black person living in Mississippi. As I began to reach out
and make disciples in a low income black community in Columbus, Ohio (my home
town), I began to be educated on what it was like for a black person growing up in the
ghetto there. I was able to apply the scriptural truths I learned from the Perkins to the
situations I was now encountering. I became a learner of the cultural setting where I was
and began to feel the needs of people around me.
Without going to this culture I would not understand what it was like for people living in
the black inner city. By going I had a deeper understanding of the scriptures, the world
around me and the needs of the oppressed and poor culture I was living among.
It will more accurately (at times) reflect the love Christ had for his enemies.
Several years ago Billy Graham stated that the most important issue to deal with for the
remainder of his life was racism. He pointed out that when you look around the world
you see ethnic conflict – even to the point of ethnic cleansing – as a cause of wars and
killing. What would end the killing and suffering experienced between these groups?
Who could go with love and peace and break down the barriers of mistrust among people
who hated each other? The love of Christ is just such a vehicle. It can cross the barriers of
prejudice and hatred between people groups.
The gospel becomes really good news to the oppressed and the ruling classes when they
can end the killing and violence being experienced by these groups. It is into this
darkness that we must take our light. The Christians have the solution to cross these
barriers with the love of Christ. Would not the world know them for their love for one
another as Palestinians and Jews became close friends? In Northern Ireland the gospel
penetrates the Protestants and catholic divisions. If we had a true gospel, could our
disciples really be part of an ethnic cleansing slaughter? People naming the name of
Christ have done these things but they are not living their faith. We must make disciples
that are “…single-minded in their devotion to God, their commitment to His ways…” ix
We must loose them to cross the cultural and racial barriers where there are enemy lines
drawn.
. Christ said, “love your enemies!Pray for those who persecute you! 45In that way, you
will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both
the evil and the good and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust, too. 46If you love
only those who love you, what good is that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47If
you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans
do that.”x We must model and teach our disciples to love their enemies. We must teach
them going to other nations means crossing these barriers. It is not enough to make
disciples among our own ethnic groups, to have Biblical love we must demonstrate
loving our enemies. We are uniquely equipped to do this because we have the spirit of
God and the mind of Christ.
This is a type of love that “will turn the world upside down”. We see this in the early
church where they had peoples from all over come to Christ at the Passover feast on the
day of Pentecost. They had people of many nations, in the same church under the same
leadership. What a sense of awe we would experience if this were the case in our
churches.
Vinay Samuel, a church leader from India voiced the concern,
“The most serious thing around the world is that evangelicals are soft on racial
injustice…One sign and wonder, biblically speaking, that alone can prove the power of
the gospel is that of reconciliation…Hindus can produce as many miracles as any
Christian miracle worker. Islamic saints in India can produce and duplicate every miracle
that has been produced by Christians. But they cannot duplicate the miracle of black and
white together, of racial injustice being swept away by the power of the gospel…Our
credibility is at stake…If we are not able to establish our credibility in this area we have
not got the whole gospel. In fact we have not got a proper gospel at all.” xi
Imagine in the places of ethnic conflict and unrest if the Christians would “ go to all the
people groups” in places like Israel. We would see Palestinian and Israeli church
communities under the same leadership. The understanding and call for justice would be
phenomenal. In America the most prominent unrest is between blacks and whites.
Imagine communities where the racial lines were being demolished. Should this not be
the norm for churches committed to the great commission? The church has the answer to
the ethnic and cultural wars and the world needs to see it. If we would be obedient to the
Great Commission the world would see it.
In addition to falling short of the great commission in the area of “going to all the
nations”, the other great failure is in “teaching them to obey all I commanded you”
Does this part of the Great Commission mean only the commands Christ taught? Should I
take a red-letter edition and pick out his commands and just teach my disciples that? If
we believe that God inspires the whole Bible and that it represents his counsel for man,
then we would say the whole Bible is important in fulfilling the great commission. Where
do we start? We can not emphasize all the commands at once.
We must beware of the tendency we have as humans to “strain the gnat and swallow the
camel”. Christ used this illustration to rebuke the Pharisees. He said they ignored “the
more important things of the law – justice, mercy, and faith.”xii We must prioritize what
the scriptures prioritize. But how do we know what the priorities are? One way to
recognize priorities is to see what is brought up often. Another is in statements that say,
“this is a priority”. It is more important when the Bible says, “if you do not have this then
you are not even a believer”. One of those put at the top is Love.
As Gene Getz pointed out Thursday night at the Xenos Summer institute (XSI) on
discipleship, “we need to measure the church on the basis of faith, hope and love but the
greatest of these is love.”xiii When asked what the most important commandment was
Christ responded “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul,
and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally
important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the other commandments and all the
demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”xiv Love must be of
highest priority in our lives and what we teach our disciples.
We must understand the Biblical definition of love and see where our culture and
disciples fall short in practicing this. If we make disciples that have God’s (agape) love
we have taught them an essential priority in regards to the commands of scripture.
In looking to the Bible for an understanding of God’s love, there is often a breakdown in
the ability of the religious to love across the barriers of class – to the disenfranchised (the
poor, widows, oppressed, fatherless, prisoners, orphans, refugees, etc.) – and therefore to
fall short of the standard of love. This inability to love the disenfranchised is often used
as a measurement for real love and faith.
In the Old Testament we see this as Israel was nearing judgement. Jeremiah rebukes king
Jehoiakim saying “But a beautiful palace does not make a great king! Why did your
father, Josiah, reign so long? Because he was just and right in all his dealings. That is
why God blessed him. He made sure that justice and help were given to the poor and
needy, and everything went well for him. Isn’t that what it means to know me?” asks the
LORD.xv In Isaiah the religious are complaining that they fast, pray and give penance but
God does not answer them. Isaiah says God will not answer their prayers because they do
not help the poor, oppressed and disenfranchised.xvi
When Christ announces the beginning of his ministry, Luke quotes him saying “… he
has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that
captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from
their oppressors, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”xvii During Christ’s
ministry it becomes an issue in stories such as the rich young ruler, showing that riches
were a stumbling block to salvation.xviii The story of Zacchaeus contrasts this with real
belief having a spontaneous response of giving up wealth.xix
In the epistles we again find serving those in need defined as pure religion,xx a measure
of real lovexxi and real faith.xxii
If our definition of love and faith do not include the command for meeting the needs of
those who are disenfranchised (the poor, widows, homeless, prisoners, fatherless, sick,
etc…) then we do not have Biblical love. Therefore we must include loving the
disenfranchised in our definition of a successful disciple. These types of disciples – ones
who have Biblical love – can teach and model to others biblical love.
To not love the disenfranchised is a sin of omission. Since sins of omission are sins of not
doing the right thing, they are not seen and often go unnoticed.
In a world where we are bombarded by advertisement and we have 24-hour newscasts, it
is rare to hear anything pointing out this shortcoming. Sins of commission are usually
seen as the ultimate bad guys: drugs, violent crime, theft and even gluttony. There is a
marketing campaign in Columbus Ohio on a theme “commit to be fit”. It targets gluttony
– the overweight and unfit – and encourages a healthy diet and exercise. There is
probably more money and research on dieting than there is on the problem of lack of
concern for the poor.
Although the condition of poverty will be mentioned at times as a fact, the relationship of
people not giving to help, or the research for solutions are rather slim. The average
person with material goods does not often hear they can be part of the solution (except for
poverty in the third world) or that they are caught up in the sin of lack of concern for the
poor.
This same silence carries over in to the church. While people will nod their hat to do
something about the poor, the sin of lack of concern for the poor is not often heard about.
In talking with Christians in different cities and churches I will ask the question about the
sins of Sodom. Everyone knows about homosexuality and sodomy as a sin in Sodom. Yet
there is a virtual total ignorance of the prophet Ezekial’s direct statement about Sodom’s
sin. Ezekial states “‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters
were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.”xxiii
As a pastor these sins certainly mirror our society and the members of most churches
much more than the homosexual rape described in genesis at Sodom. Yet everyone
knows about the homosexuality but not the lack of concern for the poor and sharing of
resources from the rich.
Linda Dillow in her book Creative Counterpart shares a common apathy for the poor and
improper exegesis of the scriptures to justify this sin.xxiv In describing attributes of a
godly wife she quotes Proverbs 31:20 “She opens her arms top the poor and extends her
hands to the needy.” The audience she says is a group of rich women, one of which asks
her if she goes to the ghetto to help the poor children there. She replies that she doesn’t
need to because there are plenty of needy in her own neighborhood. She points out there
are those hurting from the pain of divorce and other types of needs not related to poverty.
She says she doesn’t go to the ghetto and you don’t need to either, just look at the needs
in your own neighborhood. Though she helps needy in her own neighborhood, she skips
the part of the verse on the poor and focuses on needy, then applies that to people in
emotional and spiritual need. And the poor continue to go unserved by those following
her advice. The class barriers are not crossed, and the gospel does not reach the poor.
Dillow needs to include going to the poor as well as meeting the needs in her own
neighborhood.
In describing how the early church crossed racial barriers Hull says, “Actually the
socioeconomic barrier looms larger than racial one. Most local churches attract people
from a single community that represents a single economic strata…in most local
churches, the opportunity for mixing races and economic stratas remain remote.” Hull
challenges believers to move to neighborhoods of people of a different race and class to
share the gospel with them. It is a tribute to Hull that he even brings this up in describing
what the church needs to do to become a disciple making church. Yet he falls far short of
the call that is needed. For this radical of a move against the streams of our culture, I
would suggest one paragraph in a book would not move many people. Later in the book
as the main emphasis of reaching out Hull suggest following our “natural networks” of
relationships. Since he already pointed out that the church is usually made up of the same
socioeconomic strata, “natural networks” will propagate the division of the classes not
radically change it.
We should reach those in our “natural networks” and those in our neighborhoods but if
the have material goods we must model to them a giving away to the poor and taking the
gospel across the class barriers. If not, we do not have biblical love. Hull could reinforce
the importance of this if he listed crossing this barrier in his Leadership-Community
Goals, and in his Principles of a Growing Church.
Since this is sin is often unseen, unemphasized and scriptures talking about it are
misinterpreted, it is not surprising that people are unaware of this area of sin in their lives.
In the book of Matthew at the sheep and goats judgement, those who were caught up in
this sin ask ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or
sick or in prison, and not help you?’ 45And he will answer, ‘I assure you, when you
refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’
46
And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal
life.”xxv They were surprised that their lack of concern for the poor had anything to do
with their relationship with Christ.
Lack of concern for the disenfranchised is a great sin of omission in the church today!
We must address this issue lest we make disciples that reproduce this sin, which is so
prevalent in our society. The scriptures we must be our standard in this area. Lack of
concern for the disenfranchised must be seen as one of the gravest of sins. We need to see
this as a measurement of having Biblical love.
The question then becomes, how do we go about loving the disenfranchised? When we
go to the poor we should not just give handouts but be concerned for them to have the
benefits of the great commission fulfillment. If we feel the great commission is a
foundational scripture that leads us to emphasize discipleship of those we lead to Christ,
we should have no less a concern for the poor. Yet all too often when we do go to
minister to the poor we only give handouts.
John Perkins points this out in his book Beyond Charity where he says “…acts of charity
can be dangerous because givers can feel good about actions that actually accomplish
very little, or even create dependency. The result is that their sense of satisfaction takes
away any motivation to seek more creative long-range development strategies…charity is
only the beginning point, not the final strategy or solution.”xxvi We must seek creative
long-term strategies in our ministry to the disenfranchised.
If our goal is to reproduce sold out zealots for Christ, as Barna suggests, then this should
be our goal for those who are disenfranchised. If this is our goal we will find that our
ministry will become holistic. To meet the needs of the poor in developing the type of
discipleship these authors suggest requires a high level of learning. You must be able to
read for instance. If we had the goal to disciple the poor, then we would be teaching the
illiterate to read, and meeting the needs our disciples had to break the cycle of poverty.
All too often we have settled for meeting a valid physical need but not looked for
discipleship as an outcome. Look at Habitat for Humanity for instance. There is a real
and a great need being met – good housing for the poor. But once the house is built, the
volunteers and resources usually move on to building the next house. Relational
discipleship is not pursued. Yet if someone in our own congregation had a good house we
would not pull away and say the job was done. We would want to see them becoming
disciples and making disciples of others. We should have this same goal in mind when
we go to the disenfranchised (poor, fatherless, orphans, widows, prisoners, etc.).
We must raise the standard in working with the disenfranchised to include a fulfillment of
the great commission. We must be creative in finding ways to build relational networks
so that we can effectively lead people to Christ and help them grow in their relationship
with Christ.
We see Christ relationally making disciples among the disenfranchised. He and his
followers were known as friends of the sinners, drunkards and gluttons.
Friends of sinners: they hung out with the tax gatherers. The rich criminals that could
afford to throw a party. The people that came were not the moral or religious. They
probably included the down and out. Today this would be similar to the drug dealer.
Someone who has lots of money to throw parties and the moral of society will not hang
with them. An effective model of discipleship in this situation would have people
hanging out and making disciples of the drug dealers and those they know. Then the
natural network will lead to those who are disenfranchised.
In Acts the early church suddenly had a community that included the poor since
thousands responded at Pentecost. Gene Getz pointed out about the early church, “they
had relationships that were so close they were willing to sell their possessions and give
them to the elders to meet the needs of the poor.”xxvii When the poor and rich were
together in the same congregation under the leadership of the church they were willing to
give up material possessions in a miraculous way. A relational closeness is needed in our
ministry with those in need. At least for a time there was “no poor among them”xxviii. I
would suggest that this is one of the elements that caused a sense of “awe” among
themxxix.
When we have relational networks within our church across the barriers of race and class
in developing disciples, we will truly have to deal with issues of sanctification. Issues
such as prejudice, greed (the rich keeping most of their resources for themselves), and
class will be coming to the surface in a realm in which the holy spirit can work – the
body of Christ. As these issues become resolved within the body of Christ, they will
show up in the culture we live in.
Imagine if we saw this today. Would we see a sense of awe in our church today if there
were CEO’s selling properties to give a home to the poor in their own neighborhood (or
moving in among the poor)? Can we even picture the poor living in neighborhoods
among the rich? People would really notice if we saw something like this. Many would
be upset, and I suppose people would even call CEO’s and executives that did this
“friends of sinners”. This would be a much different witness than someone who goes and
gives money or volunteers to hand out meals at the shelter. They are “nice and good
people” but not friends with those in line.
As these natural networks among the disenfranchised were followed and the rich and
poor were living together in neighborhood and in church community relational
discipleship could happen, both ways. The rich would be sharing their material and
educational resources and opportunities with those that didn’t have. The poor sharing
their knowledge of the problems in the streets and the poor communities where they are
from. Both able to share with one another an understanding of how the scriptures applied
to the cultural setting they come from.
Now you tell me, would this picture be something closer to the new testament church and
the lifestyle of Christ than a bunch of small groups among the same socioeconomic class
teaching each other biblical commands and loving one another? Would there be a greater
sense of “awe” and more of a likelihood of “no poor among them” than our current
models of church life and discipleship?
While the Jerusalem church at some point got low on resources and one of their greatest
concerns coming out of the Jerusalem council was that you “remember the poor.”xxx The
principles in Paul’s collection for the saints at Jerusalem who were poor (detailed in 2
Corinthians 8 & 9) have become ones people use for their own church giving. We rarely
see large churches among the middle and upper classes asking others to help the poor in
their congregations. This inclusion of many classes in the same church is rarely seen
today. The concern for collection for the poor is not that central to the needs of most
churches. In the New Testament church, they were making disciples of the poor and
therefore looking for resources, even from other churches to help them meet this need.
Without reaching across cultures and class it is hard to imagine that we can say we are
truly fulfilling the great commission or mirroring the New Testament church in the area
of discipleship. We must include Biblical love as a criteria for those we are discipling.
Without love it would be hard to say we have taught them to “obey all that I
commanded”. If our definition of love does not include loving those who are different
than us – I am suggesting culture and class – then we are not demonstrating Biblical love.
On the practical side, am I suggesting that every disciple in every church has to have a
cross cultural and cross class relationship themselves? No, not really. I think that
practically speaking, if we are to go from point A (hardly any cross class and culture
relationships in a church) to point B (communities of small groups with cross-cultural
and class relationships) it will begin slowly but grow by multiplication.
In addition, in America there is only about 12-13% poor. There are many other cultures
though than just those among the poor. By 2020 it is suggested that America will be a
majority of minorities. So in the long run it is certainly probable that if a church among
one culture had this value, that over time there would certainly be communities of crosscultural relationships.
The big barrier is sin in our society. We are separated by class and culture. By class
because the way the government subsidizes housing separates us geographically. This is
problematic because there develops a “culture of the underclass” and it becomes difficult
to relationally connect. And for those in these neighborhoods there develops a culture that
is not compatible with the broader culture as far as being productive members of society
that can make a living through lawful means. In the cultures of the underclass the males
generally hustle and sell drugs or move out of the community. It is rare to see a working,
middle class, young married family in the ghetto. While there are some elderly that have
remained as the neighborhoods around them changed, it is not common for those who are
“successful” monetarily to remain.
We have settled for success as getting out of these problem places rather than taking a
Biblical approach to being salt and light in the community. If we made disciples and
communities of people across these race and class barriers we could well see what Hull is
talking about when he says we should move to neighborhoods different than ours. With
the resources and light of Christ these neighborhoods would be transformed. The
problems would be solved because the poor would see the “good news” (gospel)
demonstrated before them by Christians that had the resources and love to make a
difference. The inner city neighborhoods would be places where the rich and poor could
both live in harmony.
If we do not move in the direction I am suggesting, then we will see a church that is
unable to love Biblically speaking. While we may become greater in our methods of
discipleship, and perhaps the number of people attending our church buildings, our
product will be impotent to have a real impact and witness of Agape love.
Christ warns of is this when he says ““You have heard that the law of Moses says, ‘Love
your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies!Pray for those who
persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.
For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and
on the unjust, too. If you love only those who love you, what good is that? Even corrupt
tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different
from anyone else? Even pagans do that”xxxi
If we do not love across the barriers of culture and class we will be fulfilling the warning
in this verse. Our “natural networks” will only include those like ourselves. Our light will
be dim and people will not see a miraculous type of love that is so different from the
culture around them that they praise God. They will see a slightly improved version of
the dark culture around them.
Just as Barna points out in his survey’s, “Most believers say their faith matters, but few
invest much energy in the pursuit of spiritual growth.”xxxii We are at a crucial time in
history where the church in America needs to listen to the description of the Church at
Laodecia “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were
one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth!
You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t
realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I advise you to
buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. And also
buy white garments so you will not be shamed by your nakedness. And buy ointment for
your eyes so you will be able to see. I am the one who corrects and disciplines everyone I
love. Be diligent and turn from your indifference.”xxxiii
We must see the disparity in our church between the picture the Bible paints and the one
we see today in America. We have so many riches but are indifferent to the poor and
those in need. We don’t see the great desire of God to help us break out of the shackles of
using our resources for ourselves. We are surrounded by people of different cultures but
are afraid to reach across the barriers and love those who are different. We settle for what
is natural and wonder why we are longing to see the supernatural in our midst. We try all
kinds of methods to get the sense of awe among the early church but are satisfied with the
poor among us. We do not even see it as our responsibility to meet their needs to the
extent they are lifted out of poverty!
We need to repent! Repentance means to change our minds and agree with God’s view of
the matter. If we turn to our first love – He can turn it around. I do believe that Christ
wants us to fulfill the great commission. The methods of relational discipleship are
effective in multiplying disciples. But we must emphasize in discipleship the desire of
God to go to all the nations in our cities and obey God’s command to love – in a Biblical
way that goes to the disenfranchised and our enemies and forms community. It is this
radical community that has broken the great barriers of class race that is the great witness
to the world. In this context then we will be able to fulfill the great commission and the
great commandment!
i
Bill Hull, The Disciple Making Church (Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell), p. 17
George Barna, Growing True Disciples (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook Press, 2001) p. 7
iii
Barna ibid. p. 156
iv
Perspectives On The World Christian Movement A Reader, Edited by Ralph D. Winter and Steven
Hawthorne, 1981, William Carey Library. Article 31, The New Macedonia: A Revolutionary New Era in
Missions Begins, p. 293.
v
Ibid. article 32 The Task Remaining: All Humanity in Mission Perspective, p. 312 – 326.
vi
Loving an Urban World, by Ray Bakke, at www.cityvoices.com
vii
Hull, page 99
viii
Hull, pages 192, 195
ix
Barna, page 3
x
Matt, 5:44-47
xi
Evangelicals and Racism: The Lausanne II Press Conference” in Transformation maagazine, January
1990, 29
xii
Matthew 23:23-24 (All scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from, New Living
Testament NLT, 1996, Tyndale Charitable Trust)
xiii
Gene Getz address at the Xenos Summer Institute (XSI), Thursday, July17, 2003. He was quoting 1
Corinthians 13 and making the point that he believed the New Testament authors used Faith, Hope and
Love to measure the church.
xiv
Matthew 22:37-40
xv
Jeremiah 22:15-16
xvi
Isaiah 58
xvii
Luke 4:18-19
xviii
Luke 18:18-30
xix
Luke 19:1-10
xx
James 1:27
xxi
1 John 3:16-18
xxii
James 2:14-17
xxiii
Ezekial 16:49, The Holy Bible, New International Version, Version
Original work copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
ii
Linda Dillow, Creative Counterpart: Becoming the Woman, Wife and Mother You’ve Longed to Be
(Thomas Nelson, 1990)
xxv
Matthew 25:44-46
xxvi
John M. Perkins, Beyond Charity The Call To Christian Community Development (Grand Rapids:
Baker Books, 1993), p. 23.
xxvii
Getz, XSI, Friday Morning address.
xxviii
Acts 4:34-35
xxix
Acts 2:42-46
xxx
Galations 2:10
xxxi
Matthew 5:43-47
xxxii
Barna, p. 33
xxxiii
Revelation 3:15-19
xxiv