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The jump of faith:
Abandoning spectator Christianity
by Mark Nysewander

"The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation" (Luke 17:20).

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves" (James 1:22).

"You're a spectator. A passive listener. A blip" (James H. Rutz).

There are two ways to live out the Christian faith. Do it as a spectator or do it as a disciple-maker. If you choose to be a spectator you are not a heretic. Being a spectator has nothing to do with unacceptable theology. There are many strong, Bible-believing Christians who are spectators. Being a spectator does not mean you are bad or more of a sinner than a disciple-maker. Again, there have been many deeply spiritual persons who have lived out their Christian lives as spectators.

Nor will you find fanatical  spectators who burn disciple-makers at the stake. Spectators admire and will even embrace some of the dynamics of a disciple-maker. Spectators generally don't launch inquisitions against disciple-makers.

So if spectators are not bad or wrong, what is the problem with being a spectator?

If you can be a spectator and still come out okay in your Christian experience, why change? The issue is not how well you can do as a spectator. The issue is how much you will miss if you are not a disciple-maker. Spectator Christianity has been fine-tuned and well oiled over the years to produce the best possible spectator Christians. The best spectator, however, will never experience the fullness of what Jesus intended for us when he called us to be his disciples.

Not only that, many of the problems that are surfacing in the Western Church today come from the fact that spectator Christianity, the dominate cultural expression of the Christian life, is not working. In his book The Open Church, James H. Rutz writes, "All the major problems of the church today-other than sin-can be traced back 1700 years, to when the church became an audience." In the West we have taken this audience paradigm to new levels of success as well as problems.

When Jesus was on this earth he gave his disciples a message and an experience of the kingdom. He also gave them a way to live it out. Today the Church is trying to live out the message and experience of the gospel in a way Jesus never intended. That is where the frustration comes.

Look at history. When you discover the church running on all cylinders you see a disciple-making church. Find the church misfiring and you've uncovered spectator Christianity. Oh, this kind of church still runs, but never at the spiritual velocity for which it was built. That's because God saved us to be a fellowship of disciple-makers, not an audience of spectators. What are the differences between these two expressions of Christian life?

The nature of church
Spectators and disciple-makers have two different views of church. Church for a spectator is a passive experience. Spectators come to church to watch and listen. Hence they are spectators. Being passive doesn't mean spectators are not engaging with the information that is being taught or preached. They listen, watch, and think. They can even go home and practice.

The arrangement of seating in the average Western church gives it away. This is the place for the primary meeting of believers. It is built for a group of people to come in, sit, and watch what is going on in front. Church is a spectator experience. There is nothing wrong with this as an element in your Christian life, but for a spectator it is the primary way church is experienced.

To say spectators are passive does not mean they are inactive. They can be very active in their passivity. They busily go to many meetings, Bible studies, conferences, and services. Spectator churches are notorious for filling calendars with activities every night, but the majority of these gatherings are passive. It is basically a time to come, sit, and receive.

Sociologist Christian Smith sums up this kind of believer quite well when he says, "Rather than contributing their part to edify the church, they go to church as passive receivers to be edified. Rather than actively spending the time and energy to exercise their gift for the good of the Body, they sit back and let the pastor run the show." Spectators often choose a church because it makes no demands other than to come in once a week, sit, and listen.

Church for disciple-makers is not passive. It is interactive. Their church life is marked by relational investment in other believers. They choose relationships over programs. They value one another over services and meetings. Their primary commitment is to relational Christianity where they interact with fellow believers.

This is not to suggest that a disciple-maker will never go to a service or Bible study. Acts 2:46-47 gives a snapshot of the early Church. It says, "Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.." These early disciple-makers attended the large gatherings but the interactive home meetings were primary.

John Wesley, the great disciple-maker of England, had large meetings, but he made sure people came together in small interactive gatherings called classes. Wesley saw greater benefit in these interactive groups than in the passive meetings. He explained, "I have found by experience that one of these [believers] has learned more from one hour's close discourse than ten years' public preaching!"

What happened in both those first-century Palestinian homes and eighteenth-century English homes? Hebrews 10:24-25 gives us a clue. It says, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

The primary characteristic of church life for a disciple-maker is interaction with others. The primary characteristic of church life for a spectator is passive listening, watching, and receiving.

The nature of discipleship
These two groups also differ in their view of discipleship. In spectator Christianity discipleship is personal. It is the follow-up for an individual who has just come to Christ. Sometimes discipleship is training in the Word to mature a believer. Because there is a great attrition in spectator churches, discipleship is also a relational web to keep a person from going out the back door of the church. In each of these situations discipleship is personal. It maintains a new convert, matures a believer, or holds a church member through discipleship groups. All of these personal benefits are legitimate. But is personal benefit the ceiling for discipleship?

To the disciple-maker discipleship is not primarily a personal experience. It is a kingdom experience. You are a disciple of Jesus not simply to follow up a decision, gain knowledge, or stay connected to a church. You are a disciple for kingdom breakthrough. Mortimer Arias is correct when he writes in Announcing the Reign of God, "Discipleship is in itself anticipation of the kingdom."

In Mark 14:62 Jesus claimed he was the one who would bring the kingdom of God at the end of history to transform the heavens and the earth. But Jesus also taught that before the end of history he would usher a measure of the kingdom in to the world. It isn't the apocalyptic fullness that is yet to come. Rather he announced in Mark 1:14-15 a present sampling of the kingdom. From where would Jesus manifest this present in-breaking of God's power and presence?

Luke 17:20-21 gives us the answer: "Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, 'The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, "Here it is," or "There it is," because the kingdom of God is among you.'"

Who was among the Pharisees as Jesus was speaking? Jesus was, but so also were his disciples. From where would Jesus bring this present in-breaking of the kingdom? He would bring it through himself and his disciples.

Later in Matthew 16:19 Jesus said to this fellowship of disciples, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven." A new measure of God's presence and power is coming into the world through Jesus' disciples. Jesus reinvented discipleship. It existed before Jesus' day as the way a teacher taught his students. But Jesus made discipleship something entirely different. He made it a community of his followers through which he could now bring the kingdom of God into the world.

In his book The Significance of the Synoptic Miracles, theologian James Kallas, speaking of the ministry of Jesus with his disciples, explains, "Thus, in the demon-controlled world there were small islands. There were small places where the power of God recreating the world was already manifest. In this sense and only in this sense could the kingdom of God be considered present." The kingdom comes in a localized expression through "islands" of Jesus' disciples.

Discipleship releases the power of God among the people of God. It is also the way God's presence breaks into a setting. God's reign in a community can be established through the disciples of the kingdom. While discipleship in spectator Christianity is mainly for personal need, in relational Christianity it manifests a supernatural eruption of God's kingdom.

The nature of faith
Faith is also seen from two different perspectives. To the spectator faith is private. Faith is between the spectator and the Lord. No one else need be involved in the faith life of a spectator. Spectator Christianity is religious individualism. Although the church is here as a possible help to individuals, in the long run it is up to each individual to maintain his or her faith.

For some spectators faith is so private that it is possible to live the Christian life without the church. At times it seems to them easier to avoid the hassle of church life and simply be on the periphery or not participate at all. This doesn't affect the faith of a spectator because faith is private. This individualism makes church life at best optional and at worst non-existent.

Disciple-makers strongly disagree. Their faith began with an individual decision but after that it is corporate. Disciple-makers are not just saved from sin. They are saved into a community of believers to live out the full implications of their salvation. They cannot imagine a life of faith without others. The greatest blessings of the kingdom come in the corporate setting. In the New Testament there are at least forty-five "one another" passages that speak of the corporate nature of faith in Jesus. The major New Testament letters are addressed to the community of faith, not to individuals. This doesn't mean you can't live your faith by yourself, but why would you?

In Rethinking the Wineskins, Frank Viola explains, "The church, therefore, is not a collection of isolated Christian units meeting together as a congregation. Never! The church is a company of Christ-indwelt men and women who are being formed together in the power of the Holy Spirit. The church cannot be measured by individual units alone, for it is a corporate life-a collective spiritual organism."

If you have never experienced the "collective spiritual organism" you may think that your individual faith is enough. It isn't. You are made to live out your faith in the richness of life together with other believers. Disciple-makers see the fullest measure of faith with one another.

God is not a spectator
Once I was in a conversation with a fellow believer who was leaving our church because of our call to no longer be spectators. After some discussion he looked at me and said, "You don't understand. I want to be a spectator. This is where I want to stay." The expedition into relational Christianity is not easy. It demands death to values you have grown to enjoy and have incorporated into your Christian life.

But here's the good news. You can be changed. The life of God can transform you. Do you know why his life can change you? Because God is not a spectator. He is fully involved in you. Welcome the life of God through the Holy Spirit. Echoing in your spirit you will hear his cry of liberation, "No more spectators!" He will empower you to choose against your personal, individual, and private choices for the purposes of the kingdom. It takes grace to be a disciple-maker, but there is abundant grace for the journey.

Mark Nysewander is one of the pastors of Wesleyan Fellowship, a cell church in Marietta, Georgia. He has ministered as an evangelist, missionary, church planter, and pastor. He is author of The Fasting Key and Discovering Your Spiritual Portrait. This article is adapted from No More Spectators: The 8 Life-Changing Values of a Disciple Maker with permission of Sovereign World International © 2005.

To order a copy of this book, please email Mark at markn@wesleyanfellowship.org.



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