by George Barna
“That’s great,” he exclaimed between bites. “Whatever it takes to get people to be God-focused. That’s exciting stuff.”
“I think so, too,” I replied with some amazement. “Honestly, though, I’m a bit surprised by your reaction. Knowing that many Revolutionaries grow in their relationship with God outside the ministry of a local church, I was afraid you’d label me a heretic for advancing their cause.”
“Hey, don’t think it didn’t cross my mind,” Gary said as he laughed. “Besides, I’ve come to expect you to do anything you can to make my life tougher.”
Gary paused, setting down his sandwich and wiping his fingers on a paper napkin.
“Truth is, I’ve been aware of what you’re talking about for some time. I’ve watched various families that used to be in our church drop out and get involved in other forms of church life. So I realize that these Revolutionaries, as you call them, are not likely to return to our building, and that there are many others like them who are getting active spiritually but will never set foot in our church.
“But it shouldn’t really matter,” he continued quietly. “As a pastor, I’ve always wanted to help people become passionate, active believers—Revolutionaries. So it would be kind of hypocritical of me to get upset that people were becoming genuine disciples without my influence or outside of our church. God’s Kingdom isn’t about who gets credit. I should be as excited as you that these people are walking the walk. You know how frustrated I get over the legions in our churches that only talk the talk but ignore the walk.”
“But, Gary,” I pushed forward, “let me play out the other side of this argument. If people in your congregation choose to grow outside of your ministry, then your attendance will drop. In turn, that means there will be less money in the offering basket, which then means your job will be in jeopardy. Your entire church body, which has been taught that numbers are the measure of impact, may lose their trust in you. That, of course, will be the start of your downfall. And besides,”—I smiled mischievously—“how could you face your colleagues at those pastor’s conferences, tell them that your church has grown from two thousand to six hundred, and expect them to accept you as an equal?”
We laughed a bit uneasily before he chomped into another mouthful and answered. “I hear you. It’s true. Our fraternity is very numbers conscious.” Gary gazed at the ceiling for a few moments, reflecting on our dialogue, and then continued. “And I think you’re right. I’m sure my elders would push back on any ministry strategy that did not produce better numbers. But you know as well as anyone—in fact, I think I heard you preach this at one of those pastor’s conferences—that my job as a leader includes reshaping the way my congregation understands and personally experiences the Kingdom of God. In fact, I can envision a time when we aren’t two thousand people and we are not growing numerically—but we are as healthy spiritually as we have ever been.”
We both ripped into the final pieces of our meal. Gary stared at his cardboard plate and finished his thought. “I guess the bottom line for me is that I feel lousy about this because I can’t win. I know that God won’t judge my service as a pastor by the church’s budget or attendance, but you’re right: others will. So even if I have the Kingdom in mind and I’m able to move people closer to God, that victory will be irrelevant—or worse—to a lot of people if it does not translate into bodies in the pews.”
We ate in silence for a few moments. I had no magic words to fix his dilemma; he was right. Finally, Gary shook his head and looked me in the eye. “But I guess none of that matters, does it? We’re called to be faithful, not successful. What matters most is that each of us, working together as a community of people in love with Christ, does whatever we can to advance God’s Kingdom. I need to please God. I need to teach and lead people in how to do that. I don’t need credit, I don’t need public recognition, and I don’t need job security.”
With a mischievous twinkle in his eye he added, “Just don’t tell my wife that part about not needing job security.”
The weekend passed and I thought a lot about what Gary had said. I was ecstatic that a young pastor of a large church was so enthusiastic about the Revolution. In my mind, he “got it.” Maybe I was needlessly worrying about the reception the Revolution and Revolutionaries would receive from the institutional church. Maybe the Holy Spirit had been preparing the way more widely than I realized.
In a chipper mood, I arrived at a restaurant for lunch with another pastor friend on Monday, just seventy-two hours after my uplifting conversation with Gary. After addressing some ministry concerns that we had agreed to grapple with, I decided to test-drive the Revolution with my present colleague. An older pastor with a midsized congregation, Harry was a deep thinker and devoted churchman. I shared with him the same fundamentals of the Revolution that I had divulged to Gary three days earlier.
The reaction could not have been more collegial—or confrontational. Our scheduled ninety-minute luncheon turned into a three-and-a-half-hour marathon in which I spent the last two hours on the receiving end of a lecture decrying the spiritual justification of the Revolution. Harry’s closing volley summed up his position.
“So you see, George, God has no Plan B. The local church is God’s Plan A, His chosen vehicle, and He does not need any other plan. Anything outside of that means is simply indefensible from a biblical standpoint. Never second-guess God, my friend. Follow Him and accept His paths. No church has ever been perfect, but that’s no reason to abandon it. Remaking the Church into the form you desire, rather than the form God ordained, is simply not legitimate. Let God be God. Help the local church be more effective, but don’t ever, ever take any steps to replace it.”
Exhausted from our spirited give-and-take, I realized that when somebody is dead-set on protecting the conventional church, regardless of what the Bible says or does not say, there is no way to get through to them. Contrary to Harry’s statement, doing whatever it takes to be the Church in its purest and fullest form is neither second-guessing God nor abandoning the church. Indeed, the whole idea of the Revolution is to let God be God and to do everything we can to cooperate with Him. We are not trying to replace the local church; we are simply trying to be an authentic, passionate, and biblical expression of what the Church is meant to be.
But Harry, like many other church leaders I have spoken with about the Revolution, simply does not have ears to hear. Regardless, I appreciate his zeal for Christ. I look forward to learning other things from him. I know we will spend eternity together in God’s presence, despite our differences of perspective. And I’m not waiting for him to buy a copy of this book. . . .
Clearly, the Revolution will be controversial. But as painful as such conflict may be, it is to be expected: all significant change stirs such tensions. As the Revolution unfolds, many churches and other ministries will struggle to adjust. What advice might help existing and future local churches to respond intelligently and strategically to the Revolution?
Make a Choice and Get On with Life
The biggest challenge may be the first decision you have to make about the Revolution. Right out of the blocks, you have to choose whether to fight against the Revolution or to encourage believers to become part of it. You can try to ignore it, but its growth in size and influence will eventually force you to choose one response or the other.
If you lean toward fighting it, why? You might do so to protect your turf, to protect the Kingdom of God, to protect biblical theology, or to protect the sanctity of your habits, traditions, and preferences. None of these motivations is worthy, however, in light of the fact that neither Scripture nor church history provides viable justification. God doesn’t ask you to protect Him and His things; He can take care of Himself. He asks you to serve through love and obedience to His principles.
The only reasonable response is to somehow facilitate the radical commitment and life transformation that marks the existence of Revolutionaries. It is, after all, a movement of people who wa
nt more of God and are willing to do whatever it takes to make Him the center of their lives. These are people who want to be the Church. What spiritual body would want to resist, much less reject, such a group? Joining the Revolution does not mean forfeiting your congregational identity or church distinctives. It means acknowledging and advancing your bond with the universal Church and ratcheting up your commitment to serious Christianity. If you don’t like the language—terms like Revolution, spiritual war, spiritual passions, and so forth—ignore the words and develop a dialect that fits your ministry culture. Don’t get sidetracked by the peripherals; focus on the devotion to God and the 24/7 lifestyle changes that drive such a ministry.
The great leaders of the Bible recognized that effective leadership involved recognizing the presence of God and aligning themselves with whatever He chose to do. Face it, no matter how brilliant or devoted you are, you cannot fight God and win. The smart money is on those who recognize when and how God is at work and then grab on to His coattails. The emerging spiritual Revolution presents such a moment of spiritual opportunity. Why not see it for what it is and choose to participate in what God is doing?
Blending Your Church and the Revolution
How can your local church become part of the Revolution, to whatever degree is comfortable for its people and ministry? Here are four possibilities.
First, learn from the Revolutionaries. As humbling as that might seem at first blush, every God-honoring church and its leaders want to participate in ministry that breeds people who are God crazy. The thrust of this approach is to identify the points of strength in the Revolution and incorporate the heart of those dynamics into the ministry of the congregation. Whether the lessons relate to passionate worship, enthusiastic outreach, grateful and continual spiritual growth, energetic service, wise and generous stewardship, uplifting fellowship, or shared family experiences with God, there are undoubtedly insights into the spiritual life that your church could absorb from the Revolution. If your goal is to provide congregants with a faith experience that enables them to love, obey, and serve God, you won’t be disturbed by the source that stimulates enhancements to your church’s ministry.
Second, seek ways in which your church can add value to the Revolution. Remember, the Revolution is simply a collection of people obsessed with loving God to the hilt. They have needs that may be filled in a variety of ways—and perhaps your church’s ministry can satisfy some of those needs. The local church is about ministry, regardless of who the beneficiaries may be. Because the Kingdom of God does not nurture or sustain any forms of internal competition, your church need not fret about helping people or groups grow at the expense of your congregation. Quite the contrary: Your congregation’s existence can be justified only when it is blessing people, no matter where they hang their hat spiritually. Success in your church has nothing to do with membership or control, and everything to do with relationships and service.
Third, reflect on what it means to belong to a church—your church. Revolutionaries are spiritually minded, but they are also independent and fluid in their faith-building activity. They may wish to plug into your faith community for limited periods of time. Some might initially see such participation as selfish, but Revolutionaries’ intention is usually to be a legitimate part of a community of believers—giving as well as taking, as opportunities allow. You must decide if yours is to be an open or closed faith community. If you are able to embrace the Revolutionaries without judgment, you are likely to find that they will add as much (or more) value to your church body as they extract. And, even if they do not, you will have the opportunity to bless those who are serious about their relationship with Christ and their service to the Kingdom.
Finally, figure out how to create more Revolutionaries among those who are not aligned with the Christian faith community. Your region is packed with people who are not focused on knowing, loving, and serving God. What a great challenge to your ministry! Whether you motivate them to connect with God within your congregational context or outside of it, your challenge is to raise up God-honoring people and get them into situations where they can love and be loved more deeply.
Leadership Matters
How a local church responds to the Revolution is primarily a leadership issue. If your perspective as a leader is to study the Revolution so you can combat and defeat it, you’re missing the point of the Kingdom of God. It’s not about protecting God from His people. It’s not about protecting the territory you have been given. God does not need us protecting Him and His Kingdom: He desires us to be Kingdom-minded and open to following through on His plan for its advancement.
Worldly leadership principles are about conquering your foes and reaping the benefits of your skill and wisdom. Christian leadership is about listening to God and humbly following His lead, doing things that facilitate life transformation, and not worrying about the credit and applause.
The Revolution is not your enemy. Your enemies are spiritual complacency that renders people vulnerable to negative influences, and the brittle wineskins that can no longer contain this extraordinary move of God in the hearts of His people. Love the Revolutionaries in your midst and remember that they are disciples who seek God with all of their heart, mind, strength, and soul. Don’t be distracted by the routes they take in doing so. And be careful not to waste Kingdom resources fighting those same brothers and sisters in the Lord. If judgment is to come against the Revolution, it should not come from you. Your charge is to bless everyone with whom you have contact, and especially those who are your spiritual kinfolk in Jesus Christ.
Books of Interest
Robert and Julia Banks, The Church Comes Home (HENDRICKSON, 1998).
George Barna, Maximum Faith (METAFORMATION, INC. AND SGG PUBLICATIONS, 2011).
George Barna, The Seven Faith Tribes (TYNDALE HOUSE, 2009).
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (TOUCHSTONE, 1995).
Bob Briner, Roaring Lambs (ZONDERVAN, 1993).
Marva Dawn, Truly the Community (EERDMANS, 1992).
Mike and Sue Dowgiewicz, Restoring the Early Church (ASLAN GROUP, 1996).
Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christian (JOSSEY-BASS, 2001).
Andrew Murray, Absolute Surrender (WHITAKER HOUSE, 1982).
H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture (HARPERSANFRANCISCO, 2001).
Henri Nouwen, Spiritual Direction (HARPERONE, 2006).
James Rutz, Megashift (EMPOWERMENT PRESS, 2005).
Dick Staub, Too Christian, Too Pagan (ZONDERVAN, 2000).
Leonard Sweet, ed., The Church in Emerging Culture (ZONDERVAN, 2003).
A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (CHRISTIAN PUBLICATIONS, 1982).
Frank Viola and George Barna, Pagan Christianity? (TYNDALE HOUSE, 2008).
Websites of Interest
Barna Group: www.barna.org
BreakPoint: www.breakpoint.org
Maximum Faith Project: www.maximumfaith.com
Contact Regarding the Revolution
[email protected]
About the Author
GEORGE BARNA has filled executive roles in politics, marketing, advertising, media development, research, and ministry. He founded the Barna Research Group in 1984 (now Barna Group) and helped it become a leading marketing research firm focused on the intersection of faith and culture. He is currently the principal in Metaformation, a company he founded in 2009 to help people optimize their life journeys.
Barna has written more than forty books, mostly addressing leadership, social trends, spiritual development, and church dynamics. They include bestsellers such as Revolution, Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions, The Frog in the Kettle, Pagan Christianity? (with Frank Viola), The Cause within You (with Matthew Barnett), and The Power of Vision. Among his most recent books are Maximum Faith and Futurecast. His books have received national awards and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. He serves as the general editor for the BarnaBooks line published through Tyndale Mo
mentum, an imprint of Tyndale House Publishers.
A popular speaker at ministry conferences around the world, Barna has been on the faculty at several universities and seminaries, has served as a pastor of a large, multiethnic church as well as a house church, and has helped to start several churches.
After graduating summa cum laude from Boston College, Barna earned two master’s degrees from Rutgers University. He also has a doctorate from Dallas Baptist University.
Barna lives with his wife and three daughters in Southern California. He enjoys reading novels, playing guitar, listening to music, rooting for the Yankees and Lakers, and relaxing on the beach.
