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Follow one church's journey as they depart from modern church growth trends and reinvent themselves by equipping everyday Christians to live out their faith in real life. Find episodes and show notes at www.dereksanford.com/reinventingchurch
Clarity House (00:04.578)
Hey, pastors and leaders, I want to ask you a question that you may have never been asked before. Or if you have been asked it, it's usually not one that guides most of our thinking in the way that we think about how we've put our church together. Here's the question. What are your best disciples and disciple makers need from your church? In my experience, that's not a question that many of us are asking around our staff tables. It's not one that
really sets up the conversation for our staff meetings. And it's not a question that we think about intentionally too often when we think about the way that we are doing church. And part of the reason for that is because many of us have been formed or at least influenced no matter what model of church we find ourselves in, we find ourselves either formed, influenced, impacted in some way by what is called the seeker movement.
In this video, I'm going to challenge you to make a transition, a shift from seeker to sender. But before we do that, I want to just take a moment and say thank you for many of the things that many of us are grateful that the seeker sensitive movement brought to our understanding of church. See, we have to remember that this way of doing church was really solving a problem in every era has different problems that it's trying to solve.
And in the late 1970s, 80s and 90s, the primary question the seeker sensitive movement was designed to answer the problem that it was solving is could I create a church that I could bring my unbelieving friends to in a way that wouldn't embarrass me or intimidate them? And built on the shoulders of places like Willow Creek and Saddleback in North Point, this primary question
an answer to it, built some dynamic churches that changed the way a lot of us do the things that we do. It challenged the way that we thought about dressing for church, the way that we dressed as presenters, the way people dressed when they were coming to attend. And many of us are incredibly thankful that we're not walking around every Sunday in suits and ties as much anymore. It challenged the way that we sang songs and worship and so much of
Clarity House (02:29.984)
innovation in regard to the worship movement happened during these eras, or at least was beginning to be birthed out in the middle of it. It changed the way that we preach because we wanted our unbelieving friends to be able to understand and apply the message and at least consider the message in claims of Jesus in a significantly different way than they could in the model before it.
It also challenged the way that we thought about what evangelism looked like. And many of us are deeply thankful for the kinds of innovations that the seeker movement ushered in. But like all great reformations, what problem we solved in one era often creates a problem of the next eras.
I love the way that John Calvin talks about it. says not to the church is ... reformed but it's constantly reforming. And part of what it means to be a champion of the church is to both ... celebrate the reformation before us work for the ... reformation of our time and then also celebrate the ... reformation that will be necessary based on the ... problems that we were solving in our time in the future see every reformation solves a problem.
And creates one and here's the problem that the seeker sensitive movement created it moved the finish line from actually in a helpful way from simply attending church to actually inviting my unsaved friends to come with me to church but it stopped short of equipping me to go and make disciples where I live.
learn, work, and play. See, it's no secret the Gospels start with the command to come and see and they end with the command to go and tell.
Clarity House (04:35.936)
And in between come and see and go and tell is usually a second step of come and invite. What the seeker sensitive movement did really well is it moved the finish line from common seed to come and invite. But what it didn't do a great job of was move from come and invite to go Intel. Now I can tell you this wasn't probably
what was in the intentions of most of people who were forming, making, multiplying the seeker sensitive movement. They just wanted to create a church that they could bring their friends to. didn't have to be embarrassed of it. Again, like I said, you know, we want to say thank you for that. That's where the next reformation has got to start. But after we say thank you, we have to realize that we're in a new era and a new day. And part of what it means to be the Church of the future, we're going to suggest
means making a shift from seeker to sender. And oftentimes the things that we did in a church that was seeker oriented can be the exact things that keep us from being sender oriented. See, in a seeker oriented church, we think about getting people to come to church, getting them connected in small group and serving in the church. And we think that what we should be spending most of our time around is making church better so that as we invite our own
say friends or people who are struggling in their faith, they can understand the message and have their life changed. And as great as that is, the problem with it is that sometimes it keeps us from actually moving from come and invite to go and tell. How would you structure your church if you wanted to move the finish line, not to just come and invite, but go and tell what kinds of structures would you need to create? What kinds of environments would you need to create?
Would you be concerned not just about the groups that are happening inside the walls of your church, but how would you train your best disciples to create groups that are happening beyond the walls of your church? How would you champion not just the people who are serving, but the people who are living as everyday missionaries? And that brings up a second question. Are our churches ready to support everyday missionaries where they live, learn, work and play? Now, I know we tell them
Clarity House (07:01.566)
You were now entering the mission field, but what do these disciples of Jesus? Actually need well I'm gonna suggest to you that part of the ongoing reformation of church means thinking about how we train believers to live as Missionaries where they live learn work and play we need to equip them with the capability of being able to do the ministry out there See instead of just making our church a better place to bring people
We have to make our church a better place to send people out of. And that means starting with the question, what do our best disciples and disciple makers need from us? It means creating a church that supports everyday missionaries, and it means making a shift from seeker to sender.