Category: Evangelism

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Books Evangelism Sociology Young Adults

Outstanding book about college students; Book Review: I Once Was Lost by Everts and Schaupp

Don Everts and Doug Schaupp have written a new book based on their experiences doing campus ministry with college students in Colorado and California for the last twenty years.  They describe the spiritual journeys of these students and how they have tried to help.  Anyone who works with college students or wants to understand them better, will find this book illuminating and encouraging.  See my full review below. 

I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus

I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus by Don Everts and Doug Schaupp (Paperback – May 30, 2008)

5.0 out of 5 stars Must reading for those involved in Christian campus ministries, September 19, 2008

By
Andrew D. Rowell (Durham, NC) – See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

Don Everts and Doug Schaupp help the reader become sensitive to the typical stages college students move through when they become Christians.

This book would be particularly helpful for those who work with college students or want to better understand college students–as it describes the pressures, thought processes, and friendship dynamics of this age group.

It would also be helpful for those who ask the question, "Does anyone today convert to Christianity as a thinking adult?" Indeed they do. Everts and Schaupp try to find patterns in the journeys of the people they have observed moving through this process.

They identify Trusting a Christian, Becoming Curious, Opening Up to Change, Seeking After God, Entering the Kingdom and Living in the Kingdom as key "thresholds" that people move through.

The book is nice and concise (134 pages) and reads quickly. Everts and Schaupp are not trying to make an argument that these are the thresholds all Christians need to work through. Rather it is sociological or anthropological work–similar to the famous Kubler-Ross stages of loss (denial, anger, acceptance, etc.) or Christian Smith finding the phenomenon of "moralistic therapeutic deism" in teens.

Everts and Schaupp essentially share their experiences and then ask if this resonates with others. This is not to denigrate their experiences–they have done a significant amount of interviews and they are in as good a position as anyone with their experience in college ministry with InterVarsity to make these kind of observations. Does their model have explanatory power? I think it does.

If they are right that college students (and perhaps teenagers and adults as well–who knows?) that become Christians, move through these thresholds well, what are the implications for how college ministry and church ministry should change if they want to see more people become Christians? The unmissable point is that these students who have moved through these thresholds certainly did not do so because of one event or program. Someone needed to listen to them, give them advice, challenge them and encourage them. Though Everts and Schaupp sketch a process, they explode the idea that some specially designed program would be able to mass-produce followers of Jesus. This book is much more about how to do spiritual direction than how to do evangelistic programming.

The book does not contain much formal theological language. In my quick reading, I do not remember a reference for example to the Holy Spirit or to baptism. Their goal is not to reflect theologically on conversion. Similarly they do not engage developmental psychology or other sociological research and draw parallels between that research and their conclusions. An academic researcher would want to do interviews with a representative sample of people who became Christians in college to test Everts and Schaupp's tentative conclusions.  [See update below].

One final note, the book has in its subtitle the controversial word "postmodern"–What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus. I would simply say that this word plays almost no role in the book. It is not a book that views postmodernity positively nor one that views postmodernity negatively. The book describes students at colleges in California and Colorado in the last twenty years–that is all the authors mean by "postmodern."

In conclusion, I would highly recommend the book as insightful, brief, hopeful and stimulating. College students will be loved better by people who read this book.

Update:

As far as other books that talk about conversion, see chapter five of the December 2008 release: Douglas Campbell, Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008).  See especially pages 200-211 for numerous bibliographic references and a good summary of recent sociological discussion of conversion.  Much of the discussion by Campbell revolves around the insights of John Lofland and Rodney Stark.  The discussion begins with these citations. 

John Lofland and Rodney Stark, "Becoming a World-Saver: A Theory of Conversion from a Deviant Perspective," American Sociological Review 30 (1965): 862-75; and Lofland, "Becoming a World-Saver Revisited," American Behavioral Scientist 20 (1977): 805-18 and Lorne L. Dawson, "Who Joins New Religious Movements and Why: Twenty Years of Research and What Have We Learned?" in  Cults and New Religious Movements: A Reader (Blackwell Readings in Religion) ed. Lorne L. Dawson (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003), 116-30.

According to Campbell,

Lofland and Stark hypothesized that converts possessed three “predisposing conditions”: acutely felt tension or deprivation, a religious problem-solving perspective, and an overall self-definition as a religious seeker. Four further conditions—“situational contingencies”—depended upon a concrete encounter with a cult: a self-perceived “turning point” (near the time of the encounter), a strong affective bond with one or more cult members, reduced or eliminated extra-cult attachments, and further intensive interaction with other cult members. An individual who met these four further conditions experienced full-fledged conversion and became a “deployable agent” of the new cult (Douglas Campbell, Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 200-201. 

I cite Campbell's work to (1) highlight his book and (2) to note that Everts and Schaupp are not alone in their interest in conversion; there are theologians like Campbell and sociologists like Lofland and Stark exploring similar questions. 

Campbell notes that young and educated people are particularly likely to convert and that rational as well as situational factors are involved–consistent in some respects with the observations of Everts and Schaupp.

See also 

Christian Smith, Getting a Life: The challenge of emerging adulthood in Books & Culture, November/December 2007.  (Available online). 

Notre Dame sociologist Smith (and attender of Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church where he along with Campbell and I attend) overviews recent sociological, anthropological, and psychological studies of young adults. 

Categories
Ecclesiology Evangelism Missional Preaching

My sermon “The Spirit-led Missional Church” (Acts 11) Audio

I preached Sunday, March 30th at Clayton Presbyterian Church in Clayton, North Carolina.  My text was Acts 11:1-18 as part of a series in the book of Acts.   I would argue that this is one of the most important texts on the church in mission in the New Testament. 

The iTunes link is Clayton Presbyterian Church Podcasts (will only work if you have iTunes – a free program – installed on your computer). 

The direct link is Clayton Presbyterian Church Sermons – you can download the sermon there or listen to it streaming. 

I have also made a copy of the recording and put it here.

The transcript is

here as a Microsoft Word document

and here as a pdf

Summary:
In the sermon, I suggest we appreciate the passion for un-churched people that seeker-driven churches embody.  I also suggest, however, that there is real value in churches that are very diverse and ignore the seeker-driven philosophy of reaching a specific target audience.  I suggest that Acts 11:1-18 (which essentially retells Acts 10) in which Cornelius, the Gentile centurion comes to faith in Jesus, exemplifies what mission in the church should be like.  Not only are unbelievers reached but diverse ones.  I suggest that the Acts 10-11 narrative can serve as a paradigm as we think about the mission of our churches. 

Here are some of the points I draw out from the narrative:  Change is hard.  We all like to stay in our comfort zones.  Prayer is where it starts but our prayers are often weak.  We are prodded by the Spirit to obey what is clear.  We are to do this work with others.  The message of Jesus is simple.  The Spirit goes before us.  What can we do to get out of the way so that people can see Jesus?

Additional notes on some of the examples in the sermon:

  1. There is the old pastor’s legend about the pastor who wanted to move the piano to the other side of the sanctuary and the way he got away with it was by moving it an inch every week.   Source: I can't remember where I heard this one. 

  2. Pastors often overestimate what they can change in one year but underestimate what they can change in five years.  Source: I first heard this from Sandy Millar at Holy Trinity Brompton Church but I don't think it was original to him. 

  3. Erik Erikson  “all change is perceived as loss.” Source: internet.   

  4. If you find the perfect church, don’t join it or it will no longer be perfect.  Source: I can't remember. 

  5. Like Noah’s ark, it stinks being inside but it is still better than being outside.  Source: I can't remember.   

  6. Mark Twain: "It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand." Source: internet. 

  7. G.K Chesterton: “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.” Source: internet.
Categories
Business Ecclesiology Evangelism Goal-setting Megachurches

Seven Practices of Effective Ministry

Seven_practices_of_effective_ministry_2  On Tuesday I listened to the first two of "Seven Practices of Effective Ministry" podcasts with Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner and Lane Jones.  They are the authors of the popular 2004 book of that title.  I have heard pastors recommend this book in the last year more often than any other. 

Two comments and a question:

1. I want to thank them for putting this out for free.  Podcasts are great!  I love audio for when I am in the car!  It is great to hear the North Point folks trying to explain how they practically implement these tips. 

2. I have been reflecting on how these hints apply to worship planning.  It has been helpful for me. 

For "Clarify the Win," I am asking: do we want to be a) more seeker-sensitive, b) have more meaningful worship, c) equip worship leaders, d) see more participation, e) have more ancient and contemporary worship, or f) see more age-blended worship?  North Point tries to have their worship leaders create unforgettable experiences because they are seeker-driven.  It would be good to get clear with the leadership of a church what we are trying to achieve in worship.  Once we have that, they encourage us to state it simply, repeat it often and celebrate it. 

They encourage intentionality in their "Think Steps Not Programs" practice.  How do we make sure that worship is actually moving people where we want them to go?  How does it fit with the overall plan of the church?  Is it central or peripheral?  If it is peripheral, nix it.  In other words, there are lots of nice things we could do in worship (improve the prayer time, sharpen the PowerPoint, improve the flow of songs, etc.) but do these improvements unintentionally produce more problems in other areas of the church life?  The North Point folks want everything to flow from their three environments: "The Foyer" (welcome guests) to the "The Living Room" (connect with friends) to the "Kitchen" (intimacy with family).  (See also Andy’s January 8&15 2006 messages "A Face in the Crowd" and "Our House" for a description of their church strategy.) All in all, I think this is excellent stuff. 

3. My question is: what do we lose when we become focused?   Under this strategy, a few people set the "clear vision" and other possible purposes are weeded out.  Some might go too far with what the North Point people are saying and try to impose a focus or vision on their people.  "Andy Stanley told me to do this!  I cannot listen to you people because you are not focused on the vision – my vision." 

I listened to a John Ortberg talk on Jesus, Leadership and the Kingdom of God podcast immediately after listening to the North Point material.  Ortberg (quoting Jesus) emphasizes that Christian leaders do not lord their leadership over others.  The North Point leaders don’t lord their leadership over people but it is very clear who the leaders are and it is they that set the direction.   

The North Point folks are emphasizing the motto "do less things and you will do
those things better."  Most of our churches need to hear this.  And yet we will have further problems if we think that all of the vision and focus are going to come from the top tier of leadership.  In reality at North Point, the leaders do a whole lot of listening to thoughtful and godly "regular" congregation members.  Though the church seems to be led from the senior pastor, in reality Andy is also highly influenced by his conversations with regular folks. 

So let’s do both. 

As leaders, let’s pay attention to the voices of creative people, prophets, and real people.  We might not always enjoy what they have to say.  It may not be comfortable.  They may not agree with our vision or "focus."  But they may have a point that we haven’t seen.  They may need to tell us the truth because we are off-track.  I was tremendously helped to be advised that

Sometimes your critics and the complainers are simply good leaders in disguise who need a place to plug in and unleash their gifts.  The reason they are unhappy is that they know we can do better and they want to help. 

The Old Testament prophets were constantly trying to make sure that the temple priests didn’t get so into their rituals, efficiency and duties that they forgot the real point.  I think creative, prophetic, and ordinary-Joe people often help me remember what really matters.  Their criticisms of me often have some validity that I need to pay attention to.

At the same time, the North Point folks remind us that we can’t be scattered and confused and unfocused because of every little opinion or criticism.  We can sort through the feedback and focus on what is most important.  So let’s listen and focus – that seems to me to be the road toward effective ministry. 

See another post about Andy Stanley here where Andy S. actually commented. 

See also Granger Community Church pastor Mark Waltz’s blog on the 7 practices.  Part 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

I rewrote this point on September 14, 2006.