The politics of movements

I’ve been spending a lot of time on the road looking for case studies and stories of movements that are multiplying disciples and churches. It’s the theme of my next book.

One thing I’ve noticed — they’re not driving political agendas. They do one thing exceptionally well — making disciples and forming them into multiplying churches.

Yet in the West, politics is ultimate. The kingdom has come and so we need to make the world a better place. God will renew the whole creation, so let’s get started.

There’s optimism about our prospects of transforming society in the light of the kingdom of God. That’s been the theme of Western thinking about missions for 100 years. The result has been the decline and collapse of mainstream churches. Today evangelicals in the West are going down the same path.

There’s a move of God that is transforming lives in the Texas prison system. It started in maximum security and spread to death row. Criminals are becoming disciples, and they’re planting churches in their day rooms.

Transformation is the by-product, not the goal, of this movement. The gospel changes lives and it brings blessing. But the cross is not someone’s tool for social transformation. Transformation may come — or it may not. Jesus promised rejection and persecution wherever the gospel is proclaimed. That’s why all around the world where the gospel is spreading, the believers are suffering.

Meanwhile in the privileged West, we’re doing fine, but no one is coming to Christ.

Our leaders deny Jesus’ teaching on sexual ethics or remain silent. The culture has shifted. It’s the price they are willing to pay for a seat at the table.

Tell the disciples in Northern Nigeria, as they die daily under Muslim persecution, that their real mission is “to speak truth to power.” Ask the believers of Iran, Laos or North Korea to stand up to their Communist or Islamist overlords and they may be puzzled. They’re doing what Jesus commanded, taking the gospel of repentance for the forgiveness of sins to their world. They’re trying to stay alive and one step ahead of their persecutors.

Their world looks more like the book of Acts, so does their mission.

Meanwhile in the West, we’ve stopped sharing the gospel with people far from God. And instead, we’re making the world a better place.