My son has one business that works with the defense industry.  Through his work I have become familiar with a type of training called Live, Virtual and Constructive.  This type of training utilizes live simulations and software much like video games use to create an environment where soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines can practice their combat skills over and over again.  An infantry unit in New York can “train” with an armor unit from Ft. Knox and an artillery unit from Oklahoma, all without ever leaving their respective bases.

As taxpayers this should make us happy because it saves millions of dollars every year and provides a better, safer training experience.  One of the trickiest parts of this kind of training, however, is effectively blending the Live with the Virtual and Constructive worlds.  It is a challenge but, when it works, the results are amazing.

At Agora Church right now we are facing a similar challenge.  We have “gone live” in Columbus Ohio with a series of spiritual discovery and discipleship groups.  We have rented a small office complex at 6065 Memorial Drive in Muirfield and each Sunday morning at 1030AM have a weekly Gathering for learning, LifeSharing© and simple worship.  Almost 40 households have connected locally with our discipleship huddles, small groups or our weekly Gathering in some way.    As we would hope, people have found Christ and lives are being changed.

I have found, though, that as I respond to these opportunities, I have neglected our Virtual Agora Church and the ministry we want to build there.  We have had almost a four week gap in our teaching blog.  We are behind on some of our on-line contacts and ministry conversations.  Thanks for your patience.

Rev. Reilly Smith, a certified Master Trainer with Dynamic Church Planting International, has joined our effort as a volunteer Associated Pastor.  I met this week with another pastor who is retiring and asked what helping us would look like.  Our lay leaders are growing in experience and impact and helping me on many fronts.  The believers in our discipleship huddles are quietly sharing their growth with others and our Kingdom impact is expanding.  We have the strong support of MissioChurch (Ashland, Ohio) and Smoky Row Brethren Church here in Columbus.  Many friends have been extremely generous with our financial needs.

Our design for Agora Church has been to be a “live” church in Dublin, Ohio that has virtual but “real” ministry around the world.  One of our Missional Leaders and a group of our Mandarin speakers are preparing to finance and launch Agora PARDES—an on-line outreach to Asia and especially those who speak Mandarin Chinese.  A lot has happened in a short period of time.

Please pray for Agora Church as we strive to get this balance right.  It is rewarding to see our dream of becoming a disciple-making culture begin to take shape.  There is a lot of work to do in exporting it to the world.   Thanks for your part in this adventure!  Stay tuned.

A couple of days a month I work out of the Brethren Church National Office in Ashland, Ohio. One of the blessings is that the National Archives of the Brethren movement are in the basement. When things are hectic and I need a break, I go downstairs, turn on the lights and poke around. I know, I’m weird.

On one such work break I came across a program for a special service a church was holding in the 1930′s. I believe it was for the fiftieth anniversary of the church. What struck me was the simplicity of it. Special guests were invited from the city and around the country. Months of planning went into the event. How much music was in it? Two hymns and two special numbers.

Today, 75 years later, even small churches employ a Worship Arts Director. In the average North American church, more time in the service is devoted to music and videos than to the Scriptures. Certainly, more hours are spent each week on the programing than on the sermon. What happened?

In the 1970′s in North America, Sunday morning church attendance took a steep decline. Of course, this is a very superficial metric for the vitality of Christianity in America, but churches reacted. In a classic case of asking the wrong people the wrong question, the church asked lost people, “Why don’t you come to church?” A common answer was, “Because it is boring!”

In order to recapture lost ground in the attendance battle, the church began revising its morning services. The change touched everything—architecture, marketing, music, food, dress and the sermon. Now the church has always adjusted to changes in culture and modified its music, aesthetics and rhetoric over time to capture the creativity of God embedded in all people and all cultures. This went beyond that. This was an aggressive accommodation in order to get more people in the pews.

And, it worked, at least superficially. Some argue that it attracted more nominal Christians back to church services than it did seekers, but at least the churches who adopted this attractional methodology weren’t so empty anymore. But no one could foresee the arms race it touched off. Sermons became infotainment and not exposition. And, to have impact, they became more and more sensational, until even sex instruction became a sermon series.

Worship artists pulled out all the stops and adopted every modern innovation and entertainment technology they could get their hands on. The sensory stimulation and emotional manipulation of these techniques is now, in many circles, confused with the power of the Spirit. I am not saying that the Holy Spirit cannot be present in the cacophony, I am just saying that it is hard to tell.

Simple Worship is a minimalist reaction to this excess. The goal of Simple Worship is for a liturgy that could be just as home in the catacombs as it would be in a concert hall. Simple Worship seeks to empower new churches and small churches with a creative and beautiful liturgy that does not require a huge logistics train to execute. Simple Worship allows large churches to divert more of their resources to discipleship and missions.

Simple Worship may be a new term but it is an old practice. As such, it feels very natural and very comfortable to believers who engage it. It can easily travel along with Christians as they move out to the frontiers of the Gospel in forest clearings or urban jungles. And even suburban storefronts. That is how we got here. Let’s see where we are going!

Agora Church practices what we call Simple Worship. It is tempting to call it a new trend, but actually this practice is as old as faith itself. While we are joining the bleeding edge of this movement, other churches in America are also pioneering in this intentional return to simplicity. In our next two blog posts we will try to define and understand Simple Worship a little better.

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In short, Simple Worship is an intentional minimalism applied to the design and style of church gatherings or worship services. In the arts and architecture, minimalism represents an effort to get at the essence of an object by concentrating on an elegant simplicity of design. Simple Worship attempts to keep the focus of the worshiper upon God and His Word by avoiding things that are done for effect. Many modern worship services are often carefully crafted to build tempo and emotion to a dramatic climax. A crying baby or a disabled person struggling to get down the aisle can be viewed as “ruining” a carefully planned moment. Simple Worship, on the other hand, attempts to accept any moment God brings with all of its imperfections and humanity.

Simple Worship concentrates on essentials. The Scriptures and affirmations of faith are read aloud, sometimes by an individual and other times by the congregation. These readings can be done in unison or responsively. Prayers are offered aloud but with a sincere effort to avoid oratory and artificial drama. Moments are set aside for silent individual prayer and meditation. The Scriptures are taught with clarity and substance as opposed to being an attempt at infotainment.

Worship arts are part of Simple Worship—especially music. This doesn’t mean that only simple musical compositions are used in services, however. If, in its essence, a hymn or song is musically complex, it can appear in a service of Simple Worship in all of its complexity. In fact, a selection of Handel’s Messiah might be more readily included in Simple Worship than in most “contemporary worship” services today. The focus of Simple Worship is on content and not on style. An ancient hymn might be followed by a modern praise chorus—if the content is congruent.

Although it tries not to be, much traditional, blended and contemporary worship today is self-conscious and crowd-conscious. That is, it can view music as something that is performed for effect more than something that is shared in simple trust. Musicians in Simple Worship ask, “Did I do my best?” and not “Did I do it right?” or “Did we have an impact?”

Simple Worship can include other worship arts as well. Media and visual arts can be included and even drama and dance if talent and space allow. Simple Worship is not characterized by its lack of creativity but by its lack of ostentation. In Simple Worship, rarely do the worship arts occupy more time than the Scriptures, LifeSharing (biblical koinonia) and prayer. Simple Worship doesn’t claim to be the right way for the church to organize its gatherings, but it does claim to be a valid alternative to the highly programmed, affect-oriented worship that has come to dominate churches in North America today.

In next week’s post, Lord willing, I will try to examine why we are talking about Simple Worship today and how what was normative for so much of church history is now seen as an innovation. It involves a lot of historical analysis and may not fit into one post. It seems Simple Worship is easier to do and to experience than it is to explain!

The biblical concept of time and our modern concept of time are significantly different. In our modern world, our concept of time has been significantly impacted by technology. The Bible rarely, if ever gets more precise about time than hours. Natural phenomena like sunrise and sunset regulated the daily lives of most people in the biblical world. For us, time can be split into seconds, milliseconds and even microseconds. Many of our clocks reset themselves automatically each night to a radio signal from Colorado where an atomic clock splits seconds with unimaginable precision.

It is because of this difference that the historical books of the Bible frustrate us. We treat history as a time line into which we precisely insert events that may or may not have connection to our lives today. For ancient people, history was a set of events that produce the world in which they would live their daily lives. Even the order of those events wasn’t crucial—which can make comparing the Gospels to one another frustrating for folks with our modern mindsets.

In the Greek language in which the New Testament was written this type of time is called chronos. It really isn’t all that important in the Bible. Yet this is the very type of time that consumes us in modern America. We use planners, schedules and smartphone apps to try to “manage” this kind of time, pretending it is the very stuff of life itself. But it isn’t. If you or I too carefully structure every minute of our lives we will find in the end we haven’t really lived at all.

The Bible concerns itself more with a type of time called kairos. This type of time consists of moments and not merely minutes. The Gospel of Mark has Jesus launch His ministry with the words, “The time (kairos) has come. . .” (Mark 1:15). God was presenting a special moment to His people in which they could experience God Himself and His Kingdom. He still does that. And we, just like those who heard Jesus, constantly ignore the amazing opportunities God puts in front of us to experience Him and His Kingdom at work in, around and through us.

How are you thinking about time? Are you filling the minutes of your life with tasks, diversions and duties? If so it is quite possible that you are missing many of those kairos moments in your life that God wants to meet you in and through. That is the real time of our lives.

Are you struggling to keep your life together right now? Or, are you contemplating a major change in your life and wondering if you are up to it? Both maintaining the status quo or changing the status quo of your life will be draining. We intuitively know this is true, but what make it like that? What tank or tanks are tapped and drained in order for us to keep doing or start doing whatever it is that God calls us to do?

Mike Breen of 3DM Ministries has been very helpful to me in evaluating the resources we need to live healthy, balanced lives that can respond to God’s call, whether that call is to stay the course or set out on a new one. Mike has introduced me to the concept of Life Capitals. We are all used to the idea of financial capital as the basis to start or maintain a business. Maybe we have even thought of the human capital of a business—the talented and skilled hard-working men and women that make a business successful.

Today I would like to suggest to you that our lives run on at least six “capitals” that we have to call on for maintenance, growth or change. If even one of them is in significant deficit, it will be hard to make a major life change or even maintain the present direction of our life. Our goal should not be to tap these six capitals and drain them almost dry in order to “maximize” our lifestyle, ambitions or Kingdom impact. Instead we should attempt to build up our capitals so we have a margin in each with which we can respond to the challenges God brings to us throughout life.

The first of the six capitals is our Spiritual Capital. This includes our own individual experience of God and our spiritual LifeSharing with a group of peers. Communion with God and spiritual community with some fellow disciples is vital to being spiritually equipped for any challenge God brings us. A second capital of life is Emotional Capital. The sudden, acute crises of life to which none of us are immune can drain our emotional tanks very quickly. But, chronic life dysfunction can also do emotional damage. A troubled family or a life disability can make everyday life hard and draining. Just pushing ourselves too hard because of personal baggage can leave us emotionally drained.

Relational Capital is one that is all too easily taken for granted. How often do you hang out with healthy, caring friends? Sometimes this is blended with the social side of our Spiritual Capital but not always. From a healthy living standpoint a good friend does not have to share your faith in order to enrich your life. Be careful about making major life decisions when you have allowed yourself to become detached and isolated.

The next two capitals are closely related. Intellectual Capital refers to the knowledge and insight you need to conduct your life wisely. According to the Bible, wise people are life-long learners. When our lives get strung out we often stop reading, watching, asking questions and listening in the ways that bring us fresh insight, information and perspective. While we don’t have total control over our Physical capital—disease or disability can be limiting—we can do our best with what we have. We can pay attention to rest, exercise and diet. We can do our best to be as physically healthy as we can be.

Finally, all of our lives depend on money to one extent or another. The Financial Capital of our lives can be divided into two categories—liquid and non-liquid. Liquid capital is cash and savings. Non-liquid capital consists of assets and investments that are more difficult to turn into money. The sad tragedy of most American today is that we live on the edge—or beyond the edge—spending everything we make and more. Then follows the stress in our daily lives or paralysis about taking advantage of God’s call to move or change when it comes.

In Luke 14:28-30, Jesus warned us to sit down and “count our capital” before we engage a new challenge. If we are feeling “drained” just facing the challenges we already have, it can still be a good idea. Maybe it is time to make a few more deposits than withdrawals?

When you read the Gospels carefully you see Jesus respond to people in a startling variety of ways. It would probably be fair to say that His interactions with people are totally unpredictable. Some He engages, some He ignores. With some He is gentle and with others He is harsh—yes harsh. To some He says hardly anything and with others He engages in extended dialogue. Jesus has the uncanny ability to discern how He should handle and interact with every individual He meets.

One of the fallacies of present day American Christianity is the thought that everyone must be treated with equal kindness and engagement. The result is that unhealthy, dysfunctional people come to dominate our lives and our churches. Sometimes we end up ignoring the hungry and teachable for the self-absorbed, greedy and unteachable. That experience doesn’t feel good nor does it serve the Lord and His Kingdom well.

The Old Testament encourages us to be discerning in how we interact with people. The Book of Proverbs tells us how to interact wisely with the wise, the immoral, the unwise, the angry, the foolish, the powerful, the friendly, the nagging and many other types of people. Placing people in these categories apparently doesn’t violate Jesus’ prohibition of judging others as long as our purpose is not to take God’s place as their judge but to act wisely toward them.

To stimulate your thinking I am just going to suggest four categories of people you can begin by discerning: Spiritual Parents, Spiritual Peers, Spiritual Projects and Spiritual People of Peace. The first is the easiest to discern but the rarest type—Spiritual Parents. In 1 Corinthians 4:15 the Apostle Paul refers to himself as the spiritual “father” of the Corinthians. In 1 Timothy 1:2, he calls Timothy his true “son” in the faith.

Some but not all of us are blessed to have one or more Spiritual Parents—men and women who are our disciplers. We do well to value and not neglect those relationships. Sometimes being with them feels so good we feel guilty about it! But I believe that no matter how far we progress in faith, we should always make it a priority to draw upon and honor the wisdom of our disciplers and mentors. We need to be discerning about our Spiritual Parents so we can prioritize doing that.

In his writing the Apostle Paul also talked a lot about “partners” or Spiritual Peers. Barnabas, Silas, Epaphroditus, Priscilla, Lydia and many others became yoke fellows or co-laborers to Paul. Some were in the faith before him and others began as disciples and became Spiritual Peers—that is a natural and healthy progression I think. Whatever the case, time and time again Paul needed them and was sustained by them. Just like Spiritual Parents, it can feel so good to spend time with Spiritual Peers that we can feel guilty about it. We need to be aware of these relationships, however, so we don’t neglect or take them for granted.

The last two categories are people who need us—but in two vastly different ways. Spiritual Projects are people who are struggling—maybe due to a sudden crisis or due to chronic difficulties and failures. Whatever the case, it is inherently unchristian to ignore these people. God wants us to be compassionate and responsive. But interacting with these people is draining even with the help of the Holy Spirit. Few of us are gifted to be able to spend all of our time with the chronically broken and struggling and not be adversely affected by it. I would go as far as to suggest that most of us can only handle no more than one or two Spiritual Projects in our lives at any given time. If contact with Spiritual Projects begins to consume all of our relationship time it will probably rob our spiritual journey of vitality and joy—balance in all things is important.

One group of people who can get robbed by this imbalance is the Spiritual People of Peace God puts in our lives. In Matthew 10:11, when Jesus sent out his disciples for their first solo flights of ministry, He told them they should look for People of Peace whom God had prepared to receive and pass on their ministry. These Spiritual People of Peace would be open, welcoming, supportive and teachable. They are prime candidates for discipleship, obviously.

While it is important to give of ourselves to Spiritual Projects we all should be careful not to pour our lives into Spiritual Projects until we see the Holy Spirit shaping them into Spiritual People of Peace. We all need to be discerning about our relationships so we can prioritize ministry and discipleship in ways that will build the Kingdom of God without tearing us down. No one said this is easy.

If this concept intrigues you and you would like to test how it applies to your life, you may want to try to do a relationship inventory. Take a piece of paper and list any Spiritual Parents, Spiritual Peers, Spiritual Projects and Spiritual People of Peace that you can identify in your life. Leave some space so you can jot down some thoughts or promptings from the Holy Spirit about those individuals or those categories. Ask yourself if you are neglecting some of these relationships. Or maybe you are spending too much time with Spiritual Peers and/or Spiritual Projects to the detriment of other important relationships.

Relationship Discernment isn’t a science. It is an acquired skill. But the Holy Spirit wants to help you because He wants you to enjoy life and have an impact for Him. How is your relationship discernment in these basic areas?

In Luke chapter 6 verses 12-19 we see a picture of the unique balance that Jesus maintained in His life on earth. The Jewish day begins at sundown and not at midnight or sunup as we think of days in our modern culture. So, since verse 12 tells us that Jesus spent the night praying, in reality He began this day that we are about to look at by praying to God.

When morning came, Jesus gathered around Himself His disciples and from these He chose twelve (verses 13-16). From time with His Father He moved on to time with professing believers, no doubt enjoying His covenant relationship with them but also doing important work for the Kingdom. According to Mike Breen, you can trace these twin themes of covenant relationship and Kingdom work throughout the whole Bible.

But, Jesus’ day wasn’t finished. After spending time with His disciples and doing important work with them, He moved on again to ministry to crowds of people who were not yet His disciples. Lives were changed, people were rescued and miracles happened. Time focusing on God, time sharing life with His followers and time spent in mission to those outside the faith—Jesus did them all in a day and comfortably moved from one aspect of spiritual obedience to another.

In his book, Building a Discipling Culture, Mike Breen describes these three types of spiritual experience as “three dimensions” of the Christian life. God calls us as Christians to look “up” to Him in prayer, devotion and personal worship. He also calls us to to spend time “in” the congregation in relationship with each other and helping one another surrender to Christ’s kingly authority. Finally, from this basis of stability and strength, we are sent “out” on mission to our world. Up, in and out—three dimensions of spiritual experience that the Bible talks about throughout and that Jesus modeled in His earthly life.

Now the sad fact is that, as human beings, we have trouble balancing these. You can see it in churches. Some are solely focused on the “up” of our faith—worshiping God and learning about Him. The congregation may be mostly oblivious to their fellow members and there is little mission done in the world. Other churches reverse that—they are all about reaching the world but the spiritual lives of their own people and experiencing God in a meaningful way are minor themes at best in their ministries. And so on.

I find these three dimensions of spiritual life very helpful as I look for balance in my own life. Am I spending meaningful time with God? Am I sharing life in a more than superficial way with His people? Am I discipling others and being discipled? Am I aware of and active in my call to be on mission for Christ in my world?

Watch someone riding a bicycle sometime and you will see how delicate balance is. Unconsciously the rider is making minute adjustments all the time to stay balanced on that bike. If we want spiritual balance in our lives, we are going to need to consider Jesus’ example like we see in Luke 6:12-19 and we are going to have to reflect and adjust daily. Ready for the ride?

In Matthew 28:19 Jesus gave a clear command to “make disciples” in His Great Commission to His followers. A disciple is an apprentice who attempts to imitate the skilled master, in this case, Jesus. Even the word “Christian” introduced later in the Book of Acts (Acts 11:26) means a “Christ follower” and, interestingly, is a name given to them by outsiders. People could see that they lived and loved like Jesus.

Because this is a central truth in Christianity, at Agora Church we have intentionally set out to create a “disciple-making culture” and not a spectator culture. Consequently, Agora Church has its own unique vision and vocabulary. In an effort to be faithful to God in the 21^st century, we have gone back to the 1^st century church of the New Testament and not the 20^th century American church for our patterns and inspiration.

Here are some of our tools and terms that we wish to try to help you understand:

Weekly Gatherings for Simple Worship

Somehow over the many centuries since the early church, the weekly assemblies of the local church have gone from something that could be held in a catacomb to something that can only be held in a concert hall. From an emphasis on LifeSharing (what the Greek New Testament calls koinonia) and teaching the emphasis has shifted to performance and entertainment. This has done two things—it has created a massive burden on a handful of people who produce “the show” and, conversely, made a host of attendees passive spectators.

Simple Worship is a desire to return to the sincere, personal and elegant flavor of the New Testament/apostolic church. Reading Scripture, teaching, meditation, LifeSharing and “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” as the Bible describes them are part of a respectful but simple and informal experience that, hopefully, keeps the focus on God and His Word and not the performance of the speaker or service leaders. We are not the first to do this, but we may be the first you have experienced. It is intentional.

Spiritual Discovery Groups

A Spiritual Discovery Group is a small group of people who meet with a facilitator for LifeSharing, prayer and life-changing discussion centered around the Scriptures. The facilitator studies the passage in depth but structures the time around five questions that each meeting lead the participants from personal reaction to potential life application of biblical truth. More than a Bible Study that fills the mind with facts about the Bible, a group like this is a shared spiritual encounter with biblical insights that the Spirit of God can use to shape our lives and fill our hearts with daily service and worship.

Discipleship Huddles

A Discipleship Huddle is a small group of 3-8 people who meet regularly with a discipler. We use 3DM Ministries LifeShapes materials to help people master certain key biblical lifestyle issues, integrate them into their daily lives and pass them on to others. After 18-24 months in a Huddle, gifted participants are encouraged to seek out a Huddle of potential disciples to equip for balanced biblical living and service as well. In this way we hope to create a true reproducing, disciple-making culture that reflects the ministry of Jesus and His disciples.

Missional Communities and Nuclear Churches

Well-formed disciples are the ideal leaders to reach out to hurting and lost people. When one of our disciples begins meeting with a small group of people distant from or disillusioned with God we call it a Nuclear Church—it is “church” on its smallest possible scale. If one of these groups grows larger, we call it a Missional Community and its leader a Misisonal Leader. This part of our ministry is an organized way that we take the love of God and the hope of the Kingdom of God to people who need to see and experience healthy Christianity before they ever consider God’s possible place in their lives.

So this is some of the unique language you may encounter at Agora Church. These ministry forms and terms represent the intentional effort we are investing in building a disciple-making culture that the Spirit of God can use to shape disciples of Jesus in the 21^st century.

I am humbled by how God is working on behalf of Agora Church. When I set out on this journey I had no idea it would take the shape that it is taking. I don’t believe that people create churches but God does. He uses people and circumstances—good and bad—to give birth to new ministries that will reach and serve people.  The pieces are indeed coming together.

Just a couple of weeks ago I got a call from a church planter who had to close his project. Although this church had a short life it touched hundreds of people and changed many lives—including the church planter. He wanted to make available the equipment that church had used for “church in a box” for many years. Chairs, chair racks, sound system, microphones, music stands, projection screens and more. At no cost to Agora Church we were suddenly equipped for Weekly Gatherings.

I felt a little bit like the young Marine charging up a hill who is suddenly grabbed by his wounded corporal. “Here, take my grenades, take my ammo and take that hill!” Maybe it is more like a relay runner receiving the baton from the runner who had just completed his leg of the race. The faces and names change but the work of the Kingdom goes on.

At the same time, it seems likely we will sign a lease for a facility here in Dublin that would allow us to begin our Weekly Gatherings this fall. The lease is drafted, the arrangements are made but the signing hasn’t happened. But, it seems likely that next week I will be able to tell you where our Weekly Gatherings will be held.

And God has done more. A Buddhist woman has come to faith in Jesus. We will soon have three active Spiritual Discovery Groups. We have our first Discipleship Huddle going. We have a clear vision of how we can build a missional discipling culture in our new church. That is the most rewarding part. I have spent years battling to have real discipleship and not just superficial programs be the core of the church’s ministry. Now, with God’s help, we are building a church that is discipleship-based.

We couldn’t have done any of this without our sponsors who provide us with training, materials and/or resources. 3DM Ministries has engaged us in a two-year training cycle in order to shape us as a discipling church. Missio out of Denver, Colorado has given us the strategy and materials for our Spiritual Discovery Groups. MissioChurch, the church planting arm of the Brethren Church, has been extremely generous in its sponsorship. The North American Church Multiplication Institute at Ashland Theological Seminary helps us clarify and refine our strategy. Smoky Row Brethren Church provides our family with financial support so we can work on church planting across Ohio. And I have probably missed some sponsors.

So, apparently God has chosen to form a new discipleship-based church in our local area with arms that reach out to the world. He probably has even more pieces of the puzzle to put on the table. Join us in praying that we will be faithful to His design! The pieces are coming together.

Do you feel that you have arrived spiritually? That would be hard to admit to, wouldn’t it? Can you see progress in the quality of your spiritual life? I am not asking if you know more facts about the Bible. I am not asking if you are giving more money or time to the church. I am asking if you can tell that you are changing from the inside out. Hard question, huh?

The sad secret is that the majority of churches in America aren’t helping people grow spiritually at all. Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago was the first to turn on the light with their REVEAL survey. It revealed that the church was being institutionally successful but not moving people spiritually. Dozens of the largest churches in America are actually quietly working on the problem behind the scenes—along with thousands of smaller churches.

But my questions in the first paragraph were not about the church, they were about you and me. In our Protestant tradition spiritual growth doesn’t depend upon the church as mediator but each Christian has direct access to God through faith in Jesus. Yes, the church is important but as facilitator and not as mediator. The real question is about me and my desire. Jesus said after all, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. . .” not “Blessed are the complacent”–or the self-assured.

Personally, I am being discipled in a group where we meet each week expecting God is going to “breakthrough” with something that will change our lives in big ways or in small ways. And I meet with at least two groups where I am the discipler/facilitator helping people try to discern where the Kingdom of God wants to “break into” their lives and produce a change of mind that leads, in some way, to a change of life. That is a rather intense but rewarding process.

At Agora Church we also have Spiritual Discovery Groups where we go looking for God, His will and how to apply it to our lives in Scripture. We meet with a facilitator who studies the passage in depth and brings out what is needed so people can see what God may be trying to say to them through His word. We always learn something about the Bible but the goal is to learn what God is saying to us about our daily lives, not just gather more facts about Biblical history.

All this leads us to the real question—are you spiritually hungry? Am I spiritually hungry? Through all of church history there have been two approaches to our faith. One is a complacency with where I am spiritually. The other is a hunger to learn, to grow, to change and to become more like Jesus. The first step in growing is facing how easy it is to become stuck and complacent. The second step is facing how challenging it is to make Continuous Breakthrough, as Mike Breen describes it in his book Building a Discipling Culture, a regular part of our lives. Is the Kingdom of God growing in your heart and life? If not, why not?

I hope it isn’t news to you that none of us have arrived.