Why I Wrote GROWING A STUDENT MOVEMENT

Dr. Don Everts, partnered with the Barna Group and the Lutheran Hour Ministries to research how practicing Christians talk about their faith which resulted in The Spiritual Conversation Curve designed to help Christians start spiritual conversations. He notes the Christians’ approach to sharing their faith has changed in 25 years. “Technology and rapid cultural shifts, including the impact of social media, have redefined the ways we communicate. This shifting definition of evangelism and the perceptions of faith sharing from both sides of the conversation: the sharer and the hearer.”

In the research, the fear of giving offense or being rejected is one of the primary barriers for many Christians in talking about Jesus. That is why most of us are quiet. The research reports on the state of our witness. Nearly three-fourths of practicing Christians are afraid to speak up about their faith.

The research findings:

1. We have fewer spiritual conversations.

2. We are uncomfortable with spiritual conversations.

3. Our conversations mention Jesus and the Bible less.

4. Our approach to spiritual conversations mirrors our surrounding culture.

5. We know spiritual conversations need to be initiated.

6. Our spiritual conversations increasingly have a digital element.

The project led to the creation of The Spiritual Conversation Curve which helps frame how one can start spiritual conversations knowing people have different postures toward the Gospel: unreceptive, receptive, and seeking, and reveals six types of conversations based on their posture: either in gaining a hearing, giving good news, or guiding toward faith. 

In my last blog, “Start to Finish” I explained there are three discernable patterns in a given academic year. Mobilization was the third, predictable pattern that arrives after the new calendar year begins and with Spring.  As the warm weather arrives and in many places snow melts, buds come out on the trees, and the sun shines, students head for the outdoors.

It is an ideal time to step up witness with outdoor activities like lawn talks, contact tables, personal evangelism, and social events, but they focus on the point of this chart and research on spiritual conversations. 

Don admits for him the difficulty of witnessing was “apathy, shyness and basic fear.” He believed spiritual conversations were “pesky, painful, awkward things.” The research shows that most of us in the U.S. are reluctant conversationalists, which he named his book on the research (see Resource). The question asked was, “How often have you had a conversation about faith (or lack of faith) with anyone last year?”

The Spiritual Conversation Curve can help us be aware and sensitive to where people are (or not) in their understanding or experience of faith. Learning to have natural conversations with students you get to know (chatting, relating, sharing) can lead people toward faith—clarifying the costs and rewards of following Jesus. Don has written a 10-page booklet, “How to Talk About Your Faith,” that you can download for free at www.lhm.org/curve/.

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Don Everts is the senior pastor of First & Calvary Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Missouri, and is a writer for Lutheran Hour Ministries (lhm.org) and the Hopeful Neighborhood Project. He served with IVCF for 18 years. Don has spent almost three decades helping people on college campuses and in the local church become good stewards of their God-given gifts. His latest book is The Reluctant Witness. Some might remember his first 1999 IVP book, Jesus with Dirty Feet.

Why Not Here?

Like most campus ministers, I have read and studied many books on discipleship, being a disciple and a disciple-maker (see Resource) that flow out of the passages in Matthew 28.19 “Go and make disciples” and 2 Timothy 2:2 “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”

Disciple-making is at the heart of Chi Alpha’s ministry, and the byproduct is transformation and multiplication with increasing numbers of students coming to faith and maturity as Christ-followers. Groups that understand what it means to be a disciple and disciple-maker, whether they lead a weekly discipleship training course or conduct discipleship small groups, recognize discipleship is counter-cultural and requires priority and time investment, commitment, and sacrifice.  

I came across an insightful blog by Ken Schakleford where he asks, “Can Disciple Making Movements Happen in Our Western Christian Culture?” His concern is that, here in America, Christianity seems to be sliding into cultural ineffectiveness and irrelevance. “We have church buildings in almost every neighborhood and yet there seems to be little transformative impact on the communities around them.” He states, “what we read in the Acts is happening now, in real-time, in some very unexpected places around the world.” [True disciple-making is occurring among Chi Alpha groups nationwide too.] 

Schakleford does a great job of laying out seven principles that are common among viable disciple-making movements around the world. I am motivated to share his blog even though in Chi Alpha we have a working knowledge of discipleship and are committed to disciple-making. His blog captures what it means to follow Christ in a way that I have not seen elaborated and explains why applying these principles leads to similar results among discipling movements globally.

Disciple-making Movements Globally Share Seven Common Principles.

1. Time and Money- 

Discipleship takes time, real sacrifice. With our hyper-busy schedules, we must give up significant items to be a disciple-maker.

• Prayer and fasting-

Prayer and fasting are essential—a normal part of our sacred rhythms; fasting drives us into even more intense times of prayer and worship; we must alter our life and lifestyle around it; connecting us to the spirit of Christ.

• Valuing obedience over just knowledge-

Understanding subjects like taking up their cross, the cost of discipleship, and the commands of Jesus to make disciples and proclaim the kingdom of God is crucial. Disciples get into God’s word regularly and purposely. They are hungry for truth because they are active in sharing the truth. Their Bible study, usually done communally, takes all newly discovered knowledge and immediately expects practical obedience to be born out of that understanding. God’s Spirit teaches them what they need to be doing from what they are learning. We must change how we approach scripture and Bible study. 

• Valuing community and relationships over individualism-

Discipleship is done through deep relationships and relationships are messy and, again, they take time. We will have to overcome our individualistic tendencies. Small (life, discipleship, core, family) groups are good, but they need to be purposeful and go much deeper than we might be comfortable with.

• Valuing transparency and accountability over privacy-

Accountability is only as effective as our transparency is. Living your life as an open book makes you vulnerable, and vulnerability is difficult. We live in a culture that values privacy and security on an extreme level. This allows us to keep our weaknesses and sin in the dark, which is the realm of our enemy. God has designed faith communities to hold things up into the light, where He brings forgiveness, healing, and growth to them.

• Humility and supernatural faith-

The mission Christ has given us cannot be done in the strength of our own knowledge and abilities.—Jesus sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God, heal the sick including cleansing the lepers; deliver the demon-possessed, raise the dead, discern who God is working on and disciple them; and be vigilant and alert because the enemy is targeting them (we are lambs among wolves). These expectations far exceeded their natural abilities. The great co-mission handed down to us is just as impossible in our own strength and wisdom. We must view it as a supernatural work of God and humbly depend on His Spirit.

7. Perseverance and sacrifice-

Disciple-making is not glamorous. It is challenging on a gut-wrenching level. Perseverance is key. We too often want quick and clean microwavable solutions. A movement does not start in a day or a few weeks or even months. (exponential growth takes time). Following Jesus is costly. We must entrust our jobs, school, reputations, ability to provide for our family, our freedom, our lives. The life of a disciple-making disciple is not safe or secure from a worldly perspective, but it is good, rich and purposeful, passion-filled, and worth the cost.

This is a condensed version of the full blog. https://discipleship.org/blog/disciple-making-movements-why-not-here/