Just returned from a wonderful and inspiring trip to present the Doable Evangelism Seminar in Albuquerque (man, that’s a hard word to type!), NM. I was hosted by The Tres Rios Area Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of the Southwest, led by the energetic and delightful Reverend Charlotte Hoppe. Charlotte got introduced to DE when she lived in the Seattle area and attended an Off The Map event there several years ago and was pretty passionate about getting the ministers she leads to this training. I think we had about 50 or so pastors and lay leaders from the Tres Rios gang, and a few others from a couple of associated United Methodist Churches. Some came from as far away as Alpine, Texas (and a few other places in west Texas), but most were from New Mexico.

I learned a lot about the Disciples of Christ (DOC), who are an amazingly diverse group that seem to partner with other mainline denominations with ease (in particular the United Methodist Church, but there were also some American Baptists). Although they are not technically part of the “evangelical” camp, their evangelism problem is nearly identical.

There was one kind of funny, but also enlightening, moment when I asked the crowd where the “sinner’s prayer” was in the bible. One of the pastors raised her hand and asked, “What’s the sinner’s prayer?” At first I thought she was kidding, but then looked around at the crowd and realized that the only ones who knew what I was referring to were the former Baptists. They honestly had never heard of it. That was a first for me.

(By the way…the sinner’s prayer that we evangelicals often refer to is not found in the Bible, although we sometimes speak of it as if it is.)

I also learned that the DOC folks aren’t obsessed with counting conversions like we are in evangelical land. They did, however, admit to being equally obsessed with counting “memberships” (which is sort of their version of conversion). When I asked what it took to be “counted” as a member, the room almost exploded with comments and laughter. There was quite a wide variety of answers, some more serious than others. One woman near the front said quite dryly, “They just have to be breathing.” Apparently the membership bar has been lowered some, in parts of the DOC (but not any lower than the conversion bar we evangelicals use, frankly).

This led to an interesting discussion about a tendency among mainline denominational churches to view evangelism primarily as a church growth program. I’m not sure this isn’t the case in most churches (mainline or not), but comments in the Q&A session at the end of the seminar began to suggest this might be the case here. I suggested that if evangelism is primarily an effort to get people to attend your church, then it is destined to fail (both the evangelism effort and your church, probably). You will most certainly miss the original intent of evangelism, which is far more Kingdom of God oriented than raising your attendance (and tithing) figures. This small point of perspective seemed to be helpful to many of the DOC gang as they saw their own personal and communal effort to notice, pray and listen to those outside their buildings as part of the greater mission of the Kingdom of God, rather than another “invite your friend to church” program. This will be another paradigm shift they’ll have to navigate, but I sensed not only a bit of epiphany, but also a few sighs of relief in the crowd. They’ll have to let go of their need to measure their success by how many members they have, but actually BEING the church in your neighborhood is way more fun and exhilarating than trying to get your neighborhood into your building.

We are invited to participate with God in His plan to rescue all of creation. I don’t know why…He doesn’t really need us to get the job done. We actually get to help nudge people toward Jesus, partnering with God in His harvest plan. This seems to me to be absurdly irresponsible of God, given the enormous capacity we have to screw it up. Regardless, we are invited…even commanded…to play a part. The good news is that what we’re really being asked to do is quite…doable. For all of us. We have no excuse.

Thank you, Tres Rio DOC. It was an honor (and even a bit of an education) for me to be with you all. May your hear the applause of Christ (and each other) as you practice the spiritual practice of evangelism, wherever you may be.

Vaya con Dios.

(PS…beware the body scanners at ABQ airport!)