Rick Warren, pastor and author of The Purpose Driven Life, uses an image of concentric circles to help explain the church commitment level of the people around us. From the outer circle to the inner circle, the groups are: community, crowd, congregation, committed, and core. In this image of the church commitment, the goal is to help a person move from the community to the core believer. It’s an older model, but still helpful to understand how people relate to or are committed to the church.
Recently, I read Daniel Im’s book, The Discipleship Opportunity: Leading a Great-Commission Church in a Post-Everything World. He has another take on the types of people around us. His book is written for the post-pandemic world. In fact, he makes it clear that the world we need to engage has a decreasing interest in church. They have seen enough pastoral abuse and sex scandals. They have seen enough of church leaders in moral failures or greed, and churches whose worship seems more like a TED talk and a rock concert. The effect of this is that the interest in the church is plummeting. We can no longer assume people are just trying to find the right church. More and more aren’t even thinking about church.
With that sobering start, the author presents four types of people in church or in our communities. These four he places in a matrix of “non-Christian/Christian” on one axis and “uninterested/interested” on the other. Here is his matrix.
The “non-Christian/Christian” is self-explanatory, and we should expect that both will be among us in our church life. The “uninterested/interested” is no different than how it was when Jesus had crowds around him. Some wanted the goods and services he offered, but when that wasn’t offered, like when the miraculous feedings didn’t happen again, or when the teaching got difficult, they drifted away. They weren’t interested.
Jesus calls us to sow the seeds of the gospel (see Luke 8:11-15). This means we spread our message to many types of people. In another metaphor, the apostle Paul speaks of our call to do our part in growing the faith of others and trust God to do his part. Paul famously said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). We are to water and trust God to grow them. The question is who are they? Daniel Im describes four groups. Below, I review those four groups. Our mission as a church is to shepherd people to be the last ones described: the disciples.
The Sleepers
Sleepers are those spiritually asleep. They are not Christian nor are they interested in becoming a Christian. They are not interested in the church. They are not interested in Jesus. In the parable of the sower, they are the hard path on which the seeds fall, get trampled on, and devoured by birds. Because they live in America with heavy Christian influence and imagery around, they may have attended a worship service like Christmas Eve or Easter. They may have been at a Christian wedding or funeral. Each time they would have heard the gospel, but none of it took root.
Not much can be done by the church to directly reach or influence them toward Christ. They aren’t showing up for us to have that reach or influence. Our work must be indirect. They may not be interested or think about the church or the Christian faith or Jesus, but they are friends with those who do. Us. Our work of discipleship must train people to “give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). The best approach is to learn to be better friends with people all around them at home, work, study, and play.
The Seekers
This group, Im writes, are beginning to wake up. They haven’t yet decided to surrender their lives to Jesus, so they are not Christians. They are interested in Jesus and the church. They have spiritual conversations. They ask questions. They respond positively when to you invite them to church. They think about God, pray sometimes, and are like a seed sown beginning to sprout.
The church can help this group along by having a discovery step, a setting to help them learn about God, ask hard questions, and look deeply into what it looks like to have a relationship with Jesus. Weekend retreat events or the Alpha program or a book study are all examples of this.
The Consumers
Consumers are Christian. They can tell you their spiritual story of coming to Christ, whether by an “altar call” or the steady rhythm of a “table call” to the Lord’s Supper, somewhere along the way, they woke up and decided that of all the things they could believe, they believed in and trusted in Jesus. However, for one reason or another, they’re not that interested in Jesus or the church anymore. They are the piece of coal moved out of the center of the fire, once glowing red hot, now cooling black. They are the seeds that have no root and get choked out by the “worries, riches, and pleasures of life, and produce no mature fruit” (Luke 8:14). They are called consumers because they are there to consume religious goods and services. They speak often about what they “got out of” sermons or or music or studies, or didn’t get out of them, but are not committed to the cause enough to live sacrificially and be committed to grow in faith.
They way you disciple consumers is to clarify what it means to be a disciple. A disciple isn’t a spectator watching church but is an active participant. A disciple is one whose heart change has led to life change and surrender to Jesus and his people in the church in all areas. Following Jesus isn’t just coming to church for an hour; it is a lived experience every day that involves serving and sacrifice and commitment. A disciple also seeks to help others get on a path to spiritual maturity, so a disciple is someone who also makes new disciples.
The Disciples
Disciples are also Christians, but unlike consumers, they are all in. They are actively committed to grow to be more and more like Christ in their character, actions, and knowledge. They are interested in and committed to Jesus and his church. They are the seeds that fall on good soil, producing abundantly more fruit that what was sown. They are committed to helping others grow in their faith, so they are disciples who make disciples. They are Rick Warren’s core group in terms of commitment. They live and give and serve and worship and love sacrificially.
We want to be a church full of disciples. Our work as a church is to equip these people to practice radical hospitality with everyone around them. Equip them with all necessary training so they can answer the questions that the seekers and sleepers (and consumers) are asking. Give them deep dive study and training to know and share the gospel.
A Pathway to Maturity
In the end, the challenge for church leaders is to create a clear pathway to spiritual maturity. The challenge for everyone in the church, including church leaders, is to get on that pathway. That is what will be worked on in the year ahead. Join me on the path.