Words Have Meaning

Well, “Duh,” you say.

But not just meaning(s) but meaning.

Vocabulary changes so much about what we allow or don’t. What we encourage. Who becomes a hero in our church family. How we embrace or reject opportunity.

Consider This

We were 13 years into a church planting operation when Carl George entered our lives. We’d started 34 churches ranging in size from about 40 to 500 people (the mother church had grown from 12 to 2,000+).

But most of our pastors also held secular jobs. Prevailing church culture called them “losers.”

We’d hosted a conference for our network with Carl George as the speaker. I’d heard him before and was enamored with his take on small groups as church-planting vehicles. Having flown back to Hermosa Beach from Hawaii for the event, I arrived late but just in time to hear him utter the word “bivocational.”

I was blown away. There was now a word for what we were doing, which suggested success rather than failure.

Words, Indeed, Have Meaning

Consider these terms: church growth, church planting and church multiplication.

The first suggests single location addition. Church planting is obvious. But church multiplication implies implementing a first century approach to the possibility of fulfilling the great commission—from a single location.

For this reason, I like disciplemaking far better than discipleship. One suggests multiplication, while the other implies stopping with a healthy relationship with God that may not impact the world.

To Limit or To Expand?

My friend, Jeff, was a professional pool player when he came to Christ. Today he is an outstanding disciplemaker, primarily among college students though he’s almost as old as me.

Early in his Christian experience, he started a unique microchurch among a small, tight-knit people group.

He showed up in a pool hall in Minnesota for a weekly contest announcing that “at 10:30, I’m going to leave here to lead a Bible study at the Arby’s down the street.” True to his word, he’d break down his cue at the appointed time, forfeit his winnings for quitting early, and head to Arby’s.

After several months of this, curiosity got the better of the manager at the pool hall. He showed up at Arby’s asking why Jeff would leave his winnings behind. That led to a talk about his personal problems, which initiated disciplemaking, leading to salvation and more disciplemaking. Others followed, and a microchurch was born. However…

Nobody told Jeff he was a pastor or that he was leading a church in an unreached people group. Worse, disciplemaking was just a tool to bring people to a “regular church.”

Ecclesia and Leaders

Words do have meaning. A simple Book of Acts understanding of the word pastor would have unleashed Jeff to build upon his thriving ministry, as would a more straightforward definition of ecclesia.

Instead of building ponds hoping they will grow into lakes, we need to change our terminology to allow the people in our congregations to flow with the river of living water that Jesus promised.

Are you indeed the pastor embodying all those gifts, or are you the congregational leader orchestrating the movement of apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers in your group?

Words do have meaning. They either enable or limit those we are called to equip.

As always, the only “return on investment” I get out of this effort comes from your comments (which are much preferred over emails because others can see them). Thanks for reading this!