God’s foolproof marketing campaign for getting the word out about his plan for the world is to give every believer a head-turning set of “before” and “after” photos from their lives. This is the greatest argument a follower of Jesus can make for the validity of the gospel. This is who I was before Jesus started influencing my life. This is who I am now after being under his influence for the last 5, 10, or 15 years.
When our neighbors see the difference Jesus has made in us, they’ll want to know more. They’ll come to us asking for our secret. Our transformation stories give us repeated opportunities to put in a good for Jesus and invite others to follow him with us.
At least that’s the way the sermon goes in most churches. It’s an old sermon, you can find versions of it in the New Testament where the early Christians were encouraged to be ready to talk about the difference Jesus was making in their lives. It worked. The early church grew exponentially because of the distinctive quality of life displayed by Christ-followers.
Today, most preachers continue to preach this sermon, but with less and less effect. Our neighbors aren’t bombarding us with questions about what makes us different. Our churches are not full of newcomers curious to know more. It’s not because we’ve saturated the market and made everyone a Christian. Nor is it because our neighbors have hard hearts, hate God, and can’t stand to hear the name of Jesus. It’s because they are not seeing anything compelling in the lives of those who claim to follow him. They notice no real difference between our way of life and theirs. They’re not opposed to the gospel. They’re not threatened by it. They’re ignoring it for lack of buzz in the neighborhood. The good news is neither good nor news.
Actually, its worse than that. Many of us who have been following Jesus are growing uneasy with the lack of impact the gospel is making in our own homes. We go to church. We attend small groups. We’re involved in ministries and service projects. Too often, all of this feels more like life-crushing busyness than life-giving transformation. John Wooden said, “Don’t confuse activity with achievement.” We have have calendars littered with church activities; but are we really achieving anything? Our doubts are bolstered by the evidence from our so-called Christian lifestyles. We’re just as materialistic, depressed, over-scheduled, afraid, and anxious as our neighbors.
I am most disappointed in the lack of transformation I see in myself. I grew up going to church and Jesus has always been important to me. I was baptized at twelve, started preaching the gospel to others when I was 18, and I’ve had a leadership role in churches for the past 14 years. I’ve preached hundreds of sermons, spent countless hours studying the Bible, prayed thousands of prayers, read hundreds of books, confessed my sins repeatedly, sought wisdom from Christ-like people, and I’ve tried to do the right thing no matter how much it has hurt. And yet I don’t feel like I’ve got much of a story to tell about the difference Christ has made in my life. I still struggle with the same sins. I’m still prone to the same selfish behaviors.
I’ve spent a lot of energy trying to change the church when the sad reality is that I can’t even change myself. So when it comes down to it, my biggest frustration with the church is that it isn’t living up to my expectations for what the gospel can do in the lives of those who follow Christ, especially–and most embarrassingly–mine. I’m afraid I don’t have a very compelling set of “before” and “after” pictures. It’s hard to believe that God is changing the world when he doesn’t seem to be changing me.
When I got involved with CrossFit, I saw the very thing I thought was impossible happening every day. Life change. Transformation. Bad habits broken. New habits formed. A community built on acceptance and support. Testimonial after testimonial. Incredible “before” and “after” pictures.
After one year of CrossFit, I saw more life change happen there than I had seen in over a decade as a professional minister. What I saw in CrossFit didn’t cause me to lose faith in the gospel or completely walk away from the church. Instead, I took it as a rebuke, like God was saying to me through CrossFit, “See! This is what church can be like!”
I see this kind of rebuke as being similar to the one provided by the 12-step movement. All twelve steps are biblical and rooted in the gospel, yet groups like Alcoholics Anonymous have done a better job of using them to create an open, accepting, life-changing environment than have most churches. So much so in fact, that many churches have embraced the twelve steps as a ministry framework with outstanding success.
My hunch is that the problem with most churches is more sociological in nature than theological. By that I mean that the lack of compelling spiritual “before” and “after” photos has more to do with the environment in which we expect the gospel to do its work than with the gospel itself. We’re asking the gospel to change lives in an environment that doesn’t support lasting life-change. We talk about changing lives but we don’t have the structures in place to support what we’re talking about. In some cases our current structures sabotage the very thing we spend so much time talking about. This makes about as much sense as serving glazed donuts during the break of a low-carb nutrition seminar.
The gospel is still the most powerful force in the world, but it works best in combination with certain principles that instigate, facilitate, and support long term change. These are principles the church once practiced instinctively but seems to have forgotten over time. In the past three years, I’ve been given the opportunity to participate in a community that is changing lives by incorporating principles that will strike many Christians as vaguely familiar.
The fundamental question I’m asking in this book is: What can churches learn from CrossFit gyms about creating an environment that encourages and supports drastic and lasting life change? In future chapters I’ll use my experience as both a pastor and CrossFitter to provide a few answers and point to some intriguing possibilities.
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
I haven’t read part 1 yet and am unfamiliar with CrossFit Gyms (but you have me sold — I want to come!) but THIS is what got me: “We go to church. We attend small groups. We’re involved in ministries and service projects. Too often, all of this feels more like life-crushing busyness than life-giving transformation.”
YES! YES! YES!! 100 times YES!! My family just moved to a new area and are in that weird stage of life called “church shopping” and this is EXACTLY what I DON’T WANT for my family. We’ve been there — have notebooks filled with notes from meetings, the t-shirts from VBS and other projects to prove it. But life change? What’s that?
GREAT post.
Thanks Sarah. If you check out CrossFit, let me know it goes.
Oh, Wade! I agree with Sarah. You really, really hit the nail on the head with the same content she quoted above. I am on the edge of my seat to hear the conclusions you’ve come up with. I think you and I have very similar feelings about the traditional West Texas CoC churches we grew up in (actually, I think the church I grew up in did a much better job of acceptance and mercy than the one I currently attend) and about the state of Christianity in general.
It’s not my intent to condemn my current congregation (they do have wonderful intentions), but this blog really spoke to me. The tone of the church I currently attend is such that if I miss a service, I am much less worried about what God thinks than the handful of people who will write, call, or Facebook me if I’m not there. It’s all about the attendance record at worship, Bible class, small groups, Gospel meetings, VBS, social events outside of church and less about the condition of your soul. If you come forward with an issue, the best answer they can provide is “attend more, and you’ll be doing the necessary work to feel closer to God – your issues are clearly tied to attendance”. Why would I WANT to attend more at a place that makes me feel like I can never get it right, instead of one where every person breathes “thank you, Jesus, for my second chance” at every turn. THAT is the compelling evidence of the existence of Christ. The members of my current church overwhelmingly carry themselves in a very Godly manner (and they are born again Christians, rightfully so), so much so that they are often unapproachable. They almost act as if they have been born into a lineage of Christianity as royals (the last 3 generations of my family have been “New Testament Christians”) instead of Christ making them into “beautiful things”. They banter over Biblical definitions and meanings, but rarely verbalize what lit the fire under them in the first place. I think that’s a problem with the current church – I think people are often afraid to appear human, afraid to show those “before” pictures… perhaps it is more comforting to pretend you’ve always had a spiritual six-pack?
I have a whole lot more to say about this, and I am actually in the process of reading your Kindle book and applying those principles to whether I should look for a new congregation, and whether I will find what I am looking for there as well. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with the world. 🙂
Ashley! Great thoughts. I hope you like the book. I’ve got a number of posts coming continuing this conversation. I hope no one from your current church reads this blog. Actually, I hope they do. 🙂
Here’s the problem…
Results require management.
Management requires tracking in some form.
Tracking requires counting.
Counting demands numbers.
And numbers are somehow immature, spiritually speaking.
It seems to me that the churches who are currently witnessing the highest amount of life change are the very ones shunned by other believers as “shallow”.
Another problem is that while physical change is easy to see and measure, it is often difficult to measure our own life change internally.
Lots of thought on this, more than I can fit into a single response.
Sam–this is good stuff and these are the issues I’ll be working through in future posts. Measurement isn’t a bad thing, but it does get complicated when applied to spiritual growth.
Wade,
Wow. Just finished your “Before and After, parts 1 & 2”. I don’t remember exactly how I found your blog; I know it was some kind of search on a CrossFit topic, but I bookmarked your site and just came back to it this morning. I discovered CF about two years ago, and a small group of guys at the Christian college were I work have been following the main site together.
Your descriptions of the parallels between CF and the church so resonate with me. I’ve wrestled with the fact that I tell all of my colleagues, “you’ve got to try CrossFit with us, you’ll love it”, but I can’t tell my neighbor, “you’ve got to try my church, you’ll love it”. Worse than that, to be honest, I don’t have the confidence to tell them to try Jesus. It is so frustrating. What’s wrong? I have a sound evangelical understanding and belief in the gospel; positive church experiences; a commitment to the authority and veracity of His Word. You’re right, there is no compelling before and after picture. And it’s not simply because I’ve grown up in the church and haven’t sown any wild oats. You touched on a central concept. The use of our time and resources (read money) just don’t look any different than anybody else. Our heart is going to be where our treasure is, and our hearts are firmly fixed here, behind our closed garage and front doors.
I’m looking forward to reading your other posts (“The Church of CrossFit” has me very intrigued). What is it about CF that captures us so? I presented to an MBA class on the role of community in business. I began the presentation by showing three consecutive photos: the local 24-hr. fitness store front; the big, juice bar equipped sport and fitness complex; and the ugly, 24’x36′ steel sided CrossFit box. I asked if they knew the monthly membership fees for these three fitness centers. They were pretty close on the first two as some had been members of each at some point in time. $19.95 for the 24-hr store front and $50 for the beautiful (I mean really beautiful) sports complex. They were stunned when I told them that the CrossFit box costs $100 a month. That just doesn’t make sense, does it? Why would anyone pay that much for an un-air conditioned, lightly equipped box of a building, with no showers. It’s community! Oh, there’s more to it than that, but all those other things still come back to community. My apologies to real service members, but it’s the WWII Band of Brothers thing going on. You’ll die for/with the person next to you. There’s no need for homogeneity; similar life experiences; or age, gender, and race compatibility. Let’s just get each other ready for what lies just before us, and then all celebrate together at making it to the other side of another nasty WOD. We made it together, regardless of the how long it took, or how much weight we moved. We all made it, even if the newbie didn’t quite get it all done, because honestly, they were right there battling beside us, so we attribute victory to them too, and they know it. Gives me goose bumps just writing this.
If the church could bottle this . . . If His followers could live this . . .
Thanks Steve!