A person who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ claims to have a relationship with him. This means they know him, not just about him (this was Paul's claim in Philippians 3:10). Yet we have turned our churches into groups of people who are studying God as though they were taking a course at school or attending a business seminar. We aim at head. We don't deal in relationships. And we wonder why there is no passion for Lord and his mission? It's because, in our effort to disciple people, we've been barking up wrong tree.

We have made following Jesus all about being a good church member. We are training people to be good club members, all while wondering why our influence in world is waning. The truth is, North American church culture extracts salt from world and diminishes amount of light available to those in darkness who need to find their way.

In modern world, how would we typically approach spiritual learning objectives we've just identified? We'd write a curriculum, produce a conference, convene a class, create a study course, recruit a teacher or other expert, sign people up, teach material to students, and pass out completion certificates. Then we would wonder what would happen or change as a result of experience. The truth is that we have very little evidence that academic or conferential learning changes behavior. I submit that there has never been more teaching or Christian education in history of world than there is in US today. And yet, one survey indicates that only 9% of people who say they are 'born again' have a Biblical worldview. The question we should be asking today is how Do We Develop Followers of Jesus Christ?

The academic model for last several hundred years involved an expert (teacher) who had information and disseminated it to less-informed people (students). This was basic plot that developed into millions of episodes of death-by-lecture.

Students can now obtain more information over Internet overnight than a teacher can deliver in lecture form in a month's time. The issue now is learning, how to make sense out of information that is available. The agenda is more and more being set by learner. Another way to say this is that we have grown up with a Greek approach to education in modern world. We are now returning to a Hebraic approach that is much closer to what we see Jesus using. One aspect of this is that learner/disciple determines curriculum.

In modern world, it is believed that spiritual formation is accomplished by taking a student through a prescribed group of texts that addressed topics in a curricular approach. This is so deeply ingrained in us that we approach almost any learning experience in church this way. In world that is dawning, curriculum approach to growing people is increasingly viewed as a supplemental strategy to primary approach: learning agendas driven by life issues and informed by life experiences. Jesus facilitated spiritual formation in his disciples by introducing them to life situations and then helping them debrief their experiences. He taught them to pray. He did not lead them in a study course on prayer. He took them on mission trips; he didn't read books to them on subject of missions.

Having traveled four corners of this country, I have witnessed firsthand, imminent demise and collapse of unique culture in North America that has come to be called church. This church culture has become confused with biblical Christianity, both inside church and out. A growing number of people are leaving institutional church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost faith. They are leaving church to preserve their faith. Not only do we not need God to explain universe, we don't need Jesus Christ to operate church. It’s written in word that in last days of this age Christ is outside of Church knocking and looking for anyone who is willing to let him in. Many operate like giant machines, with church leaders serving as mechanics. The Lord doesn't have to show up to get done what's being done. People no longer want powerless God of modern church.

Some are asking, how Do We Do Church Better? All effort to fix church misses point. You can build perfect church and they still won't come. People are not looking for a great church. Most of growth of mega churches represents people transferring from small fishing boats to cruise ships. The real question should be, how Do We Deconvert from Churchianity to Christianity?

I have observed that there is a spiritual awakening occurring in America. However, it is not informed by Christian theology, and it's not happening in church. God is pulling end runs around institutional North American church to get to people in streets. God is still inviting us to join him on this quest, but it is invitation to be part of a movement, not a religious club.

The Church Growth Movement that began in 1970’s had both some things that were right and some things that were wrong. Here's one of wrong things: Unfortunately, it fell victim to an idol as old as Tower of Babel, belief that we are architects of work of Christ. As a result, we have best churches men can build, but are still waiting for church that only Jesus Christ can get credit for. I say this because I hear wrong question asked frequently. How Do We Grow This Church? How Do We Get Them to Come to Us?

In their quest to be attractive to potential congregants, churches added staff, added programs, added buildings (including full health clubs), all to improve their market position. And it worked! A study released in 2002 found that one-half of churchgoers attended churches in top 10 percent of church size.

Keep in mind all of this has been done with what results? Diminishing returns! In other words, overall church attendance continues to decline. We can keep on this track just to watch even more dismal results, or, we can change our focus to: How Do We Transform Our Community? How Do We Hit Streets with Gospel? The Pharisees' evangelism strategy sounds eerily familiar. Their approach to sharing God was, "Come and get it”. Jesus' evangelism strategy directly challenged Pharisees' approach. Instead of "Come and get it" it was "Go get'em".

Jesus' strategy was to go where people were already hanging out. This is why he went to weddings, parties, and religious feast day celebrations. Taking gospel to streets means we need church where people are already hanging out. We need a church in every mall, every Wal-Mart super center, every Barnes and Noble.