Last week in Fort Payne, Alabama, when I wasn’t observing weird signs and being exposed to COVID, I was discussing with the leadership team at Wills Valley Community Church the important question: how can we be better at making disciples?

Along the way, I introduced something I haven’t used in a while: the A, B, C, D, E scale from Regi’s Campbell’s workplace ministry book, About My Father’s Business. A lot of folks like the Modified Engel Scale which visualizes people moving toward saving faith and maturity from a position of no God framework at all (-12) to Conversion (0) to spiritual leadership (+4). I agree with Regi, that the Engel Scale is too hard to remember to be useful to the average person. Regi uses this 5-point scale:

• A: Apathetic
• B: Beginning to seek
• C: Confessing Christian
• D: Developing disciple
• E: Excelling reproducer

I use it as a teaching tool pointing out things like:

• You don’t invite an “A” to church. You invite an “A” to breakfast.
• You can invite a “B” to some church activities.
• We don’t want to stick at “C.” I’ve heard pastors say, “Get ’em saved, get ’em baptized. That’s why we exist!”
• We don’t want to stick at “D” either. A “D” goes from one Bible study to another with no real fruit. Sometimes when people know that there’s life beyond C or D, that’s enough to get them moving.

The pastor in Fort Payne asked, “Are there “A” folks in church? Answer: yes, absolutely. It’s hard to tell the difference between an “A” and “C” in the church since neither is really doing anything! Regi Campbell told me he’s always adjusting his list of people he’s praying for from C to A.

After our discussion, I read Ephesians (the book after Romans in our 2022 reading plan). There’s a paragraph in chapter 2 that speaks to this issue. Paul writes:

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. (Ephesians 2.13 – 18, ESV)

In Paul’s day, it was Jews and Gentiles, Jewish unbelievers who at least had the right book (see Romans 3.1 – 4), and outsiders. Today, the application is those lost inside the church and those lost outside.

Like in the story of the two sons, both need to be reconciled to God, both need peace with God, both need access. Navigators used to talk about the “far” lost and some looked down on church ministries as not being to the far lost. But lost is lost. We were discussing in Fort Payne what percent of people in churches are actually regenerate. It’s a hard-to-measure question, but a good one. Tim Keller writes in Prodigal God (strongly recommend):

The elder brother’s problem is his self-righteousness, the way he uses his moral record to put God and others in his debt to control them and get them to do what he wants.  His spiritual problem is the radical insecurity that comes from basing his self-image on achievements and performance, so he must endlessly prop up his sense of righteousness by putting others down and finding fault.  As one of my teachers in seminary put it, the main barrier between Pharisees and God is “not their sins, but their damnable good works.” – Tim Keller

Churches are filled with older brothers that are lost inside. There are also plenty of folks in our cities lost on the outside. We need to reach them both, making as Paul said: “One new man.” More about that tomorrow.