In his seminal book The Tipping Point, Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell popularized the idea that once a trend takes hold in 16% of a population, it reaches a tipping point where its adoption accelerates exponentially. If there’s ever been a time when such a tipping point is needed for the gospel, it’s today.
What will it take for churches in North America to get to the point of becoming reproducing churches, sparking a movement to saturate our cities with the gospel? Based on what we at Christ Together have seen and experienced in over 100 cities across North America, here are 10 essentials we came up with:
1. Commitment
Habakkuk paints a beautiful picture in his eponymous book: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (2:14). Can you imagine God’s glory filling every nook and cranny of the places where we live?
For this to happen, all churches must be committed to the Great Commission (Matt. 28:16–20) in the spirit of the Great Commandment (Matt. 22:34–40) with the conviction of the Great Collaboration (John 17:20–23).
2. Unity
We must move from an “us vs. them” to an “us and us” mindset. When unbelievers look at a unified church fighting not against each other but against demonic forces at work, they will be able to more clearly see Jesus. We don’t have to create this unity that Jesus talks about. It has already been given. We simply need to live into what is already true.
This requires that we lead not with our badge and brand, but that we come to a common table where we can be committed to each other’s success.
3. A New Scorecard
If the vision is to take personal, corporate and collective responsibility to reach a city through a unified church, then our current scorecards largely don’t reflect this reality. Can we say we are winning if my church grows, yet the state of lostness and brokenness simultaneously increase at an exponential rate?
What if giving every man, woman and child repeated opportunities to see, hear and respond to the good news of Jesus (gospel saturation) became a math problem to solve? What would it take for every person to know at least one person whose life is being changed by Jesus? What if every person could have access to a gospel community where they felt loved and could get their questions answered?
4. A Bigger Vision
The question underlying most church vision statements is: How do I grow a bigger and better church? But what if our calling was not simply to lead a church but to reach a city? If the shared conviction is the re-evangelization of a region, then it means the vision is bigger than any one church. This would require pastors seeing themselves as not only the pastor of a church but a pastor of the church in our cities.
5. A Lament Over Lostness
When was the last time you were truly broken over the lostness of your city? Jesus says in Matthew 23:37, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”
We serve a lovesick Father in a broken world where every two seconds someone dies without hearing about Jesus. Lament starts with us being broken over the people who are far from God but close to us. Reaching them will require us asking the Lord to help us see the harvest the way that he does.