Forever Kindergarten

“Jesus came and told his disciples, ‘I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth. [19] Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. [20] Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’" Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT)

It was the only time that I ever got a spanking at school…and it was my own Dad who gave it to me! It was about half way through my Kindergarten experience. As usual, we had gotten an extra recess for being such a good class (or our teacher decided to wave a white flag). At any rate, I was in the middle of one of my Star-Wars, monkey-bars adventures, when my teacher called out to me, indicating that Dad was there to pick me up from school. I can remember glancing over for a moment and continuing my onslaught against a battalion of Storm-Troopers. I loved Kindergarten so much that I never wanted to leave. It was like this every day. I would have to be called away from bliss several times before leaving. This day, however, was an exception. That day, I felt an arm grab me. It was Dad! I could tell by the look in his eyes that things weren’t okay. So, I decided to go with him. I’ll never forget that he took me away from the playground, away from my classmates, and down into the walkway area between the Kindergarten building and the gym. It was there that he gave me a spanking I will never forget. Looking back, it seems so ridiculous that I would ever love such a place to the point of having to be whipped to leave it, but I did. The main reason was that it was all that I had ever known. If it had been up to me, I would have stayed in Kindergarten forever.

Too often, we are like that in the church. We love Kindergarten. We push extensively for evangelism—reaching those who are unchurched or lost…those who don’t have a personal faith in Jesus Christ. We set goals, develop programs, have conferences, hear sermons, get free tickets to guilt-trips…all in the name of reaching the lost. We say we want people saved….and that’s it. After all, the Bible does say that we are to do it.

Or is that all that the Bible says? Actually, the Bible says that we are to “make DISCIPLES as we are going” through life (Matthew 28:19). The Bible never says that we are to get decisions. The problem today with the church is not lack of evangelism, but decisionism. We are too apt for notches in belts, check-marked envelopes, amazing church-growth statistics, and door-to-door bravado, instead of developing pupils for Christ. We clamor for people to be saved FROM hell, when we forget that people are saved TO something! Like a Kindergartener being drug from the playground, we can’t seem to move on. It’s all we know, and we are content to sit on first base with God. It’s like being invited over for dinner and never leaving the foyer of the house. Getting saved is the starting point to growing in the faith and becoming transformed into the image of Christ. I realize that theologians break down salvation into stages like “justification,” “sanctification,” and “glorification”—basically saying that salvation is a process—“I was saved, am being saved, and will be saved.” However, the church only focuses on the opening credits and not the plot. Our goal ought to be leading people down a path of transformation (discipleship, worship, fellowship, ministry AND evangelism) and not only salvation. You and I must get past spiritual Kindergarten and start moving forward into the deeper teachings and practices of our faith. Perhaps before we knock on one more door, attend one more evangelism conference, or learn another witnessing outline, we need to develop the people in our midst who are already saved (or even begin to develop ourselves). Once the heart of God has deep roots in a Believer, the right kind of evangelism will happen—one that focuses on making disciples instead of getting decisions. Multiplication will take place instead of addition…and the church will explode! We need to learn and experience what we are saved TO so that God can better use us to make ripples, or even tidal waves, in eternity. After all, if God merely wanted to save us from hell and for no other purpose, then, why are we not both in Heaven with Him right now?