Revolution Requirement #4 of 10: Expect Attacks

Our culture is full of pithy sayings about revolutionary leaders catching grief: “Parked cars don’t get chased.” Think Iditarod on this one: “If you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes.” And then the foreboding line: “The tallest blade of grass gets cut first.”

The Orality Revolution should expect attacks. Here are a few firsthand experiences:

1. Our battle to make disciples of all people, including oral learners, is against Satan (Eph. 6). Satan’s attacks must be expected in the form of condemnation, hypocrisy, temptation, and lies (not to mention half-truths).
2. Among other believers who hold to a literate way or the highway, there is also selfish pride that wells-up into confrontration (Is. 5:21). There is a great deal of misunderstanding or a emotional threat to how they were trained in seminary or Bible college. One pastor I met in Central America refused to let his church observe the Lord’s Supper because the church couldn’t afford the fancy pre-formed Communion wafers that he had been given during seminary. The axiom holds, “As was done for us, will be done for others.” Literate training begets literate disciple-making.
3. Some would rather live in fantasy than in the reality that making disciples requires (Prvbs 12:11). By “fantasy” I mean that intentional disciple-making efforts are being squelched or eliminated by some churches. Sunday School is dismissed as being for children only. Bible study is a nice past-time, but the pastor is considered the only one capable of conveying God’s Word by some churches and church plants, so those committed to disciple-making face being bypassed, ignored, or ridiculed.
4. And, some attacks will come from Bible study curriculum printing houses that erroneously see the Orality Movement as a threat to sales and bottom-line profitability. They’ll concede there is a place for it among the blind or mentally challenged, but not among their potential market.
5. And lest we forget among those who are the staunchest supporters of the movement — we can “shoot our wounded” as we attack each other rather than lovingly confront and reconcile (John 15:17).

Revolutionary disciple-making of oral learners will likely elicit an angry reaction. Guiding reckless passion of those who are negative into positive kingdom work is a real victory! But the orality revolutionaries cannot be naïve to think that we will not become lightning rods for serious issues that God must resolve for us.

If there was a #6, I’d have to add that one of the gravest attacks is for those in the movement to settle for less than complete disciple-making.  It is possible to experience success along the way and begin to compromise. We must never settle as revolutionaries for an uptick in engagement statistics or some other measurement (2 Cor. 10:12).What the Holy Spirit provides as encouragement, we must never value as completion.

It’s the Lord’s battle, yet He encourages us to gear up and pray, keep alert, and persevere (Eph. 6:18).

Read more! Here’s #5: Add Value: https://truthsticks.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/revolution-requirement-5-of-10-add-value/