I love it when dudes (or dudettes) send me emails that ask hard questions out of genuine concern. These moments make me think and learn. My instinct is to defend, but I've found in every criticism there is always opportunity to sharpen your convictions, shore up weak areas, and grow in humility. 

A few elders at a church who love Jesus visited our DoingChurchinReverse website and emailed some penetrating questions. Following is their email (all identities hidden) along with my response. 

They wrote: 

I've been sharing your emails with Bob, Jim, and Stuart, and in your last email you mentioned your interest is Doing Church in Reverse and provided a Web Site www.doingchurchinreverse.com we could visit to better understand this approach. We have all spent some time on this Web Site and have some concerns that I’m going to list below.

I replied:

Thank you for your email and I mean that. No offense taken at all, nor surprise, as my approach to ministry has changed a lot over time since I was at Clappy Church of Happyville.

But I do take this to heart and read it through carefully.

Not to dismiss the value of your exhortation at all, you should know that I am under the elders at Hill Country Bible Church NW and particularly the executive church plant team who has looked at my website and know my ministry and doctrine and have been fully supportive. I do not say that to dismiss what you wrote but so that you know we are not a loose canon bouncing around with no accountability.

I also have several elders and previous elders from Calvary Bible Church of Kalamazoo who get my daily emails and they too have been 100% supportive and ask me penetrating questions likewise, but so far have had no concerns.

I'll give as succinct an answer as I can and if you don't agree with it no offense taken. And this too might help: the doingchurchinreverse website is not our church website. It's an outreach strategy. We don't have worship gatherings yet. Instead of shuffling Christians from other churches or asking people who don't follow Jesus to worship a God they don't believe in, 100% of our time is currently devoted to reaching out to non-religious people and training core team to do the same. By God's grace and power, the worship gathering will emerge out of the harvest.

They wrote:

The video "What is Church in Reverse?" indicates that atheists, unbelievers, agnostics, and those of other religions can "learn from one another" about spiritual things.  As we know from passages such as 2 Corinthians 6:14&15 there is nothing Light can learn from Darkness.

I replied:

I am challenged daily by the questions and concerns of unbelievers. And yes, I do learn from them. 2 Cor 6:14-15 does not say "there is nothing Light can learn from Darkness." It says do not be "bound" together with them, literally, "unequally yoked." Clearly this passage speaks of becoming like them in their sinfulness. Jesus was not being "unequally yoked" when he attended Matthew's party (Mat 9:10) where I am sure the sinners and tax collectors acted just like sinners. He spent a lot of time with very sinful people, teaching them and serving them. Note too that the Matthew party did not happen in a church building.

Today I spent 90 minutes talking to my friend James about Jesus (yes, we had a beer and it was quite good, although perhaps not as good as the wine Jesus created or the beer Martin Luther's wife brewed for him. :) It's important to understand that beer is a cultural drink in Austin, much like it was for Tolkien and C. S. Lewis in their Tuesday visits to the English pubs.) I got to share what Jesus is doing in my life over and over with James and he is more open today than I've ever seen him. He asked many hard questions about Jesus and the Bible and his questions taught me much. By my faith being tested it actually grew stronger. No, I did not cuss, get drunk (never had more than one beer in my life), crack a colorful joke, or take out the offense of the gospel. Yes, we did talk about hell, repentance, faith, surrender, and a lot more.

They wrote:

Our initial concern is the error of thinking that when you become like the culture, you can have a greater impact, rather than being different, separate, distinct, and holy from the culture.

I replied:

In all respect, when Jesus came from heaven to earth, He dressed like a Jew, looked like a Jew, ate like a Jew, was a Jew. In this respect we are to become like our culture (2 Cor 9:20-23). It was for the same reason Paul had Timothy circumcised in Acts 16:3. The only thing worth stumbling over is Jesus (1 Cor 1:23), not my approach, my dress, or my tribal dialects that make the non-religious feel like they have to adopt my church culture if they want to follow Jesus. They don't need me and they don't need my church service. They need Jesus and everything else flows from that. The truth is, they can't become like Jesus until Jesus becomes their Lord.

Since Jesus was willing to come down to earth for me and enter dark places to reach people, yet without sinning, I need to be willing to do the same for others. But to sin is another thing. We do not have to sin to have greater impact and that is not what we are promoting (although I do sin probably every 10 minutes, at least in thought).

One more comment: people won't know that you are different if you are not willing to spend time with them (Mat 5:16). God did not save us by staying up in heaven. He entered our broken world of sin and rebellion by "pitching his tent" among us (John 1:14). When Jesus sent His disciples to make more disciples He sent them into the world. That means into the dark and evil places that make us uncomfortable, that hurt our religious comforts, that make us have to answer hard questions, that cause us to feel Jesus' strength in ways we will never feel Him if we only spend time in the comfortable company of Christians. By far the majority of Jesus' ministry happened outside of religious buildings. Ok, I'm starting to preach!

They wrote:

It appears that the goal of "Church in Reverse" to become a half way house between the world and Christ, which is evangelism by subterfuge. The façade is "let's talk, let's dialogue, let's drink beer, and let’s share our views and opinions", and after we have drawn you in let's share Christ with you. This appears to be deceptive in calling it a "faith community."  Granted, everyone has faith in something, but unbelievers are not of "The faith" they are described in the Bible as not having faith. Titus 3:9 and Ephesians 5:1-10 warns us not to indulge the world.

I replied:

This statement is 100% false. We have not deceived anyone nor do we intend to. You added "and after we have drawn you in let's share Christ with you." I did not say that and we don't do that. We talk about Jesus with people in our home every week, and from day one since meeting them. You said "let's talk, let's dialogue, let's drink beer, and let's share our view and opinions" is a facade. It's not. It's what we do. Let me ask you: if you are at lunch break and you and your friend go to lunch and have a soda (or a beer if you like) and enjoy a conversation about spiritual things, would you tell your friend you cannot listen to his  opinion because his view is wrong? Would you not show him respect and hear what he has to say and then when it's your turn, share Jesus with him? Yes, we do call it a "faith community" because everyone has faith in something and we have dialogues. Paul did the same thing repeatedly. He dialogued/reasoned/had conversations with people far from God. A faith community is not a worship gathering. It is a gathering of mixed people for the purpose of having conversations about Jesus.

They wrote:

The "Faith Community" description at the University of Texas is described as, "a safe place for UT students to investigate God."  Why aren’t local churches safe?   

I replied:

Jesus never told the local church to gather to evangelize. They gather to worship. To evangelize He said "Go!" A faith community is in essence an outreach Bible study. A local church gathering is for believers, not people who don't consider themselves Christians. The most effective evangelism happens in the world's world, not our church world.

They wrote:

The "Why do you call it Church in Reverse" video appears to indicate that they are trying to take away the offence of the gospel.  The approach being taken is to befriend unbelievers, to give them a non-church environment that is between the church and the world, to discuss spiritual ideas in a "safe" non-church environment and then through those relationships lead people to Christ.  But the questions then becomes, how far do you go to be un-offensive to the unbeliever, because the unbeliever will be offended by anything even remotely related to the Gospel.  The Gospel is a call to repentance, and to turn away from sin.

I replied:

The church's mission is not to gather. The church's mission to go make disciples and the result is gathering. People must know Jesus before they can ever worship Him (John 4:24). If discipleship begins with worship services then we have neglected the first step of making disciples which is evangelism.

Men, in all respect, you write as if our goal is to start a worship service and call that a church plant. But when did Paul go out to start a church service? Never. He didn't even go to start local churches, he went to preach the gospel and the by-product was local churches and worship gatherings. The whole world is a non-church environment minus church buildings and that's exactly where Jesus commands me to go and commands you to go as well. The idea that the person who is not a Christian will be offended by anything remotely related to the gospel is an overstatement. Yes, the gospel is offensive by nature and many are offended by it as a whole, but the woman caught in adultery was very graced by it (John 8:1-11). And that's because she was broken and humble. Those being drawn by God slowly but surely begin to love and embrace the gospel (John 6:44). It happened to Shannan, Chad, Casey, and Gary, four new believers who are today sharing the gospel and walking in holiness.

To create a "safe" environment means to let people who don't follow Jesus know that my home is open to them (as I'm sure you know, "hospitality" means friend of strangers), that I will not judge them for their sinful actions (as Paul refused to do, 1 Cor 5:12), that they can ask any questions and share all their views, and I will continue to eat meals with them, love them, serve them, and tell them how holy, and good, and gracious, and merciful, and life-changing Jesus is and ask them to surrender to Him. Was not Jesus a friend of sinners?

Thank you again for your challenging questions. They helped sharpen my convictions and why we do what we do. I openly invite your critique and feedback. If you disagree with my philosophy I will not take offense if you choose not to support us financially. We need the help but I also know that God owns the cattle on 10 million hills and He's faithfully provided for each step.

Their last words:

Seth, we would really like for you to think about the concerns we’ve shared.  We love you and we want you to succeed, but we are troubled by the issues I’ve described.

Max 

Because I know how easy it is to get caught up in doctrine and ministry style at the expense of the main task of the great commission I closed with direct questions:

May I challenge you men with a question? This is not to shift the topic off of me or to mitigate your exhortation. As your fellow soldier of Christ, I have biblical freedom to ask you this so I ask you boldly and without shame: Do you men know your neighbors' names? Are you obeying the command of hospitality (this does not mean friend of church members) and inviting them into your home for a meal and sharing Jesus with them? What people who don't follow Jesus are you serving, spending time with, and sharing Jesus with on a regular basis? Since you have challenged me, I respectfully return the favor. As men who believe in church planting and who are over church planters from your own church, the men under you need to be able to look up and say, "That man shares Jesus with people who don't know Jesus."

I love you men too and thank you for your email.

Your fellow soldier,
Seth