Four Ways to Kill a Movement

 

In his book, Movements that Change the World, Steve Addison notes five characteristics of a movement. They are white hot faith, commitment to a cause, contagious relationships, rapid mobilization, and adaptive methods. It definitely seems by reading the book of Acts, these five characteristics were present in the early church movement.

As Christianity continued to spread throughout the empire it increasingly became an exponential movement (see Rodney Stark’s, The Rise of Christianity) to the point the Roman Empire adopted it as its official religion. It really is remarkable that in three centuries Christianity went from a fringe movement to being the central religion of an empire.

Many scholars and historians have studied the movement of the church over the last 1700 years. While there have been pockets of movements throughout history as well as in different parts of the globe, it seems contemporary Christianity in the West finds herself struggling to be a formidable movement. At least in the West, Christianity has been, and continues to be, pushed to the margins of society and culture.

However, even in the margins of society, God can ignite movements on the fringes that impact the center of culture. The reality is, we are in desperate need of God doing that again. While we may be more aware of characteristics of movements, I want to share four ways to kill a movement, which I believe are reasons why Christianity struggles to see gospel movements in the West. Read More