Johnson University

One Of

Responding to and Reflecting on the book “One Of”

Matthew J. Morhart

ANTH 1100 Encountering Cultures

Dr. Linda Whitmer

April 22, 2020

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Part 1

RiverTree’s Impetus for Change

Change. Volitional or undesired, change is an ever-present aspect of our lives. As believers, we

are called to embrace and desire change (2 Corinthians 3:18). This call to being progressively

changed into the image of Christ Himself was the main impetus behind RiverTree’s desire to

change the way they did church. As Pastor Greg Nettle reflected on Jesus’ command to go and

make disciples, and on the “attractional model” that RiverTree had pursued and excelled in, he

realized that this model was actually counterproductive to producing true disciples of Jesus who

in turn made disciples. Previously, RiverTree’s focus had been on attracting people to the

church. David Platt likens this approach to “taking the lifeblood out of Christianity and putting

Kool-Aid® in its place so that it will taste better to the crowds” (00:02:48 – 00:02:54). We see

this reality reflected in Nettle’s observation that “the lack of authenticity and accountability”

among the RiverTree community “was heart breaking” (Absalom and Nettle, 11). Nettle

recognized that the character of the RiverTree community members more closely resembled that

of the world than of Christ (Absalom and Nettle, 10) and this is what drove the change at

RiverTree—the desire to see people living as true disciples of Jesus.

Napkin Discipleship

Change desired = change achieved, right? No, but as we desire to be molded more and more into

the perfect image of Christ, God extends grace and wisdom to achieve the desired change. For

RiverTree this meant shifting from an “attraction” mentality to a “going” mentality. Instead of

relying on attractive public advertisement and “the best show in town” to draw people into the

church, RiverTree began to actively engage in “taking the church to the world.” Just as Jesus
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Himself came to us, so the church’s natural response to the incarnation of Christ is to embody

Christ and be agents of God’s reign to the world (Wright, 2009, “Chapter 2,” para. 62).

The methodology that RiverTree used to bring about the desired change is what Absalom and

Nettle call “Napkin Discipleship” (13). This approach consists of four different “steps” (Fig. 1):

For, With, One Of, and In. The Fig. 1

face above the “For” represents

God. As we will see, God

desperately loves the human

race—He is “For” us. However,

to most people God seems far away and somewhat removed from our reality. Since God is not an

impersonal God, all through the Old Testament we see where God didn’t just “rule from

Heaven,” but He also interacted “With” man on earth (e.g. Gen. 9:8, Ex. 34:34, Is. 6:1). This is

most clearly seen in how God actually “walked” in the middle of the Israelite camp and how His

presence was over the Tabernacle in the form of a pillar of fire/cloud (Deut. 23:14, Ex. 40:38).

John 3:16 shows that God was not only “For” us and “With” us in the Old Testament sense, but

that He loved the world so much that He sent Jesus to become “One Of” us. Jesus came, not only

to make the gift of eternal life available to us by His life, death, and resurrection, but also to

equip Himself to be able to identify with us and to be a faithful intercessor on our behalf (Heb.

4:15). Jesus’ incarnation (becoming “One Of” us) was part of God’s mission to bring the

Kingdom of God (His sovereign rule) “In” us (Ladd, 17, 125). Or as Absalom and Nettle put it,

to turn us into “little Jesus-es” (18).

But “Napkin Discipleship” doesn’t stop there, it’s a self-perpetuating cycle. Now that Jesus is in

us, we now are responsible to be God’s holy representatives, representing Him to the world
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(Wright, 2009, “Chapter 7,” para. 60). Now we, as His representatives, are “For” people in

Christ’s stead, but we don’t remain distant and removed from them, instead we seek to be “With”

them. Not content to just be “With” people, we also seek to become “One Of” them. Absalom

and Nettle view evangelism and discipleship as a concurrent process, not a chronological one

(28-29). As we become “One Of” those that we are evangelizing, we are also discipling them

into a walk with God. This evangelism/discipleship relationship culminates in conversion (where

Christ takes up residence “In” them), but then continues afterwards in a discipleship/evangelism

relationship that becomes self-perpetuating as the ones we disciple then begin to evangelize and

disciple others (at which point “Napkin Discipleship” starts all over again).

This approach nicely complemented the change that RiverTree sought to make through its focus

in “going” instead of “attracting.” Nettle comments that “being with people means that the

church must move outside of its walls. It means that we stop having so many church programs

that our people have no time to spend with their unchurched friends” (Absalom and Nettle, 24-

25). Through God’s work “In” their own hearts, their hearts turned “For” the people they “did

life” “With” (as opposed to just the people they “did church” with), and this caused them to

become “One Of” the larger community. Becoming “One Of” the community provided many

opportunities for evangelism/discipleship which led to people in the community experiencing

Christ “In” them. Following conversion, continuing discipleship led to further self-perpetuating

evangelism, and through “Napkin Discipleship” the RiverTree community continued to grow,

not just in numbers now, but as disciples who make disciples (Absalom and Nettle, 29-30).

Part 2

New Metrics
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Previously RiverTree measured their success via attendance and offering numbers (Absalom and

Nettle, 34). As part of making the shift towards becoming “One Of,” their new goal was to make

disciples that continue to make other disciples (Absalom and Nettle, 32). Consequently, their

new metric for measuring success and growth became the amount of people involved in

discipling relationships (Absalom and Nettle, 34). This shift was especially important, because

instead of just being focused on attracting the largest possible crowd to the weekend services,

their focus turned towards encouraging people to draw closer to God and to walk with Jesus in

their everyday lives—people who don’t just attend church on the weekend, but who ask

themselves every day: “What is Jesus saying? and “What am I doing in response?” (Absalom

and Nettle, 34).

In addition to the new discipleship metric, RiverTree also focused on two other new measures as

well: 1) How much money they gave away (The Generosity Factor), and 2) What impact are they

having in transforming the community. “The Generosity Factor” meant that instead of focusing

on how big the offerings were and how to finance the church’s programs, they placed emphasis

on mission work outside RiverTree’s walls. Their goal became to invert the 70/30 formula from

spending 70% internally to investing 70% of their budget externally instead (Absalom and

Nettle, 41, 53). They measured this by counting things like the number of Child Sponsorships,

number of mission trips and travelers, etc. (Absalom and Nettle, 52). In order to measure the

impact they were having on the community through their investment and work via

GoCommunities in places like abortion clinics, the local school, etc., RiverTree began keeping

track of numbers like: The number of abortions that took place in their county each year (their

goal was to see this number decrease each year through their involvement in the local abortion
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clinic). Quantity of backpacks distributed to Canton children living under the poverty line.

Number of adoptions. Etc. (Absalom and Nettle, 36, 52).

Leadership to Discipleship

Turning “Napkin Discipleship” into a church movement requires moving past the standard form

of top-down church leadership to a bottom-up body effort. In order for the whole church to

become “One Of” and to live out their lives missionally, this requires a shift from the standard

approach where the leaders command and control. When just a few people (or even one person)

determine “who does what, when and where,” they tend to use “money, publicity, and staffing to

enforce that power, which leads to...a huge bottleneck, strangling the wide variety of vision and

possibilities that exist” (Absalom and Nettle, 38). The solution to this is to transform the

“leadership culture” into a “discipling culture.” This involves a series of six steps:

1) Releasing control and choosing accountability: Absalom notes that “just releasing

control is irresponsible unless there is a counter-balance of accountability” (Absalom and

Nettle, 38). People need to be free to choose, innovate, and pursue their individual, God-

given callings, but they also need to be held accountable in order to assure that they are

properly representing the Kingdom of God.

2) Create “Huddles”: A “huddle” is based on the pattern of discipleship that Jesus

modelled—a small group of “leaders” that are being consistently encouraged, challenged,

and held accountable. These huddles focus on asking the two key discipleship questions

of: What is Jesus saying? What are you doing in response? (Absalom and Nettle, 39).

3) Reverse the giving statistics: Although we covered most of the specifics of this when we

discussed “The Generosity Factor,” in this section on changing the leadership culture, it’s
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important to note that the whole team needs to be behind this transformational decision.

Reversing the giving statistics affects the church’s programs deeply, may result in cutting

church programs/services (as we will see in the next point), and as in the case of

RiverTree, may result in a mass exodus (Absalom and Nettle, 44).

4) Cutting off things “here” to move “there”: Since the basic thrust of “Napkin

Discipleship” is to become “One Of” the surrounding community, that necessitates

becoming less introverted in our focus as a church in order to truly become “One Of” the

community in which we live. Each individual only has 24 hours allotted to them each

day, and if the church community demands much of one’s “extra” time, there won’t be

much time left for integrating into the community. Because of this, RiverTree cut things

like their sporty ministry, the choir, men’s and women’s ministries, etc., in order to move

from “here” (the church”) to “there” (the community) (Absalom and Nettle, 41).

5) Give permission: While closely tied to the first point, this point focuses on saying “yes”

instead of “no” and making it a habit to do so—even when it costs the local church

greatly. A perfect example of this is when RiverTree released their worship leader to

pursue his God-given calling to reach out in his home community instead of investing so

heavily in the church at RiverTree (Absalom and Nettle, 42). As leaders, our initial

tendency is self-preservation, so the “logical” answer would have been “No!” Instead, as

part of this transformation to become more missional, we need to release and encourage

people as they seek live missionally—even at the cost of our local programs.

6) Expect all leaders to be engaged. Probably the most important point, and the key to this

whole process, is right here. It’s extremely important that the leadership not only “agree”

to making this change from control to discipleship, but to “engage” in that change
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themselves. RiverTree expected each and every one of their leaders to get more actively

involved in “Napkin Discipleship” and it paid high dividends. If we expect to change the

church culture and get them involved, we need to change the leadership culture first, and

they need to be involved as well.

Christian Consumerism

A Christian consumer is a person that doesn’t take personal responsibility for their own spiritual

growth but expects the church to meet their spiritual needs (Absalom and Nettle, 45). America’s

consumer mentality has conditioned people to view having all their needs met (and more besides

—affluence) to be normal (Horowitz, 256). Absalom indicates that this mindset was present at

RiverTree as well in that parents abdicated their personal responsibility to disciple their children

to the church (Absalom and Nettle, 45). Since RiverTree’s leadership was making the shift

towards accountability and personal responsibility, this cut at the heart of the consumerist

mentality where people were showing up at RiverTree, not for what they could do or give, but

for what they could receive to meet their own (and their family’s) needs.

As the church forced people to take responsibility for their own growth, and refused to “spoon-

feed” them spiritually, they were met with resistance from the Christian “consumers” (Absalom

and Nettle, 45). Instead of the church using the bulk of its resources to “put on a good show” that

would entertain and appeal to these consumers, they were now seeking to invest the bulk of their

time, energy, and money on making and reproducing disciples through “Napkin Discipleship.”

This naturally “strikes a blow” at Christian consumerism and is met with resistance as consumers

want what they want, when they want it, how they want it, at the lowest possible price. In other

words, Christian consumers are seeking the greatest possible spiritual benefit for themselves

personally without being required to give more than they perceive to be necessary.
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Reflections

First of all, I find it very admirable and commendable that Pastor Nettle was willing to honestly

evaluate his ministry and was able to conclude that RiverTree had largely failed to meet Christ’s

calling to “make disciples.” As difficult as it is to honestly evaluate one’s own ministry and

come to the conclusion that the fruit of our ministry is not good, it’s essential if we desire to be

able to stand before the Lord on Judgement Day without shame at having all our labors for Him

reduced to ashes—as Paris Reidhead reminds us (00:34:00 – 00:39:54).

Pros

Once Nettle had honestly evaluated his ministry, it’s commendable that he was willing to change

his approach—even though it would come at a cost. He was willing to give up his dreams of a

“campus,” having the absolute best performance on the weekends, and even to lose followers. I

find RiverTree’s application of “Napkin Discipleship” to be commendable as well. In

“Reimagining Evangelism,” Richardson presents moving from a “salesman” approach to a

“travel guide” approach as we seek to speak spiritual words of wisdom into the lives of others

(“Chapter 1,” para. 21). Becoming “One Of,” as RiverTree sought to do, gives us a platform

from which we can speak these words into the lives of others. A good example of what this looks

like in every-day life is the story of how Chick-fil-A president, Dan Cathy, was able to speak

into the life of the LGBTQ activist Shane Windmeyer (although Windmeyer insists he will never

change) by making a distinct effort to dialogue, share opinions, and listen—essentially becoming

“One Of”—instead of just trying to “preach” at him.

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RiverTree’s numbers and effectiveness, as presented in the book, are impressive. The church’s

drive to effect change in their community is representative of God’s holistic mission of caring for

and ministering to the community, the underprivileged, and the world in which we live (Wright,

“Chapter 1,” para. 5). Understanding that our Christian witness is to be accomplished as a

Christian community (Richardson, “Chapter 1,” para. 66), RiverTree used “Napkin Discipleship”

as more than just individual evangelism—as evidenced by their vision of expanding their church

planting network—by equipping, encouraging, and sending their people to be actively involved

in their “individual lives” and using it to build the church through tools like “Huddles” and

“GoCommunities.”

Cons

One of the reasons that David Platt suggests might answer the question, “Why don’t people make

disciples?” (which was RiverTree’s original problem) is that people aren’t actually disciples

themselves (00:00:06 – 00:00:17). To me, the most troubling aspect of “Napkin Discipleship” is

that, along with the “seeker-friendly” mentality, it still seems to be focused on getting people to

join the “community” by first becoming “One Of” them. As with any methodology, human

effort, human initiative, and human thinking (humanism) can meet with great success. Nowhere

in the book “One Of” do we see either the leadership personally grappling with this root issue—

am I a disciple of Jesus—or encouraging the RiverTree community to do so. It appears to be an

understood that if you are a part of the community, you are a disciple. Although Pastor Nettle

examined the fruit and saw that it wasn’t good, he failed to follow it to its biblical conclusion and

“make the tree corrupt” as well (Mt. 12:33). In David Platt’s own experience as a megachurch

pastor, he makes the following observation: “The danger of spiritual deception is real. As a

pastor, I shudder at the thought and lie awake at night when I consider the possibility that scores
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of people who sit before me on a Sunday morning might think they are saved when they are not”

(Platt, 38). In order to ensure that we aren’t misleading others into a false assurance of salvation,

and consequently making them worse off (Mt. 23:15), we first need to make sure of our own

salvation (2 Pt. 1:10, 1 Cor. 9:27).

While RiverTree sought to “make disciples,” it still seemed to be centered around getting people

to join their own community as much as encouraging people to count the cost and deciding to be

a true follower of Jesus every day. This is evidenced in their desire to be both/and in all their

efforts, and also in the way that they continued to measure their progress and success (i.e. people

being discipled) by “hard-data” (i.e. dollars spent) (Absalom and Nettle, 43, 53). While it is

possible to pursue both/and in some respects, like in having both GoCommunities and weekend

Gatherings, trying to be both missional and attractive tends to contribute to an “attractive” call to

discipleship—which tends to be watered down from the biblical call to “follow Christ.” Platt

warns that our American approach to Christianity tends to “mold Jesus into our image” and

makes Christianity into something that we are comfortable with—at the cost of worshipping a

false god (Platt, 13).

When it comes to following Jesus, we must follow Him in our presentation of the Gospel as well

as we follow Him in becoming “One Of” the people that we seek to reach. Jesus’ call to

discipleship was radical (Platt, 119-120). He called His disciples to leave their occupations (Mt.

4:19, Mark 2:14) and their families (Mt. 10:35). He called the rich young ruler to leave his

wealth (Luke 18:23). His call to discipleship still carries a high price today (Platt, 214), and as

we call others to move from being “One Of” to having Jesus “In” them, it’s important that they

understand and count the cost (Luke 14:27-33). As Platt said, “Jesus is not a puny Savior looking

for anyone’s acceptance” (00:06:17 – 00:6:21). No! He is the Lord of Heaven and Earth and He
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requires our unswerving loyalty to His cause! Although such a call to discipleship may seem

backwards and counterproductive to our human way of thinking, it’s important to remember that

God’s ways are much “higher” than ours (Is. 55:9), and we shouldn’t expect to understand them

(Kraft, Christianity 48).

Encountering Culture and Applying Napkin Discipleship

Just as our past cultural understanding of evangelism has caused us to develop a guilt complex if

we aren’t going door-to-door and sharing our faith with everyone we meet (Richardson, “Chapter

1,” para. 13-14), the current trend in “friendship evangelism” is forming a culture that tends to

cater towards “not offending” people like Hemant Mehta, and instead, seeks to build

relationships from which we can offer “spiritual guidance.” First of all, it’s essential that we

acknowledge that as we seek to engage “the world” we are crossing cultures. The culture of

Jesus is diametrically opposed to the culture of this world (2 Cor. 6:14, 1 John 1:6), and

consequently, we must learn how to interact “cross-culturally.”

Cross-cultural ministry is always a complicated process as we seek to identify the other

“culture’s” values, paradigms, and worldview assumptions. Many times they are very different

from our own (Kraft, Christianity 23), but it’s important to remember that although conversion to

Christianity does require certain changes in a person’s deep-level worldview assumptions (Kraft,

Anthropology 11), God isn’t out to change every aspect of a culture’s worldview (Kraft,

Christianity, 81). We must seek to become “One Of” in order to truly understand a culture’s

worldview assumptions and in order to know when to challenge those assumptions and when to

be careful not to push our own assumptions on others. Pushing our assumptions and beliefs on

others tends to result in making them hostile and effectively closes the door to speaking into their

lives—which is counterproductive (Jordan, 453).

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As our prime example in “cross-cultural ministry,” we see that Jesus Himself chose to become

“One Of” us in an effort to reach us (Phil. 2:7). In this sense Jesus did “Napkin Discipleship” as

part of His effective cross-cultural ministry. He was known to be a friend of the irreligious and

the societal rejects (Luke 7:34) and His relationship to them was characterized by His love, care,

and concern for them. Unlike Jesus, who spent time with the publicans and sinners, the Pharisees

did their best to avoid them. Not only did they avoid them, but the Pharisees despised the

“irreligious” and were extremely critical of them (e.g. Luke 18:11). Both Jesus’ response and the

Pharisees’ response are characteristic of “cross-cultural” relationships. In his book “Crossing

Cultures,” author Craig Storti observes that the less contact you have with a culture, the more

critical one tends to be of it (55). Thus, having the spirit of Christ in reaching out to others

requires us to become “One Of” a culture as we seek to reach into it.

Conclusion

Becoming “One Of” and using “Napkin Discipleship” have many positive aspects that mirror the

ministry of Christ Himself. Both local and foreign fields have many different “cross-cultural”

aspects to them, and as we seek to minister within these contexts, knowing and applying the

steps of “For,” “With,” “One Of,” and “In” can be very effective in reaching our ministry goals

of allowing God to work through us to build His kingdom.

As a final word of warning, let’s be careful to never simply build on man’s methods and

strategies but instead, begin with personal soul-searching and seeking a filling of God’s Spirit.

Then, as we move out to become “One Of” those that God desires to reach, let’s be faithful to

follow our Guide—even to death (Ps. 48:14).

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