Some decades ago, at the beginning of the 1990’s, I took a certificate program in adult and continuing education at our local university. Given that Jesus has called and anointed me to teach this was a good use of my time. Something that stands out for me during this time was a debate I had with some of my classmates. We were all working in our respective fields and had education as part of our role to varying degrees. At the time two things that were popular were a focus on facilitation and felt needs. We were encouraged to respond to the felt needs of adults and be facilitators not teachers.
I engendered some debate and was pretty much a lone voice with the concern I raised. I shared that from my perspective there wasn’t anything wrong with the idea of teaching and I saw facilitation as something a good teacher did. I also asserted that a responsibility of good teachers was not only to respond to felt needs but to discern what people actually needed and teach them that as well. In light of that let’s review our calling and responsibility as believers in light of what Jesus instructed.
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Matthew 28:18–20 (NKJV)
Of interest here is that Jesus didn’t instruct us to respond to felt needs, He instructed us to teach and observe all the things that He had commanded. While Jesus did respond to felt needs; He healed the sick and fed the hungry, His broader messianic mission is presented in Luke.
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18–19 (NKJV)
Jesus response to felt needs was always in the context of His broader mission, calling people to repentance and submission to the kingdom of God, which is what The Great Commission in Matthew 28 reinforces. After all Jesus began His mission this way.
14 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:14–15 (NKJV)
This shows us that while Jesus responded to felt needs, it was an aspect of His ministry and should be an aspect of ours, it now dominates and twists our culture. If we look at our current culture wars and outrage, felt needs dominate. We see it in the socialist agenda, the gender debates, the political groups and on it goes. We have come to the place where we deny reality out of a desire to enshrine felt needs rather than support truth and reality. We are living in a season that Paul warned us about.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 2 Timothy 4:3 (NKJV)
We are there and it is not a good place to be, thus I leave us with a reflective question. Where in our culture is the church taking ground? If your answer is that it isn’t, here is the next question. Do we capitulate to our culture or change strategies?
We will look at strategy next time.
