May the Force Be With You

Ben Arment is the director of STORY in Chicago and founder of The Whiteboard Sessions, a one-day exchange of ministry ideas. He blogs daily at BenArment.com and has written his first book for Broadman & Holman called Church in the Making, which is due out in April. Ben and his wife Ainsley live in Virginia Beach and have two boys, Wyatt and Dylan, and another little one due this month.

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• Ben’s parents didn’t let him see the Star Wars movies.
• He didn’t know the plotlines, stories, characters, etc.
• He realized he missed a significant part of American culture.
• He asked his mom why she didn’t let him see the movies… her answer was “the force.”
• There is a force at work in ministry that we tend to sweep under the carpet.
• It doesn’t seem spiritual to credit our success to something other than God.
• We are all champions and advocates of causes.
• Oftentimes when we experience success we say, “well, God is just blessing us…” and when we respond like that, we silently condemn people who have ministries that are struggling.
• We overlook “the force” that’s at work that makes or breaks our ministry causes.
• Those forces are socioliogical in nature… critical mass, momentum… that proceeds our cause.
• Donald McGavern was a missionary to India and noticed the social caste systems that deeply divided people.
• Donald started individual churches for specific caste groups.
• The specific churches began to grow because people felt comfortable in a church that was meant for their social class.
• Was that spiritual victory or intellectual/socioligocal enlightenment?
• Our causes are really only effective when they are laid upon social movements/forces that can carry them.
• Just because there hasn’t been an epiphany moment in my ministry doesn’t mean that God isn’t in them.
• Those who struggle with their causes typically launched them in a vacuum; those who experience success tend to launch them into a social movement.
• There’s socialogical groundwork behind every successful ministry and organization.
• Great causes are launched in social momentum.
• Matthew 13:3-9, the Parable of the Sower
• If the seed fails, it’s not the fault of the seed, it’s the fault of the soil.
• The Gospel seed is powerful and potenet, and if it doesn’t take root, spring to life and bear fruit, it’s the fault of the soil.
• We all have a cause and its success relies on the context/soil in which you release it.
• If we chose to cast our seed where there is no social movement, our seed is as good as bird seed.
• The troubling thing about social forces is that people like to make decisions in herds, in packs.
• People would rather be safe in their decisions than right.
• People don’t care about your cause, they only care about causes other people care about.
• We often look at what people respond to (i.e. how many views on YouTube, etc.)
• People would rather go through life making easy decisions, decisions made by the social acceptance of others.
• We deal with social conventions every single day.
• Social conventions influence the thoughts and decisions we make every single day.
• If you have enough critical mass you can break through social conventions.
• Jim Collins talks about momentum, a giant concrete flywheel… eventually it will start to move and spin, and as it does it becomes easier and easier to push.
• If you don’t have momentum, you’ll push for a long time before you see fruit.
• We oftentimes give up.
• The thing people don’t tell you about is that oftentimes, momentum works against you.
• John Maxwell wanted to breakthrough and reach influential business leaders, so he wrote a book and purchased thousands of his own books to get it on the NY Times Bestsellers list. Thus, gaining attention from business leaders… boom, there you go.
• We have to create momentum out of momentum that already exists.
• Great moves of God in the past have been moved forward by sociological forces.
• George Whitfield was not just a spiritual phenomenon, he was a sociological phenomenon.
• It’s not just great moves of God where we’ve seen causes laid upon social movements. It’s in the Gospel, at Pentecost.
• God moved in Acts 2 in the midst of a major social movement.
• As it had its impact, people traveled back to where they came from and the message of the Gospel advanced.
• Social entrepreneurs have a divine naivety… be it good or bad, so we’ll be courageous enough to try to do what He’s put on our heart.
• If we haven’t laid a sociological foundation that can carry our cause, we’re throwing our seeds at the wind.
• The Gospel is connected to the word “go.”
• Acts 8:4 – they preached the Gospel wherever they went.
• The Gospel needs social movement and if we don’t go, God will oftentimes at our own peril, cause or create things to compel us to go.

How do you create a groundswell?

1. Understand your target community. Don’t be an outsider. Be indigenous to the people you are trying to reach. Know what they like, what they care about.  Before you can become a disciple-maker, you have to be a multitude maker.
2. Understand what your platform is. Learn how to use your platform to give people value, pour into them, and keep them coming back. Your platform can be anything… a blog, Twitter, speaking, etc.
3. Do it consistently and keep on doing it, persevere. Time will accrue a following.
4. Leverage your influence. As you gain it, take calculated and strategic moves to increase it.

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