Withitness (“With it”-ness)

Last week, during a lengthy drive to a meeting, I listened to Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio. Sports shows usually fill my mind with useless information, but, on this show, Cowherd gave a lengthy examination of a word that expanded my vocabulary.

In reference to successful athletes who are keenly aware of their surroundings during competition, he used the term “withitness.” Star quarterbacks can sense the “pressure” from their opponents. Outfielders know the tendencies of base runners and the location of walls as they run in reverse to catch a high fly ball. Simultaneously, successful athletes process information and respond fittingly in order to win.

Moving from the sports world, Cowherd utilized examples of individuals who are oblivious to their environment to illustrate ordinary folks who demonstrate a quality that is the opposite of withitness. For example, he vented his annoyance with people who engage sale clerks in idle chatter and frivolous questions while several individuals wait in line. These people lack withitness. I am not sure Cowherd was using the word in its proper context, but this segment was hilarious. So, I “googled” the term "withitness."

Teachers Need Withitness

“Withitness” was first used by educational psychologist Jacob Kounin to describe teachers who are aware of what is happening in their classrooms. “With it” teachers appear to have “eyes in the back of their heads.” These expert teachers are proactive in limiting behavioral problems. They sense which students require the most urgent disciplinary and corrective actions. Then, they take action, but at the same time they are able to maintain the flow of the learning experience in order to reach their objectives. As a result, a positive “ripple effect” occurs that influences students to comply with the expectations of the teacher. They create momentum and maintain it.

Imagine teaching a class and a student in the middle of the classroom is reading a magazine. While the young man is not the only one not paying attention, the teacher senses that correcting the magazine-page-turning student will have the most impact on influencing the other pupils. So, after she appropriately tells the student to put the magazine away, a “ripple effect” occurs and other students put away unneeded distractions. Then, more students are listening, but only one student was corrected. Withitness requires a teacher to multitask: teaching, listening, looking, evaluating, responding, and correcting.

How Many Churches Have Withitness?

After pondering this educational concept, I was led to evaluate my church’s level of withitness in regard to our community. I am not talking about Sunday School conduct or the behavior of folks during a sermon. Outside our church walls, what are we teaching and modeling for the people we want to connect with our congregations?

Again, I feel compelled to state what I am NOT saying. We do not need to be “with it” in terms of matching a post-modern worldview or leaving out “unappealing” or politically incorrect scripture truths. We don’t need to be “all that and a bag of chips.” But, are we aware of what’s going on in our world? Do we know anything about unchurched people?

The Unchurched Next Door

To answer this question, I revisited Thom Rainer’s book, The Unchurched Next Door. Rainer and his team of researchers interviewed hundreds of people throughout the United States who were not actively attending church. The book was published in 2003 by Zondervan.

Listen to these statements:

As strange as it may seem to churchgoing Christians, the church intimidates unchurched people. They do not think they can fit in at a place they have never attended (p.24).

Perhaps the evangelistic apathy so evident in many of our churches can be explained by a simple laziness on the part of church members in inviting others to church (p.25).

We Christians have become disobedient and lazy. Investing our lives in the lives of lost and unchurched people is inconvenient and messy.

(According to the interviews), Most of the unchurched would welcome an invitation to church.

The sad reality we discovered in our study was that very few of the unchurched population have heard about Christ from a layperson. Yetthe unchurched as a rule would like to talk to someone other than clergy about religious matters. The silence of Christians may be one of the greatest tragedies in the church today.

…the world of the unchurched is not a world of fire-breathing pagans.

The vast majority of the unchurched would gladly come to your church if you invited them and walked with them into the church building.

A number of Christians just seem to be rude and insensitive. They may be small in number, but their voices are heard loudly. We wonder how many unchurched have been hindered from the kingdom because of the insensitivity and even stupidity of some
Christians.

Over 91 percent of the formerly unchurched said that doctrine was important, the highest ranking of all issues.

Times of crisis are significant opportunities for you to reach out to those who do not have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

I have seen a few churches where one member with zeal to reach the lost and the unchurched has changed the direction of the entire church.

Am I "With it?"

After his resurrection, Jesus gave what we call the Great Commission, which is recorded in Matthew 28:18-20.

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).

As I read the Great Commission today, I pray that God will grant me a Spiritual “withitness” to engage the people in my community in order for them to become followers of Jesus.