Making Disciples

As we, as individuals and as institutions, travel through life we find it easy to lose our way. That is why churches do well to have mission and vision statements. They help us stay on course – as my father said, to keep my eye on the ball.

An easy thing for the church to lose track of is our most basic calling. We seem to get fixated on doing some very good things instead of doing the main thing we were called and created to do. Amid the clatter and chatter about all the rights we should wrong, we forget the thing we are created to do. We forget to keep the main thing as the main thing.

Again referring to, as I often do, the Great Commission, I think we find our main thing to do. We are called to impact our culture for good by showing God’s way of life. We are called, as seasoning in mix, to help change what is wrong, to seek justice and to help those who are unable to help themselves. But the main thing is found in these words of Jesus: “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV) Notice that Jesus did not command and empower His followers to go and make church members. He called us to make disciples. Those are two distinct things.

My intention is not to diminish church membership as unimportant. Making a declaration to be a part of something or of a group; to commit to being a part of the church is a great thing. But it is not nearly as important as deep, as engaging and as life changing as making the lifelong commitment to Jesus as becoming a disciple. As I described in an earlier blog, church membership is about committing to some rather simple and not particularly challenging expectations. Just speaking in generalities those would be:

1. Attend a church membership class. In these classes we teach new and prospective members how to be members.
2. Join a Sunday school. Where I come from a Sunday school class is a group of people who gather each Sunday morning for less than an hour and attempt to grow as Christians by talking among themselves and studying whatever material happens to fall into their hands.
3. Fellowship. We meet together for a few minutes on Sunday morning, chit chat about the local sport teams and how things are at work. Our relationships are shallow and we are completely alright with that.
4. Committees. If you are “super committed” you join a committee that has oversight of a part of the church structure.
5. Serve on the Church Board of Directors. This is a special place reserved for people who really enjoy long, intricate, hostile, meetings that generally accomplish little other than postponing a decision until the next meeting. Generally Church Boards spend all of their time putting out “fires” and dealing with the complaints of dissatisfied members and shoving figures around on paper trying to find ways to pay the bills and keep the church doors open.
6. Providing opportunities to do ministry. Sometimes these are available to a very few people.

None of these things are bad things to do. It is just, from over 50 years of observation; they don’t seem to produce the product we are looking for – disciples. A disciple of Christ is not the same thing as a member. A disciple is a learner and doer: One who follows in the footsteps of the master, modeling his or her behavior on the teacher and learning to do and reproducing what the master can do. And a disciple is one who, in turn, produces more disciples. That doesn’t sound like a description of the average church member to me.

There are a couple of questions that we need to answer before we can address the problem of churches developing members instead of disciples. The first I see as a pastor and church leader is: Is that what I want to do?

1. Making disciples calls for me to do things differently and I am uncomfortable with change. It also means I will have to learn to do church differently which means I will have to learn new skills.
2. It also means I have to admit that I have been invested for several years in a non-productive process. In a very real way, I must admit that I have failed at the work that is central to my calling. That is something that is difficult to admit.

1. Also, making disciples is much more labor intensive than making church members. It calls for a huge investment of time and energy in individuals.
2. Can I change my definition of success? Is successful church based on large attendance or the production of changed lives – disciples? They may not be mutually exclusive, but they may.

To me, our biggest challenge is trimming down what we do in the church to encouraging people to invest their time wisely in doing things that produce disciples. Too often we are off in too many directions trying to do too many good things and leaving us the time to do the things that are most powerful and productive in disciple making. Let’s take another look at the five things the church needs to provide and encourage people to do to make disciples and take a short look at what each of these things look like. Those are:

1. Practical Teaching. This falls squarely on the shoulders of the pastor or preaching minister. All through our formal education we are taught to communicate in scholarly ways. The point is to communicate in ways that are “scholastically” correct. Most of us come out of school prepared to present lectures. Some of us are trained, if we went to schools that taught public speaking, to present those lectures well. But it is lectures we present. If we are going to succeed to produce disciples we will have to abandon almost all we have learned and instead, learn to present practical teaching. Not the usual lecture on some minute Biblical trivia, some little known Biblical fact or push our own political agenda. Instead we need to connect Biblical teaching to the living of daily life and help our listeners apply Biblical truth the daily life. So our goal is, insteading of being smart or entertaining, to be helpful and practical in the process of spiritual growing.
2.  Private Disciplines. Spiritual disciplines do not come naturally for most of us, so they must be taught and exercised. Sadly, a majority of Christians seem to be unaware of spiritual disciples and what the are intended ot to produce. Most of us need to be informed, taught, encouraged and held accountable in developing a system of private spiritual disciplines that lead to spiritual growth.
3. Personal Ministry. We live in a church culture populated be the laity and the clergy. Basically the clergy do the work of ministry and the laity support them. The problem is that full spiritual growth and finding and fulfilling one's purpose in life are  impossible without serving God and our fellow humankind. The pastor's major task becomes placing church members in well fitting ministry opportunities and training them to do ministry. The most difficult part of this process comes when it comes time to release the church member to do ministry. Most pastors have difficulty stepping back and letting lay persons do the work of ministry.
4. Providential Relationships. The Christian code word for this is "fellowship." We do fellowship, but rarely does that life sharing go deep enough and do we become close enough to have relationships that can deeply impact each other. We get close but usually remain distant enough to keep from really knowing each other and sharing those parts of our lives we need help changing. But it is providential relationships, also known as "Refrigerator Rights", the position us in each other's lives where we are able to speak God's truth into situations that need that truth.
5. Pivotal Circumstances. Difficult times enter each person’s life. How we respond to these circumstances can completely alter our spiritual lives. We have all seen this happen. My older brother lost a child to death in an accident and it drew him closer to God. It was a horrible experience but he came out of it a stronger man of faith. A dear pastor friend lost a child in an accident and the experience ended his relationship wih God. Why the different results? There is no way to tell, but it probably has to do with the practice of the other spiritually developing exercises. I know that my brother's "providential relationships" - the small group he was in - had a tremendous impact. He had a lifelong prayer life with God and a consistent life of study of the Word.

Like most of Christianity, making disciples is neither complicated nor easy. It is difficult because it is long-term, time consumptive and emotionally challenging. But the positive results are amazing. And it is something that we, the church, must do. For we are, ultimately, called to and exist to make disciples.

Copyright © 2013, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved