Buy Into Discipleship

It is the early 2000s on a Sunday morning at 9AM. The church doors are freshly unlocked, by the same man that has been unlocking them for the past 50 years. Families are pulling in to the parking lot for a full morning of fellowshiping with their fellow saints. Moms and dads split up to drop their kids off in their respective classrooms, which ever of them gets to their class first will save the other a seat. Sunday School teachers are prepping their story time felt boards with cut outs of Jesus and His disciples. Perhaps the children will learn about the feeding of the 5000, or Daniel in the Lions Den, or Noah's Ark, one of the Sunday School classics. The Sunday School Class lasts an hour and then all of the kids walk together to the main area where children's church will take place. The adults shuffle in to "big church." There will be no less than 4-5 hours spent at church on this a Sunday morning.

And that was just Sunday morning. Of course, they would be back for Sunday Night service. And don't forget Wednesday night discipleship classes. Oh and maybe small groups on Friday or Saturday.

This is not what church looks like any more. The way we do church has changed. Just as the world around us has changed. We have moved out of a Sunday School model... but what is replacing it?

I often say, somewhat joking and somewhat in honesty, that I learned more from a Sunday School teacher than I ever did from a professor in Seminary. The Bible basics that I absorbed as a child were the essential foundation for the faith that I have built in my adult life. I have read patristic literature, I have studied reformations and schisms of the church, I have contemplated atonement theories, but none of these things are as easy for me to draw on than the stories and life lessons that I learned from my Sunday School teachers.

Some would argue that the Sunday School model does not fit the church of today. But even if this is the case, the ever-changing church, needs a discipleship approach and to place value back on the discipleship process.

I am not writing this to argue the effectiveness of Sunday School or Wednesday Night Discipleship, or to argue to bring back a Sunday Night Service. I am writing this to encourage the church, not just those that are in ministry, on the importance of discipleship. I am writing this to encourage you to be discipled. To disciple your kids and allow others to disciple your kids. And to encourage you to be a discipler.

Here are some common misconceptions that I find on the topic of discipleship that must be tackled:

1. Church leaders (pastors, ministers, ministry leaders) are solely responsible for discipling others.

2. Discipling happens through a Sunday Morning Service alone.

3. You do not need to be discipled.

Church Leaders Are Not Solely Responsible for Discipleship

The biblically illiterate generation that is rising up behind us is often blamed on issues in the church. Perhaps it is learning to disciple in a post-COVID world. Maybe it is too many programs. Maybe it is not enough programs. Whichever the reason for the finger pointing, the Church, although somewhat responsible, is not the only one to blame.

Ministry/discipleship was never intended to only be conducted within the confines of the church walls. It is not a biblical model. In fact, as we know, most of the ministry of the early church was not done at a large gathering, but within the homes of the churchgoers. It was done by sharing meals and resources and TIME with one another. The biblical model for discipleship has always been that ministry must continue past a Sunday service. Though, we must not neglect the gathering of saints, it is not adequate enough to sustain every spiritual aspect of our lives.

The household was the intended model for discipleship. As we I mentioned, peer-to-peer discipleship happens in the ministry of presence. It happens in the time spent in conversation and in quality time seeking the Lord and His will with fellow believers. But discipleship also happens in the household through familial discipleship.

From the times of Abraham, God's people have been called to rear their children in the right ways, to "teach... diligently to your children (Deuteronomy 6)," and to "train up a child in the way he should go (Proverbs 22)." Parents are called to take an activie role in raising up their children to be followers in Christ.

It was never God's intention for pastors/missionaries/ministry leaders to be the only ones pouring into the lives of other believers.

Realistically, there was more people in ones church than a pastor is able to personally disciple. We must look to Jesus as the model discipler. Jesus spent day in and day out with His twelve disciples over the span of three years and they still werent completely sanctified at the end of those three years.

If Jesus, the Master of the Universe and Master disciple-maker, needed to spend a constant amount of time with just twelve disciples over three years, how do we expect a pastor to spend an adequate enough time with each of her/his parishoners and make a deep enough of an impact to disciple them in the faith?

It is the role of the whole entirety of the body of Christ to disciple one another. Parents must be the primary disciplers of their children. The elders in the faith must reach back and disciple those coming behind them. And those of younger faith must be willing to be discipled and poured into. It is not a faith in which we are called to walk alone.

Sunday Is Not Enough

Two hours, one day a week is not enough to sustain any relationship. The same is true for your faith journey.

The Sunday gathering is sacred. It edifies the body of Christ. It gathers the saints in worship to the King. It builds up our faith, but it does not disciple effectively. It is a time for teaching and corporate worship, but application of that teaching, the proof of discipleship, happens in your every day life outside of the church.

Discipleship requires vulnerability. It requires life-on-life to occur. It requires relational currency. In the context of my church, these things are hard to come by on a Sunday morning. It is hard to be vulnerable in a group of 200. You cannot be personal with everyone on that scale. I do not know about you, but I do not want a group of 200 keeping me accountability, but rather, a select few who know me inside and out and love me unconditionally.

If we expect all of our discipling to occur in a 2 hour span of time on a Sunday morning, what is feeding our souls for the other 166 hours? If you are around me long enough, you will hear of my love for the early church. The way in which they loved one another, and gave grace, and shared every part of their lives with one another (the way the Lord intended). Their lives were not about the Sunday phenomenon, but in trying to imitate Christ in all they did, and by helping those around them do the same. They spent every part of their lives with one another. They lived together and did life-on-life with one another. Every part of their lives was tied to their identity of being the Church.

The Church has lost sight of this mission in some ways. The production value of churches has been raised and the time spent on Sunday has increasingly overshadowed the time spent with people. If we are spending more time on production than on people, the Great Commission is lost and the purpose of your church is off-course.

We must, as a Church, begin to retreat from the attractional model of church and become relational once more.

Ask yourself this week, when was the last time I had someone from church at my dinner table? When was the last time I got coffee with someone who needs a mentor? Am I contributing to the body of Christ or am I just a Sunday consumer?

As an aside: We live in a culture where we have the tendancy to pack our schedules full of things. We work long hours. The kids play sports or have activities 7 days a week. We are tired at the end of the day and it seems impossible to shove anything else into our schedules so we settle for a Sunday morning faith. I read something recently that fewer than 2% of high school atheletes receive scholarships to play college sports. Yet sports has become such a idol in the lives of families over the past decade. Now, there is nothing wrong with wanting your children to be active and athletic but when it becomes more of a priority than discipleship, it has become a god in your families life.

2% will go to college. 100% will face their Maker one day.

YOU Need Discipled.

Yes, you. No matter your age, the amount of years you have been saved, the prolific ministry you have done, yes, even you.

The faith we have been given by Jesus Christ is not an isolated faith. The people of God have always had sacred community amongst one another. Where one has a weakness, one has a strength and we are called to build one another up.

There is not a person I have encountered, regardless of age or ministry position, who has not had a mentor or a friend that is currently pouring into their life and providing accountability to them. We are a fallen people, and our minds are so easily distracted from the mission. As they say "it takes a village to raise a child" so it takes a village to maintain ones sanctification.

Each and every one of us have been created with different giftings and insights and wisdom and to walk through life without the giftings of the other saints in your life, is to be missing out on the joy of being adopted into the family of Christ. It is missing out on the great joy of deep friendship and community.

Besides the gift of salvation, in which we are eternally grateful and wholly undeserving of, the gift of the community of Christ is one of the greatest joys we have been afforded. Not only have we been given the gift of a biological family, but in Christ, we have been given spiritual mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles and siblings and grandparents, and we are all the better for it.

I could not imagine my own spiritual journey without those who have chosen to come alongside me and pour into my life. Those who have held me accountable. Those who have had the hard conversations with me. Those who have loved me. Those who have led me to Jesus when I was running the wrong way.

That is why we have been given the family of Christ. To grow closer to Jesus by growing closer to one another.

So what now?

I am far from having the answers to the Church's discipleship problem. I am not blind to the fact that COVID has shifted the model as we know it and there are less opportunities than ever to be involved in a discipleship program but one of the biggest contributors to that problem is that church engagement is at an all-time low.

It is difficult to get parishioners to commit to a new service or program or class because there is already so much going on in their schedule.

My ask? My ask is that we get back to valuing the value of discipleship. We get back to recognizing that without effective discipling the next generations will continue to be more and more biblically illiterate and continue to fall away from the. church as we have already seen in staggering numbers.

We need to recommit to being discipled and to disciple. We must prioritize it in our own lives, we must prioritize it in the lives of our children, and we must begin, together to effectively disciple the next generation and pass down our faith to them.

How can you lean in to discipleship? Find a mentor, join a small group, find a class at church to attend, and prioritize your discipleship.

How can you help disciple? Start a Sunday school class, host a small group in your home, mentor a teenager or child in your church, start a family devotional time with your children, have spiritual conversation with your friends/peers, and prioritize disciple-making.

Buy into the discipleship process, Jesus commands it (Matthew 28).