Troublesome Topic: THE NEED FOR DISCIPLESHIP

Discipling is what Jesus has commanded us to do. He did not tell us to build special buildings and get people to come to us, nor to go into all the world and make converts. His command was specific and clear: “go into all the world and make disciples.” We must find at least one person to whom we can say, “Follow me as I follow Christ,” (I Cor 11:1).

I have been involved in some form of ministry since 1979, and in those years I have observed that institutionalized churches do not value discipleship, rather their focus seems to be on attendance and giving. Attendance gets the most public mentioned and offerings are worried about the most. Along with attendance, there is a desire for converts, but it is hoped that the preaching will meet that need. Seldom are personal relationships built with newcomers in which they can be asked if they have a relationship with Jesus and what that looks like. Regarding discipleship, today we assume that a system of small groups meeting together regularly will produce disciples (a very small congregation is its own small group). That system is partially capable of fulfilling that goal, but true mentoring is a one-on-one relationship.

Jesus discipled, 12 men at one time, but they spent almost all their time together and He found opportunities to address their individual needs, sometimes alone, but often in front of the whole group, which was acceptable in their culture. The disciples also learned by watching Him, by listening to Him share truths intended for all of them, and when He taught the masses. They were learning from Him in many different ways.

Another weakness of the modern church is that we do not emphasize the teaching of Biblical truth in the home as much as we should. In Bible times, that was the primary way that teaching took place, in the home. Men and women were products of the teaching of their parents, and later they continued learning in the synagogue (in the time of Jesus), and then they taught their children in the home. Today we expect the youth pastor to teach our youth and the children’s pastor to teach our children. We have abdicated many of the responsibilities that God placed on the shoulders of the parents. Some would argue that so many families are dysfunctional, so we can’t trust them to teach Biblical truth. My respon

Making disciples is hard, slow, and costly work. That is why the institutionalized church usually focuses on programs instead of investing lots of time and energy in mentoring relationships. I have noticed that it is mostly the laypeople, not the clergy, that are involved in the ministry of making disciples. Most pastors and associate pastors are too busy running programs. They don’t have enough left in them to invest the kind of effort needed to make disciples. There are exceptions; there are pastors who invest in mentoring relationships, and I commend them for it. But the practice of mentoring has not permeated the modern church the way it should; instead, discipleship is a rarity.

Besides taking time and effort, mentoring requires lots of our emotional energy. It gets you in contact with people on the most messed-up level. However, one-on-one discipleship has the potential that nothing else has to effectively deal with life’s ugly issues; it is far more effective at bringing about lasting change than preaching or small groups are.