The N.T. Priority of Discipleship – a Diagnostic
By Jay Wegter
- Pastors, are you satisfied with the current level of discipleship?
- Do you regard discipleship as absolutely necessary to bring church members to maturity? (Do you agree that that the choice not to disciple is a choice for immaturity?).
- What problems occur in churches that falter at discipleship? (spiritual weakness, etc.)
- What is the long-term cost of spiritual weakness due to a lack of discipleship?
o The life of the body suffers
o The spiritual safety of the body suffers
o Assimilation of new members into the body suffers
o The usefulness of the body suffers
o The ability of the church to please Christ suffers
- Do you see a disconnect between our church’s stated philosophy of ministry and the present lack of discipleship?
- Should the precise specifics (the “how to,” intentionality) of discipleship be spelled out more fully in our philosophy of ministry?
- What is the level of your state of dissatisfaction with the present level of discipleship?
- How would true discipleship augment the full assimilation of the new members?
- If your church continues to push discipleship into the future, what consequences will it face?
o The maturity of the members will suffer
o Leadership development will suffer
o Personal holiness will suffer
o The ability to shepherd newcomers will suffer
o True evangelism will suffer
- Do you see a connection between the present rate of turnover of visitors and members and the lack of discipleship?
- If new members were discipled effectively and consistently, how would it affect: giving, attendance, evangelism and ministry depth and breadth?
- What do you see as the most effective venue for discipleship at this church—a home fellowship, a men’s equipping group, or in a mixed adults setting that required a time commitment and high accountability?
Additional thoughts on the cost of delaying discipleship and what to do about it:
The longer a church postpones discipleship (especially in the present state of evangelicalism), the greater the temptation will be to shape church programs by market forces and financial considerations.
The N.T. defines the church’s function around The Great Commission. The church is the ‘Pillar and support of the truth . . .” (1 Tim 3:15). The church is to labor diligently to bring each of its members to maturity (Col 1:28-29).
To neglect discipleship is to allow religious ‘forms’ to fill the vacuum left by the abandoning the church’s N.T. function. Traditionally the church always moves in this direction—replacing her N.T. function with forms and then calling those forms true religion. This is the essence of “cultural Christianity” and it is the kind of downgrade which Christ condemned in the letters to the seven churches of Asia in the book of Revelation.
The choice to not make discipleship a priority is a choice for immaturity (Eph 4:14-16). A détente with spiritual immaturity does not please Christ, nor is it His pattern for His church. Pastors and elders are to be utterly intentional in preparing the members of the body to do the work of the ministry (Eph 4:11-12ff.).
For too long our church has offered a mélange of Christian activities and ministry options without real intentionality in the area of discipleship. There are a host of advantages of “mainstreaming” the discipleship vision from the pulpit and from every church leader. First of all, it provides a consolidation of our purpose and it ties us much closer to our biblical philosophy of ministry.
The shepherds/staff/pastors are stewards of the biblical vision for discipleship. “Mainstreaming” the vision of discipleship plants a much needed optimism in the person in the pew that they can be (and should be) involved in soul care.
Church leaders must lean forward out of their comfort zones if discipleship is to be mainstreamed. Church ministries tend to organize themselves in a “territorial” manner.
Leaders settle into the mindset that they are controlling a particular ministry. But a willingness to give away one’s ministry is often the very element needed to give full freedom to the Spirit of God to work His way among the members. Ministry is very often not pushed through a programmatic grid. Instead it happens spontaneously. A pastor free from territorial possessiveness will encourage and support ministry when he sees it taking place—even when it is not occurring through a program. As stewards of the discipleship vision, church leaders must complete their part in the ministry “chain reaction” by seeking to unleash the mutual edification of the body.
The discipleship vision needs to be reiterated because it easily slips from view. The members must be equipped and unleashed to bring the body to maturity. As stewards the church leaders must see church programs as only an attempt to set conditions for ministry.
The Holy Spirit is the true Administrator of ministry. He is sovereign in ministry and over ministry (1 Cor 12:12-26). He administrates the New Covenant; we don’t. Pastors led by the Spirit will fully embrace Christ’s pattern for His church (Eph 4:9-16). That means they should always be working to equip and unleash the giftedness of the body. This is precisely where a breakdown occurs most often.
Church leaders deeply underestimate what the Spirit intends to do through lay people. And the consequence of that miscalculation is that pastors slide back into the mindset of the clergy laity split—as if the Spirit is dependent upon their leadership, programs and teaching (and as if ministry stops with its reception by the layman, the “end user.” In order to break out of this all too common pattern, church leaders must see their role as working to complete the loop so to speak. In other words, the “loop” of discipleship ministry scribes the following circle: leaders equip members to do the work of ministry. Members edify the body and take responsibility to bring one another to maturity. Lay leaders grow into church leaders.
It is easy to see where this breaks down. Church leaders teach; but most commonly NOT with a view (or with the expressed purpose) to work themselves out of a job by training the members to do the lion’s share of ministry. Church leaders haven’t done their job until they labor to see the loop closed—to see those under their equipping released to ministry, and to see those released to ministry equipping others and releasing them to ministry (2 Tim 2:2).