Culturally inappropriate…

 

In the culture and context in which I live, it is not uncommon for people to say that they would do whatever Jesus asks of them.In fact, I recently heard a pastor who defined what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in similar terms.

 

And while that definition is lacking in certain aspects of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus; it is a good place to start.

 

Because, as simplistic as that definition is, it highlights a huge problem with discipleship within our immediate culture and context.

 

While the area is full of churches, and those churches might even be full of people (although not nearly as full as they used to be), you would be hard pressed to find enough people to fill up even one of those churches, who would actually do whatever Jesus asked of them.

Disciple, Discipleship, Disciple-Making, and Making Disciples have become buzzwords in the Evangelical, American church.

 

It is quite common now for churches to include in their mission statement something about being or making disciples of Jesus.

 

My concern is that too many churches may have adopted disciple-making as part of their mission statement simply because it is something that they know that they should be doing; not because it is something that they are doing.

 

Moreover, not only are they possibly not making disciples of Jesus; they may not even know how to make disciples of Jesus; because too often, they don’t really even understand what it truly means to be a disciple of Jesus.

When theologically conservative, Evangelical, American Christians and/or their churches realize that something needs to be done; you will generally hear them commit to doing two things…

 

…pray, and commit to studying/teaching the Word.

 

First, I would like to state that I agree with this strategy.

 

But, I would also like to point out that committing to prayer and studying the Word, in and of themselves, are not solutions.

 

They are simply God-given means to finding a solution.

 

For instance, say that your marriage is falling apart. You could say that in order to save your marriage, you were going to commit to prayer and Bible study…

 

…and then what?