Why we don't make disciples
1. Our world view is all wrong. "Be holy as I am holy" is not a core conviction.
2. We prefer the things that are "more exciting" - like worship, harvesting tithes, building buildings, getting on the latest trendy movement of evangelicalism.
3. Not intentional enough. We think Sunday school or the regular programming dynamic of the local church will do the trick to transform lives.
4. We read the gospels for many reasons but not to find the methodology of Jesus for changing the world.
5. Hard to brag about discipleship in the statistics manual of district conference.
6. It is hard work.
7. We were not discipled therefore we don't have a clue what is meant by discipleship or how to do it.
8. American society is a time stealer, and discipleship, alas, takes time.
Labels: Discipleship
posted by Matt Friedeman @ 9:29 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
This is a great list.
I would add that We may not be appreciative of his grace. The more I am lost at the wonder of his grace towards me, the more I want other people to find it.
Pastor Chris
EvangelismCoach.org
Hi, Matt.
People here in Moscow, who I suspect do not differ in the extreme from many urban residents, are immune to the miraculous. They witness through television, through modern science and engineering, through instant access to myriad explanations for our world and its seeming mysteries, a dimming of the miraculous into the merely interesting.
Discipleship calls for reverence and awe in God's presence. My middle son Justin is currently training to serve as a Salvation Army officer, and his most significant development has come through small accountability group activity rather than in the classroom. We cannot become disciples in a personal vacuum.
This list is amazingly consistent with the problems that have caused me to question the nature of evangelism.
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