Whatever Happened To Church Discipleship?

Whatever Happened To Church Discipleship

            Why is Church so canned?  From the enthusiastic, Good morning at 10:00 A.M. to the optimistic, You’re dismissed at 11:20 A.M., every second of my Church’s Sunday service is scheduled and executed with the precision of Broadway’s Hamilton.  The well-organized weekly program includes a rock band (the worship team), an emcee (the convener), and a speaker (the teaching pastor).  Prominent televisions display song lyrics, announcements, and notes as needed throughout the service (making note taking a thing of antiquity), and a multi-piece sound system condemns silence and ensures that only the privileged will be heard.  5% of the congregation produces the weekly show (this is called “serving”), while the remaining 95% of the congregation spectates, until the 5% plan a Church event and ask for “Church involvement”. Performers are “servants”; non-performers are “attenders”.  Why does God seem to favor Christians who can put together a weekly concert? Why does it seem like the Contemporary Evangelical church has become a nostalgic show? Why is every service so meticulously planned? And whatever happened to Church discipleship?Acts 2:42-47 illustrates that the Church is not a gathering of Believers, but a community of Believers who gather.  The identity of the Church is not her function but her Founder. Colossians 1:27 utters the mystery, “Christ in you”, and 1 Corinthians 12:27 and Romans 12:5 declare, “You are members of Jesus’ body”.  As Colossians 1:24 and Ephesians 5:23 boldly state, the Church is the body of Jesus.  Therefore, it is Jesus who calls the Saints, Jesus who equips the Saints, Jesus who gathers the Saints, and Jesus who establishes the Saints.  He is responsible for their growth and sanctification, and He is the life of the Church.However, contemporary Believers often define the church first by her function (the gathering), and second by her Founder (Jesus).  The weekly concert is the human attempt to experience the life of the Founder, which is to place the responsibility of knowing Jesus squarely on the shoulders of His people.  Is it any wonder why we elevate the skilled performers among us? We have exchanged a relationship for a system; we have become religious experts. See Matthew 23:1-26 for Jesus’ pronouncement of judgment upon such as us!How is the Church to understand who she is apart from what she does?  This question plagues coming-of-age independents, empty-nesting mothers, and retired professionals - all of whom regularly seek therapy.  The Contemporary Evangelical church, along with the rest of the culture, faces an identity crisis, and it needs a reminder of who it is.“Who am I?”  can be answered in three ways: “I am who I understand myself to be”, or “I am who I belong to”, or “I am what I love”.  The first way deals with how we think; the second way deals with who we know; and the third way deals with what we love.  James K.A. Smith, in his book You Are What You Love, explains that our longings form the core of our identities, and that they are trained through imitation and practice (liturgies).  To hear his compelling argument in full, watch his 50 minute talk.  As we train our desires, we discover who we ought to know, and we learn how we ought to think.  It happens in that order. All three come together to solidify our identity. The community that knows its identity is the community that lives out its purpose in meaningful ways.When a community of Believers practices liturgies that orient their hearts towards making disciples, lives are transformed from the inside out, disciples multiply, and awe and wonder fills the community (Acts 2:42-47).  Such communities exist within a variety of models and denominations. For a vision of a what it can look like, watch this 20 minute documentary of Francis Chan’s house church community, or this 23 minute discussion of Matt Chandler’s megachurch community.  As Chan says in his video, “This fellowship is just going on, and I’m not pushing it… people are sharing their faith every day.  It’s just happening. It’s natural. They can’t help it. And they don’t need my permission.”According to Matt Chandler in the video above, a disciple is a learner who worships, belongs, serves, and multiplies.  “Gospel-centered worship is the fuel for discipleship; community is the context for discipleship; service is the overflow of discipleship; and multiplication is the result of discipleship.”  Therefore, discipleship requires one-on-one and group mentorships with more mature Believers who will temporarily assume the roles of brother, big brother, uncle, father, and sage, to train the disciples to walk faithfully with Jesus through the mountains and valleys of their lives (adapted from this 30 minute video of Dr. Eric Mason, discussing discipleship with Pastor Brandon Watts).  Discipleship can look very different from community to community, and it can takes several forms, but the outcome is always the same: reverence, excitement, and multiplication (Acts 2:42-47).  Together, the discipler and the disciples talk about life, pray and exhort one another, study the Bible, and preach the Gospel, with the goal of equipping the disciples to do the same with others.  This process is focused on life-transformation before multiplication, so it is specifically-tailored to meet the needs of the disciples. No amount of time is prescribed for this process to take place.  When individual life-transformation becomes the focus of a church, discipleship will become the liturgy of the church, and multiplication will be imbedded in the DNA of the church. This is exactly what Jesus envisioned when he commissioned his disciples to make disciples of all nations (Mt 28:18-20).To begin the process of orienting the Contemporary Evangelical Church toward individual life transformation and discipleship, 3 liturgies must be examined and reconstructed: worship, teaching, and community.  These three liturgies form the building blocks of every church, and they reflect the theology and philosophy of the community.Worship is the pre-rational orientation of every human heart, that yearns for full submission and servitude to another.  The heart cannot stop yearning until it is totally mastered. Restlessly, it drives itself from one master to another, searching for a force that came tame it.  The heart despairs until it is mastered. Although despair often causes addiction, self-reliance, anxiety, and a vast array of other destructive behaviors, it can also compel the heart to worship God.  St. Augustine experienced a radical conversion at his lowest point, and penned the famous words: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”  Augustine recognized that a restless heart is a sinful heart; it breaks the first Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).  God explains in Isaiah 42:8, “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.”  To seek a master other than God is idolatry.Romans 12:1 tells us how to worship God: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”  Hebrews 12:28-29 adds, “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”Worship is not singing.  It is not reading the Bible.  It is not giving a Tithe. It is not declaring God’s faithfulness.  It is not feeding the poor, sharing the Gospel, or praying. Worship is not a physical action (any action can be done disingenuously).  Rather, it is a heart posture of submission to God. A heart that is submitted to God is the only motivation that can lead to a Godly life.  As Simon Sinek might say, Worship is the “why” of Christianity.Since worship is the default setting of every human heart, the role of the pastor is not to inspire worship, but to direct it.  What a difference this makes. I am afraid that all too often, our pastors (some of whom we redundantly call “Worship Pastors”) task themselves with “waking up the sleepers” (God’s job), rather than posturing the community (submission).  Francis Chan challenges us: “Some of our [church] additions are birthed from a lack of faith.  We don’t really expect God to move, so we fill our gatherings with exciting elements that will entertain people even if God does nothing” (Chan Ch. 9).Posturing the community to submit to God requires expectancy, and it takes many forms.  Music stirs the emotions, preaching stimulates the intellect, and Communion involves the senses, but every act can be done disingenuously.  Something authentic is needed. The Holy Spirit must be present to help us in our weakness: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26).  The Holy Spirit wants to sing our songs, preach our sermons, and administer our elements. He is the seal of our faith (Eph 1:13; 4:30), the baptism of our souls (Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16), the speaker of prophecies (Mark 12:36; Luke 1:67; Acts 11:28), the one who testifies (Mark 13:11, Luke 12:12), the worker of miracles (Luke 1:35), the revealer of mysteries (Luke 2:26; 1 Cor 2:10-12), the pleasure of God (Luke 3:22), the power of our faith (Luke 4:14), the anointer of our lives (Luke 4:18), the giver of joy (Luke 10:21), the gift of God (Luke 11:13; Acts 2:38; 10:45; 1 Cor 12:7), the holiness of God (Luke 12:10; Acts 5:3, 9; Rom 1:4), the gateway to the kingdom of God (Jn 3:5), the giver of life (Jn 6:63), the Helper (Jn 14:26), the truth (Jn 14:17; 15:26; 16:13), the power of God (Acts 1:8), the speaker of tongues (Acts 2:4), the giver of prophecy, visions, and dreams (Acts 2:17), the filler of our lives (Acts 6:3), the persuasion of God (Acts 6:10; 7:51), the vision of God (Acts 7:55), the commandment of God (Acts 8:29), the giver of sight (Acts 9:17), the comfort of God (Acts 9:31), the guide of our lives (Acts 15:28; 16:6-7), the circumcision of our hearts (Rom 2:29), the love of God (Rom 5:5), the fulfillment of the Law (Rom 7:6; 8:4; Gal 5:18), the freedom of God (Rom 8:2), the life of God (Rom 8:6), the righteousness of God (Rom 8:10), the defeater of sin (Rom 8:13), the intercessor (Rom 8:26), the righteousness, peace, and joy of God (Rom 14:17), the hope of God (Rom 15:13), the sanctifier (Rom 15:16), the worker of miracles (1 Cor 2:4), the teacher (1 Cor 2:13-14), the justifier (1 Cor 6:11), the declarer of faith (1 Cor 12:3), the giver of gifts (1 Cor 12:11; Heb 2:4), the builder of the church (1 Cor 14:12), the guarantee of our faith (2 Cor 1:22), the glory of God (2 Cor 3:8), the freedom of God (2 Cor 3:17), the transformer of our lives (2 Cor 3:18), the fellowship of God (2 Cor 13:14), the familial presence of God (Gal 4:6), the strength of God (Gal 5:16; Eph 3:16), the giver of eternal life (Gal 6:8), the seal of God (Eph 4:30), the weapon of God (Eph 6:17), the unifier of the church (Phil 2:1), the vindicator of Jesus (1 Tim 3:16), the renewer of our faith (Titus 3:5), the enlightener (Heb 6:4), the bearer of witness (Heb 10:15), the sanctifier (1 Pet 1:2), the preacher (1 Pet 1:12), the defender of the persecuted (1 Pet 4:14), the inspiration of God (2 Pet 1:21), and the assurance of God (1 Jn 4:2, 6, 13).  We must gather in humble expectation of His presence. Indeed, we must design our worship liturgies so that if the Holy Spirit does nothing, then nothing will happen. In the pre-Pentecost church, that meant praying together in the Upper Room for a week (Acts 1:12-14 and 2:1).For God-centered worship to become the orientation of the Church, faithful Biblical teaching must become the practice of the church.  In the Old Testament, the true teacher, God (Exodus 4:12), taught the Law to Moses (Exodus 4:15), so that Moses could teach Aaron and his sons (Leviticus 10:6-7), so that Aaron and his sons could teach Israel (Leviticus 10:11), so that Israel could teach their children (Deuteronomy 4:10; 6:7; 11:19).  Teaching in the New Testament followed the same progression as in the Old Testament: Jesus received his words from God the true teacher (John 14:10), and entrusted them to his disciples (Mt 28:19), who entrusted them to faithful witnesses who could teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2). Just as the purpose of teaching in the Old Testament was obedience to God through learning the Torah, so also the purpose of teaching in the New Testament was obedience to God through learning the Gospel.Because the purpose of teaching is obedience to God, the role of the pastor is not primarily speaking, but training.  What a difference this makes. Speaking focuses on message delivery, while training focuses on replication.  I am afraid that all too often, our pastors task themselves with crafting unique sermons, rather than equipping leaders to know and teach God’s Word.  The first task creates a separation between the pastorate and the laity, reinforces the Sacred/Secular divide, and perpetuates reliance upon the teacher to continue crafting and delivering unique sermons (job security).  The second task empowers the community to practice studying and teaching the Bible for themselves (essentially working the pastors out of a job).Training a community to know and teach God’s Word requires that everyone have personal knowledge of the Scriptures.  This can only happen when every member of the body reads the Bible every day. The Bible is both the “pure milk” of the spiritually-undisciplined (1 Pet 2:2), and the “solid food” of the spiritually mature (1 Cor 3:2).  1 Peter 2:2 states that reading the Word leads to growth, and James 1:22-25 declares that practicing the Word leads to blessing. It cannot be overemphasized that the Bible - not the sermon - brings salvation to all men (Titus 2:11-12) and grace to all who hear (Eph 4:29), and that the Bible - not the sermon - equips the man of God to be complete and ready for every good work (2 Tim 3:17).  The Bible is the only inspired Word of God (2 Tim 3:16), and as such, it should be held in higher honor by the church than any pastor, teacher, leader or sermon.Community is any locale of belonging that result from gathering around a common theme.  Whether substantive or inconsequential, the theme binds the community together, giving it a sense of identity and purpose.  The Church is the one and only community that gathers around Jesus, and it is also the one and only community that receives its full sense of identity and purpose from what (rather, Who) it holds in common.  Other communities might attempt such a goal, but only Jesus is able to provide rest for the soul (Mt 11:28-29).The Church is set apart by her fellowship.  Fellowship in Scripture refers to friendship with God (Jn 15:15) that results in friendship with others (1 Cor 1:9; 1 Jn 1:3).  The second flows naturally out of the first, and this order cannot be reversed. Since fellowship happens organically as a result of friendship with Jesus, the pastor’s role is not to facilitate fellowship, but to direct fellowship.  What a difference this makes. I am afraid that many pastors design programs in order to dictate the outcome, rather than train disciples in order to release the outcome. Programs receive and retain, but discipleship commissions and sends.Training a community to makes disciples requires that everyone freely participates.  This can only happen when every member of the Body is released to exercise their gifts and callings as God sees fit (Rom 11:29; Gal 5:1; Jn 8:31-32, 36; Rom 8:33-34).  He alone is venerated, and He alone decides what happens in the community. The gathering, then, must be structured enough to promote decency and order (1 Cor 14:40), yet unstructured enough to allow a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 2:1-5).  The Church lives in the certainty of Christ’s continual presence (Mt. 18:20), and in the expectation of Christ’s imminent return (Mt 24:44). This tension produces faithfulness to God and motivates participation from every member of the Body. In a discipleship-oriented community, everyone exercises their gifts and callings, and everyone is known.Seeker vs discipleship oriented gatheringsBelow is a smattering of my thoughts, as they have developed over the course of completing this assignment.  In my attempt to create “3 original, modified liturgies that can be inserted into any Contemporary Evangelical church, that will foster individual growth and promote community participation,” I have become suspicious that the “why” of my liturgies contradicts the “why” of the liturgies in the current model.  For the present, then, I withhold my optimism. Instead of presenting 3 liturgies in full, I present my thought processes leading up to their creation (some of which I no longer fully agree with) - followed by the skeletal outline of each. This is a work in progress, and it is far from complete. As I formulate my views, I frequently catch myself facilitating and programming, rather than directing and discipling.  A creature of habit, I naturally gravitate towards what I know. Therefore, this process (critiquing by creating) is retraining the very way I think about the Church.One final note.  The Contemporary Evangelical church model has long communicated that pastors are set apart by their willingness to earn a degree to earn the right to be heard and to use their gifts.  Pastors who complete the process know they are on top of the system, and if they have not carefully guarded their hearts, they may believe that their control of the system is necessary for the growth of the church, or that their salary, not the growth of the church, is the ultimate goal, or that their identity, apart from the identity of Christ, is at stake.  Pastors must separate the system from the work of God in their practice. Although they should not neglect excellence in operating the system, they must allow room for God to reshape His community as He sees fit. The role of preaching is not the only role given to pastors, and it may be upstaged at times by other roles. This is a gift to pastors, as it can guard them from idolatry. Ideas-In-DevelopmentIn gatherings with attendance over 60, people can attend, yet remain unknown.  To prevent hiding, meetings of 20 should split into two gatherings. Liturgy of seeing-Prayer in groups of three and four, facilitated by pastor or leader In churches with stage, space communicates.  Whatever the stage is used for becomes prominent.  The cross, the communion table, the baptismal, and the Bible belong on the upper stage.  The pastor and the band belong on the lower stage. The music time is often shared by liturgies designed to help people get to know each other, confess sins, listen to each other and pray with each other.  The preaching time is often shared by liturgies designed to help people apply what is taught. Communion is shared each week at the end of the service, along with baptisms. The reading of Scripture should be done by two different church members each week, from the upper stage, prior to the preaching by the pastor.  The pastor reads his passage from the upper stage before descending to the lower stage to preach. Prayers for healing must be a weekly occurrence.  Jesus consistently ministered to the lowly, the humble, the hurting, the broken, the weary, the sick, the isolated, and the wounded.  The church must likewise minister each week to the least, the the last and the lost. The healthy in the congregation need those with ailments and those with ailments need those who are healthy.  The Body cannot function without either group. Therefore, each service should have a liturgy for the wounded and a liturgy for the healthy. In this way we remember each other and grow together. One day the weak might identify with the strong and one day the strong might identify with the weak.  The goal of the church is not primarily to be a hospital, or primarily a pep rally, but a blend of both realities. Therefore, songs should not be entirely anthemic or entirely melancholic, but a nice mixture of both. The Scripture readings should be juxtaposed - either by genre, tone or content. Alternate theological viewpoints ought to be read back to back.  Mysterious passages ought to be read next to clear passages. No part of Scripture should be left out. All cultures come to the table and when everyone has a say, new liturgies are created that express worship to God in the language of all cultures. 3 LiturgiesWithin the current structure, all elements must be explained and trained:

1. Worship (Individual and corporate) through Scripture, prayer, and singing:-Large portions of Scripture are read aloud by one or two Church members during every service (1 Timothy 4:13).  This decreases the length of the pastor’s sermon.-Small group leaders structure their discussions around weekly Bible reading instead of the Sunday sermon.  This decreases the reliance upon the pastor’s sermon.-Supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings are made by entire church in guided prayer session during every service (1 Timothy 2:1).  This decreases the length of the music.-Small group initiate prayer during every meeting.  This decreases the reliance upon the music leader.-Songs are chosen for their Biblical groundedness, not their aesthetic appeal, and music pastor trains the congregation, first, to hear God’s voice, and second, to express their adoration to Him.  This decreases the necessity of the music performance.
2. Teaching (Individual and corporate) through exposition, exhortation, and instruction:-Two or three pastors teach on rotation schedules.  This prevents one voice from becoming dominant.-Services end with a short time of unstructured response (not from the stage), allowing the Spirit to have the final word
3. Community (Individual and corporate)-Pastors meet weekly with small group leaders to talk about life, pray and exhort one another, study the Bible, and preach the Gospel, with the goal of equipping the small group leaders to do the same with their small groups.  This process is focused on life-transformation before multiplication, so it is specifically-tailored to meet the needs of the group. No amount of time is prescribed for this transition to take place.-Small group leaders meet likewise with their small groups each week, and train up leaders who can start their own small groups.  Again, this process is focused on life-transformation before multiplication. No amount of time is prescribed for this transition to take place.-Every time a small group leader trains someone who starts a new small group, the new small group leader begins meeting directly with the Pastor, and the original small group leader brings a new person into his or her small group.-When the Pastor has reached the maximum number of small group leaders that he can handle, he trains one of those leaders to become a Pastor, and he brings a new small group leader into his small group.-When the Pastoral team has reached the maximum number of pastors that the church can handle, the church divides itself in half, and two churches are formed.-These two churches are thriving communities of disciple makers who have been discipled.  Life-transformation is the DNA, and multiplication will soon follow.

 ConclusionThere is so much more that I wish I could communicate, and if you come away from my paper feeling disappointed, please know that I share your concerns.  This is by no means the end of my journey. My journey is only just beginning. I plan, Lord willing (Jas 4:13-17), to finish the details of this paper, then move to Dallas, TX and start a house church.  Perhaps you would like to join me. If so, I would love to talk. My email address is everynation1@gmail.com. Works Cited: