I have noticed a growing trend in many churches to place the majority of their efforts on attracting people to their church through dynamic outreach and evangelism programs. While I agree that reaching the lost is our greatest priority as Christians, we also need to help those new to the faith mature as Christians. No, I take that back. We need to help all Christians mature. I have met people who professed to being Christians for 40 years who know less about Jesus than a discipled 10-year-old.
In my opinion, the reason we are not discipling Christians is this: Selfishness. We have become a people who's slogan is "what's in it for me?" If it doesn't directly benefit ourselves or or children, we aren't interested. We join churches based on the programs they offer, not on how we can serve God in that church community. Yes, we need to find churches that will come alongside us as we rear our children, but that shouldn't be the end of it. We can't simply drop the kids off at AWANA, go to "big church" and think life is great. Using our behinds to hold a pew down is not ministry and we are not discipling anyone when we live like that.
We have all heard that saying, 25% of the church members do 75% of the work. Well, that's just not funny. That is embarassing and a shame. If every church member committed to one thing - just 1 thing- to help their local church, there would be more than enough people to do what is needed to be done and no one would be overburdened. In fact, we would all be blessed beyond measure!
Just last night I was reading in Exodus about Moses asking the Israelites to contribute items to the building of the Tent of Meeting. These people were homeless, wandering in the desert, and they still gave so much Moses asked them to stop giving! Could you imagine what our churches would be like if we trusted God as much as the Israelites did at that moment?
::ahem::
Back to the topic at hand.
Discipleship.
What would our churches look like if we sacrificed a bit of our time and our effort to God's glory and reached out to help our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ mature in their faith? There is a reason the world doesn't think much of the church today. We are hypocrites. We spend a great deal of time looking the part of the Good Christian: Our hair looks nice, our clothes are clean and pressed, our smile is placed on our faces perfectly. But when we go to church and ask others, How Are You?, we don't really want to hear an authentic answer. Or, if we do, we tell them we'll pray for them and go on our way. Why don't we stop right then and pray for them? Why don't we call them and see how they're doing? Maybe share an encouraging scripture or two? Maybe, heaven forbid, just sit in a waiting room with them to keep them company when they're scared?
This selfishness is going to bite us in the rear as we raise children who have no clue who Jesus really is or how to share His love with others. Or why His love is even worth sharing.
I found an eye-opening article today on this topic. If you want to get really concerned about the future of the generation we are raising, check it out.
Here's a tast of what you'll find there:
"The "modern" idea of church, or ecclesiology, it seems is that the church exists only as a venue to "attract" the lost through dynamic programs, performances and events - the more dynamic the better. What one pastor friend of mine referred to as "theo-tainment." The problem with this approach exclusively is that a disproportionate amount of the church's time and resources go into these efforts at the expense of discipleship and training the already saved. The result is the proverbial church that "is a mile wide and inch deep." Yes the church grows in numbers but rarely in spiritual maturity and the witness of the Church is often rendered lackluster. "
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