The discipleship challenge

Part of the Great Commission is the mandate to make disciples. If the modern day church has failed at anything it is the making of disciples. Nearly every pastor can point to Christians who have never matured beyond their conversion experience. We sometimes call them baby Christians because they've never grown up; they still act like babies who demand their own way and throw a tantrum if they don't get it. Even worse, these are often the people responsible for many of the conflicts that arise in churches.

We fail to disciple people because we approach discipleship the wrong way. Traditionally, churches have offered Sunday school classes to teach people the Bible. That model has become quite ineffective in many churches today because a decreasing number of church members now attend Sunday school classes. If a church has one-half of its worship attenders in Sunday school it is doing well.

Another reason the Sunday school model is not working as well as it should is because of the material often used. For the 20 years I served my church as pastor I taught the Young Adult SS class. At least the last 10 years I did not use any Sunday school material. We tried material from several publishing companies including our own denominational publisher. My class and I felt it has been dumbed down so much that it wasn't useful. Our children's teachers complained about the same thing and said it didn't provide enough material for the class time. Although many of the children's teachers continued to use Sunday school material I began to teach through books of the Bible to my class. I don't know if the material has improved since then.

A third reason Sunday school has not worked is because we have mistakenly believed that education was all that was needed for discipleship. It's not. Discipleship requires both knowledge and experience. We must find ways to give people opportunities to put into practice what they are learning. This might mean mission trips to serve people overseas or in other places in our own country. It might mean serving in our own local communities. After Jesus had spent some time teaching the disciples He sent them out to minister. This is a good example for any church serious about making disciples.

In a smaller church it might seem difficult to find ministry opportunities for our members, but it becomes much easier if we join with other churches, both small and large, and work with them. I've seen small churches join forces for specific projects and accomplish a great deal working together. Not only was important work done, there were opportunities for fellowship with Christians from other churches, and people grew in their faith.

Churches can no longer ignore the disciple-making element in the Great Commission. It is not enough to help people enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ. They must be led into a life of discipleship which only happens when we combine education with experience.