The problem with discipleship today
I learned more about following Jesus in the three years I spent in prison than I learned in eight years of seminary.
Thus, I am intrigued by the question of how people are conformed to the image of Christ and sensitive to the typical church’s failure to provide a process that results in genuine spiritual growth. I am troubled by the fact that most churches fall down on the job. I’ve found a host of problems at the root of the current, troubled condition of discipleship in American churches.
Here I’d like to offer three.
1. Lack clarity
Earlier in my consulting ministry, I would ask pastors, “How do you know when your church has made a disciple? What’s the essence of discipleship?”
For every 10 pastors questioned, I received on average at least 12 different answers. None were helpful. Most fell wide of the mark, falling roughly into two broad camps:
1. A set of behaviors
2. A body of knowledge
Many pastors see discipleship as a set of behaviors acquired over time. Prayer, serving, giving, and witnessing are typical descriptors pastors use to distinguish disciples from the crowd. A smaller but significant number of pastors conceptualize discipleship as a learning process - which is partially true, but most forget the infinitive in Matthew 28:20.
I have yet to hear a pastor describe discipleship as a process of character (trans)formation (Mark 1:17; 2 Corinthians 3:16-18), which may be evident in new behaviors. This results in various shortcomings in the typical church disciple making model:
• Little, if any, thought is given to how character transformation occurs.
• Instead, pastors rely on the tacit assumption that learned behavior produces Christ-likeness.
• Or they rely on knowledge as the key that unlocks character. The biblical testimony is contrary at this point, 1 Corinthians 8:1.
2. Imprecise vocabulary
There’s a nasty “gotcha!” embedded in the term “disciple.” It’s not a unique trap; in fact, we can run afoul of this trap with virtually every important word in the Bible.
“Disciple” means different things in different contexts. Sometimes it identifies someone in the crowd following Jesus, without any sense of commitment (Matthew 8:21). It may designate a category of persons rather than any given individual (Matthew 10:24-25). In many cases, it points to students who follow an itinerant Rabbi to learn (Matthew 15:2). Later in the gospels, it refers to Jesus’s co-laborers (Matthew 15:32-36).
A related problem is that the terms “believer” and “disciple” are often, thoughtlessly, conflated in popular Christian literature. This may lead to a serious error in several branches of soteriology. This radiates out into ineffective and unhelpful approaches to discipleship as well as a host of other issues related to Christian life. John 8:30-32, by way of one example, illuminates the distinction between belief and discipleship:
“As He spoke these words, many believed in Him.
Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
The first two problems (lack of clarity and imprecise vocabulary) blend to produce ineffective, extrinsically focused discipleship methods in most churches. By focusing on knowledge and behavior (the first problem), and conflating faith and discipleship (the second problem), we end up with an inordinate emphasis on observable change in behavior. This never produces the growth nor the certainty that flows from a relationship that results in character transformation.
3. The problem of the unknowable
Finally, pastors are faced with a conundrum. On the one hand, they are responsible for the church’s discipleship process, but on the other, they have limited control over its effectiveness. Pastors have to approach the nurture of spiritual growth obliquely. They can’t get at spiritual growth directly. This is due to the fact that whether and how people grow in discipleship rests on two things over which the pastor has no control: God’s work and the believer’s relationship with God.
Ripening a believer is the result of Christ (Mark 1:17) and the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:16-18) at work in a person’s life. Although pastors have a role to play, we are not the primary actors. It is beyond us to know what God is doing in another’s life at any moment in time. Neither can we understand the significance of what the Lord is doing in the individual lives of his people.
Because discipleship is primarily a sphere of relationships rather than a set of behaviors, we can never know all that needs to be known to create a perfect environment to foster spiritual growth in those we are charged with leading. How do we know if that church leader’s prayer life is motivated by intrinsic (God at work) or extrinsic (social proof) factors?
How do we measure if another love Jesus above all else? Do we grade on a point system, basing 30 percent of the grade on loving service, 30 percent on generous giving, 20 percent on a consistent prayer life, and 10 percent on church attendance? For that matter, how much loving service is required to receive that 30 percent grade?
Our task of making disciples is like a teeter-totter. Pastors sit on one end, doing their part to create an environment that nurtures disciples. God sits on the other end, doing his work - often unseen to anyone else.
The fulcrum or tipping point is faith; we’ve done the best we could with the resources we’ve been given. Now it’s on God and the other person to get it done.
Next steps
Leader, the journey toward a more effective disciple-making process begins with a couple of steps.
First, set aside all the books, manuals, podcasts, study guides you typically turn to in matters of discipleship. Instead, consult Jesus’s discipleship sayings. You’ll discover important texts in which Jesus says something like, “If you want to be my disciple you must do this” or “my disciples cannot do that” or “this is how my disciples are recognized.”
Second, compile your own data set from these passages. Pay attention to what Jesus says in each of these texts about:
1. Information: What disciples know
2. Character: What disciples are like
3. Behavior: What disciples do
Third, reflect on what kinds of learning experiences tend to produce these qualities in God’s people. Think back on the periods of your greatest spiritual growth. What was going on in and around your life during those times? Who, if anyone, played a role in your spiritual progress? In those periods, was information or experience of greater significance?
The rest of the story
Soon after I came to faith in Christ, the pastor and a deacon at the church I started attending took me with them on an evangelism outing. We drove to a federal prison in Sonora, Mexico to witness to the Americans incarcerated on drug charges. Even when the pastor and the deacon couldn’t go, I went faithfully every other week for two years.
In that experience, I learned about witnessing. I learned about deep and longing prayer for others to know Christ. I learned to navigate the wisdom of how to serve others in great need. My faith in God and my relationship with Jesus grew more during those three years of ministry than in the 45 years since. Through those experiences, my character was transformed. I found my calling, and I have sensed the Lord’s hand on me ever since.
In my case, as I believe is true in every other case, experience - not information - leads to transformed character.
That is where discipleship must begin.
 | Bud Brown is an experienced ministry leader, writer and educator. He is co-founder of Turnaround Pastors and co-author of the ground-breaking Pastor Unique: Becoming A Turnaround Leader. He brings special expertise to change leadership in the local church, mentoring pastors to become revitalization leaders, training churches how to find and recruit the best talent, and training leadership teams how to achieve their shared goals. Learn More » |
More on Leadership Development & Discipleship
- 5 ways to ignite engagement (by Mark MacDonald)
- Why Paul didn’t exercise his “right” to be a “full-time missionary” (by Jordan Raynor)
- AI and leadership: the essential skills AI can’t replace (by Christian Muntean)
- Words of advice to a young minister (by Richard Blackaby)
