Five Reasons Why We Don't Do Discipleship (Part 2)

Last time we looked at the biblical rationale for engaging in discipleship and asked the question, «Why don’t we obey the Lord’s command?» I suggested that «cheap grace» is one of the main reasons.

Let me offer two more reasons why our discipleship is so superficial.

1. Our churches are bowing to unbelievers and thereby harming believers

No church has done more to explore and develop a ministry that is geared toward nonbelievers than Willow Creek Church in Chicago. They first began tailoring their services specifically for nonbelievers 30 years ago.

But in 2008, they published the results of a four-year study of how effectively they were fulfilling Jesus’ call to make disciples (Matt. 28:19). They concluded that after three decades, they needed to shift from a ministry focused on unbelievers to one that focused on helping believers grow in their faith as much as possible: from a ministry focused on unbelievers to a ministry focused on believers.

Willow Creek Church has learned (the hard way) that we cannot serve two masters.

If our focus is always on pleasing unbelievers, we will not grow in discipleship. Our spiritual nourishment in church will be limited to milk, and our growth will be stunted because we will never get the opportunity to eat solid food.

The author of Hebrews sharply criticizes believers who have never progressed beyond «the elementary principles of the Word of God»:

«For although you ought to be teachers by reason of your age, you need someone to teach you again the elementary principles of the oracles of God. You have become needful of milk, not of solid food. For everyone who partakes of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food is for mature people, who by reason of practice have their senses trained to distinguish both good and evil.» (Heb. 5:12-14).

To be clear, I’m not saying there’s no place for seeker-oriented ministries. For example, holiday services. But if that’s our general approach every week, Christians won’t hear the deep truths about God, their discipleship will remain superficial, and as a result, they’ll be virtually incapable of discipleship.

We need not fear that if our worship services are focused and oriented toward believers, our churches will no longer speak to unbelievers. After all, we will still be preaching the Gospel. And the Gospel that sustains and builds believers is the same Gospel that speaks to unbelievers and leads them to repentance.

So, to benefit both believers and unbelievers, we must preach the Gospel every week—in every service, no matter what the text is. Jesus said that all Scripture testifies of Him (John 5:39). So even if we are going to preach Leviticus, let us preach it as Jesus did: as a pointer to the redemption that is in Him.

Of course, if we are fixated on trying to be convenient for unbelievers, there is a good chance that we will never preach on Leviticus at all—or any other part of Scripture that we think might be intimidating to the unprepared. That is bad. As 2 Timothy 3:16-17 reminds us:

«"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.".

In other words, we need all of Scripture to make disciples. If we ignore certain parts for fear of alienating unbelievers, the quality of our discipleship will decline dramatically.

2. There are fewer believers in our churches

That is, there are fewer believers in our churches who can engage in discipleship by teaching one another. The reasons for this are undoubtedly complex, but let me offer two.

First, in the past, to be considered a member of the body of Christ, one had to be a Christian. This was a New Testament assumption.

But now, in many churches—even large, well-known evangelical churches—you can become a member simply by checking a box on a greeting card. There is little or no effort to test a person spiritually to see if they are a true follower of Christ. How can we expect people who are not disciples themselves to make disciples of others?

Secondly, the practice of church discipline has been almost completely lost.

This was standard practice in the New Testament church, or at least the obedient New Testament church. In 1 Corinthians 5, for example, Paul says that we should exclude unrepentant sinners from church membership.

Our disobedience and failure to follow the Apostle Paul’s command in this matter is spiritually dangerous. It results in members in the church who are not true disciples of Christ. Indeed, they may show signs of what amounts to active opposition to Christ, which is a great disrespect for the Lord and His Gospel. Again, we cannot expect people who are not disciples themselves to participate in the discipleship process.

Why do we neglect these two things?

I think there are a few reasons, but here's one of the main ones: the number has become so important to us that we're willing to do anything to increase it. We're desperate to get people to come and stay. We've lowered the requirements in the hopes that more people will take advantage of this offer.

What happens when we deviate from biblical practices of church membership and discipline? We end up with a church culture that gradually becomes less and less Christian, stripped of its salt and light. A culture of discipleship in our churches is impossible when many of our members are not true disciples themselves. And the influence of such pseudo-church members on those who truly seek to follow Christ is certainly not going to be a benevolent one.

In other words (and to use Mark Dever’s analogy), the front door of the church used to be carefully guarded and the back door wide open. That is, churches were careful about who they admitted into membership and diligently disciplined those whose lives contradicted their confessions. Now, however, we leave the front door wide open and the back door closed because we are afraid that someone will leave.

If this is our way of thinking, then unfortunately we can expect to see churches that are not engaged in discipleship.

Next time I will offer a fourth reason why we don't engage in discipleship.