Monday, June 16, 2008

Are We Making Disciples?

I love working with church planters and seeing new missional initiatives started! However, I continue to be concerned about the quality of disciples we are making.

Barna has been challenging us for years to address this. The most recent Reveal research has challenged the assumption that participation in church programs result in spiritual maturity. Our standard methods for making disciples do not seem to produce the results we want - nothing near what Jesus calls us to! My fear is that our new churches often replicate the same methods.

Our mission is to make disciples. But what does a disciple look like in Western culture (our context)? Jesus calls us to radical obedience. He really does intend for us to live the way he lived. He said "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father." (Jn 14:12)

I hope that every church planting leader will give serious thought to this! You have the opportunity to do something new and different. You have the opportunity to create a system that will produce missional disciples. Think it through carefully and measure your results. Be ruthless about this! If you need help, get a coach. Don't take this lightly - this IS our mission!

5 comments:

CZoe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
CZoe said...

Can you delete my last comment?

I wrote it too early in the am without enough coffee:)

let me re-reply with more clarity here...

I really enjoyed your post. I say AMEN! to it. My question is, in the coaching and church planter training world (of which I know next to nothing about but am beginning to learn) is the core value of your post embodied in the coaching and training that is going on?

Glenn Smith said...

Yes. This is core to all of our training and coaching.

CZoe said...

GREAT! I will then make every attempt to get out to your training. When are they scheduled for the next 12 months?

Peter Horn said...

Hey, Glenn,
Just wanted to let you know that I've created a blogsite for the purpose of helping people engage in Life-on-Life Discipleship. Launched it today. Check it out from time to time as it develops. lifeonlifediscipleship.blogspot.com