How grateful I am for the church that gathered around me when I first became a believer. I was young (13 years old), biblically illiterate (I did not own a Bible), and anxious (I did not know the “church lingo” or the Sunday school answers)–but I was certain that God had worked a miracle in my life. I did not know enough to use the word “calling,” but I also knew quickly that God was somehow calling me to give my life for Him. The believers that made up that church invited me into that Christian family, loved me, prayed for me, and gave me opportunities for ministry.
What they did not do was systematically teach me so that I would be a disciple of Jesus. To be sure, my pastor preached the inerrant Word, and my Sunday school teachers were great. I would not be where I am today had that congregation not grounded me in the truth of the Word.
Nevertheless, they had no plan in place to lead me intentionally through Christian discipleship so that I would know how to study the Word, how to fight temptation, how to evangelize non-believers, and how to reproduce Christian faith in others. They, like so many other churches, unintentionally assumed that my faithful church attendance would automatically result in Christian growth.
Instead, what resulted was a struggling young believer who wanted to grow, but who was too embarrassed to admit his struggles. I longed for someone to guide me, but I did not know where to turn. All of the other believers seemed to have their act together. Only I was struggling, I thought. To make matters worse, the church too soon gave me a leadership position teaching others in a Sunday school class. Frankly, I was leading before I was ready to lead.
Multiply that story by millions of believers, and you have the state of the church in North America–believers who are undiscipled . . . followers of Jesus who have not yet learned how to follow . . . Christians who fail more often than not . . . church leaders who are not spiritually ready to lead . . . members who are susceptible to every wind of doctrine, but who still claim spiritual superiority. In church after church, we are multiplying mediocrity rather than life-giving, self-sacrificing Christians.
Now, multiply that story by millions of believers around the world, and you sense the state of much of the global church. Without question, many churches around the world are rightly focused on the Great Commission task of making disciples–and I praise God for those congregations. At the same time, though, we have also planted churches that too often lack the depth of discipleship necessary for lasting reproduction. The result is congregations that quickly depart from biblical moorings to follow the current fad with the most excitement or the latest “teacher” with the most money to give.
This blog, though, is not intended to be pessimistic. In fact, I see signs of a shifting emphasis that can result in healthier churches in the long run. First, the young generation rising to leadership in our churches is well aware of the problem, and they intend to move the church in the right direction. In fact, if I have a concern about this generation, it is that they will so focus on fixing the discipleship problem that they will lose focus on evangelizing the lost. To wait until the church is “fixed” before we evangelize is to guarantee a lack of evangelism. On the other hand, healthy discipleship must necessarily result in passionate evangelists; if not, “discipleship” is nothing more than imparting information, and the church is nothing more than a classroom.
Second, I hear missions leaders echoing the cry for discipleship that follows evangelism. I recently met with three men who will serve as regional theological education consultants for the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Their task is to help facilitate theological training at all levels in the areas where they serve. These men have accepted their challenge because they are committed to training the trainers while also evangelizing the lost and planting new congregations. Their assignment is a challenging one indeed, and they deserve our prayer support.
Must we multiply believers through evangelism? We must.
Multiply churches through church planting? Absolutely.
May God help us to multiply the right way.
