Making Disciples

This weekend I have been reflecting on how to make disciples. There is no quick fix. We need to invest a lot of time with people who want to learn. If they don't want to learn it is impossible to teach them. We expect church members to be mature after 4 or 5 years in the church ... but in that time they have perhaps only had a few hours of "Jesus-style" discipleship.

We expect too much of sermons. We expect too much of cell groups where the leadership have not been adequately discipled. They have lovely meetings, but they are very slow at making disciples.

This problem was thrown into focus for me this weekend by the fact that many members of St. Marks did not attend the Living Waters conference (see previous post). I can see how desperately they need healing and spiritual maturity, but for whatever reason they don't take advantage of the opportunities available.

For those who came to the conference there was excellent teaching and many opportunities to receive ministry. Much healing took place, and many now know what direction to take to continue being healed and restored. But what do we do about those who missed it?

Organising a conference is a huge effort. I had hoped that many more would come and realise that they can be healed and transformed; that they do not need to be content with their survival strategies and their compromised lifestyles. I felt disappointed.

The way I dealt with my feeling over the weekend was evidence of progress in my own healing journey. My disappointment over the absence of certain people was replaced with sadness that they were missing out. The encounter with the Rich Young Ruler (Mark 10:17-31) came to mind. Jesus loved him, but did not chase after him. Those who say that they want to be a disciple must be willing to give up everything in order to receive the blessings of the Kingdom.

I was tempted to despair: “How will we ever be able to grow the church now that they have missed this?” But this is “big church” thinking. Jesus did not have a worship band, a PCC and a congregation where half the people were content with a lukewarm version of discipleship. He called people into a radical form of discipleship.

John Wesley discovered this. He would preach to a crowd of thousands of people. Many would respond and be convicted by the Holy Spirit. Only a few would turn up for the discipleship class at 6am the next morning. But they were the ones who went on to transform the nation.

We need to “raise the bar” of what it means to be a disciple.