Church Health and Church Growth: Part 2
Following up his discussion last week on church growth, Kevin Hendricks offers a helpful quote from Dallas Willard. Interestingly, the quote affirms what I argued in my post here interacting with Kevin's questions.
The danger of last generation was the emphasis on knowing more (but few new disciples)
ReplyDeleteThe danger of this generation is the emphasis on feeling more (but with few disciples)
Where will the shift to discipling more (from start to end) come from? I don't know but I'd start looking in south america or asia.
Good word. When we get off balance, we are prone to falling down. Christianity is such a balancing act, isn't it!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that "looking in south america or asia" will help us to do disciple-making better. The problem is not lack of knowledge about what being a disciple is, but lack of obedience in faith. I have gobs of very good, very biblical, very practical books on discipleship on my bookshelf, as many pastors do. What we need is shepherds who prophetically speak and lead their flocks into actual situations requiring discipleship. In other words, far too many pastors reduce discipleship to personal piety and morality, and perhaps family morality. But very little attention is given to the various requisites of discipleship concerning the poor and oppressed, and especially the lost. We need leaders who will raise the bar of what their congregations understand to be the real-life meaning of discipleship... in concrete.