I was taught and conditioned to believe by today's common practice from churches to the seminaries that discipleship is done this way: "Come follow me to Room 201, open your Discipleship book to page 7 and answer the questions at the end of the chapter." After being in the ministry for a while, I realized that something is amiss in how we are discipling people. Because if we did, then "the gates of hell shall not prevail against" the church! Right? But in America, it seems that the opposite is happening.The 2012 study by Pew Research show that the percentage of the adult U. S. population that claims no religious affiliation increased from 15 percent in 2007 to 20 percent in 2012. That is an amazing increase in a relatively short period of 5 years. Those who do not have religious connection now include more than 13 million who describe themselves as atheists and agnostics (nearly 6% of the U.S. public), as well as nearly 33 million people who say they have no particular religious affiliation (14%) – sometimes called the "nones.”
Equally concerning to me are the loses among the youth and young adults. There’s just not much of them coming to church lately. The 2012 Pew Research records that one-third of young adults under 30 have no religious affiliation (32%), compared with just one-in-ten who are 65 and older (9%). One implication of the 2012 Pew Research for local churches is in the decrease of marginal church attendees, or the nominal Christians (i.e., Christian by name only). Since there are not many strong connections that would hold them to church, those who were before just kicking the tires have already moved on and are driving off the lot in droves on other alternatives.
Seeing these events against the backdrop of the rising secularism and moral decline, it is hard to not come to the conclusion that we are not doing our job right. How are we going to reverse this trend? Obviously, the church is missing on something that we ought to be doing. The popularity of attractional churches, the performance-based worship services with star preachers on large screens and TVs, are not helping either. Christians sadly are being lulled to the point of ineffectiveness, thinking that discipleship is produced in rows of people in pews, seeing not faces but the back of people's head. Not on personal level but impersonal materials.
The point is, we can't mass produce disciples in a short period of time and expect them to make other disciples as well. It often result to ministries that are "a mile wide but only an inch deep." You can't say to your disciples, "Finish this book by the end of three months" and expect them to have gotten how to make disciples. Jesus did not break out from heaven and asked people, “Come follow me and study this book with me?” He did not say, "I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will study a book with him and he with me?" Not at all. Instead, He said this in Matthew 4:19 "Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men." Also in Revelation 3:20 he said “I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me.” That spells a personal relationship with a personal touch, and it took Him 3 years discipling the 12. He spent time with them, ate with them, ministered with them, prayed with them, taught them often in private, by themselves in a face-to-face interaction and in a close relationship. That way, they got to know Him personally and learned the deeper meanings of His teachings. He never hurried them up. He only expected them to commit to follow Him, that they might know Him, to say what He says, teach what He teaches, and do what he does.
We need to realize this: discipleship is better learned through intentional and personal relationship. That's how Jesus taught his disciples about who he was. His more important lessons were given to His disciples in private and not in public, like in Luke 9:18 after the feeding of the 5,000, and in the parable of the sower in Matthew 13.
This is how Jesus taught his disciples, slow at the front but exponential at the back end, with thousands becoming part of the church as a result like in Acts 2:42-47. Follow this principle and you will not have to spend a dime on church promotion or to rely on attractional events to get people into your church.
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