Where Did All the Disciples Go?

“There is a discipleship deficiency in most churches resulting in a lack of transformation.” This was one of many findings from the Transformational Discipleship Project that surveyed four thousand Protestants and one thousand Protestant pastors in North America. Their research revealed that pastors “know lives are being changed at some level but not with consistency from the ministries of the church.” Furthermore, the Joint Statement on Discipleship at the Eastbourne Consultation reiterated a similar statement,

“As we face the new millennium, we acknowledge that the state of the Church is marked by growth without depth. Our zeal to go wider has not been matched by a commitment to go deeper.”

Why is there such a great disparity between the magnificent life of Jesus and his early followers with the present state of Christians today? Why is there such a dearth of disciples within the Church? Where did they all go?

• Is it because an inordinate amount of the typical pastor’s time is spent in sermon preparation, administration, and pastoral counselling, rather than discipling and equipping God’s people for the work of ministry (Eph 4:11-13)?
• Or is it perhaps because the cost of discipleship is too high of an ask to make in our culture, which is so marked by tolerance and pluralism?

“Just as Christ is Christ only in virtue of his suffering and rejection, so the disciple is a disciple only in so far as he shares his Lord’s suffering and rejection and crucifixion” (Bonhoeffer)

• Or maybe the disparity is caused by an inaccurate view of the Church and its mission?

As much as all of those reasons are directly related to poor leadership, the disparity could also be caused through ineffective systems in local churches.

• On the one hand, if a church is heavily focused on programs to develop disciples, with the absence of direct personal attention to the disciple, then it is easy for the disciple to either compartmentalize faith from the rest of their life, or merely interpret the programs as being a mental exercise that have no real relevance.
• On the other hand, if a church does not even have an accessible discipleship pathway, and has left discipleship up to the congregants to figure out themselves, then there is an equal disparity for newcomers.

The underlying problem that encompasses all of the previous reasons is the fact that there is an assumption today, amongst Christians that one can be a Christian but not be a disciple.

Dallas Willard magnificently sums it up with the term, the Great Omission:

“And this…is the Great Omission from the “Great Commission” in which the Great Disparity is firmly rooted. As long as the Great Omission is permitted or sustained, the Great Disparity will flourish…Conversely, if we cut the root in the Great Omission, the Great Disparity will wither.”

Being a Christian is synonymous with being a disciple – Jesus never taught anything remotely related to a two-tiered system of faith. As long as discipleship is taught and seen as an optional matter, then this great disparity will continue unharmed and the mission of God will suffer for it.

So here are two question for all of us:

• Are our churches actually participating in the mission of God?
• In light of the fact that there is this great disparity, what is a disciple and how do I even know if someone is one?

Join me in the coming posts as we look at six expert definitions of a disciple, how to tell if someone is a disciple or not, and a framework for discipleship.