A book given to me last week by a representative of the International Missions Board has provided additional insight into the need for churches to become disciple-makers and not just recruiters of new members.  I see this as a rationale for churches to become covenant churches that take commitment to Christ and church membership very seriously.     Charles Fielding is a medical doctor and a missions strategist.  His book, PREACH AND HEAL: A Biblical Model for Missions, is an analysis of New Testament principles of doing missions.  There is a great deal of stimulating reading in this book, but I want to focus on one of his ideas:  the meaning of New Testament discipleship.

One of the problems with the contemporary church, the author suggests, is that there are too many "Christians" and not enough "disciples.”  By "Christian" he means someone who claims to be a Christ-follower, when in fact they are not.

"Many churches have a 'discipleship program' in which members learn information about the Bible and Christianity and hope to grow in some way.  The unspoken expectation is that they will achieve the spiritual level of a disciple.  But compare this practice with Acts 14:21:  '. . . they . . . evangelized that town and made many disciples.’

“According to many verses in Acts, the people who came to faith were considered disciples without going through a training course.  They were disciples from the moment they gave up all rights to their future and submitted themselves to the authority of Christ as their Lord.  In fact, the term 'discipleship' is not found anywhere in the Bible. . . .

“We commonly ask hearers to 'accept Christ,' another phrase that you will not find in the New Testament.  If you harvest Christians who prayed some prayer to 'accept' Christ, but need to take them through a training process to make them into real disciples, you will never get to a movement of the Gospel. . . .

“Almost 85 percent of Americans label themselves as 'Christian.'  On any given Sunday, however, less than 20 percent of Americans worship God with a church.  If you make these kinds of Christians, you will either end up with less than one-fourth of these people meeting with a church or each of these Christians meeting with the church less than one out of every four weeks.  That means that if you made 12 Christians, you would have a church of three people.  But if you made 12 disciples, as Jesus did, you will have set in place the mechanics to spread the Gospel throughout your entire target region.  No amount of persecution or malevolent spiritual force can dissuade the church of authentic disciples from multiplying." [pp. 78-9]

A New Testament church will not merely call for "decisions for Christ" or ask people to "accept Christ."  This church will be purpose-driven and it will expect every person who desires to become a member to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Unhealthy churches are held back by members who are not disciples, Dr. Fielding says.  "In unhealthy churches, you would spend all of your time trying to get half of the people saved.  There would be no time for multiplication; the lost half would be holding back the saved half" (p. 79).

Our challenge is to apply the principles of authentic New Testament Christianity in a church environment that settled for making Christians rather than making disciples.  I can't imagine that happening without lots of heartburn.

Anybody got any Rolaids?

Pastor Alan Day