Missing The Mark

It is one of those strange things that probably every pastor knows about, but probably few really talk about – and heaven forbid any of us should admit it in a blog like I am about to do. 

As a pastor, some days you deliver the word that you believe God has given you and everything goes smooth – the delivery, the response from the congregation, and even the perceived movement of the Holy Spirit in the service.  Those are very encouraging days.  Other days, however, you do the exact same thing and can’t help but feel like absolutely nothing happened.  No response.  No movement of the Spirit.  It all just falls flat – or so it seems.   It is days like that which can really discourage a pastor and make him feel like a failure.   Sunday night was one of those days for me.

I do not say that to try to garner sympathy or to manipulate you into saying something encouraging to me or to try to convince me I am wrong.  That is really not the point.  The reason I say it because I believe so strongly in the importance of real, effective, discipleship in the church that I believe every single believer should be actively engaged in it.   After spending the entire summer talking about what is important in the church – Loving God, Loving Others, Bible Teaching, Prayer, Fellowship, and the Lord’s Supper – and then spending the last four week really digging into the essentials of discipleship – Spiritual Disciplines, mentoring, and Jesus’ model of discipleship – I really believed we would all be on board with changing the way we do discipleship  -  especially since the method I presented Sunday night is so absolutely simple that anyone can do it.

Maybe I misread the response, but after all of that, it sure seemed to me last night that (with perhaps a few exceptions) not everyone is necessarily on the same page as I am right now when it comes to discipleship.  Maybe everyone is still soaking it all in.  Maybe everyone is just slow to respond. 

Maybe everyone is afraid to try something new.  Or maybe my own “fears” are right and everyone is not yet on board with the idea at all.  Regardless, I can’t help but think right now that somehow I just missed the mark.

For decades now we (the generic we, not specifically our church) have gone about church the same old way – except that (at the risk of overgeneralizing) we are beginning to fall away even from that way.  In years past, the model was Sunday School, Sunday morning worship, Sunday afternoon training union, Sunday evening worship, and Wednesday night prayer meetings.  We were dedicated and committed to being there every time the doors open.   Over time, we have become less committed to that.  These days, you are considered committed if you attend Sunday morning worship three times a month, much less three times a week.  Fewer and fewer of us are coming to Sunday School and, even if we do, we are not (again at the risk of overgeneralizing) really using Sunday School to truly disciple believers so that they know how to be true followers of Jesus Christ.  Fewer still come to prayer meeting on Wednesday night and training union is all but non-existent. 

The bottom line is this. Three marks have been missed.  

First, the church at large that has really missed the mark when it comes to making disciples of Jesus Christ.  Our children are growing up and leaving the church.  More and more Christians are becoming less and less committed to the cause of Christ.  And society is suffering as a result.  The church has begun to lose our saltiness. 

Second, I think perhaps I may have personally missed the mark over the last few weeks making my point about the critical need for discipleship and how something MUST change in how we go about discipleship.  What the church in America been doing for the last 100 years simply is not working.  We have to go back to the drawing board.  Fortunately, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.  We just have to fall back on how Jesus himself did discipleship.  His method works and we have 2000+ years of testimony to prove that it does.

Finally, I really think I missed the mark Sunday night in explaining the D-Life process.  I don’t think we came away from our time with as good a feel for the process as I had hoped.  The thing is, the D-Life process is so simple anyone can do it.  Read a chapter a day.  Get together and discuss some simple questions about one of the passages.  Pray together.  Fellowship.  Perhaps do a ministry project together every couple of months.  It is really quite simple.  The real work - if indeed it is work at all - is on the part of the spiritually mature members of the group to be available and mentors to the less mature believers in the group.   Since I may have done such a poor job, maybe more information about D-Life would be helpful, so how about a link to another article by the creator of the D-Life process.  Try here: http://livingthedlife.com/discipleship-by-storytelling-and-group-discussion/

I hope that I am wrong.  I hope that everyone just needs some time to let it all soak in.  The last thing I ever want to do is “guilt” anyone into doing anything you have not bought into yourself.  Discipleship is a commitment and that commitment must come as a result of one’s own internal desire to grow closer to God.  It must be something you WANT to do otherwise, it will never work.  Otherwise, it will just be another “program” that dies from lack of interest.  Yes, it is cliche, but discipleship cannot be a program.  It must be a lifestyle.  It must be because we find it so important that we devote our lives to it - which is really what the Great Commission is all about.

Therefore, if or when you are ready to take your relationship with God to the next level, we want to be ready to help make that possible.  So… WHEN you are ready, CLICK HERE to sign up and we will get you plugged into a discipleship group right away.

I love you all.  Forgive me for venting a bit.  I believe in this… and I hope you will come to that point as well soon.