As I was thinking through this post, it occurred to me that there are two groups of people that need to be exposed to the truth. Yesterday we talked about the reality that as believers we need to expose those who do not know Jesus to the truth of the gospel. However, there is another group that needs that truth. Those who already know Jesus and have not yet taken responsibility for their own relationship with Jesus.
These are the ones (borrowing the language of Mark 4:3 – 20 (here at Bible Gateway)) who have trusted Christ but have not yet engaged in consistent spiritual disciplines to enable them to grow in their relationship and knowledge of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
There can be several reasons for this. No one has ever told them that should. That can be the result of leaders in their community of faith that feel like they are the only ones who can reliably understand the Word and thus, making it their responsibility to feed those in their charge.
Or, they have been told that they should take responsibility for their walk with God, but no one has told them how. For example, many people have been told to have a devotional, a quiet time, but many have never been told or shown how. Same with Bible study, many have been told to be in personal Bible study, but no one shows them how. I call these types of things unfunded mandates. We expect people to figure it out for themselves. I will share an example of why that does not work well, in a later post.
Thinking about “equipping the saints for the work of service” the first step in that is to expose people to the disciplines. That can be a simple as the pastor on Sunday taking a minute to lift the hood and explain how he got what he is saying from the Bible. Does not take long. Or just mention a simple way to start a quiet time. This is much better done in a small group, and even more effectively one on one. But the idea is to take equipping seriously and began to intentionally think of ways to expose those you have a privilege to lead to that process.
Note that nowhere in your experience of education or training for your job did the transfer of information look like what we typically do in a church. That is someone lecturing for 20-90 minutes on Sunday morning, with no measurement of what you have understood and that is intended to prepare you for your degree or certification in your trade. Didn’t happen. If it did I do not want you to work in your area of expertise on anything.
Thank you for this post. It reminds me that as a pastor, I need to make sure I don't just tell my people what they should do, but I should also give them practical steps to do it. I think the kind of discipleship you are describing here works best either in one-on-one or in small group mentoring relationships. That doesn't relieve me of my responsibility to do what I can from the pulpit; it's just that people need more than sermons to grow. They need personal mentoring and discipling. Just one guy's thoughts... Blessings!
ReplyDeleteAs a pastor, you have incredible influence on the leaders and the people of your church. You are the primary vision caster. If you set the pace on meeting with a few and helping them to engage, the church will follow. There was a pastor in OKC that did that with a few men. That set up a culture of discipleship that is still having an impact today.
DeleteAgreed. Several years ago, I got to spend a day, one-on-one with Tommy Nelson (Denton Bible Church). Great guy! He really reinforced the importance of doing just what you describe above. He has for years met regularly with groups of young men he refers to as his "Young Guns." Over several months, he takes them through 3 Navigator's workbooks, then encourages them to go start their own groups. Everyone on the church staff is required to do the same.
DeleteGreat example. I have heard of him doing that, I know one who went through young guns with him. Note that until that is part of the culture, one has to do that off book. That is it is outside of your job description. You are doing that on your own time until the leadership understands the critical nature of what you are doing. You would be working on a paradigm shift and that takes time, perseverance, and patience. It is well worth the effort.
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