Here’s the fourth of ten propositions about church life and ministry (taken from the forthcoming Matthias Media title, The Trellis and the Vine). Remember, the others have been:
- Our goal is to make disciples not church members.
- Churches tend towards institutionalism as sparks fly upward.
- The heart of disciple-making is prayerful speaking of God’s word.
- All ministry has the goal of nurturing disciples, not just one-to-one discipling or mentoring:
4. All ministry has the goal of nurturing disciples, not just one-to-one discipling or mentoring.
There is no one pure context or structure for discipling. In some places, the ‘discipling movement’ has hijacked the language of disciple-making to imply that only one-to-one mentoring constitutes true disciple-making, and that church meetings, small groups and other corporate gatherings do not. The goal of all Christian ministry, in all its forms, is disciple-making. The sermon on Sunday should aim to make disciples, as should the small group that meets on Tuesday night, the men’s breakfast that happens once a month, and the informal gathering of Christian friends that happens on Saturday afternoons.
The pendulum seems to swing in these matters. As we write this, in most of the churches we know and visit, the problem is that there is not nearly enough one-to-one personal work happening. Structured activities and large group events have taken over, and the pastoral team spend their time organizing and managing, rather than chasing and discipling and training people. They themselves spend very little time working with and training individuals, and those individuals in turn spend very little time meeting with and training other individuals. The focus has shifted away from individuals and their growth as disciples, to activities and events and their growth in numbers.
Tony,
You refer to the pendulum swing (i.e. from disciple making to a discipling movement). What do you suppose caused it, and when did it begin taking notable shape? Also, are you referring exclusively to the Australian church?
BTW, with each subsequent post on the upcoming book, it only whets my appetite!
MLJ
Thanks Tony. I think I agree
Quick clarification –
All ministry has the goal of nurturing disciples, not just one-to-one discipling or mentoring.
Then…
As we write this, in most of the churches we know and visit, the problem is that there is not nearly enough one-to-one personal work happening.
What would it look like if we got this right? I’ve probably misunderstood but aren’t your statements above contradictory?
(i.e. are you saying that all ministry should be about discipleship or all ministry should be about 1-2-1?)
Michael,
I’m certainly talking about my own circles here in Sydney Evangelicalism at the very least. Exactly how or why these things change is very hard to gauge. And it is very possible that I have an inflated view of how widespread a personal discipling and training culture ever was in the 80s and early 90s. But I certainly think it is not flavour of the month here at the moment. (Maybe it’s church planting at the moment, or running contextualized attractional meetings. I don’t know.)
What’s your perception of the position of the pendulum Stateside? (I guess the pendulum I’m talking about has on one end a decentralized, overly-democratic, anti-clerical trust in small groups and personal discipling as the pure form of ministry; and on the other end, there is ministry that is very programmed and staff-dominated, and in which the Sunday meeting with its sermon is just about the only word ministry that takes place.)
John,
Thanks for asking the clarifying question. I’m saying that all ministry should have as its goal the making of disciples—whether the preaching of sermons to hundreds, or the reading of the Bible one to one.
What does it look like? Where I’ve seen it in practice, the pastor has (at least) two key roles: the expository preacher who rallies and challenges and teaches his flock every Sunday; and the personal trainer, who gathers people around him, trains them in godliness, knowledge and ministry competency, and then releases those people to minister to and train others.
The result is not only a powerful pulpit ministry that drives the whole thing and holds it together, but an often messy web of personal ministry and discipling alongside or underneath it.
TP
Tony, this is editorial, then but the way your wrote proposition 4 is ambiguous. I wonder if it would be clearer is you wrote…
Tony,
The pendulum shift here in the USA seems to be the latter (i.e., “there is ministry that is very programmed and staff-dominated, and in which the Sunday meeting with its sermon is just about the only word ministry that
takes place.” In other words, for many Christians here in the USA, Sunday morning is not only the main course, but the entire meal. (Readers in the USA: thoughts?)
However, it seems that the “decentralized, overly-democratic, anti-clerical trust in small groups and personal discipling as the pure form of ministry” is gaining momentum and is, as you put it, the “flavor of the month” in some circles. Reading The Briefing interview with Steve Timmis, is this your understanding of what he and Tim propose in Total Church?
MLJ
Hi Michael
Well the whole Crowded House project that Steve and Tim have led is certainly more down that end of the spectrum, but I wouldn’t say in an unbalanced way. And I certainly wouldn’t describe them as anti-clerical or unstructured.
They are very focused (and rightly) on the whole church community working together as participants not spectators in the gospel cause. As you probably gathered from the interview, I don’t agree with absolutely every emphasis or argument these excellent brothers put forward, but there’s plenty to like about the particular way they have thought through and implemented biblical principles of church and ministry in their own context.
TP