Church goers, Christians, members of a congregation — some don’t know the basic beliefs of being a Christian. I’ve saw it, somewhat, first hand today in class. A girl thought that the Trinity (God the Father, Jesus the Son, Holy Spirit) was a hierarchy (or thought that traditional, orthodox teaching, believed this). I know this, many people in the church knows this … but do new Christians? How are they supposed to know if no one shows them? Maybe sometimes we focus too much on saving a person and less time on actually discipling them. I don’t believe any one pastor or church or leadership system is responsible, but there should be some accountability. There’s more to being a Christian than just knowing that Jesus is the son of God, was murdered and brought back to life three days later, and was born of a virgin. There’s so much more to that. Some of it’s theological, some of it isn’t. It just all comes down to this: lead them to Christ — then disciple them so they can repeat the process.
3 Replies to “Make Disciples, not Converts”
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I agree that we should be making disciples rather than converts. But I think what is more important than their understanding of the Trinity is that they are living each day sold out for God, in intimate, passionate communition with Him. The theological stuff is important, but it’s not nearly as important as their relationship with Christ. I think discipleship involves helping people to grow in both of these areas.
Yes, that’s what I was saying (or that’s what I meant to say or allude to). They must know what (and why) they believe what they believe also. I wasn’t saying theological discussiong is “higher” or equal to discipling, discipling should be the goal, but within that I believe there also needs to be discussion and teaching on what they believe (and why).
Yeah not only new converts, but old ones too. There tends to be a lacking of mentorship or discipleship or accountability in any stage. It seems like the sermon each week is supposed to be enough. The rest, it’s expected, you do on your own. However Jesus sent them out two by two.