All Jesus seems to require of someone who wishes to make a disciple is to be obedient and live like him in relationship with others. Many times in scripture we find this very thing happening - the demon-possessed man, Phillip and the Ethiopian, Cornelius’ family, just to name a few.
But if our command from Jesus is to make disciples, how much of goes on in today’s church? Have we skewed our direction into more self-help, than being Christ-like? There are approximately 2,000 churches in 5 county area of Northeast Florida with approximately 300,000 average weekly attenders, how many of the regular attenders are disciples? What percentage are customers (fairly loyal folk who have never led anyone to Jesus)? What percentage are consumers (low loyalty folk who move around shopping churches and never led anyone to Jesus)? And if a disciple is defined as someone who reproduces himself/herself by making another disciple, then what percentage of the roughly 300,000 attenders would you guess are true disciples?
I suspect that this last percentage will be lower than any of us would care to admit. But it shouldn't surprise anyone since most of Christianity is attending a “lecture” on Sunday morning rather than having inter-active, relational, Christ-like coaching, mentoring, and discipling on a regular basis. What do you think?
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