In his new book, Radical Together, David Platt touches on an idea that I've often considered: that churches encourage their people to so many good things that sometimes the best things get left out. He encourages us, when we evaluate an existing program or consider a new one, to ask "Is this the best way to accomplish our mission/goal/objective?" Sometimes, the good gets in the way of the best.
For example, consider the activity of many churches that have multiple meetings each week. You arrive early on Sunday morning for Bible class and stay longer for worship. You return Sunday evening for another worship time. You have a small group on the weekend. You teach a Bible study on Wednesday night. All of these things are good, but they may discourage you away from what's best because they take so much time and energy that you are left with little when you consider what your goals and objectives really are.
If Jesus taught us to make disciples of all peoples, how are we accomplishing this through what I call "meeting bloat" (as seen above)? While we are accomplishing many good things, the best thing--making disciples--may be going by the wayside even as we grow personally in our own faith.
So how can we fulfill this command of Jesus to make disciples? In my opinion, we do not do so by adding more commitments to our already (too) busy schedule. Consider this: what if we subtracted one commitment each week in order to convert that time to disciple-making time? What if you gave up teaching the Wednesday night Bible class (but still attended)? Suppose you only spent a couple hours each week preparing. Now that you've freed that time up, you have an extra two hours each week that you were already committing to Christian ministry that you can now commit to making disciples. Or suppose that you stopped attending Sunday evening worship service or your small group. Each of these choices can free up an hour or more that you can commit to making disciples.
Obviously I am not advocating that we stop supporting the programs of our churches. But it is not feasible to keep asking Christians to do more and more and become busier and busier. I am advocating that we take Jesus' command to make disciples seriously and that we do not allow the busy-ness of many churches (most of which is not commanded) to get in the way of that command.
Many of us already commit a large chunk of time to ministry activities. Consider how you can reallocate some of your already-existing ministry time towards an intentional and serious effort to make disciples.
This is for those who have ears to hear.
For example, consider the activity of many churches that have multiple meetings each week. You arrive early on Sunday morning for Bible class and stay longer for worship. You return Sunday evening for another worship time. You have a small group on the weekend. You teach a Bible study on Wednesday night. All of these things are good, but they may discourage you away from what's best because they take so much time and energy that you are left with little when you consider what your goals and objectives really are.
If Jesus taught us to make disciples of all peoples, how are we accomplishing this through what I call "meeting bloat" (as seen above)? While we are accomplishing many good things, the best thing--making disciples--may be going by the wayside even as we grow personally in our own faith.
So how can we fulfill this command of Jesus to make disciples? In my opinion, we do not do so by adding more commitments to our already (too) busy schedule. Consider this: what if we subtracted one commitment each week in order to convert that time to disciple-making time? What if you gave up teaching the Wednesday night Bible class (but still attended)? Suppose you only spent a couple hours each week preparing. Now that you've freed that time up, you have an extra two hours each week that you were already committing to Christian ministry that you can now commit to making disciples. Or suppose that you stopped attending Sunday evening worship service or your small group. Each of these choices can free up an hour or more that you can commit to making disciples.
Obviously I am not advocating that we stop supporting the programs of our churches. But it is not feasible to keep asking Christians to do more and more and become busier and busier. I am advocating that we take Jesus' command to make disciples seriously and that we do not allow the busy-ness of many churches (most of which is not commanded) to get in the way of that command.
Many of us already commit a large chunk of time to ministry activities. Consider how you can reallocate some of your already-existing ministry time towards an intentional and serious effort to make disciples.
This is for those who have ears to hear.
