This is something I have been thinking about an awful lot. Please forgive generalisations and anything that can be construed as criticism of individuals, this is not intended that way and I am trying to watch how things sound when I read them back.
I come from Limerick, from a Church that at one point (say when I was fifteen) that had about fifteen to twenty young people in it. (I get that this isn't an awful lot but we were a Church of between 50 and 70 at that time.)
In Limerick at that time there were a lot of Christian youth groups. Many of these would forsake time in the Word for games and other activities that brought young people in. This is well and good and there is a need for a place young people can come, hang out, play games and hear a small gospel message; but what about those who want to actually know God.
Then there was this other group. It was run by people who spent most of their time Evangelising (teaching non-Christians about Jesus) but the great thing was that they got what young Christians needed. The general format of this group went something like hang out time (guitar, Japanese lessons, conversations about superficial things, conversations about God) then a really good, often quite deep, Bible time; followed by food and more discussion time. Normally there was a thought for the week at the end too. Things like "What would it look like if you lived your life like Jesus had defeated Satan and death this week." (I don't think I got the enormity of that at the time.)
Anyway, all good things as they say. This group ended. Not too long after (within a year) the people so on fire for God; those who were going out and telling others about Him, those who were becoming more active in small roles in the Church, were leaving the Church (or their lives did not match up to their beliefs) I include myself in that one.
Now, a few years later, by the grace of God He led me to Himself. Also He gave me a task and that was to start a group that would allow the young Christians I was in contact with to have that Summer close-ness with God all year around. From this the JA was born. This was a group that was for anyone interested in knowing the things of God more. It was friends meeting up, it was me learning from God and teaching, it was discipleship. Of the people who left the Church around the time mentioned above the ones that are now still committed to God are the ones that came to the JA and found something else to plug into after the JA ended. (this is a generalisation, there were one or two others that never attended the JA and are walking with God but also were not in the group previously mentioned)
With all other groups doing things that wanted to draw people in it was refreshing to have something that fed those doing the drawing.
No offence to the Church, but sometimes there is no discipleship that is appropriate for young people (because they are too small or whatever) there is general discipleship but nothing specific. Most churches are scared to say the word sex at the front. If you can't talk about it in Church how can you expect your young people to learn about the way God sees it and how He values it and how He has commanded us to treat it? It's things like this the JA dealt with, it's things like this that need to be dealt with more.
I heard a scary statistic two Octobers ago (2011) about the amount of people actively involved in Christian Unions in University and then leaving Church once they were out of it (it could be argued that the friend group in CU is what kept them with God in the first place, so we need to take that into account). The figure was close to half of all people involved.
In UCCCU this year (2011-2012) we had roughly 80 people coming irregularly with 60 coming/ attending small group regularly. The figure applied here means that 35 of those 80 will not attend Church, ever, in the next 2-4 years.
CUs are known as mission teams on campus. As in it is their goal and aim to reach out to the others in college and convert them, but not disciple them as that is the job of the Church.
This is going to be controversial but if you are seeing one person become a Christian over three years through the evangelistic work of the CU but (statistically speaking) 20 leaving Church after college is the CU not right in the middle of the best place to be used by God to help His people grow in their knowledge and love of Him? Isn't the CU in a place that is perfect for God to use it to talk about the hard things? To grow a passion for service? To grow gifts? To stop that 20, or 35, leaving once they graduate (or within five years I think the number actually is, not sure though)?
My question is, why then, do we focus on the one person in three years who might be saved instead of the people who God could use to save millions if they would only stay abiding in Christ and producing fruit as they are discipled.
Maybe that isn't the place of the CU in some peoples opinions, but what... just imagine for a minute, what if that is what God had in mind when He dreamt up CUs. A place where His people could take the next step on a lifelong journey in following Him and share all He has done for them with their friends?
I think for too long Evangelical Christianity has had a focus on numbers and converts and not enough on discipleship. After all we are called to make disciples in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) not converts. Some would argue there is no difference, there is. A convert needs discipling or else they will live lives that are displeasing to God and may even walk away and turn their back on God again.
I read something interesting recently about the difference between becoming a Christian convert and becoming a Christian disciple. I would attest to the fact that I became a Christian convert at 6 years old, but I only became a disciple of Jesus Christ at 17 years old. There is a difference; between 6 and 17 (well 12 and 17) I lived as I pleased with no regard to God, or at least very little. It was at 17 that God started to break in, make me realise how my life was not in tandem with His way for my life, and that I responded in a way that would make me an actual disciple of Christ.
I want to quote Dallas Willard (this is long so apologies). This comes at the end of a chapter on discipleship from his book The Spirit of the Disciplines (ch. 11). He is making the case that we will only see real and godly improvement and revival in our churches if people take discipleship seriously, which he believes they have not.
"The people of Christ have never lacked for available power to accomplish the task set for them by their Master. But they have failed to make disciples in the New Testament sense of the term. And naturally following upon this they have failed even to intend to teach people to do all that Christ would have us do. Certainly this was, more often than not, because they thought it impossible. But in any case they have failed to seek his power to the end he specified, and they have not developed the character needed to bear his power safely throughout the social order, or even within the church itself.”
“At this point in history, every leader among those who identify with Christ as Lord must ask himself or herself: ‘How can I justify not leading my people into the practice of disciplines for the spiritual life that would enable them to reign in their lives by Christ Jesus? How can I fail to give them this opportunity? How can I justify not giving myself to those practices until I am a spiritual powerhouse, the angels of God evidently ascending and descending upon me in my place?’
I want to comment here that he is saying this to every leader that identifies Jesus as Lord, I would imagine that includes CU leaders, but is especially true of Church leaders. (Just read paragraph 2 again before you continue). Also the last line sounds shocking but think of it in the context of the quote and it makes more sense.
“Ministers pay far too much attention to people who do not come to services. Those people should, generally, be given exactly that disregard by the pastor that they give to Christ. The Christian leader has something much more important to do than pursue the godless. The leader’s task is to equip saints until they are like Christ (Eph. 4:12), and history and the God of history waits for him to do this job." Let's be honest here, if you disciple you will have greater numbers because the love of God and His Spirit flowing from people will naturally cause people to wonder and become disciples in themselves, disciples produce disciples.
“There is a special evangelistic work to be done, of course, and there are special callings to it. But if those in the churches really are enjoying fullness of life, evangelism will be unstoppable and largely automatic. The local assembly, for its part, can then become an academy where people throng from the surrounding community to learn how to live. It will be a school of life (for a disciple is but a pupil, a student) where all aspects of that life seen in the New Testament records are practiced and mastered under those who have themselves mastered them through practice. Only by taking this as our immediate goal can we intend to carry out the Great Commission.”
I couldn't have put it better myself. I understand the urgency in making converts (Jesus is coming back after all) and those people could die tomorrow and then eternal separation... but at the same time imagine the person you sit beside in Church on Sunday; you the know the one? Prays a lot, cries at the right moment, always the first to shout amen; arms lifted high (or sits neatly in their seat when worshipping, whatever) imagine if that person left the Church this Sunday.
Would you notice?
Would you care?
God does! That person is likely to walk away if they aren't being discipled. God calls us to make disciples, not converts.
Now imagine the person you led to Christ yourself. They enthusiastically responded to Jesus in some Evanglelistic event you helped at. Then a week/month/year later they stopped coming to Church. Now imagine judgement day when that person is there in front of you, your spiritual child. They are talking to Jesus. You get closer to hear what He has to say to your baby Christian that disappeared off the radar to you, maybe moved to Oz or something. Jesus is saying "I never knew you."
What? But He did? That guy, when He was a kid, you led Him to Christ right? Maybe, but did he really understand it? Did he actually repent and believe in Jesus or was it an emotional thing or a fad that lasted a while.
How can this ^ not happen? Allowing God's Spirit to move in the lives of people by His power through His using of who He chooses to disciple that person. No discipleship no Christian, it's that simple. We can all say a prayer and think we mean it but Scripture says "you will know them by their fruits" (I paraphrase) [Matthew 7:16]
We, the Evangelical Church, need to wake up and smell the Great Commission. It isn't about getting them in the door, it isn't about bums on seats. It's about getting people in and keeping them in the door (not us, but allowing God to do so by working through us) it's not just about bums on seats it's about lives being changed and infecting other lives with this change.
It's not about Evangelism; it's about discipleship. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," Matthew 28:19 ESV
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