Last Sunday, all around the world, Christians gathered in the largest Sunday services of the year to proclaim to one another the ancient truth, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!” The singing was wonderful, the preaching typically at its best, and the fellowship especially warm. It was a great day.
And now, in the weeks that follow, the typical pastors of average churches will stand in their pulpits and look out and wonder once again, “Where did the crowds go?” Of course, the issue far transcends numerical considerations. It serves as a living parable of the condition of American Christianity, in which so many people tend to show up when there’s a show, but disappear when it comes to discipleship.
Not long ago, well-known pastor Bill Hybels, whose 20,000 member Willow Creek Church in suburban Chicago has set the standard for “seeker-sensitive church” since the early 1980’s, admitted that though his church has attracted a lot of people to its services, not many of them have actually been living a life of Biblical discipleship. For two-and-a-half decades, this huge and apparently successful church has aimed most of its efforts at getting people to participate in programs, in hope that their participation would make them better followers of Christ. They counted and carefully recorded the number of people involved in their programs, and hoped that the more participants they had, the more disciples they were making.
They’ve discovered it hasn’t worked. In a talk at last summer’s Willow Creek Leadership Conference, Hybels admitted, “We made a mistake. We should have . . . taught people how to read their bibles between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.”
In other words, participation in programs does not necessarily produce Biblical disciples, people committed to following Christ rigorously in their daily lives. What makes Biblical disciples are the age-old “spiritual practices” Hybels mentioned: personal Bible study, vigorous personal prayer, accountable relationships and the pursuit of holy living by the constant infilling of the Holy Spirit.
The fact is that much of the American church seems to have forgotten what Jesus commanded us to pursue as our primary business. He never told us to draw a crowd, make converts, produce participants, or acquire attenders. He told us to make disciples. A key step in growing from a baby Christian into a maturing disciple is teaching that person to become “self-feeding.” That means the church must train its people to study Scripture daily with a view to obeying it, to have a vital personal prayer life, and to take responsibility for being in accountable relationships with fellow followers so that they can support and encourage one another.
So, now that it’s after Easter (or in the season of Easter, according to the church calendar), what now? I say it’s time to get serious about the business we’re called by Christ to pursue. Forget the crowds for now – they’ll be back at Christmas – and turn our energies to doing everything we can in the power of the Holy Spirit to make disciples.
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