I have known Roy Edgemon for many years and I can testify that nobody has a bigger heart for discipleship than he. Recently Dr. Edgemon sounded a clarion call for Baptists to change their methods of discipleship [“Time to revamp discipleship methods?” Herald, Jan. 10]. I agree with his assessment — I just disagree with his solution.
“I don't think the people are getting the foundations of their faith,” said Dr. Edgemon. “I don't think they're getting any depth.” Amen, and amen! Edgemon and I just disagree on the causes. In my opinion the reason for the lack of foundation or depth is found in Baptists' historic approach: “You sit still while I instill.” Generations have sat in circles and studied and discussed discipleship (and we tend to teach the way we were taught, so this is the only method we have known) with little change of heart or action. Information doesn't change behavior. Nor does faithful attendance and activity, as Hybels and folks at Willow Creek recently discovered.
Unawares, Edgemon was actually echoing something pollster George Barna said several years ago. “Describing effective discipleship as ‘one of the most daunting challenges facing the church today,' Barna said, ‘The church is not making much progress here and it's not getting better because we've become comfortable with what we're doing” (Western Recorder, Oct. 2, 2001, p. 6).
Some of my colleagues and I share a mantra of sorts: we are more likely to act our way into faith than to think or talk our way into faith. This idea is described well in an article by Curtis Freeman (“A Theology (and Ethic) for Radical Believers and Other Baptists,” Christian Ethics Today, Summer 2007, pp. 14-17), who articulates a different way of thinking about discipleship. Baptists have historically put emphasis on witness to attract people to church where they can learn doctrine in hopes that it will affect right behavior (ethics). This follows an old model of learning that assumes the sequence is cognitive, then affective, then behavioral. In fact, we now know that the sequence may be just the reverse: action may create feelings or will that lead us to seek information to rightly inform the action and affect, leading to further action to test those formulations.
In the old model, if behavior or attitudes weren't changing the answer was more information. The fact is, most of us already know more than we're doing anything about! Following theologian James McClendon, Freeman makes the case that ethics — right behavior — leads to doctrine, which leads to witness (inviting others to join us shoulder to shoulder in Kingdom work, informing action with doctrine).
In the same article that quoted Edgemon, Max Barnett is quoted as saying that Sunday school and Bible studies alone will not develop people spiritually. I agree with that assessment, but I could not disagree more when he avers that effective discipleship takes place one-on-one. Discipleship is not an individual affair, but rather communal. For most of us the path of discipleship is wide and winding, with deep ditches along the sides. Walking together, we help keep each other on the path.
My suggestion for building the strong foundation and depth of faith Edgemon desires is get out of the classroom and into the world, acting as disciples of Jesus Christ and imitating him in addressing the needs of a hungry, hurting world. I propose that working with others to build houses for Habitat for Humanity, partnership mission trips and serving at the local soup kitchen have done more for discipleship than years of classroom study of quarterlies and short-term resources.
What usually is lacking is the debriefing, or reflection on experience, that reinforces a change of mind, heart and behavior. But these “teachable moments” may lead to the desire to know more, to inform action with Scripture and doctrine, which in the proper proportions lead to deeper faith. Some may recognize this as application of the action/reflection approach to learning — far more effective than “you sit still while I instill.”
More than new methods of discipleship, we need new models and the courage to test them.
Michael Harton is interim dean of the faculty at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond.