More than two decades after he helped many Baptist churches breathe new life into discipleship training, Roy Edgemon believes it's time take a new look at how churches make disciples.
In the early 1980s, the Southern Baptist Convention's Sunday School Board asked Edgemon to revamp its approach to discipleship as attendance to Sunday night church training was on what seemed an irreversible decline.
Under his leadership, the organization that became LifeWay introduced interactive writing — an approach that engaged readers with discussion-oriented questions — and discovered hallmark writers such as Beth Moore and Henry Blackaby. In 2001, discipleship enrollment was at an all-time high, he noted.
But several years later, Edgemon believes it's time for Baptists to take a fresh look at their approach to discipleship. If they don't, churches are in danger of continuing to reach people but not turning them into devoted followers of Christ.
“They're trying to be evangelistic and trying to be very missions-oriented,” said Edgemon, a member of First Baptist Church in Sulphur Springs, Texas. “I don't think the people are getting the foundations of their faith. I don't think they're getting any depth.”
Edgemon's concerns mirror those of the leaders of Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago, which has served as a model for churches nationwide in how to evangelize people through small groups. Despite reaching thousands, leaders acknowledged a recent study showed the church is doing a poor job of turning converts into growing followers of Christ.
The study found nearly 25 percent of the people at Willow Creek were stalled in their spiritual growth and dissatisfied with church. The conventional approach to discipleship that connected increased church activity to spiritual growth was flawed. While activity can lead to growth, the survey found at a certain point, people who were growing extremely deep in their faith actually were becoming less connected to Willow Creek.
“What you hold in your hands has revolutionized the way I look at the role of the local church,” Willow Creek Pastor Bill Hybels wrote in the forward of a book based on the study. “It is causing me to ask new questions. It is causing me to rethink how we coach Christ-followers. It is causing me to see clearly that the church and its myriad of programs have taken on too much of the responsibility for people's spiritual growth.”
Willow Creek's survey reveals what some Baptists have believed for years. Max Barnett, who led the Baptist Student Ministries at the University of Oklahoma for more than 37 years and now directs collegiate ministry for the Colorado Baptist General Convention, reminds people that the Great Commission does not emphasize sharing the gospel with large numbers of people. Rather, it stresses making disciples around the globe.
Many churches incorrectly rely on small-group Bible studies to develop people spiritually, Barnett said. Discipleship takes place in regular one-on-one meetings between two people who agree to keep each other accountable during an extended period. In a meeting between two friends, each person feels comfortable to share about themselves and be frank with the other person.
“This is where as Southern Baptists, I think we've lost it — the person-to-person,” he said. “I think most people are not going to grow to maturity without someone meeting with them.”
Baptist General Convention of Texas evangelism director Jon Randles agreed with Barnett. Spiritually mature Christians may be able to disciple three or four people a year in individual meetings. In these private gatherings, people can be held accountable for their Scripture memorization, prayer life, Bible study habits and sharing the gospel.
“Baptists have always been skeptical of exclusivism, and discipleship is a bit exclusive,” he said.
At CrossBridge Community Church in San Antonio, Texas, discipleship is at the heart of everything the congregation does because members view growing in faith as fundamental to all other expressions of belief, explained Pastor Kirk Freeman.
“When we say discipleship, we don't limit the phrase to mean just Bible study,” he said. “We don't separate missions from discipleship, because only a disciple can go to the ends of the earth to witness for Jesus.”
Edgemon believes Freeman's church understands the critical nature of discipleship. Baptists' weakness in discipleship has weakened the denomination, including the wane in evangelistic zeal. Proper discipleship encourages people to pray for people they know who lack a relationship with Christ and to share the gospel with them.
Edgemon believes part of the solution lies in identifying and publishing a new wave of authors who can capture the attention of Baptists and encourage them to grow in their faith.
At CrossBridge, the solution is not about curriculum. CrossBridge does not feature many programs commonplace in most Baptist churches, but the church encourages members to be involved in the lives of their friends, family and people with whom they come in contact. Rather than classroom Bible study, the church has “Life Groups” — small gatherings where people can study the Bible, discuss their spiritual development and talk about how biblical principles intersect their lives.
The church also delves deep into the Bible during Sunday morning sermons. It recently spent 38 weeks in the brief New Testament book of Ephesians. A group of laypeople wrote corresponding week-long studies about Ephesians for each of the sermons. As much as a quarter of the congregation ministered in a foreign country last year. Many of the members ministered locally in one form or another.
“The difficulty with discipleship is it's not a smooth step-by-step process. If there's any formula for discipleship, it's life-on-life,” Freeman said, as Christians invest their lives in ministering to each other. And ultimately, the responsibility for spiritual growth rests on the individual. One Sunday a year, each person at CrossBridge receives a spoon in worship, because as Freeman says, CrossBridge isn't going to “spoon-feed” people. They are going to have to feed themselves.
Whether they follow a programmatic or organic approach, churches must help members grow in their faith, experts agree. Christians need to internalize their beliefs and let those beliefs affect actions.
“Once someone becomes a disciple, they never turn back. It becomes part of who they are,” Randles said.