Episode 146: The Urgency of Discipleship in the Pursuit of Reformation (Part 1)

"The biggest sins in the church are our refusal to take action, our lack of discipleship, our lack of efforts at one-on-one discipleship…We need to recognize that even our lack of discipleship, our lack of efforts at one-on-one discipleship, is a sin of omission.” -Jason Ruis

Summary of this Episode

This week on the Messy Reformation, Jason and Willy are talking discipleship, being particularly mindful of a situation seen in a number of Christian Reformed congregations—CRC-raised and discipled young people leaving their churches and even leaving the faith. Rather than lamenting or shaming youth and young adults, the guys turn their attention to the question of how our churches equip people to do discipleship.

Jason shares about visiting churches who are interested in revitalization and how when he notices a missing generation, typically people don’t have a clear answer for what happened. They realize young people (those in their 20s and 30s) have gone missing, but there tends to be a passiveness, “They just left, that’s what kids do.” The reality is it’s hard for any of us or our churches to admit, “We messed up…We failed them, and we need to make some changes now.” If churches are willing to accept that, then there can be hope and readiness to change. Willy notes that leaders need to be shepherding and pursuing, not just the sheep, but the lambs, too—the young and immature. We should be working to develop them as leaders now and for the future, even when that means trial and error.

Jason points out another area of congregational life where many churches are struggling is finding volunteers. Often, a single person has been the volunteer or at the helm of a ministry for decades, and they see the need to pass the baton, but no one’s willing. If the question is asked, what have you been doing to disciple someone to take this ministry or role over for you, often that really hasn’t been thought about. He sees generational differences—older generations tend to have a greater sense of duty and obligation while younger generations don’t have that and often see themselves as not having the time. Rather than complain about each other and not get anywhere, part of the continuing duty of the older generation should be preparing another person or other people to step up. Willy shares a starting point is to ask the current volunteer about who trained or discipled them—getting them to remember if there was someone who took them under their wing. Even if the answer is no one—they were a self-starter and figured it out on their own, that doesn’t mean it’s the only or best way. Discipling for continuing ministry is better.

From there, Jason returns to the concept of 1-on-1 discipleship that the previous conversation with Rev. Drew Hoekema addressed. There’s discussion around the contrast of this with discipleship by programs. Willy shares how the intents and purposes of big productions that some churches put on can sometimes overlook and confuse discipleship with spending a lot of time on something and feeling good about it. Jason encourages reading 1 Corinthians, which puts forward not flashy ministry or superstar personnel, but rather the ordinary, daily ministry of discipleship as being effective and vital. One of the benefits Willy notes is the person being discipled gets to see and hear what the discipler is doing. They have a living model that they learn from—both what to do and what not to do.

This episode wraps up around the reality that there is no one-size-fits-all model or example of discipleship. Sometimes there is a lot of preparation, but often it’s more organic, even just normal life—doing and seeing what’s being done—that we learn from. Willy does encourage us to look for good disciplers, and to highlight how and what they do, because “Good discipleship is [positively] infectious.” (One of those good models shared in this episode is 222 Discipleship.) Jason also shares an idea from D.L. Moody—doing something poorly is usually better or preferable to not doing anything at all. It is better to try discipling, even if it means some failure and learning, than to fear that you’ll not do any good and fail to disciple.