There’s a rampant call from many radical people to make discipleship deeper. They make this claim saying people aren’t going to church or living full lives because we’ve made discipleship too easy.
Don’t they know it’s because discipleship is shallow that our church buildings and budgets are as full as they are? We have to keep pizza parties and lock-ins a mainstay for our students or they’ll leave in droves. It’s absolutely necessary for us to keep discipleship shallow so the church can continue to produce lukewarm, overweight, emotionally immature followers who believe what’s preached from the pulpit hook line and sinker.
Sure, they have self-destructive habits but they don’t listen to ‘secular’ music or drink alcohol. In the end, it’s all about following the rules we create to avoid the slippery slope anyway. They may not be fully alive, but they’re ‘good’ moral people. Asking anything more of people, challenging them to live a more fulfilling life may turn them off to Jesus.
We’ll keep demanding the hard verses aren’t for everyone and the easy verses are for all of us. Sell all your possessions to follow Jesus? That was for one person back then who wasn’t generous. Don’t lie? Well, that’s for everyone all the time everywhere.
Let’s keep our buildings packed with people! Let’s get a few more lights, throw in some fog machines and make our pastors the next thing closest to God. Allowing people who don’t have ‘formal’ ministry training to disciple people is messy. Walking through life with a person one on one is EXTREMELY time consuming. So we’ll just keep those nice morally challenging messages coming from the pulpit. Our discipleship model starts and ends in the big room we gather in on Sunday.
So…
Church… please keep discipleship shallow. It’s the only way we can keep things the way they are.
