Distracted Disciples

Church traditions (structure) may distract disciples from doing what Jesus said.

‘Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you’ - Matthew 28:20.

A disciple of Jesus Christ is a believer in Him who strives to behave like Him.

So making disciples is teaching broken sinners to believe in, and behave like Jesus, in every situation of our lives.

Religious vessels (local churches) often distract disciples from true disciplemaking.

Conservative evangelical churches often focus on sinners believing in Jesus to get sinners into heaven, but frequently neglect teaching on behaving like Jesus, which gets heaven into sinners.

If the emphasis of a church is evangelism (‘getting people saved’), once a sinner believes in Jesus, the church's focus shifts to believers supporting the religious vessel.

The church often distracts new disciples from the practice of discipleship and disciple-making.

Local institutional religious church leaders will profess that disciplemaking is their goal, so the distractions aren’t necessarily intentional, but they’re real.

Dallas Willard (1935-2013) is the author of The Great Omission. The ‘omission’ of what he writes is the omission of institutional local churches ‘making disciples.’

Willard examines the reasons that local church congregations unintentionally develop distracted disciples. He says the main thing (making disciples of Jesus) is omitted for the purpose of focusing on secondary things, like:

1. Building programs.

2. Annual budgets.

3. Numerical growth.

4. Board meetings.

5. Staffing ministries.

The Great Omission is a tremendous book.

My friend, Jim Milonas, the leader of one of the most remarkable Christian discipleship-making organizations, put me on to Dallas Willard a few years ago.

I have intuitively known the Scripture teaches exactly what Willard is saying, but it’s rare to hear someone articulate those principles for the local church so beautifully.

If you don’t have time to read The Great Omission, watch Dallas Willard explain the principles on video below. It’s worth every minute of the 45 minutes to watch.

CHURCH TRADITIONS DISTRACT

It’s tough for many loyal followers of Jesus to comprehend that the vessel of the local congregation often DISTRACTS disciples from doing what Jesus said.

These traditions, which are not mentioned in the Bible, often supersede the command ‘to make disciples of Jesus,’ an injunction repeatedly emphasized in the Scriptures.

The contemporary church often seeks to make disciples of the vessel, not the Victor; of the local church, not the Lord Christ; and of religious tradition, not the revealed Truth.

Attempts to help local churches focus on disciplemaking rather than supporting secondary, non-biblical religious traditions often don’t end well.

The church is often mistaken for its building, programs, and ministries.

When attempts are made to offload the secondary traditions, because church members haven’t been trained in discipleship, there’ll be a bunch of religious, angry people who get mad.

When a religious vessel begins to sink, the institutionally religious people panic, blaming everything but the real issue.

Someone may object and say, ‘But the local church can’t function without all the business decisions, money, and leadership that comes with running a local church.’

The Bible’s response is: ‘Seek first the kingdom of God, and whatever else the world is anxious about will be given to you without even asking’ - Matthew 6:33.

Help distracted disciples who believe in Jesus to become doing disciples who behave like Jesus.

Stop emphasizing ‘getting sinners into heaven’ and focus on ‘bringing heaven into sinners.’

All secondary church matters will take care of themselves.