We have moved the center of building our kids faith from the home, mom and dad, to the youth pastor. I call this outsourcing. Why is that? Why have we moved in this direction? First, it's due to the breakdown of the extended family. Secondly, it's due to the shift over the last 50 years to a "seeker" approach of ministry.
What does that shift have to do with discipleship?
When the church at large shifted away from its focus on discipleship to the "seeker", it moved its focus to the Sunday morning event. The Pastor and his team focused their attention on a sermon and constructing an hour that was for the person who doesn't know Jesus. These gatherings were engaging, attractive, and very effective. Lost people were found. It was amazing.
The problem is that this mentality colored everything the church did. Everything became an event, even discipleship.
Discipleship became something that happened in a classroom led by professional teachers. These people were expert communicators and they transferred information to the people.
So what is the problem? Lost people getting saved and Christians being taught, these sound like good things. They are.
The problem comes when we move discipleship into the classroom. By necessity we removed it from the everyday life of people and that took it out of the home and separated the discipleship experience of parents and children. Parents no longer discipled their kids because they were being taught at church on Sundays and Wednesdays.
But, here's the thing: discipleship is something that must happen everyday, as life happens. It is not an event. The shift to the weekly event made it so that discipleship was redefined. When discipleship became an educational event it ceased to be discipleship, it became training.
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