ÿþ<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <meta name="Keywords" content="Christian Church Carlsbad, Anglican worship, Carlsbad, Oceanside,oceanside church,spirit filled, traditional, relevent,contemporary,Biblical church carlsbad,Biblical church oceanside,modern,Anglican,liturgical,carlsbad,Contemporary Worship,Evangelical Church Oceanside,Coastal church,Celebrate recovery,Youth Ministry Oceanside,Churches oceanside,North Coast Church,contemplative Church,Church Carlsbad,Church Vista,Biblical Community,Neighborhood Church,Community Church,anglican church,fun,Grace Filled,joe rees, ed stubbs, saint anne's" /> <meta name="Description" content="Grace Anglican Church: Living the Word! A Spirit-filled, modern, Biblically faithful, liturgical, culturally relevant community of Christ followers. Fun atmosphere, contemporary music, tradional choir, discipleship, serious faith. 7:30 and 9:00 services" /> <title>Grace Anglican Church--Loving and Living In Jesus Christ</title> <link href="GraceStyles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" /> <style type="text/css" media="screen"> a:link {color:maroon;} a:visited {color:blue;} a:focus {color:lime;} a:hover {color:fuchia;} a:active {color:navy;} </style> </head> <body class="thebody"> <div class=thepage> <h2>The Discipleship Gap</h2> <i><font size="small">by Rev. Dcn. Tim Laundrie</font></i> <div style="{float: left;}"> <img src="images/CrossAndBook.jpg" width="150px" /> </div> <p style="text-indent: 20px;">It is obvious to many Church leaders that there is a large number of people today who claim to be Christian but bear none of the transformed characteristics of committed Christians. Such people are often called "Christians in name only" or nominal Christians (nominals). The characteristics of the nominals are not discernibly different from the general public. This means that the Christian message is not effectively communicated into the culture.</p> <p style="text-indent: 20px;">The number of nominal Christians is quite high in the Church today. The basic cause of nominality is one s impaired relationship with Christ. This could happen from atrophy, burnout, secular pressures, or perhaps the individual does not know what vital, immersed Christianity looks like. A major reason for one s impaired relationship with Christ might be what Greg Ogden calls  The Discipleship Gap, which is a direct reflection of inadequate discipling programs </p> <p style="text-indent: 20px;">Ogden s one-word description for the state of discipleship today is  superficial. He goes on by quoting from various sources about the lack of depth of Christian discipleship. One of his indirect quotes is from Chuck Colson  who said the church is 3000 miles wide and an inch deep. Marketing and packaging the Christian message like a product on a supermarket shelf has led to thousands of new churchgoers who know little or nothing about Christ, the Bible, the cost of discipleship, or the changes that faith in Christ should make in their lives. Dallas Willard says that Christian life has been disconnected from Christ, the person Who calls us to follow him. </p> <p style="text-indent: 20px;">The Late-Modern period church has created a whole generation of consumer Christians, what Dallas Willard calls  bar-code Christianity. Ogden spends a good chapter discussing discipleship malaise, of which consumer Christianity is just one part. In the chapter entitled  The Discipleship Malaise, Ogden puts forth eight reasons for that malaise. While I agree with most of what Ogden says, as well as most of his book, two sections of the chapter two reasons he posits for the malaise require comment. </p> <p style="text-indent: 20px;">The first of these is his assertion that the second cause of the low estate of discipleship is trying to disciple through programs. What he means, I think, is that the church has made information available to people in the hope that it will have the desired affect, and that plan has failed. I agree with that portion. However, a well developed program can be key to initiating the personal one-on-one discipleship Ogden recommends. His method is good, but it needs a jumpstart. The jumpstart is in proper proclamation of what discipleship to Jesus is, and that can be done in a program. </p> <p style="text-indent: 20px;">The second of Ogden s assertions requiring comment is that discipleship has been made into something for super-Christians and not ordinary believers. This may be true, but the fact is that there are multiple levels of discipleship to Jesus readily apparent in Scripture. There were the three closest apostles, the twelve, the seventy-two, and others. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were called disciples but cannot be placed in those three categories. We must expect, accept, and even teach differing levels of discipleship. But we must ensure that each level of discipleship, each person, knows Jesus and knows what he commanded. This is the essence of discipleship. </p> <p><a href="articles.html" target="PageData">(Back to <i>Articles</i>)</a></p> <iframe src="EveryPageFooter.html" width="100% scrolling="no" frameborder=0 height="325px"></iframe> </div> </body> </html>