Thank you for taking on this very important issue. Our church (650) members) is part of the Willow Creek Association and regularly attends their Leadership Summit. Although the Summit has great speakers, I am convinced the church does not need more dynamic leaders as much as it needs strong believers who are willing to be discipled and then disciple others.
I am an associate pastor in an unpaid staff status and have some complicated medical issues in my life. My health caused me to cry out to the Lord as to why the church is so weak when it comes to showing the world our God and how to live the life He has called us to live. Together with my wife, we run a Celebrate Recovery program at our church. Going into our sixth year my heart is troubled with the lack of response and growth of the people who attend. Some get it and others get caught up in their own success and move forward with their own momentum. The rest just sit there waiting for someone to show up and fix them. The ultimate problem is there is no change or improvement in their relationship with God. They cannot even recognize this as a need and a reason to change.
For the past two years, God has impressed me that our teaching in our services alone is not enough and we do not need any more programs. What we need are true disciples who are not afraid to let go of the world, trust God and move out of their own comfort zone to do the true work of the ministry. If we could do that and do it well, we would not need so many other programs.
While “discipleship” seems to the new buzzword, there is very little out there, that really demonstrates how this is accomplished. My conclusion is that like Jesus, Paul and the other apostles did, it will take serious relationship building, doing life together in a strong trusting environment where we can share deep hurts, issues and hang ups and grow through them together. This includes serious study of the word and then living out what we learn in practical ways. I think having more of a mentoring relationship than a teacher student relationship and something beyond just another Bible Study will promote more fruit that is visible and lasting.
Rather than wait for my health issues to change or wait for the next “new thing” I have decided to take a few guys from my leadership group as well as a few others that see the need for a better relationship with our Father God and we are beginning an online bible study. Right now, we are using email but I am working on creating a Blog where it might be easier to interact with each other. This is a closed group of fellows I have selected and hopefully after a time, everyone will see the need to simplify our schedules and begin to meet once a week for dinner, fellowship, intense study of the word and a lot of prayer. Our first study is on the Book of Ephesians and then on to the Gospels or where ever God leads us.
Jesus Disciples did not just learn by hearing Jesus speak but by living life with Him and watching how He handled things. This allowed Jesus to “impart” into them things that cannot be explained or taught. Why do we think we can or should do anything different? I continue to pray and look to God for insight and direction with this. I have some ideas but I am only one person and need to take things one-step at a time.
I am grateful to you for bringing this subject up and look forward to what you have to say next regarding this important topic.
Sincerely,
Steve Gaylord

Steve: Great post. I could not agree more. I just finished reading Transforming Discipleship by Greg Ogden. I believe he has a handle on what has gone wrong with discipleship in most of our churches and offers some very good options Bible based counsel. I am in Colombia S.A. The church here, for the most part, is about a mile wide and an inch deep. This book has really challenged me to make some changes in the way I do discipleship.

I copletely agree with what you want to do—but, we need to teach others (who would be evangelists) from the Scriptures without the confusion brought by the different denominations; or, we need to explain the divisions so the student can prayfully examine the Scriptures and decide for himself what to believe. Above everything else, however, the seeker must be told EXACTLY what God accomplished, in His Son, over 2,000 years ago on a Roman cross and its impact on our lives (2 Cor 5:19). Learning is great, but there isn't anything pure. It becomes clouded by Catholic dogma, Lutheran, Arminian, and Reformed Theology. I do have SOME answers....

I believe that if people are not becoming spiritually mature (disciples) it is because they have replaced the Bible with books on the Bible, have allotted their personal time with God to be the Sunday morning/Saturday evening church service (and perhaps a six-week Bible study here and there), and they do not sincerely and intentionally desire to love God with all their mind, heart and soul. Some churches try to ease people into faith, or coddle them once they become members, in order to make sure they don't leave the church.
I grew up in a liberal PCUSA church and never heard the Gospel preached until I was in my late 30's. When I finally heard a Bible-preaching pastor on the radio, I couldn't believe what I was hearing! This man talked about sin and hell, and I ate every word up. I was finally, for the first time, getting real honest answers that weren't sugar-coated. This preacher, like many I've been blessed to hear since, leveled with me. That was all I needed and I was on my way. Ten years later, hardly a day goes by that I'm not reading (and journaling and writing and thinking about what I read) my Bible. I attend only churches (yes, more than one) that are willing to give ALL of the Gospel, in a meaty (expository), thoughtful, passionate yet humble delivery. Sadly, even in churches with sound Bible teaching, there are folks who just don't get it and leave because of petty things like a guitar in the worship service or the pastor doesn't force all women to wear skirts. Some don't become disciples because they just don't have ears to hear. The Bible predicts this.
As for Christian education, my husband and I started our sons in public school, then sent them to Christian school, then moved them back to public school after several years. Just as I know God led us into Christian school (unbeknownst at the time, as none of us were yet born again), God then led us out (and this time we knew it was God, as all but our youngest son were born again). The main problem in our Christian school was denominationalism: as our boys grew older, some of the teachers were out-right militant in their judging of others--especially their statements made in the classroom regarding public school kids, many of whom were our next door neighbors (so much for loving your neighbor). The church's belief that "real" Christians send their kids to Christian school, and that there "aren't Christians" in the public schools was not something I could allow. Our particular school was founded and supported by a denomination that believed every parent must send their child to a Christian school and think the way they think. Which leads me to another problem with denominationalism in Christian schools: even if they claim to be "non-denominational," they probably aren't. My son began asking spiritual and Biblical questions in 7th grade, only to hear "that's what the Reformed church says." I wish his teacher would have said, "let's go to the Bible and see what the Bible says about that." That's when we decided to take the reigns ourselves and train up our children in the way they should go. (I do thank the school for helping our family find our faith and teach our children Bible basics while my husband and I were also learning). We moved our sons back to the public school, and, as a family, had almost nightly conversations where the Bible or faith came up. My oldest son now attends a small Christian college and has not left his faith. In fact, his faith continues to grow. I am now homeschooling my second son while he attends two classes at the public high school. The real joy in that is the amount of time we are able to spend in the Bible and bounce other things we are learning off of the Bible.
Long story short, as a family, we've had to decide that we are going to make the Bible--not a church, pastor, speaker, author, Christian band, denomination, agenda or political party--our foundation. We had to decide that the Bible would be the main thing--brought into every aspect of our lives, seven days a week. We have to seek God every day, not as "seekers" forever on infant formula but as children adopted into the Kingdom who desire to know God better and act on it. This takes time. But everybody has the time and busyness is not an excuse. It's like someone saying they don't have time to practice a musical instrument. I say that if they wanted to, they would find plenty of time to play and become very good at that musical instrument. And becoming good at that instrument is something nobody can do for them. The person has to do it themselves under the guidance of a sound teacher.
Where are the disciples? This question is not a new one and dates back to Biblical times. Some churches, I think, don't like this Truth. In spite of what the Bible says about many not heeding God, some churches/pastors think they can turn anyone and everyone into a disciple of Christ. And that, I believe, is where churches start chasing rainbows. Because if people aren't interested in growing spiritually, even the best Bible preaching will fall on dear ears, and programs and conferences will only make the person feel like they are living a spiritual life when they're not. Churches need to stop enabling this sense of "spiritual life" and tell people to go home and read their Bibles every day for at least a year, and actually hear and study what they read! (And to develop a consistent prayer life). Commentaries by old school guys like Spurgeon and more recent guys like MacArthur are great helps. But don't read them instead of the Bible!!
The Bible tells us the path to God is narrow and not all will find it. We need to be in prayer for the people we know around us and live out and model a Christian life in front of them and let God do the rest.
Finally, we need to do what 1 Thessalonians 5:21 says, "Test everything." That will take us to our Bibles continually, and let us hear and see what God says about everything. Afterall, what He thinks is really all that matters. And if we're right with him, we are disciples, and have a much greater chance of allowing HIM to make more disciples through us.

Barb, what a great post! I hope those who serve the local Church in pastoral roles will read it to get your angle. I, too, had a liberal church connection during my childhood years, but late was connected to a church that focised on exposition and promoted devotional reading of the Bible. It was only then did I understand what the Lord required and the reorienting on my heart began. Now, 30+ years later, my family and I keep up a daily connection to God's Word and we see the spiritual fruit in their lives. Many other things our local church offers actually competes with time in the Word. Pastors are well-meaning, but they ought to lead by articulating God's priorities. First, the Word.
Sam Smith for the Worldview Church Team

I've been challenged to think of learning as 'changed behavior' to this extent, we may see external changes to cultural practices, but it's not internal nor compatible across cultures.