Starting tomorrow and Lord willing, I will begin to post a brief devotional daily based upon daily Bible reading. I will follow a two-year daily Bible reading plan developed by Stephen Witmer and based upon the book How to Read the Bible Book by Book: A Guided Tour by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart. My intention is to encourage disciple-makers and missionaries in the tasks of reaching the nations with the gospel. I hope that you will follow along.
Month: December 2020
A Review of Deep Discipleship by J.T. English
Deep Discipleship: How the Church Can Make Whole Disciples of Jesus by J.T. English, published by B&H publishers in 2020, deals directly with an issue that has bothered me for some time. As a strategy leader of international church planting teams, I often worked with new missionaries who struggled spiritually after a short time on the field. They would come to me and say that they could not feed themselves spiritually. These were believers recognized as mature in their home churches committed to seeing people and people groups reached with the gospel. Yet, when taken out of the cultural setting with which they were familiar, they struggled to maintain personal spiritual health.
Author
J.T. English founded the The Village Church Institute while serving on the pastoral staff at The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas. He is currently the lead pastor of Storyline Fellowship Church in Arvada, Colorado. He received a Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary and PhD from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Summary
English proposes a cure to this problem—deeper discipleship in the local church. He believes that part of the problem is that churches have focused on growing the church and not on growing disciples. He proposes that discipleship must have a God-centered vision with God’s glory being the primary motivating factor. He insists, correctly, in my opinion, that the local church be the primary location for discipleship and not parachurch ministries, colleges, or seminaries.
In another chapter, he considers spaces for disciple-making—small groups, large groups, programs, and mentoring relationships. He proposes an evaluation and inventory of these spaces. One driving point of English’s book is that the local church has outsourced the task of deep discipleship—the teaching of deep theological truth and Scripture needed for mature disciples who make other disciples. The type of discipleship that he proposes to be done in the local church most often occurs in seminaries or Bible colleges today. According to English, local churches often choose community over learning-oriented discipleship, but community is not discipleship. For discipleship to occur, there must be learning.
Scope refers to what disciples need. Churches need to avoid the trap of trying to give people what they want instead of what they need to be growing disciples. English points to three things that they need: Bible, beliefs, and spiritual disciplines. Sequence refers to how disciples grow from new believer to reproducing disciple-maker. Churches must provide discipleship at every level. English suggests a system of core classes and Bible studies for everyone, a discipleship program for disciple-makers, and residency for disciple-making movement starters. The chapter on sending deals with where disciples go. Most will serve in the church and the local community, but disciples are also sent to their workplaces. Some will work cross-culturally.
In his final chapter, English suggests a strategy for deep discipleship based upon structure, predictability, accountability, accessibility, community, and excellence. In the epilogue, he states that the problem with discipleship is that we demand less from people and not more.
Strengths
English is a good writer with a passion for his topic. He has touched on a problem that needs to be addressed. Local churches should take on more responsibility for the theological education of their members. Churches should evaluate their discipleship programs to see that they are giving people what they need. We need to escape the consumerist approach to church because the customer is not always right when it comes to spiritual matters.
Weaknesses
I have a minor quibble with English’s understanding of the Great Commission. In my opinion, a church doesn’t fulfill the Great Commission until it sends out workers cross-culturally. Also, there are a small number of spelling and layout errors in the book that are distracting.
Overall Opinion
I believe English has written an important book that church leaders need to consider. In a post-Christian culture, we need deep discipleship that is biblically grounded, theologically sound, and God-centered. I hope to use Deep Discipleship in equipping a team of education and discipleship ministry leaders in our local church.
Changing “Give” to “Send” in Missions
For several years, I have seen mission mobilizers use the “Pray, Give, or Go” motto. In recent months and in conjunction with greater emphasis on the concept, I have seen the phrase “Pray, Send, or Go.” I believe this phrase is an improvement.
I believe it is better because “send” is a better description of a local church’s role. We should understand missionaries not just to be people to whom we have delegated our disciple-making global responsibility. We appreciate them as people who are a part of us, remain a part of us, and whom we have sent. Such an understanding requires more responsibility than just giving. It requires giving plus care, concern, and familial obligation.
Second, “send” reflects a more biblical understanding of the church’s missionary activity. As mentioned in an earlier post, the missionary task biblically corresponds to that of an apostle. Apostles were “sent ones.” Churches send missionaries. Agencies do not. Agencies assist the churches in sending through their expertise, but the church must take the responsibility to send.
So, “Pray… Send… Go…”
Church, Discipleship, and Missions 