And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the
breaking of bread and the prayers. Acts 2:42
In the pages of the New Testament Jesus is quoted as saying, "follow me" to various people. Sometimes He is speaking for them to follow him at that moment and other times He is speaking to them eternally. Ultimately all of his directives have eternal ramifications and from this, we can surmise that Jesus is calling us to follow his actions, character, and way of life. To follow Jesus truly, means we are acting like Him, copying his attitude, actions and lifestyle. Another word for this is, "disciple". We have been called to be his disciples, but the more time I spend in the ministry, the less disciples and disciple-makers I seem to find.
Here are a few ways that believers in Christ are not living as true disciples:
1) Devotion to Teaching
Although a person may attend church, even regularly (twice or more a month) being devoted to teaching is not just sitting in the sanctuary and listening to the preacher. Nor is it just sitting in the Sunday School or Small Group room and following along in a study guide. I have found that many people, especially millennials, are devoted to attendance (and even that can be sporadic at times) but being devoted to the teaching means studying it during the week. Whether it is preparation for the class, a review of material covered, or both, there needs to be more devotion to the Word of God to truly be a disciple.
2) Devotion to Fellowship
Some would argue that fellowship is not an issue in the church. I would suggest that biblical fellowship is missing and this is what it looks like. Gathering with the saints of all ages, races, backgrounds, etc, not just "us four and no more." It is easy to attend church with a desire to see your friends and there is nothing wrong with this, unless the only fellowship you do is with the people in your inner circle. The church is the family of God and we must begin to act like it.Oh! And no gossiping allowed.
3) Actively Participating in Ministry
This is a tough one for me to address, simply because it is one of the single most frustrating things I have seen in my short nine years of ministry. However, it is glaring at us from across the denominational spectrum. For many, simply going to church should be enough. I mean, how dare the pastor expect us to be active and use our God given gifts and talents for the ministry. It's not like the pastor is supposed to equip us for ministry, why would he dare suggest such nonsense. /sarcasm off. We need a lot more doers of the Word and a lot less talkers about what they are going to do.
4) Making Other Disciples
I am starting to understand why it seems there are so few workers for the harvest. It must be because the actual number of disciples is relatively small to begin with or at least in comparison to the number of self-proclaimed Christians. There must be follow up and action, a desire to see the lost come to know the Lord as savior. Yet, sadly enough, I recently heard a statistic that stated about 92% of people who considered themselves Evangelical Christians either had no plan or definitively were not going to share the Gospel with someone in the next year. A sad statistic, indeed.
You might wonder why "prayer" didn't make the list. The simple answer is, I don't know who is praying or who isn't. At least, not as easily as these four. What are your thoughts?
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