My Manifesto

So here's a question that I've been trying to figure out lately and while I know what I would like the answer to be it doesn't seem to be the answer I'm getting. I know I've blogged about the purpose of the church recently and I guess I should be more specific in my direction or thinking. I guess the more relevant question is what is the purpose or vision of our church? We all know the "church answer" and that being to see "lost people get saved...". But is that it? Really? Is this where we put all of our time, attention and focus? I can't help but feel that there is so much more being lost in left undone in all of this. I can't help wonder if this is really what Jesus wanted to see from a religion bearing His name. Every single time I think about the purpose of the church one word comes to mind and that is discipleship. So I guess the pressing question would be is our church doing this? Or I guess we should take a step back and ask what really is discipleship to begin with. When you look at the Biblical meaning of discipleship and what it looked like with the Rabbi's of that time, it meant that the Rabbi had a group of guys who followed him everywhere and were so hungry for any knowledge and wisdom they could get from him. The Rabbi in turn was all about teaching his followers Truth and teaching them to think and to question and to look at things in a way they had not done before. Isn't this exactly what we saw from Jesus? He had his small group of guys (and yes the key to this is a small intimate group), who followed him everywhere and were eager to hear what he had to say and to learn all they could from him. These followers devoted their lives, left their families and all they had to follow their Rabbi. They hungered for the knowledge and wisdom they could get from him and they committed everything to do as instructed. So while this is all great in the Biblical sense what does it look like in today's church setting? Discipleship today is about teaching Truth and about digging deeper and deeper into scripture. It's not about making things simple but it's about challenging and getting to the meat and way past this watered down milk crap. It's about small groups that meet regularly and are committed to learning together and holding each other accountable. There's a level of intimacy that comes from small groups with people you can get close to and share in the realness of life with. Jesus had this with his disciples in that they were real together. Their faults were laid out and it wasn't about judging each other but about loving each other and pushing each other to be who they were meant to be. This goes past having Sunday schools and the typical church activities and to what should be the heart and depth of the church. While Sunday school classes are nice and serve some function, I personally have not seen a Sunday school class that has the same level of depth or intimacy that small groups tend to have. Partially because things are different when visitors are there as well as the commitment level seems to be different. So I guess the question is does our church have discipleship and if so where is it? Discipleship is also critical for those people that do accept Jesus. I think all too often our entire goal is to get people saved and then once "they're outta hell" we drop them and more onto the next "lost soul." We assume (and if we don't this, it is what is being portrayed) that once they get right with God that they will just know what to do and they will get themselves into a Sunday school class and they will just know how to pray and will magically know how to read the Bible. Too bad this is far from the truth. Real discipleship would be once someone starts this journey with Christ they would get hooked up with a mentor and a small group that can answer all these questions they still have and can model what this new journey and walk will look like. It's about growing people up and helping them develop depth and not keeping is so simple they never question or dig into the real stuff. I realize that small groups and discipleship takes commitment, and that's part of the point. We all have excuses such as work and kids and just the busyness of life but is this a priority? Apathy has been running rampant and is threatening to strangle and kill off our church. I honestly don't know how to make people care. This is a question that has been eating me up for the last many months and I still have no answer. But I do know that the apathy in the church is having a direct impact on the youth of the church. Why should the youth care when they see adults that don't? Why should the youth want growth and depth when the adults are content with barely milk? How do you shake people from their apathy? I wish I could answer this question. What is it that you want from our church? What is your vision for the church and are we even pointing in the same direction? My vision for the church is this; I want small groups that desire growth and are challenging, I want a hunger for Truth and for the meat of scripture, I want us to have real worship and to be excited about that worship, I want to be excited about coming to hear Truth and I want Truth to be demanded, I want to see mentors and real relationships established, I want us to all be going in the same direction and for the same purpose instead of like a shot gun all in different directions and with different objectives, I want people to walk away from our church feeling loved and valued and with worth, I want a spiritual awakening! and for apathy to have no place here anymore. This church is capable of having all of this if the people really wanted it. If the people saw a need for it and would fight for it and demand it. Is this what the people want? Is this what you want? If not why are we here?.....