Considering discipleship in today's church, I have seen sometimes that things are done right(in God's eyes), but far more often there is something lacking. We have friends that do pioneer Gospel work, some that do itinerant Gospel work, and others that work with churches in dozens of other ways. Sadly, even though we have traveled extensively throughout the United States, the percentage of those serving the Lord full time is minimal. I wish that were because everyone pitched in to do all the work required to build up the local church and reach out with the Gospel.
If everyone did take up their own part, the burden on church leaders would be much less, and allow them to be more effective for the Lord. Often, the jobs that God demands of elders and deacons are not done properly due to these men having to bear everyone's load. We are all servants of the Lord, not just those who receive pay, but every Christian is to be serving the Lord and others.
We need more young people that are willing to forsake all to follow Christ. Surely, it is not the calling of every young Christian to leave home and family to serve. I do believe there are far too many that are being called and refusing the call. There are many that feel called, but their elders or parents do not want to "lose them", thinking that leaving the comfortable surroundings of home to serve God is a curse, rather than a great blessing. We need a few (or more than a few) Timothys, but they are hard to find for a few reasons
Parents don't want to let go, and trust God to guide their children. Rather they make their own plans and take God's leading out of the planning. We ought to be as Hannah, praying that God would give her a son, and before he was even born committing young Samuel's life to God's service. Hannah did not lose her son, she gained the blessing of seeing God use her son mightily.
Church leaders are often not discipling the young people, but treating teens and college age students as children. The Bible never speaks of teens. There are children and there are adults. Let's make sure we don't stop our children from growing up, making decisions for their own lives, or guilt them into satisfying our dreams for their lives. Most young men and women in youth groups are not being fed the meat of the Word of God, but being bottle fed. Often, the reason for this is that we don't think they can handle meat, or that we don't want to lose them due to not being entertained. We go to church gatherings to worship and serve, not to be entertained.
Young people have their own desires (job, home, pleasures) that keep them from even considering God's plans. Often, by the time one is done with college, there is enough debt piled onto them that they have no choice but to have full time secular employment. We ought not urge people to get into debt. The Bible tells us that the borrower is slave to the lender. And so it is, we want things we cannot afford, so we incur debt and become its slave for years to come. This model has no basis in Scripture.
No model of service, plenty of models of careers that make no time for God. In your average church body, what percentage of adults work full time jobs and have no time for God's work? Surely, a man must work in order to eat, but much more often we work to have more pleasures and wants rather than see work as a means to provide for the necessities. We spent years getting out of debt, and God opened the doors that our last year in secular work, I only had to work 38 hours per month (yes, that is month) to supply our needs. This freed up time to witness, visit and encourage Christians, provide practical help for others, spend more time in God's Word and with the family. Are we modeling this idea of work only as much as you need to, so that the time saved can be redeemed for the Lord's work?
We pray the Lord of the harvest will send out workers. He hasn't stopped sending them, but many have refused to obey. Their examples are elders and parents who are too often the ones telling them to “stay by the stuff”. We must equip Christians to do God's work, give them opportunities to serve and to lead. We must challenge ourselves and each other to do more, giving our all for Christ, as was modeled by Paul, James, Peter, etc.
If we want to see revival, souls saved, and God's Word spreading throughout the world, we must prepare people to go, and then send them out as the Lord leads. They won't believe in Christ if they don't hear. Paul sums it up well in the passage below.
Romans 10:13-15 "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"
Mark Cowperthwaite
