Are We Making Disciples Or Religiously Educated Consumers?

One of the management "tricks" I was taught years ago was "Management By Walking Around". The idea was if you got out of your office and went where the work was being done, you might pick up some ideas on what was right about what your company/dept/unit was doing, or identify some things to improve.

So I've tried to stay accessible and tried to pay attention to what is happening not just in the church as a whole, but in the units that make it up. Last week I overheard one person say to another "you know the lessons are basically the same. They repeat every so often. And it's not like we are getting any new insights. Besides, it is the discussion that really makes the class."

The person who said it has probably been in Sunday School for 40 years. He leads an important ministry at our church. I have no reason to doubt that he's biblically literate and doctrinally sound.

But for him, Sunday School apparently has become the "same old, same old" routine without merit.

I've been bugged for years that SBC churches give their people too much information to process every week, and see very little of it translate to action. Most SBC churches have two Sunday services, Sunday School and a Wednesday night Bible study. And typically, they are totally unrelated in content. So a person receives 4 "life changing" messages. Which one do they follow?

My deep conviction is this - most SBC members know a tremendous amount about the Bible and do not live lives that correlate with that indoctrination. So what should we do about it?

Geiger and Rainer's "Simple Church" may be where to start. Do away with anything that doesn't support the overall mission directly. Use time and volunteer hours carefully. If I started a church, we'd have no Sunday night service (unless it was for a different crowd), and no Sunday School - at least on Sunday morning. We'd run children's church at the same time as worship, and do our children's Bible activities on Wednesday night. Adult Bible study would be a continuation and exposition of that Sunday morning's lesson. People would go deeper and work through the application in small groups held in their homes.

Yes we have activity. Yes we get a good turnout. But are we making disciples or just adding facts to equip our people to win Bible Trivia Pursuit? I keep hearing "yea, I tell you that not everyone who can fill in the blanks on the sermon outline will inherit the kingdom of God."

Perhaps this is one of the reasons new church plants that meet in theaters or schools get such a boost. They are forced into doing less, and doing small groups in homes. Simplification adds to focus and focus leads to effectiveness.

I'm currently looking for examples of churches - established churches - that act like church plants in this area. Give me a shout out if you know of one with a pastor or education guy who'll let me pick their brains.

David