I don’t think I’m alone in wondering whether our churches have over-inflated the Sunday Worship Service. I don’t mean other people’s churches—I mean my church. And maybe you are thinking of your own.
When we started our church over 10 years ago, we told ourselves Sunday morning would never take priority over missional presence. And yet, this past fall I learned that over 90% of our church’s staff and budget is dedicated to the Sunday Service.
I was recently speaking at a conference about church innovation at which missiologist Alan Hirsch was the keynote speaker. Alan suggested that those of us in the Western Church are terrible at disciple-making, largely because we have equated discipleship to showing up on Sundays. We have so inflated the Sunday experience that we have made discipleship about checking the worship attendance box instead of about the imitation of Christ. Hirsch listed re-disciple as one of the four recalibration points for the church’s post-COVID ecclesiology. He says that if this changes, everything else will follow.
But doesn’t discipleship happen on Sunday mornings too? Absolutely. I believe corporate worship is an essential part of our discipleship. There is no doubt that our worship experiences have the potential to shape, form and even send us as disciples on mission.
However, every church has two arms: the gathered arm and the scattered arm. The gathered arm is concerned primarily with those who are already part of the local congregation. The scattered arm, on the other hand, is concerned about what happens when the people leave and engage in relationships, work, and witness in the community and world.
If the only kind of discipleship we engage in is the kind that gathers the same insiders over and over again, it has a profoundly negative effect on the direction of our discipleship, our church’s vision and health, and ultimately, the kind of witness we are enacting in the world.
Corporate worship, as essential as it is, will not be enough on its own to transform us into Christ’s likeness. Our churches need to strengthen our scattered arms through practices that strengthen disciples in their daily life. Dallas Willard said, “Discipleship is the process of becoming who Jesus would be if he were you.” (Dallas Willard, How Does the Disciple Live?, Radix Magazine, Vol. 34.3. Also posted at https://dwillard.org/articles/how-does-the-disciple-live).
Our churches desperately need a fresh vision for discipleship. In fact, when I consult with churches on the pathways forward that can ignite revitalization for them, we always come back to the need to create or improve discipleship culture.
In order to be conformed to Christ’s image, we will have to imitate and live out his way in the world.
- How did Jesus live and what kinds of things did he do?
- Who exemplifies discipleship for you today?
- What are the practices that have drawn you deeper into discipleship as a scattered way of being church?
- What are the practices that have drawn you away from discipleship as a scattered way of being church?
- What is your vision for what discipleship might look like through your church community and beyond?
