Decoding Discipleship Myths: Your Sermon is Enough
A little note about the series: This article is part of a multi-part series regarding myths relating to discipleship and spiritual growth. While each article will be able to stand alone it will be important to read all in the series. Far too many myths exist within the church about what it means to grow spiritually and how a church facilitates that growth. The goal of these articles is to identify those myths and give thought to how to possibly overcome those myths within your organization.
Understanding the myth
It is often innocent enough as an assumption, but that is exactly what it is, an assumption. The senior pastor assumes that all the people of the church just need the sermon for spiritual growth. So groups are given discussion guides, or a series of questions, to come together in their small groups to talk about the sermon from that Sunday morning. Of course, the expectation is that every group member has seen/heard the sermon to some capacity, which is rare. In some cases, groups are not even considered a part of the ministry plan because the sermon is enough to “disciple” the people! Understanding the place and role of the weekly sermon in the overall discipleship process of the church is vital, however, sermon alone will not create a culture of growing disciples who make disciples and that is the fundamental calling on the church by God. If the crossroads of discipleship is the sermon each week the people will lead shallow biblical lives that fail to really root, grow, and multiply.
The Sermon’s Place in Discipleship
To some level the sermon needs to be thought of as the lowest level of discipleship. It is undoubtedly a part of the discipleship process. It just isn’t THE discipleship process. It is the broadest communicated discipleship message. It is also the broadest range of spiritual maturity levels. But let’s face a hard reality, the church as a whole has lost its understanding of biblical spiritual maturity. The vast majority of church attenders have a weak, simple, and unstable faith that rarely challenges them to move beyond base self-centered living. The percentage of people sitting in the congregation today that have a maturing faith is staggeringly low. Bringing a message each week should begin with the recognition of who you are communicated to with the sermon. Not understanding your audience means you will lose your audience. The sermon gives a chance to create questions, and challenge common narratives in life. The sermon gives you the chance to lay groundwork in the foundational pieces of discipleship. It is a catalyst to people to both follow Christ and to take deeper steps into what it means to follow and trust Christ in life. Just don’t make it the only step in the process.
Going Beyond the Sermon
The goal of this is not to end all sermon-based groups, but to push beyond them. A sermon-based group can be a catalyst to greater and deeper discipleship in an individual’s life. Perhaps they are use as an on campus option post service that is geared towards developing new groups for the church community. Maybe they are a method of evangelistic nature to answer a curious peron’s questions about following Jesus and making a decision about salvation. Again, like a broken record, the point is for these groups and for the sermon to not be the primary, or only, step of a church’s discipleship process. That process should be clear and robust in how it resources the people of the church to grow in their faith. It can’t be just as out attendance, or a particular class, but a process that develops people as spiritual life-long learners. You must go beyond the sermon with tools, skills, and resources that can help people answer questions, study, and learn through biblical study and principles. The process must facilitate the application of those learned biblical principles as well. Frankly, the process needs to be about Jesus not you.
The sermon is a valuable tool in the discipleship process. And if you don’t have a defined discipleship process you need one. Now. But not hastily done, or based on activity or behavior. The church has one mission given to it by Christ - Make disciples who make disciples. In reality, it is the same command given to the Israelites in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt. We are called to be priests of our families within the community. It isn’t an individual pursuit but one done together. Seek to provide resources that can help answer life questions, for group study, and for personal bible study. Ultimately, don’t assume that because they are hearing the sermon that they are growing. It just isn’t going to happen that way, but it doesn’t have to stay that way.