Week 3 Discipleship - Why Many Christians Struggle to Make Disciples

As we begin week 3 by now we have seen why discipleship matters, and we have asked what a true disciple is. But now we must ask a painful and honest question: why do so many churches struggle to make disciples with depth, clarify, and consistency?  Church, this is not a question we should ask with pride, but with humility. We are not standing over the churches as judges. We are standing within the church as those who need mercy of God. But love tells the truth, and the truth is that many churches are busy without deep, active without being formative, crowded without being grounded, and visible without being spiritually healthy. So this week matters because if we cannot diagnose the problem honestly, we will return to the biblical pattern faithfully.

Transcript

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Welcome to Walking in the Living Word Ministries, a weekly podcast with your host, Pastor Mike Butrel.

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Thank you for joining us this week with Walking in the Living Word Ministries. We're in week three of our journey to discipleship and what it is. You know, this week is why many churches struggle to make disciples. Our main text is Acts 2, 42 through 47, 1 Thessalonians 2, 7 through 12, 1 Thessalonians 5, 14, Galatians 6, 1 through 2, and Matthew 28, 20. So let's get right into it. By now we've seen why discipleship matters, and we've asked what a true disciple is. But now we must ask a very painful and honest question. Why do so many churches struggle to make disciples with depth, clarity, and consistency? Church, this is not a question we should ask with pride, but with humility. We're not standing over the church as judges here. We're standing with in the church as those who need the mercy of God, the wisdom of God, and the health of God. But love teaches the truth. And the truth is not many churches are or the truth is that many churches are busy without being any depth, active without being forming, you know, forming the body of Christ, crowded without being grounded, and visible without being spiritually healthy. So this week matters because if we cannot diagnose the problem honestly, we will not return to biblical pattern uh faithfully. And let me put the issue on the table so clearly as I can, as clearly as I can. Many churches struggle to make disciples because they have never clearly defined discipleship in a biblical way. And then they try to produce it through means that cannot sustain it. They just substitute activity for formulation, information for transformation, events for shepherding, and visibility for spiritual death. Some are overprogrammed and under pastoral. Some are afraid to correct because they do not want people to leave. Some have embraced such a thin view of the church that members remain anonymous, uncountable, and spiritually untouched beneath the surface. And some have absorbed so much of the consumer spirit of the age that church is approached by a product so simple rather than the body that they belong to. If we do not name those things, we will keep treating the symptoms while ignoring the disease. We must begin with Acts 2, 42 through 47, because that passage gives us a fuller picture of what healthy disciple making looks like in the life of the church. The early believers continually steadfast in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. Notice how uh this was all put together so you would understand it. Doctrine is there, fellowship is there, worship is there, prayer is there, shared life. Is there, daily life is there, gladness is there, reverence is there, generosity is there, and the Lord is adding to the church daily such as it should be saved. Can you see what I'm talking about? Because they were in God, working for God, and God was in them, he continued to grow the church in a godly way. In other words, the early church was not built around the one thin layer of spiritual life. It was not merely a preaching event, it was a people shaped by truth, prayer, worship, fellowship, sacrificial love. That matters because churches struggle to make disciples when they try to produce maturity without uh partial means. With partial means, excuse me. Public preaching is essential, yes. Corporate worship is essential, yes. But when church life stops there, believers may hear truth without ever learning how to apply it personally, confess sin honestly, carry burdens maturely, or receive loving correction in the contents of real relationships. Let me ask that another way. Sound preaching is essential, faithful doctrine is essential. We cannot make disciples without the word of God. But preaching alone, heard at a distance and never brought into the fabric of daily life will not ordinarily produce mature disciples. People need the truth explained publicly in applied person. They need the word proclaimed from the pulpit and pressed into the heart through conversion, correction, example, prayer, shared obedience. Churches struggle when they assume attendance alone equals formation. Hearing is vital, but discipleship requires more than just hearing. It requires continuous, application, accountability, and the kind of fellowship where truth is not only heard, but is lived. And this is where theology matters. If we think of the church merely as a place to attend, then discipleship will remain thin. But if we understand the church as a body of Christ, the household of God, the pillar and ground of the truth, then we begin to see why discipleship must be relational, patient, and church-shaped. The New Testament does not present the church as a religious audience watching a few gifted people perform spiritual tasks. It presents the church as a covenant community under the headship of Christ, where every joint supplies, every member is called to grow, and the whole body is to be built up on love. When churches lose that vision, disciple making is reduced to uh content delivery instead of life on life formation. That is why 1 Thessalonians 5.14 is so important. Paul says, warn them that are unruly, comfort the free-minded, support the weak, but patient toward all men. That one verse alone shows that biblical ministry requires discernment, patience, and personal care. Not everyone needs the same health. Some need warning, some need encouragement, some need support, all need patience. Galatians 6, 1 through 2 adds that if a man is overtaken in a fault, those who are spiritual are to restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering themselves, least they also be tempted. And then Paul says, Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Those are not tasks that can be accomplished by distance. They require proximity, they require relationships, they require people who know one another well enough to recognize weakness, sin, sorrow, and need. Then in 1 Thessalonians 2, 7 through 12, Paul gives Paul's own ministry posture. Gentle like a nursing mother, extorting and changing like a father. That is a profound picture of discipleship. It's tender but not soft, it's strong but not harsh. It's personal, patient, affectionate, and truthful. Churches struggle to make disciples when pastor care is replaced by moral administration, when correction is avoided for the fear of discomfort in people leaving, and when tenderness is lost in the machinery of religious business. And one of the clearest reasons churches struggle is that many have lost the courage to practice loving correction and restoring one another. Yet without warning the unruly, supporting the weak, restoring the fallen and bearing one another's burden, disciple becomes shallow by definition. A church not only celebrates but never corrects, not only affirms but never restores, not only gathers crowds but never tends souls, will eventually produce people who are familiar with worship settings but unprepared for spiritual battle. Real love does not enable warning. Real love does not wander. Real love speaks with truth and tears. Real love bears the burden of helping someone return the path of obedience. When correction disappears, maturity weakens. When restoring disappears, compassion weakens. And when both disappear, churches become spiritual fragile. Ephesians 4, 11 through 16 helps us see another reason why many churches struggle. Leaders often carry ministry in front of the saints without equipping the saints for the work of the ministry. But Christ gave pastors and teachers for the helping others to prepare the saints and making them uh ready for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. That means mature churches do not merely gather to watch ministry happen. They are equipped to participate in the strengthening of one another. They learn to speak the truth in love, they learn to serve, they learn to bear burdens, they learn to pray, restore, encourage, and stand. When that equipment is absent, churches often become dependent, passive, and immature. And when people wonder why discipleship remains shallow, it's because the body is not being built according to the pattern Christ gave. This is how uh spectacular churches take root. In other words, you you're just a spectator. Uh you show up, go home. Show up, go home. You're just a spectator. A few people carry the visible ministry while the rest watch, attend, remain spiritually undeveloped. But the New Testament pattern is not a handful of ministers doing all the work while everyone else consumes the religious goods. The pattern is a body being equipped so that every member grows and every member contributes. Churches struggle when members are not taught houses pray with one another, open the scriptures with one another, confess sin to one another appropriately, encourage one another, bear one another's burdens. If all ministry remains centralized, discipleship remains studied. The body grows it as truth is shaped, practiced, and embodied across the life of the church. There are cultural pressures as well we must be honest about. Many people have already been discipled by speed, individualism, distraction, and consumer thinking long before they arrive at church. They know how to consume content, but not how to remain in costly relationships. They know how to cultivate an image, but not how to walk in confession and repentance. They know how to sample many voices, but not how to submit consistently to biblical shaping. That means churches are often trying to form disciples and people who have already been deeply trained by the habits of this age. And if the church is not intentional, the culture will do the discipling for us. Fast-paced, convenience-driven culture, uh, a convenient-driven religion cannot produce steady, cross-bearing disciples. Deep roots do not grow in shallow souls. That is why Hebrews 10, 24 through 25 is so necessary in this hour. Scripture says, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to do the good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, but exalting one another, and so much more as ye see the day approaching. Notice the language there. Consider one another, provoke one another, extort one another. Biblical church is not passive. It is intentional, it is material, it is spiritually awake. And the closer we get to the day, the more, not less, we need this kind of gathering, extorting, burdened sharing church life, provoking, pushing people to be the best they can be. When the assembly becomes casual, when members remain unknown, when extortion disappears and discipleship begins to thin out. So when you gather all of us together, the reason becomes painfully clear. Churches struggle because discipleship is often undefined. Churches struggle because churches often treated as an event instead of a body. Churches struggle because preaching is honored, but uh embedded shepherding is neglected. Churches struggle because leaders are stretched thin, members remain unknown, corrections avoided, and the saints are not equipped for the work of the ministry. Churches struggle because the culture trains people in speed, convenience, self-focus, and then the church sometimes reinforces those habits instead of confronting them at the cross. Churches struggle because we often prefer what is visible, immediate, and measurable over what is slow, hidden, and forms. But discipleship is slow, it's irrelational, it's costly, it requires truth, patience, courage, prayer, and love. And let me say this plainly before we close. This week matters because many churches do not fail from lack of sincerity, they fail from lack of biblical clarity and spiritual patience. They want discipleship, but they try to get it through means that cannot carry its weight. They want maturity, but they avoid the slow work of relational correction, teaching, prayer, and accountability. You know, that is a problem. We want healthy churches, but they do not always bill according to the pattern of scripture. So we need repentance here, not being critical, mean to each other, but repentance. We need to return to a thicker view of the church, a stronger view of pastoral responsibilities, a deeper commitment to the word, a more patient commitment to the people, because real disciples are not mass-produced. They are formed over time through grace, truth, prayer, suffering, correction, and love. That also means churches must resist the temptation to measure success by what we can count it most easily. Numbers matter because people matter. Attendance matters because gathering matters. But scripture forces us to ask more serious and searching questions. Are people learning to repent quickly? Are marriages being strengthened by the word? Are men and women growing in impurity, courage, tenderness, and self-control? Are younger believers being taught by older believers? Are members carrying one another's burdens? Are the weak being helped? The idle warned and the fair hearted encouraged? Are the wandering being restored? James 5 reminds us that if one strays from the truth and another turns him back, something holy has happened. A soul has been uh pursued, not ignored. That is discipleship. It's not merely delivering the truth in the air, it's loving, uh laboring so that truth takes hold in lives around us. So let lesson of week three be plain. Churches struggle to make disciples when discipleship is undefined, rushed, disembedded, overly programmated, leadership-centered, or disconnected from pastoral tenderness and theological clarity. We cannot build mature saints with thin relationships and hurried ministry. We need truth, yes, but truth embedded and patient, prayerful, burning bed in the community. So it's this prayer. Father, forgive us where we have reduced discipleship to activity, attendance, or information. Forgive us where we have been content without with success while inward maturity lag behind. Forgive us where we have avoided correction, neglected relationships, and built ministries that look strong from a distance, but leave people weak up close. Teach us to care for souls with tenderness and courage. Rise up leaders who know how to warn, encourage, help, restore, and patiently shepherd your people. Make our churches places where truth is preached, practiced, and passed on through loving relationships. And as we move to week four, teach us by the pattern of Jesus Himself how disciples are truly full. Thank you again for joining us this week for Walking in the Living Word Ministries. Looking forward to next week as we move to week four of our journey on making disciples. Thank you again. We'll look to see you.

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Thanks for joining us today on this edition of Walking in the Living Word with Pastor Mike Butrow. We pray that you've been inspired and equipped to fulfill the plan that God has for your life. Subscribe to this podcast, here we pray. Let's put it together.