Shoe Factory

"I believe deeply that the future of the church in America depends largely in all believers doing the work of discipleship and placing less of a burden on paid staff.  I believe our best days are ahead."       -Francis Chan

Continuing my theme from last week of partnership at church and the pastor's job, I want to talk a little more about discipleship.  I have asked all of our deacons and pastors in our church to read Leroy Eims book, The Lost Art of Disciplemaking.

In this book, Eims compares the church to a shoe factory had is busy everyday with lots of raw material, but never makes any shoes.  Many of our churches are bustling with programs and meetings and yet people are not being turned into disciples or disciplemakers.  That is the function of the church like shoes are the function of a shoe factory.  The pastors job is to make sure the factory is producing shoes.  Instead, too often, pastors are busy keeping the lights on and staffing meetings but aren't doing much for the actual production of shoes.

How do we make shoes disciples & disciplemakers?  Again, many churches' and pastors' first instinct is to buy a book or program and schedule a course, launch a "Discipleship Program!"   I cannot say that such approaches never work, but they are hardly the preferred way.  The best way to make disicples and disciplemakers is to follow the format that Jesus and Paul both show us in Scripture.  They spent time, lots of time, personal time, intentional time, with others.  Jesus invested His life in other men's lives.  He talked about what He was doing, why He was doing it, and how he felt about it.  He took men with Him when He did things and let them watch Him do the work and then He had them do the work too.  Paul did the same thing with Timothy.

As a pastor, I must spend time with other men and my wife must spend time with other women to share our lives, our ministry with them.  Sitting down over a meal, taking them with me when I do ministry work.  The single biggest tool is to share my personal and spiritual life with them, giving them a window into my own walk with God, my struggles and areas of growth.  Then, those who have grown in the Lord, who have developed a measure of maturity, these men and women need encouragement and help in developing the skills and making the time to do the same thing with others.  They turn into disciplemakers.  When this process gets going, takes root, and grows in a church, real growth will occur.  It may or may not impact the Sunday attendance (although long term it will tend to increase attendance), but real growth will occur as mena nd women deepen and mature in their walks with God.  More service will take place, more evangelism will take place, and the church will be healthy because the church (people) are healthy.

On a personal note, I was really excited Sunday when, in response to me asking what the fruit of the church is, how many people answered "disciples".