Saturday, January 18, 2020

A New Discipleship Movement in the Church?

(Back of street sign, in Ann Arbor.)

Tired of the Entertainment Church?

Tired of the Consumer Church?

Both are geared to keep the people happy and coming back, so as to maintain the infrastructure.

Many young followers of Jesus may be tiring of this. That's good!

Joseph Mattera, writing in Charisma Magazine, believes things may be changing in 2020. Wouldn't this be hopeful? Mattera writes:

"The crowd-based CEO model of church continues to disillusion young people looking for true community, authenticity and a people to call family. Those viewing the profound discipleship movement that is christianizing nations like China and Iran (without big buildings, budgets, social media marketing, paid staff and worship teams) are longing for the same kind of biblical pattern in Western churches.
I believe 2020 is the year when more and more leaders will attempt to build "disciple making movements" rather than mere convert-based churches. The corporate business model of doing church—which took off in the 1980s—has proven that, irrespective of the crowds they garner, they usually fail at disciple making. Jesus proved that focusing on disciple making was the key to building the largest and most effective movement the world has ever seen!
This will be the year when disciple making will gain the traction needed to eventually challenge the assumptions of the "CEO convert driven" model of church."