I've heard pastors and other leaders say that America is full of people who've been Christians for years, but are still infants in their Biblical knowledge and relationship with God. How can this be? Lately I've been thinking a lot about the lack of purposeful discipleship in the Church. And that we think people will just grow in their spiritual journey with God just by hearing sermons Sunday mornings.
Never in my life can I recall a church I've been a part of being purposeful about discipleship. This spring, a good friend and ministry leader "randomly" gave me a copy of a book called Multiply that's basically a discipleship playbook, and it's really got me going on the idea that every time someone at church becomes a new believer they must immediately be connected to a more mature Christian who can walk them through a discipleship program. Then I was talking to another friend the other day and the topic of discipleship came up. So the next morning I was walking to work telling God about how discipleship seems to keep coming up lately and that it seems to be something He's reminding us about right now (in Winona, and maybe others nationwide, since He tends to do that). Then I realized that this isn't new! This is what He told me 9 years ago when He brought me to Winona. "Track & Field may be what brought you to Winona, but it's not WHY you're here." I've always known that my mandate here was for discipleship. It's time to take it up a notch. Praise God for a greater plan!
