“Stranded In The Tank!”

 

 

 

 

In the fall of 1999 several hundred Christian leaders from over fifty countries met in the town of Eastbourne in England, for the International Consultation on Discipleship. At this meeting a burning question was addressed. “How can our evangelism produce not only converts but disciples who grow in faith and become active members of the church?” At the end of the conference a document was published. Three key issues were acknowledged: 1) “Many converts to Christianity throughout the world fall away from faith.” 2) The church is “marked by a paradox of growth without depth.” 3) “Many within the church are not living lives of biblical purity, integrity and holiness.”  

 

In addressing the participants of the conference, John Stott said; “evangelicals have experienced enormous statistical growth without corresponding growth in discipleship.” At the same event the late Tokunbah Adeyemo made a statement that is now coined and relevant throughout the world; the church “is one mile long, but only one inch deep.”

 

If the previously mentioned three issues, plus the comments from Stott and Adeyemo are true, larger and more important questions are then raised. Why?

 

In order to answer the why question, perhaps another question needs to be posed. Do we in effect strand people in the baptismal tank? By that I mean, in our excitement to increase our baptism numbers, and church membership rolls, do we leave people stranded in the baptism tank and left to spiritually fend for themselves after we have given them their certificates and made them into members? And do we baptize people too quickly? Some newly baptized members have even been so bold as to ask another burning question. What now? Because in their excitement of getting baptized and being brought into membership, they quickly realize a let down. The let down comes as a result of their realization that there must be more. And there is, much more! They are still thirsty!

 

In his great book Ancient Future Evangelism, the late Robert Webber highlights the importance of ongoing Christian discipleship training as a faith-forming experience. He writes; “If you wish your church to become a faith-forming community, it is necessary to establish continuity between ministries of evangelism, discipleship, and spiritual formation.”

 

Discipleship is meant to be a holistic, post-evangelism life long journey that leads to continual and ongoing spiritual transformation. Within the local church a key partnership is given birth. It is a partnership between the local church, and those who evangelize, baptize, bring people into membership, and that of the newly minted believer. This partnership has a succinct goal in mind, the deepening, ongoing growth of the new believer. So another question is posed. This time it is asked by the local pastor to those who have just come to Christ by faith. “May I help you to continue to grow in your faith to the point where you are able to take the full responsibility to move in to the areas of spiritual transformation?”

 

The answer is usually yes! But the question needs to be asked. However, if we were honest, we might discover that the people within our churches who have the most negative effect on the life of the ministry are those who have been left stranded in the tank, and perhaps were baptized and brought into membership to soon, or who thought membership was confused with baptism, or vice versa. So, how many of our church members say to themselves from time; “there must be more!”