The culture has changed a lot since I first entered ministry. I don’t feel like I’ve been doing this for a long time. But here we are. Life seems to be changing all around me, and so has the work of ministry.
I have spent the last few years announcing this occasionally from the pulpit. As society changes, the needs of those people that are added to our number will change. And the work of making disciples will look vastly different. I believed that and still do. But I’m not completely sure that I understood what I was saying, especially when I first began saying it. But whether or not I understood what that entails, at the heart of this is what it means to make disciples. The job is the same, but the work is different.
Back in My Day
Christian morality was supreme in American society just a few years ago. This was the case whether people wanted to admit it or not. And that is especially true of Arkansas, where I live. Divorce was shameful. One became the talk of a town, in a bad way for getting divorced. Homosexuality was unthinkable. And hard work and thrift were seen as the standard, not the exception.
It is not the same today. Today the divorce rate is going down because the marriage rate is going down. More and more children are being born out of wedlock. Hard work is a thing of the past. And the average American is well over their head in debt.
Things are not the same as they once were. In fact, they are vastly different. The immediate response might be to shake your head and think the young’uns are just foolish. While I would agree that there is a whole lot of foolishness being exhibited right now. I would also say that we don’t get to choose the time we live in. It is up to us to be faithful now, in the time that God placed us.
God Made Us to Work Now, Not in the Good Ol’ Days
Things were different just a few years ago. But that is not the time that we live. We live right now. As the Church we are supposed to step into this lost and broken world and represent Christ to the people.
If you’re reaching out to people today, you’ll connect with those who did not grow up in a society dominated by Christian wisdom. They were not influenced by traditional morality. You will end up doing and discussing things that you never thought that you’d do. And that’s a good thing.
We don’t live in the 1990’s anymore. Society is different and the people are different. We just don’t live there anymore. And sitting around and wishing that we did is not what we are supposed to be doing. We are to be at work.
What Does it Mean to Make Disciples?
I was talking with a friend about this very thing. He mentioned that this is exactly what making disciples is. Preaching the gospel, seeing them converted, and teaching them to obey the Lord’s commands is the Great Commission.
(18) And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (19) Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV)
Every time I teach this passage of Scripture, I point this out. Discipleship is not just declaring the good news. It is also “teaching them to observe” Jesus’s commands.
That looks different than it did 20 years ago. It looks different in every generation. But the task is the same.
Do you think that the Apostles had an easy time teaching the pagans how to think and act like Christians?
Do you think that converts out of the Roman Empire had an easy time figuring out how to think and act like Christians?
Do you think the wild pagans of Europe were Christianized overnight?
Do you think that your neighbors that have been shaped by this culture will immediately think and act like Christians? Don’t you think you’re going to have to put in a little work to teach them to obey the Lord’s commands?
A Closing Thought
My closing thought to anyone reading this is simple. We must that the Lord has called us to be faithful to Him now. You live now. You are to make disciples now.
The type of thing that I am talking about will not happen because you have the right lighting and smoke machine just right. It won’t happen because you played the same chorus over and over until people got liver shivers. And it won’t happen if church is all about the pastor telling 8 personal stories and closing in prayer.
This type of thing will take real get your hands dirty type of work. It will take teaching about things like personal finances and fidelity in marriage. You’ll probably have to teach what marriage is. You might even have to teach what a woman is.
The plea is to be willing to do that kind of work. The cultural rot that is all around us means that the work is different.
R. Dwain Minor
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