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All authority. . . has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18b-19a, ESV).
For years, I’ve had a secret fantasy to open a bike shop.
During my decades as a pastor, I thought about it whenever someone got angry with me or said my sermons were too long. The bike shop was a “go-to” dream whenever someone left the church because the music was too loud.
I pictured myself selling Trek® bikes in a small Hallmark®-style village.
But then I realized why I wouldn’t be starting a bike shop: I’m not a mechanic. I could sell bikes but not fix them. My customers would storm out in frustration after hearing my sales pitch, purchasing a bike, and then being unable to get the chain adjusted properly.
That’s a bit like the church today: good at selling the Gospel but less able to fix what’s broken. Today 80 percent of new believers walk away from faithfulness. Here’s the truth. . .
The modern church is great at reaching the lost but not so good at keeping the saved.
There has been a lot of talk, podcasts, and conferences about discipleship recently. Are discipling practices getting better? A report by Disciple Lab querying 3,832 church leaders in February 2021 lists the following statistics. . .
- 92% of church leaders strongly believe the Great Commission of the church is important.
- 53% said they had no substantive discipleship wins to point to in the last year.
- 42% of those same leaders are not confident in their church’s ability to make disciples in the future.
Even though the Great Commission was posted over 2,000 years ago, most churches do not mention it in their mission statement or list it as a goal for the next year.
HHHHMMMHHM. . . maybe more church leaders should consider opening bike shops.
When I told a key leader in a large organization that plants churches in India about this “80 percent leave while only 20 percent stay” statistic, he nodded in agreement. “We aren’t doing well with discipleship,” he admitted. “I agree with the 80 percent statistic.”
While teaching discipleship in Novosibirsk, Russia, I told a pastor about my 80 percent statistic. He asked his church administrator to tally all the conversions in their church during the past two years. The pastor was stunned when his administrator told him, “Only about 20 percent remain.”
Should we sell Trek® or Cannondale® bikes in our shops?
I don’t believe we have to settle for 20 percent of new converts sticking with Jesus. If Jesus gave us a Great Commission and promised His authority when we disciple others, we ought to keep 80 percent.
If we can learn to fix bicycles correctly and keep cycling customers happy, why can’t we disciple those who accept Jesus?
The above is an excerpt from my new book
Discipleship That Works: The LampPost Strategy for Disciplemaking.
You can click on this image for a link to Amazon to purchase the book.
If you purchase and read the book—thank you. Let me know
what you think, and please write a positive review on Amazon saying
things like great, fantastic, awesome, and best ever!