Why do Christians settle for spectatorship instead of discipleship?

Spectator religion
Over and done
In an hour or two,
So little to do.
Just sit on a chair
Or an antique pew
And let a preacher
Run it all for you.

I believe that Jesus wants to build a spiritual army that follows His Sprit and overflows with His presence, not an audience for a preacher’s sermons. Christianity needs more demonstrations of the presence, power, and character of the risen Jesus and less of the institutionalism that lulls us to sleep. (The body of Christ is supposed to make disciples, not onlookers, observers, viewers, watchers, admirers, attendees, audience members, bystanders, or showgoers.)

Christian spectators watch and watch Sunday after Sunday with nothing to do but pay the preacher and come back next Sunday to sit through another service that’s almost precisely the same. Church is too often an audience of spectators stuck in the same ‘ole same ‘ole. Perhaps we need a shake up so we can wake up!

Spectator religion needs a celebrity on a platform who will give people something to look at during church services. When professional preachers and professional worship leaders are paid to study and practice all week so they can produce a professional performance on Sunday mornings, everyday people are pushed into the position of being politely passive spectators. Perhaps it would be better if we turned our eyes upon Jesus.

The focus of Christianity shouldn’t be about being a member of a religious organization. It should be about being led by the Holy Spirit. (See Romans 8:14.) Church attendance is a poor substitute for discipleship.

Christians like to set up rules, structures, organizations, and human leaders because that’s easier than being led by the Spirit. Refuse to let the wide road of spectator religion keep you from the narrow road of being personally led by the risen Jesus as He speaks to you through His still, small voice in your conscience and in the Bible.

Disciples are dedicated and devoted to doing what the risen Jesus says. They are disciplined and determined to daily follow and obey His will, not their own. Disciples want to know Jesus better and better and to let Him daily transform them into His own image.

Disciples are not made by lectures, a curriculum, or a scripted program. They’re not satisfied to just hear religious talks. Disciples learn to be led by God’s Spirit as they day-by-day surrender to and obey the presence of Christ living and working inside their heart. They are trained, equipped, and empowered to let the risen Jesus live in and work through them throughout the day. Be one!

Audience Christianity ambles aimlessly about. Discipleship demonstrates the presence, power, and love of the living Jesus. Let’s avoid Christ-less Christianity! According to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the world is filled with Christ-less Christianity. He said: “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.” Preaching should invite people to become disciples of the living Jesus, not make them ever dependent on a preacher. Jesus said to go and make disciples, but church has gone and made spectators. (A spectator is not a disciple!)

To barricade your heart is to abandon discipleship! Discipleship chips away our human pride. That’s why it is so rare. A self-enclosed heart always resists Christian discipleship.

Church makes Sunday morning spectators, however, Jesus said to make disciples. It’s time to for Christ-followers to demonstrate the presence and reality of the risen Jesus, not just to listen to a preacher describe Him.

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