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In sum, due to an overarching discipleship failure, young adults report that they are leaving the church because they are not finding (1) authentic relationships, (2) wisdom in dealing with doubts and complexities, and (3) a holistic vocation.
most of these insiders were never personally taught how to be disciples of Jesus by other Christians.
If pastors and elders are convinced—
that all the real work of salvation happens when an individual first trusts the gospel of Jesus’s forgiveness, then why prioritize discipleship?
the gospel is about Jesus’s saving kingship followed by our allegiance (faith) response over the course of time.
salvation is a journey. We must continue to give loyalty to King Jesus.
an overall trajectory and intention of loyalty to our King must remain intact. The lifelong pursuit of and disposition toward allegiance are in the end all that count for salvation.
we must persevere in our confession of faith in order to reach final salvation. If a person ceases to give allegiance to the Christ entirely—abandons any attempt to render faith unto the Christ—that person is no longer part of the saved community because they have rejected the gospel (1 Cor. 15:2; 1 Tim. 1:19–20; Heb. 3:12–14; 6:4–6).
there is no separation between salvation and discipleship. The path of allegiance to King Jesus is the path of transformative discipleship.
The thief is not a valid counterexample.
The thief is not described as trusting solely in Jesus’s death but instead asserts that Jesus will reign over a kingdom.
the thief asks Jesus to remember him—showing his future willingness to appear before King Jesus in acknowledgment of his rule. The thief displays confidence that King Jesus will have the authority to bestow benefits to him personally. It is the thief’s public confession of Jesus’s sovereignty that prompts Jesus to announce this man’s rescue. The thief is saved because he acknowledges Jesus as the coming King.
Vampire Christians are those who want to make use of Jesus’s blood but have no interest in genuinely acknowledging him as Lord.
They are merely vampires.
Since salvation is by allegiance to King Jesus alone, it is not possible to “get saved” by believing or trusting in Jesus’s blood while having no intention to submit to his authority by becoming his disciple.
The true gospel addresses the church’s discipleship failure because it helps the church shift its energy from evangelism to disciple-making, for they are no longer a different task. To respond to the gospel in a saving fashion is nothing more or less than to commit to becoming a loyal disciple of King Jesus.
how the true gospel addresses three specific problems that are causing former insiders to reject Christianity.
1. Lack of Authentic Rel...
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The institutional church, it is felt, promises healthy meaningful relationships but fails to deliver.
Disciple-Making Is Relational
disciple-making
it is an inherently relational activity.
“Deep relationship happens only by spending time, large chunks of it, in shared experiences.”
Programming and events are necessary. However, they must foster not merely shared experiences, but ample space for intentional disciple-making.
2. Lack of Wisdom
Christianity offers a comprehensive explanation of reality. It is a metanarrative, a master story that seeks to explain everything in the universe. It tells us why God’s universe is orderly yet surprising, what it means to be human, and how we should behave.
