is what we are doing (in our congregational life) making disciples?

with some colleagues I have been doing some reflecting the last few weeks on "discipleship" and what we are really supposed to be doing with this thing we call 'church.'

It's interesting to note that nowhere in the new testament are we asked to 'plant churches.' Partly because, if we are 'in Jesus,' we are the Church, the body of Christ; in that sense, God has already 'planted The Church.'  What we are given is the mandate to 'make disciples.' Try this... Jesus said,“I’m leaving; the Holy Spirit will guide you; now go and make disciples yourselves – incorporate them into our family and help them learn to be a follower in the same way I taught you!”

So, as we go about this business of 'making disciples,' people are naturally brought into a collective/community setting -- cuz that's how Jesus did it. That little 'called-out', counter-cultural, collective/ecclesia is the setting in which we make disciples. I think our greatest challenge is that we have made the assignment about "initiate a collective and find ways to sustain it," rather than about the real assignment -- make disciples.

Then we get preoccupied with those elements that sustain a congregation: worship, community, spiritual formation, service, and evangelism -- all necessary, but not the main point of congregational life. Congregational life is just a context to 'make disciples.' But what if we asked ourselves -- is what we are doing (in our congregational life) making disciples?, or just forming Christian consumers/attenders/congregational sustainers (or whatever...)?

Overlay the "things" we do in the name of church in that box where it says 'make disciples' and ask, "are we making disciples as we do these things?"

And that is a profoundly Wesleyan question as well. This is one of my favourite John Wesley quotes:

"What is the end (or purpose) of all ecclesiastical (church) order? Is it not to bring souls from the power of Satan to God, and to build them up in His fear and love? Order, then, is valuable so far as it answers these ends; and if it answers them not, it is worth nothing."

 [hang on, for further thoughts on "what kind of disciples are we making, with the things we do?"]