Journal: Journal of Ministry and Theology
Volume: JMAT 21:1 (Spring 2017)
Article: Culture And The Church’s Discipleship Strategy
Author: Kevin Michael Brosius

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JMAT 21:1 (Spring 2017) p. 123

Culture And The Church’s Discipleship Strategy

Kevin Michael Brosius

Associate Pastor
Army National Guard Chaplain
Bethel Baptist Church
Parkersburg, West Virginia

Introduction

A trip to the local Christian bookstore will reveal the popularity of church growth material and discipleship resources. Pastors and church leaders are interested in learning new approaches to ministry and are quick to buy the next best-selling, tried and proven, effective method to guarantee ministry success. With all that is available to help the church leader in his ministry and with so many programs offered to build Christian growth, families should be well-off in their pursuit of spiritual maturity. So how does the landscape look as believers have made their attempt to proclaim the truth of the gospel? Unfortunately, not so good.

Jim Putman states, “American Christians are not on a mission. They look far more like the world than they should. They live the same way and chase the same things. Their marriages and families look the same. They are biblically illiterate and care little about sharing their faith with others. Churches are producing people who do not and cannot share the gospel.”1 Barna went to people in the congregations of pastors who have a biblical worldview and asked basic worldview questions about salvation, Jesus, and heaven and hell. Fewer than one in seven had a biblical worldview even though the pastor believed and taught biblical

JMAT 21:1 (Spring 2017) p. 124

truth.2 In Josh McDowell’s book, The Last Christian Generation, he declares that “85 percent of kids who come from Christian homes do not have a biblical worldview. Most of them are leaving the faith between ages eighteen and twenty-four.”3 Ptuman and Harrington claim, “Fewer than one out of five who claim to be born-again Christians have a worldview of even a few fundamental biblical beliefs.”4 Most Christians will die without ever sharing their faith with someone and “sixty to eighty percent of young people will leave the church in their twenties.”5 Many will return at a later point in their life or after having experienced a crisis.

While the situation of the Christian population is disheartening enough, the church appears to be in its own struggle of survival. Church goers appear to be breathing as they gather for worship services and run their programs, but oftentimes they are merely surviving rather ...

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