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I’ve connected with a young pastor in Cameroon via LinkedIn. I don’t know much about him yet except he actually wants to make disciples! He wrote:

I am about to start a discipleship ministry “back to the word of God ministry” only to equipped Christians but specially leaders. Please I want to see how we can work together for the glory of God. The church don’t [sic] want to transform members to disciples. [emphasis mine, actual words are his in the best English that he, as a native French speaker, can muster]

Churches don’t want to transform members into disciples.

It’s a chilling observation. Why does he see things this way? Here’s one possibility: churches spend most of their time and energy on one tool: the Sunday morning service. And they measure effectiveness by how many come. I read a report recently where a pastor in India is quoted as saying, “We’re running 2,000 right now, and I think we can be to 3,000 by the end of the year!” 

I don’t know if those are the words the Indian pastor used or that’s how the American telling the story heard it. Either way, someone appears to be interested only in how many come. This is unfortunate. As one wise pastor told me years ago, “We’re good at measuring how many come. I wish we could count how many go!” 

But we can’t…or don’t count how many go, and it appears, as the young pastor from Cameroon concluded, “Churches don’t want to transform members into disciples.”

I think he’s wrong. Churches really want to make disciples…they just don’t know how. More on that tomorrow.

Go and make disciples of all nations. (Matthew 28.19)

You became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere,…  (1 Thessalonians 1.7, 8, ESV)