[To follow The Ewellogy, please click on Leave a Comment above, fill in your name and email, and check the box: Notify me of new posts by email. If your comment is, “Notify me,” it won’t post publicly. If you don’t start to receive the blog by email right away, please write to me at bob@ewell.com, and I will see that you get on the list.]

I wrote yesterday that a new contact in Cameroon, a young pastor, has observed that churches don’t seem to want to transform members into disciples.

Maybe churches want to make disciples, but they don’t know how. 

The problem is that most churches put most of their efforts into the weekly worship service. And whether the emphasis is Bible teaching, music, or the Eucharist, it’s hard to train people in a large group environment. About as hard as it is to produce musicians only by having them attend concerts. 

Navigator Ron Bennett, in his excellent book Intentional Disciplemaking, uses a golf analogy. Ron says that it takes a variety of clubs to get the ball in the hole. The driver (compare the Sunday morning large gathering) is only one. Then we have the long irons (mid-sized groups such as Sunday School classes), short irons (small groups), and the putter (one-to-one). 

It helps if we are clear about what we want each type of group to do. For example, I believe the best use of Sunday School, especially when the adult classes are composed of, say, 20 – 70 people, is community. Sure, instruction can occur–I taught Sunday School for years. But an important role of the Sunday School in a large church is to provide a smaller environment where people can practice the “one-anothers” of scripture.

The right kind of small groups plays a key role in “transforming members into disciples,” and I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13.34, NIV)

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10.24, 25, NIV, often used to promote church attendance, but it’s hard to “spur one another on…” and “encourage one another” during the morning service! That has to be done at another time.)