As RCA Pastor Janine Dekker said before, “Everything has a specific process: balancing a checkbook, baking a cake, building a house. If you don’t follow the process, you won’t get what you intended to make.
“We also need to be clear on “what” we are making. I served as chair of Classis Ontario’s Discipleship Committee, and part of the committee’s purpose is to cast a vision of what a disciple is. As a committee, we realized that if we were not clear on what, we would cast a cloudy vision. So we defined “disciple”: a disciple is one who puts their trust in Jesus Christ and is continually learning to: worship God in the whole of their lives, participate in Christian community (small groups and fellowship), and share Christ in word and deed to make disciples.
“I sense most congregations do not have a clear biblical image and definition of disciple. The result is we end up with members who are dying spiritually and do not share their faith instead of growing and obedient disciples who are making new disciples. We are not getting what we intended to make.
“Again, maybe it is time we paid attention to the process and finally make what Jesus told us to make. Disciples.”