Growing the disciples we have

A post over at Shane Raynor’s blog about small churches has touched off an interesting discussion. One comment smacked me right between the eyes:

Whether small or large if a church isn’t healthy, if it doesn’t have a clear missional call to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, then the bishop shouldn’t be sending a pastor there.

Now, on one hand, I understand this sentiment. This is the movement speaking. John Wesley was always tossing out Methodists from the societies who did not walk the walk.

On the other hand, I’m dumbfounded by this. Aside from the Disciplinary issues – I don’t think the bishop can refuse to pastor a charge – the spirit of the comment suggests that the only imperfect people the church should be interested in are the ones outside the church. There is a kind of “grass is greener” mentality that seems to infect our thinking about church matters. Somewhere out there – we think – there is a big pile of “good Christians” just waiting for us find them.

If we can just get rid of all this dead weight holding us down, then we’ll have room for the throngs of mature disciples just waiting for someone to notice them.

There is also a kind of fatalism here. Well, these old people in our church who aren’t fantastic disciples, we can’t do much with them. They’ve had a chance, but they really can’t be reformed now. Best to pull the plug on them and their churches and get on to the future.

I missed the part where God said a bunch of gray-headed church people in a rural church are not worth the resources of the denomination. If they are not yet disciples, is that a reason to give up on them? Did God give up on them? Is it impossible with God for them to mature in their faith?

I am all for church plants and seeking out new places for people to worship. But since when is our vision of the kingdom a zero-sum game? We can’t do both/and? Since when?

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