You would think that it would be such a natural thing for a Church to do but it turns out that when the conversation moves to ‘Making Disciples’ the temperature goes up. Making disciples is the one command of the Great Commission and the singular activity of those rampaging first generation of Christians.

A disciple is a person who helps another person to become a disciple. If we choose to abandon the concept of making disciples we dead-end the Christian faith at that generation.

A survey was released in March 09 profiling the Christian Church of Melbourne. While Melbourne has a population increase of 90,000 every year there is a decline of Christian worshippers to the tune of 4,500 per year.

Across the denominations the Church averages two converts per annum per Church. In traditions that tend to baptise their converts like the Baptists, 93% of the Baptist Churches average 1.4 baptisms per year in Victoria and I am reliably informed that near identical results are achieved in the Churches of Christ.

Our malaise in reaching lost people accelerates the decline of the elderly nature of the Australian Church. In Melbourne there are 10 worshippers over the age of 70 for every single worshipper aged between 20-30.

Somewhere along the way a new generation of pioneering leaders must rise up who are more concerned with making disciples than anything else. The Emerging Church appeared to move in this direction with its break from traditional forms of worship and its disdain for Church growth thinking. They however have proved to be less effective in reaching lost people even if they do ‘do it’ in a cafe over red wine.

A more critical evaluation of our methodology needs to take place. It appears to me that those who are chasing the mighty dollar are more dedicated to detail and outcomes than are those who are in the church.

There is a serious need to move away from what the weekend service feels like or even the thought that the worship service is Church. It is a very important aspect of Church but it is not Church.

The mission of God needs to move with the people of God into their work-place and social life. A keen eye for the outcomes in lives must be developed particularly with the most important outcome of all, lost people responding to Jesus. May it be so in our day.

Dale Stephenson

Senior Pastor

Crossway Baptist Church