Lausanne World Pulse – Imperative of Transformational Discipleship in the Global Church Pursuit of the Great Commission
By U. Obed
For example, the said phenomenon identifies Africa’s crucial spiritual challenge for this moment. However, it may point to a possible global problem yet unacknowledged by many Western Christian leaders. I argued in June 2006 that the “one mile wide and one inch deep” phenomenon was a direct outcome of Africa’s faithful and committed response to what popular Christian initiatives like the LCWE, AD2000 Movement, and others emphasized and encouraged us and the rest of the world to pursue.
Therefore, we should be asking questions such as,
- Has there been some deficit in the global Church interpretation, emphases, and pursuit of the Great Commission, such that growth in number and spread resulted, while growth in spiritual depth was suppressed?
- Why and how did the growth of Christianity in Africa come to be one mile wide and one inch deep?
- What was responsible for the general decline in biblical spirituality in the twentieth century Church, as identified by Johnstone and Mandryk?
Discipleship as the Missing Link
It is time church leaders realize the third action step is the spiritual-depth imbuing component of the Great Commission. Because the command to “teach” is yet to be interpreted and pursued with any sense of urgency, spiritual decline has set in. There are several reasons teaching has not been a major focus in our Great Commission efforts:
1. An assumption that teaching is a common church activity which most church leaders can do. However, much of the teaching in churches may well be “preaching.” Also, not all teaching can lead to positive change in believers’ lives.
2. An assumption that the initiative to interpret “teaching them to observe all things” is exclusively the responsibility of theologians and Bible scholars. But then, has their attention ever been drawn to this as it affects a holistic implementation of the Great Commission? Whenever church and denominational leaders participate in mission conferences, their agenda is usually narrowed down to the improvement of local church participation in the missions drive, and never on establishing and growing the converts.
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Dr. U. Obed is international coordinator of the Apostolic Discipleship Movement and the continental coordinator for the African Initiative on Transformational Discipleship. He was a senior lecturer in physics education and is currently the senior pastor of the Glory Tabernacle Ministry in Ibadan, Nigeria. |