Protestantism

» paper_turtle - Discipleship

Barna continues: "[N]ot one of the adults we interviewed said that their goal in life was to be a committed follower of Jesus Christ or to make disciples." He goes on to explain that this survey included people who regularly attended church.
.
A survey is only as good as its questions. If what is quoted above was the question asked, then (IMHO) that could explain why no one said yes.
.
There could be any number of reasons for answering such a question negatively, but my sense is that some people might have felt the question was doctrinally biased. Had the survey asked:
.
do you strive to love as Jesus lived?, or
do you follow what Jesus said were the two greatest commandments (love God, love neighbor as self), or
is Jesus a role model in your life?
.
I think people would have responded positively to questions like those above.
.
As for discipleship, I'm sure a lot of people aren't really sure what it means, or how one would go about calling someone to be a fisher of men.
.
*My* perception is that conservative churches tend to be more interested in salvation than discipleship (which implies both healing and teaching).
.
More liberal churches, unfortunately, often tend to just throw money at the problem, rather than rolling up their sleeves and getting actively involved.
.
Just some random musings.
.
peace and love,
Paper Turtle

-- posted by paper_turtle