Something about human nature causes people to not want to deal directly with God. We’d rather sit through a weekly talk about Him (or ignore Him completely). But God wants to move us beyond religious ceremonies (and/or spiritual denial) so that He can deal with us heart to heart and train us to continually live in right, direct, and personal relationship with Him and with one another.

To sit and hear a talk
About God’s Word
And then kick it to the curb
Isn’t Christianity.
We are called to read,
Hear, speak, and heed
What God has to say
And let Him disturb
Our complacency
Until we begin
To follow His Spirit
And do His Word
Throughout each day.

Disciples daily do
What the Bible says.
They don’t simply
Sit through
Sunday school
And a church service.

Christ’s focus was on
Disciple construction.
He went far beyond
Religious instruction.
Jesus trained people
To daily receive
The inner production
Of the fruit of the Spirit,
It’s not enough to hear
A Sunday sermon.
We need to draw near
And let Christ appear
With demonstrations
Of both the fruit
And the gifts
Of the Spirit
In our midst.

It’s time for a shift from religious lecture to hands-on training, from Sunday school and passive sermon-hearing to Sunday do. Let’s train Christians to listen to the living God. Let’s allow them to say and to do whatever He tells them to in the safe atmosphere of a gathered Christian community and Spirit-led worship. Then their confidence in the leading of the Spirit will grow and they will go and be led to do the Word in their daily life.

Church as usual is in decline, but people need God’s love and presence as much as ever in history. Let’s create an atmosphere where people can gather to experience Jesus and demonstrate His presence to one another. To make disciples for Christ you have to train people to listen to and obey the risen Jesus. (Otherwise, they are someone else’s disciples.)