Now I’ll grant first of all that someone can,and should, note that discipleship at least ought to be an integral part of evangelism, so that strictly speaking, what I’ve suggested above is a false dichotomy. Agreed.
But that said, if we concede that for too many of us, it is not seen as a false dichotomy, we would wonder whether the SBC (and a lot of us for that matter) has a problem with insufficient evangelism, or whether we’ve got a problem with insufficient discipleship. I am guessing, given the stats like Ham & Beemer’s on kids leaving the church, that the latter is closer to reality. Better efforts at discipleship might also cast light into whether our efforts at evangelism are bearing real, or false, fruit.
Discussion
NewEvangelism, or discipleship?
Now I’ll grant first of all that someone can,and should, note that discipleship at least ought to be an integral part of evangelism, so that strictly speaking, what I’ve suggested above is a false dichotomy. Agreed.
But that said, if we concede that for too many of us, it is not seen as a false dichotomy, we would wonder whether the SBC (and a lot of us for that matter) has a problem with insufficient evangelism, or whether we’ve got a problem with insufficient discipleship. I am guessing, given the stats like Ham & Beemer’s on kids leaving the church, that the latter is closer to reality. Better efforts at discipleship might also cast light into whether our efforts at evangelism are bearing real, or false, fruit.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.