Decisions or Disciples: Seeking Clarity on who belongs to Jesus
I grew up in church my entire life. I’ve been to so many evangelistic events where invitations have happened. You know how it goes. The preacher stands down front, gives an appeal to follow Jesus.
With every head bowed and eyes closed, if you want to experience the peace of Christ in your troubled life, raise your hand. I see you back there sister. I see that hand in the balcony. We have more hands going up! Hallelujah, glory to God! Are there any more? Today may be your last day to give your life to Jesus? We’re gonna wait just a couple more minutes, keep those hands held high. Alright, for those of you with your hands raised, I want you to repeat this prayer after me…
You have heard something similar I’m sure. Maybe you were saved under such an invitation. But I am convinced that such a system produced a lot of “decisions” but not many disciples.
In Matthew 7:21, as Jesus was teaching on the sermon of the mount we read:
“Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform miracles?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.”
There are those who profess Jesus as Lord, but are trusting in their own works to save them, while continuing to live a sinful life. In 1 John, many say they love God but they prove themselves to be liars. because they do not walk in holiness, they do not believe the gospel, and they do not love their fellow brothers in Christ.
Merely saying you are a Christian doesn’t mean that you actually are one. 1 John 1:6 tells us, “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”
I grew up in a church culture that promoted decisions over discipleship. If you wanted to be someone in denominational life, you had to report how many decisions were made “down front,” how many “prayed the prayer” and how many baptisms, and report those to the convention. You would even report how many “rededication’s” you had. The problem with this, I began to see, is the same people would “rededicate their life” every summer after youth camp, and never actually live a changed life. The Spirit was not living within them and their lives were not marked by the fruits of the Spirit.
To be sure, a church that preaches the gospel should see people repenting of sin and placing their faith in Jesus, getting baptized and joining the church. However, in this “decision culture” we have unfortunately led many people to “make a decision” that the Spirit had not drawn them to, and baptized many false converts.
A gospel preaching church should be eager to see genuine disciples formed by the preaching of the gospel, not seeking to get as many decisions as possible. How do we avoid producing false converts? Well, we can’t complete avoid it. The Parable of the Soils makes that clear. But we can do our best to seek genuine disciples and not unverifiable decisions that lead to false conversion, and worst false assurance. How do we do that.
Preach the gospel accurately. When we water down the gospel to get a response, we may get decisions, but we haven’t produced disciples.
Implore people to count the cost: This is what Jesus did. He didn’t paint a version of Christianity that was a bed of roses, but a version of Christianity that included self-denial and suffering.
Don’t use unbiblical methods of evangelism. Mack Stiles in his book Evangelism says this, “Most important, even though people come to Jesus through various means, the Bible never uses results to guide or justify evangelistic practice.” So much of today’s problem is we promoted unbiblical methods, and called them successful because of the mass amount of “decisions” that were made, when in reality they were not genuine converts. Now we have people who think they are Christians because they walked an aisle and “prayed the prayer” when they were 6, but they have never repented of their sin, and they presently are not walking with Jesus
Be clear in the response to the gospel. The Biblical response to the gospel is not “come forward or pray this prayer.” The biblical response to the gospel is repent of sin and trust in the the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
Disciple others and hold others accountable in the local church. When people do place their faith in Christ, members of the local Chu have the responsibility to disciple them and help them grow as a Christian. A professing believer should not be allowed to leave the church for prolonged periods of time without someone checking in. The church should have such a culture of discipleship and care that we go after straying members, and we help faithful members continue to grow.
Practice Biblical Church Discipline. If someone is not believing like a Christian or behaving like a Christian, we do them no favors to allow them to keep thinking they are a Christian. This is where church discipline comes in. It is loving, and It protects the purity of the gospel and the church, and protects the soul of the one under discipline so that he will perhaps see his sin and his need for Christ, and genuinely respond in repentance and faith.
