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Monday, March 28, 2011

Disciple Me on Sunday

The following few paragraphs below are from a blog recently written by a man by the name of Bill Hornsby. Bill went home to be with the Lord this past week after losing his fight with cancer. He was a great leader and thinker in the areas of church networking, church planting, and discipleship. After reading his blog, I wanted to share it with all of you because I thought it was timely for our church. He makes a strong case as to why we need Small Groups and Discipleship Classes. It is entitled “Disciple Me On Sunday.” It is a very compelling argument he makes. It is also very insightful and enlightening. Enjoy:

“Disciple Me on Sunday”

Can I be successfully discipled by attending Sunday services regularly? So much attention is given to having a great Sunday service that you would hope that the event could reach the lost and disciple the believer. Of course, much attention should be given to preaching and reading of the Word on Sundays as well as any other times Christians gather together. But Sunday alone could never “make disciples” in the real biblical sense. Act 5:42…”And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” Daily in the temple and house to house was the key to New Testament discipleship.

For the sake of comparison I calculated how many hours a year the average Christian sits under the teaching of his/her pastor. This will shock you.
15.6 hours per year!

Where do I get these numbers? Simple: There are 52 Sundays in the year – the average message is ½ hour (30 minutes) – and the average church has only 60% of its congregation in attendance on any given Sunday. If you multiply 30 minutes by 52 Sundays you get 26 hours, then take the 26 hours by an average of 60% attendance (some will never miss & some will come occasionally) you have that average of 15.6 hours per year…. That’s if the average member of your church attends 31 services in the year. Amazing.

This does not take into consideration the power of the worship experience and the presence of the Holy Spirit…it is purely crunching the numbers….just over a half of a day per year.

Consider these stats from the Nielson Company – Per year the average American watches 1800 hours of TV, spend 360 hours on the internet, 36 hours watching video on the internet and 36 hours watching video on their cell phones. Wonder why we might be losing the war in the spiritual? This makes for a great case for small groups, mid-week teaching services and anything else you can do to make disciples of church members.

Billy Hornsby