I just ran across a term I had never heard before: Churchianity. In a nutshell, churchianity is the result of taking Christ out of Christianity. Jesus commanded us, the Church, to “go and make disciples”, but the unfortunate reality is that we are more prone to go and make church members. When I say “we”, I, of course mean the “royal We“, also known as “me, myself, and I”. While I have heard my Master’s instructions to make disciples and to preach the Good News, I have to ask myself:

1. Who am I discipling, right now?
   If I look back at someone I have mentored or raised in the faith, or look forward planning to reach out to a new believer, I am either resting on my laurels or exchanging planning for doing. While I could say that I am waiting on God to direct me to someone or have Him direct someone to me (I would sound soooo very spiritual, too), but the truth is that there are 6.6 billion people on the planet. What are the odds God is having troubles finding someone?? No, the bigger likelihood is that God is waiting for me to really say “..not my will, but yours be done.”
2. Who is discipling me?
   If Jesus’s plan to spread the faith was for the apostles to go and make disciples, who go and make disciple, who, in turn, go and make disciples, it seems pretty clear that if I am to be part of the plan, I need to be part of that chain.
   I can’t claim that I am wholly instructed by my Bible studies, or else part of His instructions would have been, “go and hurl big leather bound books at the nations and hope they get it.”
   I can’t claim that I am being discipled by the radio and TV preachers and teachers, or else he would have instructed us to air-drop TV’s tuned to TBN over the unsaved nations.
   I can’t claim that I have arrived, that I am done being discipled, because, wacky doctrines of sanctification aside, I can’t find any place in the scriptures that describes a point where I would know all there is know about God and His plans for the world and for me. There is ALWAYS someone I can learn from, someone with a perspective or insight on the Father I can profit from.
3. What is the Good News?
   I know the gospel message, really I do, but if I expend the opportunities the Spirit provides me sharing the virtues of my church, the schedule and coming events, what is the Good News? That my church is a nice place with nice people and nice programs? If the “good news” brings someone to a service, at best the Spirit is faithful and they hear the real Good News, but, at worst, I’ve squandered the chance God has given me to share Christ and witness a true miracle – a life transformed.