Was Jesus Wrong About Making Disciples?
by Alan Melton

For the Christian, the Bible’s command by Christ to “make disciples” is one of the most significant in all of Scripture.   We know that Jesus spoke this mandate just before His ascension to heaven. The gravity of His final earthly words in the flesh is obvious: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. . .” (Matthew 28:19a NKJV). The life and example of our Lord and Savior point to this directive. Our world has been forever changed by Christians who have obeyed Jesus in carrying out what has come to be known as the Great Commission. However, considering how the Church presently makes disciples, we must believe that Jesus was wrong about the methods He used.

A Lack of Emphasis on How Jesus Made Disciples

Much has been written about the evangelistic requirement of The Great Commission and many have rightly pointed out that the emphasis here is making disciples, not simply converts. But there is a profound dearth of teaching on the process of disciple-making as demonstrated by Jesus and the implications that His methods could have on the Church today. What did Jesus literally mean when He said “make disciples?”

The Fruit of Christ Versus the Fruit of the Church

Jesus said that you can judge a tree by its fruit (Matthew 7:16-20). A quick glance at the fruit of the Church’s discipleship practices reveals a very sick tree. We know that of the twelve disciples, only Judas was lost to Satan. The discipleship methods of Jesus produced a retention rate of approximately 92%. You would expect the same from a Church that is following Christ. Instead, the statistics about today’s disciples are appalling: George Barna indicates the shocking fact that only 9% of “born again” Christians have a Christian worldview. A Southern Baptist Convention study revealed a gut-wrenching statistic that only 12% of all Christian children are being retained by the Church. Church leaders point to complex issues to explain the root cause. But is it possible that there is a simpler reason; could it be that our discipleship process is flawed? Let’s contrast a couple of the discipleship methods of Jesus Christ with the methods of the Church.

Jesus Practiced Deuteronomy 6 in Making Disciples

In Matthew 4:19, Jesus told His disciples to follow Him, not anyone else, and He was with His disciples all day, every day. From that point forward they were discipled by Him alone around the clock, and His focus was on Scripture; He taught, admonished, and demonstrated to them how to live according to God’s Word. Jesus was trained by His parents using the command given in Deuteronomy 6:6-7, and then He used this same approach in training His disciples.

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”

This discipleship command and example by Christ stands in stark contrast to the approach by the Church today. The status quo in the Church follows the worldly practice of using many teachers who teach many different things: school teachers, coaches, peers, Hollywood, the media, secular music, iPods, Game Boys, the internet, parents, ministers, and Sunday School teachers, to name a few. Although our children may get a sprinkling of biblical truths each week, most of the time spent with these life-shaping influences is not spent on learning about Christ. The time is primarily spent receiving non-biblical (read: worldly) information.

Luke 6:40 says “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.” Our children will become like their teachers. With the example set by Jesus of scriptural training for likely over one hundred hours per week, why do we think that one to five hours of biblical training per week can do the job? Is it likely that these few hours will overcome a hundred hours of worldly indoctrination? The Church’s “microwave approach” to discipleship is a far cry from what Jesus practiced.

“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said. . . ‘Has God indeed said. . .’” -Genesis 3:1

Satan knows Deuteronomy 6 and how to make disciples, and he has convinced us to give him control of our children’s training nearly all day long.

Jesus Never Sent the Lambs Alone Among Wolves

In Luke 10 we see how Jesus delegated authority to His disciples and sent them out. Now keep in mind that these disciples were grown men. Nevertheless He sent them out in twos! Why would He do this? He warned these grown men that they were going out as “lambs among wolves” (Luke 10:3). He recognized the fact that Satan is a real danger. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). If Jesus was this protective of grown men and insisted on training them Himself, would He advocate sending children out alone for training by others holding questionable values? Not on your child’s life! Nevertheless, the normative practice of the Church today is to send our children out alone among the wolves. Should we be surprised that most of our lambs are being devoured by Satan?

Modern Day “Daniels”

At this point many will say something like, “I went through the world’s indoctrination program and I turned out OK, didn’t I? I went out alone and was not devoured. I want my children to have the same experiences that I did.” Congratulations! If this is you, you are one of the 12% that did not leave the church. You are a “Daniel.” Do we not want better for our children? There are other Old Testament examples-such as Moses-who were trained by the world. But never in Scripture is there an example of parents who volunteered to send their children to be trained by the world. In every case parents were forced to send them. The question for us is: What will we do about the 91% that we are losing? Are we willing to lose our children who are not “Daniels?” I don’t know about you, but I don’t like those odds for my children.

Was Jesus Wrong? Or Are We?

Jesus personally taught Scripture all day long to His disciples, rather than sending them to be indoctrinated by the world. He personally took His disciples out and sent them out for evangelistic visits to the world only with other adults. He didn’t send them out alone.

There is a huge gap between the discipleship practices of Jesus and the status quo of the Church today. The quality of the fruit is quite telling. The Christian life requires following Christ. Should we not follow Him also with our discipleship? Either Jesus was wrong about His discipleship methods, or we need to change our methods.

Alan Melton is a homeschooling father and has been married to Donna for 30 years. The Melton’s work together, worship together, and reside in Landrum, South Carolina. The Melton family founded Disciple Like Jesus, a ministry that exhorts Christian parents to disciple their children like Jesus made disciples. Web resources will soon be available at www.DiscipleLikeJesus.com. Alan may be reached at amelton@empirecarolina.com.

Christian Homeschooling with Bridgeway Homeschool Academy

Citing such reasons as, They get enough at church, “We don’t want them to be turned off by it, or It gets in the way of the academics, homeschooling parents are turning their backs on Christian education.

Why are we concerned?

Although we can now provide non-Biblical homeschool curricula to all ages, we are very concerned that the choice to take the Bible out of the Christian homeschool will be a huge mistake!

Your home does not need to be subject to separation of church and state!
Spend some time with your child’s peers those who are educated in a public school system with a secular curriculum. Ask them some of the basics When was the Earth created When were the dinosaurs roaming the earth What were some of the miracles of Jesus. Is the Bible true?

I guarantee you will be very surprised at what you hear! Recently, I started working with my daughter’s fifth-grade Sunday school class most of whom have been in my church since birth. Through this class, my eyes have been significantly opened to the reality of how little these kids are getting from the church! Despite Sunday school, Wednesday night classes, children’s choir and a ton of children’s programs, these kids are not nearly as grounded as what I would have expected.

And I attend a very strong evangelical church one that has a real heart for the children!

Do not let your child be one of these!

If you are one of the parents who are considering taking the Bible out of your homeschooling program, I urge you to reconsider! Do not let your child be one of the many who just don’t know the basics of why we believe what we believe!

Our Bible-based curriculum is not just a presentation of Biblical truths. It is application! How does what you are learning relate to your Christian walk How does the law of thermodynamics support a created universe Why are honesty, integrity and kindness so important How does the digestion process of a sheep tie in with our needs as Christians?

All of these and so much more can be found in our Biblical curriculum. And you are not sacrificing academics!

A recent New York Times article evaluates the fear among evangelicals that we are losing our teenagers. In fact, according to their forecasts, only 4 percent of teenagers will be ‘Bible-believing Christians’ as adults! Although there is much debate about the statistics, evangelical leaders agree that there is a huge risk of losing our teenagers.

We are the first generation of parents coming out of the widespread Christian education and homeschooling movements of the ’70s and ’80s. We have been grounded in the word and it did not come strictly from our churches. Our training was built into our education at home and at school. Let s not be the end of the trend. We need to carry that same Biblical teaching on to our children!

Don’t leave it to the Sunday School and the Youth Group.

We are responsible to train up our child in the way he should go and the promise that follows is that when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). The Bible does not say to let the church train up a child it says we are to train up a child. The church supports us and can even lead us in this endeavor, but we cannot ignore our own responsibility!

For those of you who are still a little unsure about whether you want a Christian homeschool curriculum, let me make another recommendation. Consider providing at least one Bible-based course each year. Using a content course such as science or social studies combines the academic training with Biblical truth and Christian character building.

You will never regret providing a Biblical world and life view to your children. But there are many who do regret failing to do so please don’t be one of them!

Sign up for the Homeschool Advisor newsletter to receive more useful homeschooling tips, use the form below to join.

Bridgeway Homeschool Academy has a passion for homeschooling and a desire to provide the best homeschooling options to parents and students all across the globe.

Copyright 2005-2008 Homeschoolacademy.com All Rights Reserved.

We hope we’ve convinced you by now that the public school, for a host of very good reasons, is the wrong place for this. But there are equally strong reasons for educating at home. This article will introduce you to them, and they will be fleshed out in subsequent articles.

1. Home education is the only model for education given in the Bible.

Earlier this year [1981], R. J. Rushdoony recalls, I was a witness in the trial of some fathers for having their children in a Christian School which refused to submit to state controls. The charges against them were criminal charges. The state’s attorney general granted immunity to their wives, who were then compelled to take the stand and testify against their husbands or face contempt of court charges [T]o endanger the family is to endanger the basic institution of society according to Biblical law. [i]

We guarantee that a God-centered education will not be available in any public school, where God is systematically ruled out of the curriculum.

In the early days of the homeschooling movement, Rushdoony testified in many such trials. These, thankfully, have become rare. As more and more families get into homeschooling, opposition to it has had to become less shrill and less heavy-handed. Meanwhile, legal agencies, such as the Home School Legal Defense Association (hslda.org), have been set up to protect the rights of homeschoolers.

Some parts of the country are homeschool friendly; others, less so. Before you begin homeschooling, make sure you learn what the requirements are in your state. State-by-state information is available on the HSLDA website, at no charge.

Rushdoony’s point is Biblical. In God s scheme of things, parents have the responsibility to educate their children. This can be seen in many Bible verses. [T]he LORD said “Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn and that they may teach their children” (Deut. 4:10). Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart. And ye shall teach them your children (Deut. 11:18 19).

We cannot stress this too much: in the Bible, education happens in the context of the family. You will not find anywhere in the Bible a single example of government involvement in children s education. Public education was not invented until less than 200 years ago; civilization managed without it for thousands of years.

As will be seen from the rest of this list, doing education God s way confers many benefits on families.

2. Homeschooling fosters a deep family bonding, a natural consequence of parents devoting time and energy to their children.

How could it be otherwise? Unfortunately, most American parents pack their children off to public school every day to be educated by strangers for whom one child is no more important than another. Then there are after-school programs, soccer, Little League, gymnastics, and whatnot, often with both parents working full-time and too tired in the evenings to do anything but sprawl in front of the TV set.

How many public service spots have we all heard on the radio, saying, The most important thing you can give your child is your time. Even the secular media know that absentee parenthood doesn’t work.

Homeschooling is quality time, all the time. It’s part of a broader picture of love and bonding that families took as a matter of course for millennia until the public school and the two-paycheck household came along.

Quality Education

3. You’ll have the freedom to center your child’s education on God.

We guarantee that a God-centered education will not be available in any public school, where God is systematically ruled out of the curriculum.
At home, you can ensure that your child is taught that God, not man, is the center of the universe, its creator and sole proprietor. Imagine the difference it would make teaching civics and government from that point of view!

You can still teach how the government works, but you can also teach how God wants government to work. You can still teach how a plant photosynthesizes sunlight into energy for life, but you won’t have to teach that it all happens by chance. In either case, the observable facts remain the same. What changes is the point of view, godly vs. humanist.

4. Homeschooling is also a boon to parents: you’ll learn a lot.

You’ll have to study the subjects that you teach your children, from algebra to zoology. Much of it you’ll already know, but you won’t be able to avoid learning new material. You’ll become better educated.
If that sounds daunting, remember that there is now a booming market in home instructional materials, most of it easily available over the Internet and relatively inexpensive.

There is also online instruction available in specialized subjects that may be beyond your scope.

There is a reason why advanced students at martial arts schools are asked to teach newcomers. True, it saves wear and tear on the regular instructor, but more importantly, it makes the advanced students that much better.

5. Homeschooling can be infinitely flexible.

Flexibility that is, instruction tailored to the individual student s abilities and interests is one luxury a public school teacher doesn’t have: not with 20 or 30 children in her classroom.

If your child has difficulty learning arithmetic, for example, you, as the parent, are in the best position to find the best way to pitch the numbers to him. When I was a little boy, I simply couldn’t learn, in school, how to add up columns of numbers. But my father taught me how to do it in a single session. He was not a certified teacher, but he did understand how his son’s mind worked.

Fringe Benefits

6. You’ll be in charge of your child’s socialization.

For the older child in a public school, by far the biggest influence on him is his peers, other children in his own age group. But the homeschooled child also interacts with adults, children younger or older than he, and anyone else you want to throw into the mix.

Do you want your child to alter his behavior to fit in with a certain crowd? If so, send him to public school and don’t complain to us if he decides he wants to fit in with the wrong crowd. In all probability, this will never be a problem for a homeschooling family.

7. You ll save money by not having to try to keep up with kids fads in clothes, movies, video games, etc.

There is a huge selection of polyphonic and mp3 ringtones available, says an ad on the Internet (http://softwareforhomes.com/Gift-Idea/Download-Free-Ringtone.htm), and they make great gift ideas for the kids in your life. How a caller is announced on a cell phone has become a fashion statement as important as clothes these days.

If you don’t want to get involved in financing your children’s fashion statements, keep them at home for their schooling. The public school is an arena for one-upmanship among the students. It’s not the place for a child to go to learn habits of thrift, independent thought, or the true value of things. But you can teach these at home, without being undermined by your child’s peers.

8. At the same time, you’ll learn habits of thrift and economy that will help you in life. Self-reliance is its own reward.

Although homeschooling is not in itself expensive, it will mean saying good-bye to the two-paycheck lifestyle. You’ll probably have to learn how to do without a new car every year, a plasma TV, and other luxuries. You’ll have to learn how to avoid running up debt on your credit cards and how to prepare your family’s meals.

But these are good things to learn. Why waste hard-earned money on things you can easily get along without? You can have just as much fun playing chess, checkers, or Monopoly with your children as you can by shelling out for a plethora of video games; and a properly maintained five-year-old car will serve you just as well as a new one.

9. By shouldering this responsibility yourself, you’ll become a more responsible person, which will positively affect everything else you do.

To give your children a good education by your own efforts is something you can be proud of. Going into homeschooling, you may be thinking, I could never do that! And then you learn you can do it, and do it well. That ought to boost your self-confidence. If you can do something as important as educating your child, you’ll be able to do other things just as well. Homeschooling is always an education for the parents, too.

10. Homeschooling will empower you to give your child a strong religious, moral, and intellectual foundation.

In God’s scheme of things, parents have the responsibility to educate their children. Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart And ye shall teach them your children (Deut. 11:18 19).

Given the state of our culture today, they’ll need it. Of course, no parent can ensure that a child won’t go astray later in life. But a godly upbringing will make that less likely: Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it (Prov. 22:6). And if he does depart from it, he’ll be more likely to find his way back.

Much of homeschooling is self-education. A child who has learned how to learn will have a great advantage over one who has only been spoon-fed a public school curriculum.
From Whom All Blessings Flow …
How many times have we sung Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow without realizing that those words are literally true? When you live in obedience to God, blessings follow.

Too many parents worry that homeschooling will remove their child from the mainstream and that people will think they’re peculiar. But the homeschooling community is growing every day. There will probably be a homeschooling families association in your county, maybe sponsored and assisted by a church. If not, the Internet now links homeschoolers coast to coast.

One way or another, you ll have plenty of company and moral support. There’s no excuse anymore for feeling isolated.

Are there any parents today who regret having spent too much time with their children while they were growing up? Is there anyone who has come to a bad end by following the teachings of the Bible?
Of course not.

Education God’s Way…
Lee Duigon
September 6, 2006

http://www.chalcedon.edu

Copyright 2005-2006 Homeschoolacademy.com All Rights Reserved.

Increasingly, droves of children from Christian families are turning from the church after graduating from high school.

In the public schools of today, children today are faced with:

• A constant undermining of Christian values and beliefs
• Teaching that makes evolution a fact, not a theory
• Tolerance as more important than truth
• Politically correct rather than Biblically solid

As a result, many families are choosing the Christian homeschooling option where they can provide a solid Biblical foundation while also meetine are responsible to train up our child in the way he should go and the promise that follows is that when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). And what better way to follow that command than to take advantage of the freedom of Christian homeschooling?g the academic needs of their children.

Christian homeschooling not only gives you the opportunity to ensure that your students are grounded in the truth, but it also provides a Biblical world and life view that will impact who your students become. Will they embrace tolerance and immorality, or will they become adults of character and integrity? The children of today will be the leaders of tomorrow and I encourage you to consider your role in raising tomorrow s leaders!

We are responsible to train up our child in the way he should go and the promise that follows is that when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). And what better way to follow that command than to take advantage of the freedom of Christian homeschooling?

We are responsible to train up our child in the way he should go and the promise that follows is that when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6).

And what better way to follow that command than to take advantage of the freedom of Christian homeschooling?

Christian homeschooling curriculum is sometimes perceived as substandard; however, as a home school evaluator who reviews the programs of hundreds of students every year, I can say with confidence that Christian homeschool curriculum prepares students academically as well if not better than other curriculum options. And because you have the added benefit of a Biblical world and life view, it is, in the opinion of this evaluator, superior to the mainstream curriculum options out there.

Plus, as homeschooling grows, Christian homeschool curriculum publishers continue to develop and improve their programs to meet the needs of students at all levels and abilities.

In addition, homeschool academies like Bridgeway Academy, offer dual enrollment programs by partnering with Christian colleges and universities. Thus, your accelerated student has even more options!

Such as graduating early with honors.

Christian homeschooling is an excellent option for families who want to see their children grow up to be the kind of citizens and leaders who will impact our country for the best! How exciting it will be to see our country turn back to God, tomorrow, as a direct result of the training and education that Christian homeschoolers provide today.

After analyzing more than 10,000 personal interviews, researcher George Barna discovered that three-fifths of Americans say they believe the Bible is totally accurate in all that it teaches. Still, most Americans appear to know little of what s in the Bible and as a result the Bible appears to have little impact on their lives. God wrote a book, but few bother to read it.

Homeschools Moving to Separation of Church and State?

Why Christian Education is so Necessary in Today s Homes

More and more, we at Bridgeway Homeschool Academy are hearing homeschooling parents state that they no longer want Biblical teaching in their curriculum.

Citing such reasons as, They get enough at church, We don t want them to be turned off by it, or It gets in the way of the academics, homeschooling parents are turning their backs on Christian education.

Bridgeway has the solution.

I don t believe Bible illiteracy is a problem in the church; I believe it is the problem in the church. Failure to read God s Word is impacting our view of the world around us. This year saw increases in the proportions of people who believe that cohabitation (60%), adultery (42%), sexual relations between homosexuals (30%), abortion (45%), pornography (38%), the use of profanity (36%) and gambling (61%) are morally acceptable behaviors.

George Gallup Jr. is right: Biblical illiteracy presents not only a spiritual or religious problem in this nation, but a cultural one as well. We cannot inhibit the great American slide into a moral vacuum until we seriously addresses the problem of Bible illiteracy both in the world and in the church.

How Bad is the Problem of Bible Illiteracy?

A few years ago the Gallup Organization devised The Gallup Biblical Knowledge Quiz to test the Bible knowledge of the American public. When asked: What is first book of Bible ? 49% answered correctly. When asked: Can you name one of the prophets in the Old Testament ? 21% could. And 35% of the American population could name the four Gospels. This means, of course, that 51% could not name the first book of the Bible, 79% could not name a single prophet of the Old Testament, and 65% of Americans could not name Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

But that s the general population. Surely Bible illiteracy isn t a problem for the Christians in America. There is little discernable difference between the knowledge of God s Word in the Born Again community and the American population at large.

Wheaton College is one of America s bastions of evangelical education. Still, when Wheaton professor Dr. Gary Burge tested the Bible knowledge of incoming Freshmen, alarmingly he discovered: one-third of freshmen could not sequence in order Abraham, the OT prophets, the death of Christ, and Pentecost. Half could not sequence Moses in Egypt, Isaac s birth, Saul s death, Judah s exile. One third could not find Paul s travels in Acts. And one-half didn t know the Christmas story was in Matthew.

This does not reflect poorly on Wheaton these are freshmen. They haven t yet had a class at Wheaton, but they have had plenty of Bible lessons in church, home, Christian schools, etc.

I had similar results years ago when I was chairman of the Religion Department at Liberty University. Unbelievably few incoming freshmen could pass a basic Bible comprehensive exam. Again, they had never had a class at Liberty, but they had every advantage of church, school and home. Something is missing in the way Christians are getting to know God and His Word.

Christians Have The Money; They Lack The Will

The problem of Bible illiteracy is apparently of low priority in Christian circles. The Barna Group estimated from a last poll of Christian spending that Christian ministries raised nearly $60 billion for domestic ministry in a recent year and there is an estimated $3 billion of new construction work occurring on church properties to facilitate expanded ministry activities. All of these figures lend an air of security and stability to the religious condition of the country, says Barna.

But while the church in America tears down its barns and builds bigger barns, the people in the pews become less biblically informed in each generation. Bible illiteracy has reached crisis proportion in America.

Even missions-minded Christians often fail to see the importance of Bible-teaching in their missionary goals and expenditures. Renowned British missiologist and author of the popular book Operation World, Patrick Johnstone lamented, Christian donors need to be guided by the Lord rather than by their emotional response to physical suffering. The famine of the Word of God is still a more serious problem than that of food in Africa today. (Operation World, 21st Century Edition (Carlisle, England: Paternoster, 2001, p. 702)

If we truly believe that an informed public will become an active public, we should also believe that a biblically-informed Christian will become a biblically-active Christian. Action without understanding is like heat without light. Inaction because of a lack of understanding is the absence of both heat and light. But biblical understanding that leads to biblical action is the ideal combination of heat and light. Who will address the crisis of Bible illiteracy in America?

The Conclusion of the Whole Matter

Pollster George Gallup Jr. once remarked, Americans revere the Bible but, by and large, they don t read it. And because they don t read it, they have become a nation of biblical illiterates. If serious patrons of the Word of God don t address this need, who will? If we don t address it now, when?

Dr. Woodrow Kroll, President Back to the Bible International

If Christians blew the dust off their Bibles at the same time, we d all be killed in the dust storm. — Woodrow Kroll